For this assignment, I decided to create a logo for the imaginary company that I developed earlier in this course. The imaginary company is called Mindfully Practical. The goal of the company is to share methods of finding balance for professionals who need a more logical approach than they find at most yoga studios and similar establishments.
I started by researching recognized symbols for both mindfulness and practicality. I found many symbols that were difficult to tie together – such as a lotus flower for mindfulness and a dollar sign for practicality. Many of these symbols did not actually match the company.
The target market of the company are professionals who feel that other mindfulness offerings are too spiritual or ungrounded for them. The lotus flower is specifically linked to Buddhism and may give the impression that the company is the same as those other kinds. The common symbols for practically do not match either – the dollar sign obviously gives the wrong impression.
At last I found something perfect. I came across this icon online. The white infinity symbol inside of the head profile immediately makes me think of both mindfulness and practicality. Yay!
But unfortunately, I struggled to come up with an original design that was sufficiently unique form this one.
My next decision was to add to the infinity symbol inside of the head. I have seen tattoos before where the infinity symbol was used as the base for a meditating person. This inspired me to draw a meditating person out of various symbols using text Glyphs.
Next I created a large head profile that was angular but recognizable as a head. I made this using the Elipse and Rectangle tools along with the delete and add anchor point tools. My meditating person symbol was originally placed inside of the head profile.
This created a new problem as it greatly limited the scale-ability of my design. When it was scaled down to be small, the symbol inside the head became cluttered. I decided to scratch the head profile idea and use a simple circle around the meditating person. I used the Elipse tool to make an even circle and arranged it in the back. The logo can be scaled large or small and still be identifiable as a meditating person.
I chose to make the circle blue as it is a calming color believed to subconsciously inspire trust and reliability. Navy is also seen as a very practical color and is used often in professional settings. To offset the circle background, I chose the contrasting color of golden orange for the meditating person symbol. Blue and orange are complimentary colors so the symbol clearly stands out without glaring. To add a little more flair to the symbol, I used a gradient fill in different pieces of the symbol to create highlights.
Lastly I chose a practical font to display the company name around the logo. I used the effect “Warp: Arc” to make it wrap around the circle.
Mindfully Practical 
Erica, my first impression of your logo- was “Wow, I really like this, it must have something to do with yoga.” And then I delved into reading your blog post, and it all made sense and came together. I also took into consideration your background research, cited sources, and thought process, and it resonated with me. I like the icon you created, and you demonstrated mastery of Illustrator based on your technical explanation. The entire logo also was aesthetically pleasing, exhibited unity, flow, and symmetry, and overall communicated the goal of your company. I honestly don’t have much to critique except perhaps playing with the blue color in the logo, and maybe softening it a bit to portray more of the balance and softness of yoga. I understand why you used the color blue, as a matter of fact, I used blue in my logo too! LOL. It does indeed convey professionalism, trust, etc, but maybe in keeping with the theme of your company, and with the very essence of yoga, you could consider using a softer shade of blue, or a gradient variation. Other than that, very good job!
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I forgot to leave my name on my review above! You’ll see it as BrandBuilder 246 which is me- Ayesha Lett!!
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Erica – this is a fantastic idea and really smart logo! I love the simplicity and contrasting color combination. The meditator in the middle comprised of symbols the evoke a sense of mindfulness is very clever and well done. I also really like the gradient of this element, as it appears to make the meditator shine. It is simple but communicates the message of your hypothetical company very well. I appreciate that you opted for symbols that were more universal to broaden your audience. I really can only think of a couple of minor suggestions that I think could really help this logo pop. The dark purple provides a great backdrop for your visual element, but I think that changing the color of the text could create even more visual interest. Perhaps try sampling a dark orange from the mediator for your font color. The other suggestion I have is to adjust the placement of your text in relation to the circle a bit more to help with balance. I’m sure that technically is it correct, but the “y” dipping down makes it look a little off balance. Perhaps try a font that is more uniform, so that each letter is equal distance from the center circle. Overall, this is a really cool design and a smart concept!
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Erica, I think this is an excellent start to a great logo! Without reading your blog post, I could immediately tell it was meant to be a meditating person, especially with “mindfully” in your title. I think the color choice of navy was a strong one, and contrasting this with a warmer, highlighted orange strikes a great balance between practicality and softness, which I think perfectly reflects your organization. One thing you could try is to pretend your person is sitting in 3-dimensional space, and place the gradient highlights as if there is a consistent light source shining on them. For example, if there was sunlight shining above and slightly in front of them, where would the reflective white spots be (assuming your person is made of shiny material)? In this case, I would tend to think the white reflective bits would be at the tops of the curves and shapes you’ve made, depending also on how you envision your person in 3D (reference images of metal statues etc. might help). Making your person look more realistically 3D using gradients might also further enhance the differences between your foreground and blue background that you already have. While your font is very readable, another suggestion I would make is to experiment with other types of fonts and research font usage in both other mindfulness and business organizations. You may find that you still like this one best, but I think many mindfulness organizations use sans serif fonts as a way to embody simplicity, and it could also end up still looking practical.
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I really like your logo design, and your reasoning for every piece of the logo is very well thought out. Your topic is very interesting, too! I’d love to learn more! I am having a difficult time deciding what I can critique about your design. It is very strong! I like your color combinations and the meaning behind the symbols, as well as the shine you added to the symbol. The navy does come across a little bit purple, but maybe that is just the tone of my computer screen. It might be worth it to check that the navy chosen really looks navy, without the purplish tint. I think the symbol could also be raised just a tiny bit. The space between the top circle and the outer-edge seems a little larger than the space between each of the outer loops of the infinity symbol and their respective circle borders. I think this is a beautiful design overall, and I’d love to see your final draft!
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I think that I have a pretty solid foundation but could definitely make some improvements. The main area that I will focus on is the wording around my logo. Figuring this out will be what gives my logo a professional look. My peer group of classmates gave me some great ideas in this area. They suggested that I choose a more uniform font and add interest with color, possibly matching the orange of my meditating figure. Also, two of my classmates noted that the navy background shows as purple on their screens so I will work on finding a more true blue color that is still dark enough to offset the orange. I also really like classmate Bre Kelsey’s suggestion to focus the highlights on my meditating figure to where a single beam of light would touch it, for a realistic looking shine. I will also focus on an even spacing as Jessica suggested. I think these adjustments will help my logo to appear far more polished.
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