Digital diary for logo and leaflet + vector vs bitmap images

1st levels final assignment for creative media production course was to create a multimedia company identity what meant coming up with a name, logo and finally producing a leaflet to promote that company.

I started the assignment with researching existing  multimedia companies and their logos to understand what the logo has to stand for. After research I compiled several mind maps to gather my thoughts from research and to come up with original name.

I choose the name Eject Media because it was related with the industry therefore could attract target audience. Also I liked the clear shape of a eject sign and found it easy to come up with several designs with it. I produced three different designs which from I choose my final what I was going to build up in Adobe Illustrator. I use Illustrator software because it creates vector images. We use vector images for logos to make them scalable to different sizes without losing in quality of it.

In a pictures below we can see the difference of a bitmap and a vector image. The image on top is a example of bitmap and there is clearly shown how it is made of pixels. When we zoom in it makes the edges blurry. Bitmap is image that is consisted of colored pixels. In other words pixels are storing colours of the image.  Vector image is the bottom one and we can see that writing is clear on the edges no matter how it is scaled.

Bitmap files are more suitable for realistic images with complex tone variations in other words for photographs. Pixels can be changed as individuals or as a group and they cans be printed easily.

Negative sides of bitmap are that it is not easily scalable - image can get blurry. Also as they are consisting lot of information (colored pixels) they can be very large files and that makes reading or rendering them slow.

File types used for bitmaps are JPEG, GIF or BMP.

Vector file is mathematical equations described by computer and it consists of different features of the line created. Because vector images consist of paths rather than pixels the edge of the design will always remain smooth no matter what resolutions are applied to image. Because the mathematical nature of them it cans be used for illustration that need precise measurements, such as text. As vector images consist less information they take less RAM space in computer and are more easily downloadable from internet. Because of the scaling and size advantage many flash animations are also using vector images.

Negative sides of vector images are that they are not usable with photographs because they don’t hold needed colour information in them. Also as bitmap pixels can be changed individually or in group, vector image elements must be reconstructed individually. To display vector images in good quality there is high-resolution displays needed.

File types used for vectors are AI, EPS, SVG and DRW.

Sources used:

http://www.techterms.com/definition/vectorgraphic

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Director/11.0/help.html?content=06_bitmaps_01.html

Underneath there is shown step by step how I created the Eject Media logo in vector software Adobe

Illustrator.

First I created a new file with a landscape international paper size A4 and brought in the rulers. To create my logo I started by choosing polygon shape tool to create triangle. For that I clicked on canvas what opened a option where I could type in the number of sides there was needed for my shape.

After adding some more guide lines to my shape (to keep it all aligned)I used rectangle shape to draw a shape. Because I needed three of them together I pressed Alt key to copy the other two from the first one and changed the size of them using direct selection tools and anchor points of the shape. 

After that I used line segment tool to draw three lines to my design.

Next step was inserting text using type tool. Before that I had made some research about different fonts and decided that SF Square Head is most suitable because of its square like features. After I had inserted the text I could place the previously drawn lines according to the text.

 
I decided to move the text so the T in eject and I in media would be underneath each other to give a clear and aligned look to my logo. Finally I also tried out some other colour schemes on the square bits to give it a fading effect as my logo was supposed to look like a filming camera. To apply colour I chose the shape to apply it on and then clicked to fill colour on tools panel on left that opened up a colour picker what allowed me chose the colour that I needed. 

I tried out different colour schemes and also created an example of a possible business card. The final work was saved in AI file format with dpi 300 because it is suitable format for print. If I would use this for web I would choose dpi 72 and file type JPEG - because then it contains less information and makes it easier to load on web.
My final logo:

The last part of the assignment was to create a leaflet to promote the multimedia company using the logo what was developed in Illustrator. For leaflet we should use our own photographs. I used my phone Sony Ericsson C903 5.0 megapixel camera.

 

Source: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/21368/sony-ericcson-c903/
After importing the pictures into computer through Bluetooth I started to edit them in Adobe Photoshop software. 
I made pictures of keyboard to catch the image of the eject sign on the button.  The right image was quite hard to catch because it took me time to get the focus of the picture right. I took the photo in an angle because I had an idea to place it on my leaflet cover in this angle. Planning ahead and sketching it out made my later editing process much easier.

My original picture:

The original image is in JPEG format and its original size is 3648x2736 pixels with 96x96 DPI. To make it suitable for print I edit the picture in Photoshop software to give it 300 DPI and CMYK color mode. I started my editing in Photoshop polygonal lasso tool to remove the edges of the image that were not part of a keyboard. I also turned the opacity of the picture to 29% to make the look mellower.

To cover the two corners of the front of my leaflet I used polygon tool to insert triangle with black fill. I placed it to the corner and made a copy of the existing one and rotated it 180 degrees and placed that one in to the bottom corner.

On the left side corner I inserted my multimedia company logo that was created before in Adobe Illustrator and resized it to suitable size. 

In that stage I entered the previously edited photo of the keyboard on the middle of the leaflet front cover. I rotated it to make it fit with placed black corners.

To balance out the outlook of my leaflet I decided to add to top corner some keywords that would attract the target audience and give a understanding what kind of a company Eject Media is. I decided to use typography for it. As text needs precise measurements and to make sure it is scalable to different sizes I decided to use vector software Adobe Illustrator for creating it. I chose the bank gothic light font to match with the font used in logo. To create the triangular shape of writing I inserted a triangle and chose Area Type Tool to type the keywords in.

After inserting the illustrator text AI format file to Photoshop and placing it to the top corner the front of my leaflet was ready.

As my leaflet was two-sided the next step was to create the back side for it. I started out like with front cover. To cover up right-hand corner with black triangle I used again polygon shape tool, clicked on the canvas and inserted how many sides I would like to have on my shape. Before creating a triangle I also chose the fill colour to be black. 

Using the rectangle shape tool I created black bottom area to my cover. After resizing the shapes to right size I placed them in their place. 

After creating a matching base with my front side I decided to insert some images what would give a quick overview of the work the company does. The pictures were illustrations for the keywords found from the first cover. As I did not own any pictures of black pencils or camera lens I chose to use pictures found from internet. After inserting my pictures to Photoshop I resized them using move tool and placed them on the middle bit of the back cover. To separate them I inserted in between of them.

Source of pictures used:

Black pencil - http://www.foldio.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=5&products_id=68&osCsid=92f200ab3f767c8d28e67c0661b2f945

Camera lens - http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2008/01/photography-school

Because the text that needed to go on to back cover didn’t need any special shape I decided to add it in Photoshop, using the horizontal type tool. I moved text to right places with move tool; it was easy to place different words because they all were on separate layers. 

To bring out the essence of Eject Media on back cover I used eject button sign on the right side corner. The sign was copied from the logo used on front cover.  To give leaflet more professional look I decided to add widely used social media and contact signs (Facebook and telephone). I used vector images found from internet. Vector images because I needed to resize the signs and wished to have smooth lines no matter how they would be scaled. 

Here is my final result of created leaflet to my multimedia company: Eject Media.
I saved the file in PSD file format and choose the dpi 300 because it is suitable for print format. If I would like to save it for web use I would have chosen 72 dpi and JPEG format because it is smaller, compressed, contains less information what makes it easier to load on web.