Lesson idea: Personal logo on Coffee Mug - Digital

We have been studying typography in Graphic Design and this project was the first one the students completed in order to apply things they have learned. The goal was to use typefaces/fonts to both communicate a message as well as be graphic in and of themselves. The students were challenged to create personal logo designs for themselves using their names or imagined entrepreneurial ventures. It was challenging for them because logo design is a very difficult skill to learn (much less master) but after a few class discussions and looking at examples, I feel like they have done very well at applying some of the principles of good logo design.

In order to help best inform their design decisions, I gave them a few guidelines:

1. Keep it simple overall 
2. Use no more than (3) colors
3. Utilize decorative/stylized fonts 
4. Be concise and to the point

I piggybacked this lesson on a tutorial from the book (p. 603 - "Warping" Graphics to a surface) that required them to apply their finished logo design onto the surface of a stock photo of a coffee mug. The finished projects made the logo designs look that much more legitimate and also provided discussion for how a freelance graphic design piece can be marketed to a potential client. (I love offering real world scenarios that show them how applicable their learning experience is in the long run.)

Below are some of the cleanest, most well thought out, and best executed designs from the lot. They are so much better than what was able to be turned out last year but I took a different approach by treating it more like a freelance graphic design assignment and walking them through the design process from start to finish.

Photoshop isn't ideal for doing logo design and visual branding but this project isn't a bad jumping off point for them to start with and it definitely offers a decent amount of scaffolding for students who will be continuing onto to Digital Studio (that utilizes Illustrator) next semester.