CAES Logo Project
First Designs
This was my first attempt at creating the CAES Logo with surrounding mountain laurels. I based this design on other anniversary designs with leaves circling the centerpiece of the logo. Utilizing type on a path I made the text curved for the anniversary celebration to make it look less flat. To create the mountain laurels I found pictures that I used for reference to design a cluster of five flowers, all flowers were drawn by myself in Illustrator. After making that cluster, I changed their size, rotation, and position and put them along a backing vine wreath. While I was initially happy with this design, some critiques caused me to overhaul most of what I had done. Below are three of my first designs, each differing in how the text is placed and minor changes in the flowers.
Starting the Project
This was my first job as a graphic designer and the goal was to edit the CAES (Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station) logo to have text celebrating its 150th anniversary and mountain laurels surrounding it. The reason the client requested mountain laurels was because CAES is agriculture-focused and based in CT which has mountain laurels as its state flower. I was given their original logo, seen below, to make my edits and additions. Below are also mountain laurels, the flowers I based my later designs on.
Final Design
The main critique that I was given was that the flowers didn't look that much like mountain laurels. The reason this happened was because of the scale I was working at. In trying to make small mountain laurels to have many flowers throughout, caused the flowers to lose their detailing and made them look indecipherable. To change this I redrawn the flowers and made another fluster of five, but this time increased the size of the flowers greatly. In doing this I would be able to have the flowers stand out and convey a mountain laurel. While I do have fewer flowers, the impact of each flower more than makes up for that and causes the design to be more eye-catching. Below is my final design.
