Collaboration: Studio Logo Design

For the collaboration project, I've been grouped with Shannon and Liv. We settled on the name 'Knockout Studios' (or, as abbreviated, K.O. Studios/K.O.S.). After Liv came up with an initial logo design, I decided to try and take her idea of the boxing glove and combine it with an explosion effect, starting without the flame incorporated into the design.

I eventually moved on to looking at how the text would fit onto the logo alongside other elements including a 'dizzy' effect, gathering inspiration from the idea that in older cartoons, a character that has been knocked out or stunned gains a spiral floating around their head (usually accompanied by birds tweeting or stars). I also tried to refine the background explosion idea a little more.

I proceeded to move onto creating a basic colour palette based on one of Liv's earlier designs and blocking out the sketches using a limited amount of colours, since logos tend to be kept relatively simple in terms of colour design.  

I made some more designs using aspects of previous ideas and beginning to settle on word placement;

We eventually settled on the second row's third design as our way forward for the main logo (but decided to keep different layouts and versions for smaller design pieces such as watermarks for group work and the blog's header).

I then made some more colour palettes.

I took the above palettes and began to experiment with how far I could push them to create a more distinct set of palettes that weren't as eye-straining but still eye-catching. This was done by altering hue, saturation, contrast, and brightness.

I then used these palettes to recolour the design that we had agreed upon. I also did some neon backlighting tests since we hadn't yet decided as to whether or not we wanted to keep Liv's initial idea of the neon sign aesthetic or use flat colours.

The three of us then agreed that we would proceed using the second red-centric colour palette as it seemed to fit the name given to the studio and the flame plus stars design that we were going for as well as matching the typical red boxing glove design so it would be easier to recognise. 

I took the design and once more began to test neon backlighting, but with slightly varying colours. The first design uses the logo's palette, the third uses the very first saturated red palette, and the middle is a combination of both.