Briefly discuss one resource (for instance, about typography, about logos, or about BSGs) from the class website or from your own research that you’ve found to be helpful. Please include a link if you mention a specific website.

26 Replies to “resources”

  1. While searching around for typography inspiration, I found this website which identifies the closest font option to the ones being used in popular brand logos. You can search specifically by brand, or by industry, or by the kind of typeface you are looking for. Many big brands have their own typefaces- so you can’t use the exact match- but the website provides the “next best option” for you. I thought it was a really cool tool for inspo- both for typography and logo design! You can check out brands with your “vibe” and see what they are using.

  2. I used Inkscape to create drafts of my logo for the logo exercise. Like every other design software out there, I think it has both pros and cons. I like that Inkscape is both easy to download and use. The download was quick and the program doesn’t take up too much space on my laptop, and all of the tools are fairly intuitive in terms of figuring out how to use them. However, one thing I noticed is that there are a lot of limits to what you can create with Inkscape–most likely more than a paid platform like Illustrator. For example, I could only smooth out curves to a certain extent because there was a limited number of nodes to work with on them. Despite issues like this, I think Inkscape is an amazing, free design platform for creating simple graphics.

    1. Jordan, I’m glad to hear you’re having a good experience with Inkscape. When you’re smoothing out lines, can you add nodes/anchor points to make the smoothing more precise? I know that Illustrator has an “add anchor point” tool; maybe Inkscape has something similar?

  3. When designing my logo, I was exploring different colors I could use to see how that would affect the entire look and feel of the design. Because this required easy access to a lot of color combinations that worked well together, I found the Coolors website to be super helpful in the “testing and trying” process of design. Coolors generates 5 colors that work well together every time you click the space bar. If you like one color you can lock it which will ensure that the colors generated from then on out will match your locked color. Although not all the color combinations were fantastic, this resource allowed me to quickly figure out a series of colors that worked well together for my logo.

    Here is the link (which is also on the class website!):

  4. I found that this link to Adobe’s help center with using Illustrator on the iPad to be immensely useful:
    I’ve only had a little experience using Illustrator and so trying to dive back in using a different interface was complicated and a bit stressful. But after diving into some of the tips and guides provided by Adobe I felt a lot more confident and was able to discover different ways of modifying my logo to fit the design concept I had in my head. I feel like if I decide to utilize Illustrator throughout the BSG I would have a much better time with this guide by my side than without it.

    1. Hi Helena!

      I just started my journey with Illustrator this past weekend and I found this to be super helpful, so thank you! I also found that the hands on tutorials that they offer for beginners has been really useful when trying to acquaint myself with all of the different buttons. I could not recommend enough taking the time to walk through the different tutorials. They have one for literally everything you are trying to learn.

  5. One resource I found very useful when creating my logo was the “31 Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos” website provided on the course page. It was especially helpful as the assignment was to create a logo utilizing our first and last initials. It helped me understand how to add some creativity into my logo while still maintaining its simplicity with only two letters. For example, the website explained how to best utilize two uppercase, two lowercase, or a mix of upper and lower case. This resource also helped me understand how to implement a pattern and some continuity into my logo by connecting the crossbars of the letters (or just the strokes of the individual letters). I implemented this into my own logo by connecting the M and the L, which I thought gave my logo a cleaner look. The letters are still distinguished from one another, but the connectedness allows the letters to look “paired” and attached together.

    Here is the link to the website:

  6. I always turn to Pinterest for graphic design (and general) inspiration, so when we started working on typography and logos I figured I would dip into my graphic design pin-board. I found there to be tons of helpful resources and inspiration, notably a website that was linked to a Pinterest post called Behance. Behance is a network for artists, photographers, graphic designers, and the like, to share their work and discover other people’s art. I found that there is a never-ending plethora of brand style guides, logo designs, specialty fonts, and general graphic design resources on the site that have been really helpful in constructing a vision for my own brand style guide.

  7. Smashing Logo is a super helpful website to generate ideas for logos. You simply enter the name (or your initials) of your brand and the website generates various logos for you. If you find one you like, you’re also able to edit the font and color of the logo. You can also adjust the layout and add icons. In order to save the logo, you do have to pay. However, this is a helpful tool to get some ideas for your logo and then recreate it on Illustrator.

    The website is linked here:

  8. I found this article that describes some different free fonts that they believe work well when trying to create a monogram logo. What I like about this resource is that all the fonts mentioned are free to download and they provide links to the fonts mentioned. They also provide examples of each font so you can get an idea of what it would look like and I think this helps a lot when it comes to trying to visualize what kind of look you want your logo to have.

  9. I have found Fontjoy to be super helpful. Fonjoy was one of the resources provided when we were discussing and learning about fonts. It is a font generator that pairs fonts that work well together. What I like about it is that you can insert a specific font, if you already have one in mind, and find a good pair for it. Additionally, you can specify how much of a contrast you want your fonts to have. I really love Fontjoy because font options are so endless. It can feel really overwhelming to figure out fonts that go well together. Fontjoy makes it so simple and effective.

  10. I have used a variety of resources, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them all. Some I would recommend include Typewolf, which is an aesthetically pleasing site with font pairings, descriptions, and style guides/lookbooks to provide inspiration. I also have been utilizing Pinterest for inspiration and ideas; Pinterest has so much unique content if you know what search terms to use. I try to use various terms that are similar in a few different searches, think about what keywords would have been used by the original pinner, and scroll to view ‘pins like this’ below pins that I enjoy. Although not technically related to typography and logos, my all-time greatest resource is Coolors, which is a color palette generator software. Online and free, it allows you to find palettes, adjust them using a ton of great and easy tools, and create your own palettes with recommendations and guides. I use Coolors for everything that includes color and it has been really helpful.

  11. After looking for some free versions of Adobe Illustrator, I stumbled upon a website called DesignEvo. This website is a free logo maker and generator. I was able to look through logos similar to the one I would be making by using the keyword “monogram”. This was a super helpful tool to get my ideas flowing and ultimately helped me to land on a design where I used a box around my letters to make them pop. I struggled a bit with the letter L because it doesn’t blend very well with the letter R. It was super helpful to get some more design inspiration from two letter combinations and I was even able to look up the letter L specially.

  12. I’ve found that Eye on Design is a great design resource. It presents like more of a blog (as opposed to a technical resource) but the site covers a wide range of topics. The categories span from Design + Mental Health to Design + Money to Design History 101. A lot of the articles touch on very current aspects of the ever evolving design world and feature emerging designers and trends. Within these articles there is a lot of great visual inspiration and further research into the featured designers helps to garner even more inspiration if you happen to like their work. Overall the site is incredibly informative and provides useful terminology. It has definitely helped to fill in the gaps within my self-constructed design education.

  13. For my logo design process, I’ve found it useful to use Procreate on my iPad first to sketch out some ideas before going into a vector program to create it. Although Procreate is a raster program (not scalable), I personally think it helps my creative process to be able to sketch out my vision for designs before actually creating them. This way, I have a sort of “template” to go off of.

  14. I found Dribbble to be a useful resource while creating my logo and finding my personal style. Dribbble is a platform for designers and creatives to showcase their work and gain feedback as well as find freelance work. I used Dribbble to examine how other designers create their personal logos. I then created a mood board of designs and styles that I wanted to incorporate into my own logo and style. Here is the link to Dribbble:

  15. I found a very helpful resource for logo making to be the “31 Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos” reading. When making my logo, I struggled with deciding where I should place my initials, how big I should make them, questioning if my logo looked weird or not, etc. After looking at the different techniques and examples of two-letter logos, it became easier to play around with the different orientations of my initials.

    1. Hi Melanie! I totally agree with this and was also planning on noting how useful the “31 Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos” reading was when creating my own logo. It provided inspiration and helped me visualize my two initials in unique ways, whether that be placing them inside a shape such as a square or circle, or intertwining them in a way I never would have imagined. I’m excited to see what else I can do in terms of colors and also using platforms such as Illustrator and Photoshop!

  16. Pinterest is a great resource for inspiration. It’s a great way to visualize how typography and graphics elements can relate to certain moods or trends. It has helped me find new fonts, brainstorm letter mark logo ideas and better visualize my brand holistically. Additionally, has been helpful. I’ve found that it has a lot of fun, unique fonts to play with.

  17. While I was searching for logo inspiration with the two letters of my name, I ended up Googling “AL” logo and just seeing what came up. The ones that I liked the best actually came from an Adobe stock website, and they had thousands of cool logos with just the letters of my name. I think this would be really helpful for anyone who’s still looking for creative inspo for how their initials can look in a design format! The website I’m inserting has my initials, but you can go to the top and search “__ logo” with your initials and amazing things will pop up!

  18. Procreate is a great mobile app to use to create preliminary sketches during your brainstorming stages for logo design. You can play around with different fonts, strokes, colors, and shapes. You can import any images or fonts for reference. You can also export your illustrations into various formats. The only downside is that Procreate only works in pixels so you can’t manipulate and resize your illustrations as you can on a vector graphics software like Illustrator.

  19. While I was researching the basics of logo design, I found a website that visually and textually broke down different essential components of successful logos. The website discussed how to ensure your logo is versatile and legible across platforms which I think is a very important thing to be aware of in the digital age. They also talked about logo appeal in terms of knowing your audience and your client. I thought the information was useful because it forced you to really consider who you are presenting your logo to and who you are designing it for.

  20. While searching for the components that comprise a successful logo I came across a website that describes and shows the reader, with visuals, the do’s and don’ts when making a good logo. This is a very useful and informative resource to utilize when finalizing your logo. This site shows you how to correctly size and format your logo and gives tips on how to contrast your logo to the background and ensure it stays timeless. I really enjoyed this article and I thought the tips are very helpful and insightful.

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