I know my way around a camera to create something visually pleasing … or let’s say not terrible. But when it comes to logo design and fonts I am pretty lost.
I want to create a logo and I do want to play around with breaking it. I would like it to be partially impacted by artifacts, maybe a kind of “v-sync off” tear on some letters. Now, I feel confident in doing the breaking it part but where do I start? What would be your font to do something like this?
Are there quick and dirty rules that could apply here?
You can use any font you want for something like this (providing you have the rights to it!), just make sure it fits your brand/personality. General rule of thumb: If the target audience is business and professional associations, you’ll notice serif typefaces are the norm; meanwhile, sans-serif typefaces are considered more open and approachable. Though there are exceptions even to this one guideline-- as the business-world becomes more casual (especially in tech), sans-serif is becoming more and more common. (See Source 1 at the end of this for more info on picking fonts)
In terms of production, I’d recommend using a vector program like Adobe Illustrator to work on your logo if possible. Vector formats allows you a lot more granular control of the individual letterforms, but it also creates images that are scalable to any size without losing quality (See Source 2 for more info).
While creating the logo in a raster program (such as Photoshop or Gimp) is technically simpler, you run the risk of making it un-scalable for many marketing applications-- ie: something that works for web may not scale large enough for a print piece. For example, if you use a filter to create a ‘broken/glitched’ look, the effect may only work up to a certain size before it starts to look pixelated. (This may not be terrible for your particular use case but it’s something to consider).
Another thing to consider when creating a logo is how it performs in less-than-ideal situations. Is it still legible when printed extremely small? Will it still look right if it’s only printed in one color? This is something a lot of young designers struggle with, they come up with a great concept but it falls apart when it’s not on a color calibrated screen at 100% scale. (See Source 3).
Again, your needs may vary and you may have full control over how your logo is used, but if you’re using this as a piece of marketing that others may eventually use to represent you, you’ll need to have formats readily available that will work with third party publisher’s rules about formatting, whether that’s “one color only” or “no bigger than 2x3 inches”.
Hopefully that’s helpful as a starting point? It might be a bit of an info dump lol.
Additional Sources:
Beginner Type Course– a good deal of this is actually very similar to the source material I learned in my Typography 101 coursework. I’ve linked the section that’s specific to your question but I’d recommend the whole thing if you’re interested in learning more about type.
