Creativity in Linux: Logo creation (Part 1)
So the first project I decide to tackle in Ubuntu Studio is a logo for my site. I wanted to have something that reflected my work in graphics and audio, so I busted out my sketchbook and started doodling:
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My first idea was to have a pen or pencil draw a speaker while the soundwaves from the speaker formed the pencil, however my ability to channel M.C. Escher wasn’t very strong that day, and the idea was getting too complicated for a logo. After a few sketches I stumbled across the idea of a microphone combined with a brush, which helped portray the idea of graphics and audio unified. For the purposes of scanning this image in for display here, I used XSane, which I tried even though I knew my Canon all-in-one wasn’t fully set up to print yet and pleasantly found XSane recognized the scanner part and happily captured the page. I found XSane to be an excellent, easy to use app with many functions for tweaking and adjusting the scan.
So now I fired up Inkscape and started drawing out the logo:
[singlepic=7,250,,,]
Drawing out the basic shapes was simple enough and keeping them all centered with the Align tool was very useful. The more unusual part was creating the mesh pattern for the top of the mic. I did that by taking a curved line, copying it (the duplication ’stamp’ is very cool!) and used Interpolate to create a series of lines. I then copied group, rotated it and moved it back over the first group to create a grid-like pattern. I then grouped the whole thing and used the microphone head shape on top of it and clipped it. The other thing I worked with was the gradient fill. Having been used to the gradient tool in Illustrator, the tool took some getting used to. It was a little awkward at first, but being able to adjust things with the gradinet tool in the toolbox was very cool and much more interactive. Also, being able to define alpha in the colors (for the fad of the brush stroke) was a very welcome addition.
After creating this and taking a another look at it, however, I realize the design isn’t exactly what I want. But I’m used to this kind of feeling. Many years ago when I worked at a Kinko’s computer department (the graphic designer version of a fast food job) I’d spend my off time working with Freehand and Illustrator (free computer time, plus I didn’t have a powerful enough computer of my own yet) and just create stuff. I’d get frustrated when something wasn’t working the way I wanted it too or I’d be puzzled by how a certain tool was behaving and manipulating objects. The internet was still a bit of a puzzle too so finding information or tutorials wasn’t as easy as it is now. But I’d forge ahead and pester anyone who even hinted at knowing programs with questions. It’s how I learn. Part of it is also writing this stuff out and blogging it as a type of sounding board. Even now, having gone back and inserted the links I have, I can see some ways to fix what I’ve done.
Improvments can come later. I was curious to see how this might look if I set up a personal business card, so I fire up Scribus, open a document and place the SVG file in there:
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Whoa! What happened? It got screwed up! The clipping was totally ignored and the gradients are off their angles. I found that a little disappointing. Part of my professional job involves modifying designs in InDesign and a lot of them have vector files in them. One of the plusses of vector files in InDesign is that the can be enlarged or shrunk to fit a new design and still retain full resolution. It would be possible to adjust that pattern so it isn’t clipped, I suppose, but, I couldn’t quite figure out how to do that as easily as the ‘expand appearance’ function in Illustrator.
I was curious as to how Adobeworld would handle Linuxland files so I brought the SVG into work, fired up the Mac and InDesign:
[singlepic=5,300,,,]
The graphic on the inside is a PNG with the outside version is the straight SVG. Of course the PNG shows up fine, but obviously won’t have the scaling capability of a native vector file. The SVG version seems to import better with the clipping and gradient fills intact, but it still lost the transparency at the end of the brush stroke. Better, but not perfect. The SVG opened up in Illustrator the same way.
As I was pondering this I looked at Scribus, and noticed that I was working with version 1.2.5! I hadn’t noticed that as this was the version that is automatically installed with Ubuntu Studio. As of this post, Scribus just released version 1.3.4. Thankfully, it’s in the Synaptic Program Manager so installing the new version wouldn’t be painful.
That’s where I stand for now. Next up: reworking the logo and seeing if the new Scribus learns to play nice. As usual, comments are always welcome (and automated, finally)
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