Logo and website design

Logos: to create a “brand” for a company is to create their image, and to promote that image with campaigns and visuals. Working in branding allows a graphic designer or design firm to get involved with many aspects of the industry, from logo design to advertising to copywriting and slogans. The goal of a brand is to make a company unique and recognizable, and to project a desired image. Over time, a brand can make a company a household name, and identifiable by a simple shape or color. To create a brand for a company, a designer needs to fully understand the goals of the organization, the industry as a whole, and working with design to create the appropriate materials to represent that company.

When working in branding, a designer can expect to work in:

· Logo design.

· Business card design.

· Letterhead design.

· Packaging.

· Copywriting.

· Writing slogans.

· Advertising design.

· Typeface design.

· Research.

· Marketing.

Examples of branding are all around us. The NBC peacock, the UPS brown truck and Nike’s “just do it” are some of the most famous examples. They are so recognizable that we don’t need to hear a company name to know what they are. Online brands such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are more recently developed but now just as recognizable. Logos on your favorite products, the packaging they come in, and the slogans that represent them are all examples of branding.

Website design, while a relatively new industry, is now an essential part of a company’s image, brand, and advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns. The side of web design that would be considered graphic design is the creation of the actual look and feel of a website. Many web designers are also involved in web development, creating the functionality behind a working website. Even if someone wants to just focus on the design side, an understanding of the technology behind websites is essential to create designs that are both attractive and functional.

Work for web designers can include:

· Designing websites to hand off to developers.

· Designing web banner ads.

· Creating animated flash websites.

· Creating mockups and site wireframes.

· Understanding web technologies.

· Understanding browser and operating system differences.

· Working closely with web programmers.

For someone working on the design side of website, Photoshop is the most popular software. Often a designer will create one or several layouts in Photoshop and hand them off to a developer, who will create a working site based on them. For those continuing into the development side, products such as Dreamweaver, GoLive, and countless HTML and CSS editing programs can be used.

There are often differences between web designers and programmers, each with their own goals in mind. Web designers are looking to create the most beautiful site possible, while programmers want something fast and functional. Being a great web designer means understanding both sides, and creating websites that look good and that are designed with function in mind (therefore avoiding these differences). While the ability to code by hand may not be necessary, it is important to know what types of layouts are feasible, how they will appear in different browsers, and what typefaces and color combinations work well on screen rather than on paper. These types of questions make web design an interesting and challenging profession.

XVI. Give your opinion about creating logos and websites in our country. Discuss your ideas with your partners using the active vocabulary and the phrases of expressing opinion in the Appendix.