Santa Susana High School

My Research Paper
Senior Project

Tanner Butera
English 12-CP Period 4
Mrs. Bradley
November 20, 2015

Certification in graphic designing and career interests are not the only reasons
I'm doing this project. The main reason Im doing this project is because graphic
designing is my passion; I love being able to help people out and do what I love in the

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process. Being able to do both is what I love the most about graphic designing. Another
reason I like doing projects such as this is because I like being able to see my work out
in public when its finished.
My project is different from any musical performance or theatre play because
mine will last for years to come; and thats what makes it special to me. For my project, I
will be working in cooperation with Joes Cleaners to renovate their facilitys graphical
elements. Such elements include new business cards, letterheads, a new logo, and a
new price listing which will contain the prices of all of their services. Additionally, I will be
making advertisements for Joes Cleaners that can be placed in the windows of other
businesses or displayed electronically.
I would say that my current knowledge base (relative to graphic designing) is
fairly well developed. As far as logo design and development goes, I have a fairly basic
knowledge base, which is why I want to expand my knowledge on the subject. I actually
got pretty lucky because right around the time I decided to do this for my project, Mr.
Abbe began discussing logos and how to make efficient logos in class. The rest of my
knowledge of graphic designing (advertisements, business cards, etc.) is pretty wellrounded because Ive had some experience in the past with advertisements and
business cards. My prior experience comes from designing advertisements for my
parents billiard room in Moorpark, which I made advertisements for. Also, I redesigned
a business card for my step Uncle Jeffs carpenting business. The most recent project
that has ramped my experience would be the redesigning of the Simi Valley Adult
School logo, which took a while, but helped me learn about the importance in client
communication.

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I consider this project to be a learning stretch for me for a couple of reasons. First
off, Ive never had to do a project where Ive had to contact the client to discuss what
he/she would like their design to look like. I know it sounds stupid, but typically I would
be told straight off the bat what my client wants, and how they want it with all the
information provided. This project is a bit more complex, though, so I figured this
problem was sure to arise. The other part of my learning stretch is having to learn all of
the different types of formatting, such as for posters and banners. Even though my
knowledge of graphic designing is adequate, there is a lot I have to learn in order to
complete my senior project to my best ability.
There are a number of factors you have to worry about when creating a logo.
These factors include a focal point, hierarchy, eye flow (or continuation), unity through
grids, and balancing negative and positive spaces. The logo can be a pictorial, a
wordmark, a lettermark, or a combination mark. The five principles of a good design are
simplicity, memorableness, timelessness, versatility, and relativity.
Simplicity is key, and allows a logo to be easily memorized and recognized;
without it, the logo cant be versatile or memorable. Memorability allows your clients
customers to easily remember them, and build a lasting impression in the customers
minds. Another thing to keep in mind is to keep your logo independent on time. The
reason I say this is that if you base it on a trend and that trend dies, so does your logo.
Always remember to build a strong concept, stay away from trends, and most
importantly, design for the long term. To make sure your logo is versatile, ensure that
your logo will be able to fit on a business card, as well as a billboard if and/or when it
needs to. One other thing that will ensure your logo is versatile across multiple

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platforms/templates, is vectoring/making the logo with Adobe Illustrator, because it

prevents the pixelation of your logo when you shrink/enlarge it.
So, I have to think about printing my logo in small and large sizes, questioning if
the concept can be understood if it was to be put in one color, and how much it would
cost to print the logo in multiple colors. Logos should always be one hundred percent
relevant; the logo should fit the purpose and identity of the company. Another thing to
worry about when creating a logo is the shapes youre using; abstract, or simple/basic.
Because colors are always rendered differently, a standard has been designed so that
the UCO colors are represented as accurately as possible, consistently; lucky for me,
The University of Central Oklahoma provided these colors as well as their HEX codes
(University of Central Oklahoma).
There are a lot of important things to include in the letterhead, however there is
only so much space you have to work with, which means you have to narrow it down to
just the necessities. The most commonly used factors found in letterheads is the
company logo, location (including zip code, address, and city), a primary phone number,
the name of a manager or owner, and obviously the name of the facility. The order and
area in which you display this information is not important; every letterhead format is
different, for different reasons. The next important thing to worry about in a letterhead is
the organization of everything. The organization refers to the placement of the logo (if
there is one), the information (such as the name, the place, etc), and the name of the
facility. The last thing to worry about when making a letterhead is how much space
youre leaving for the information to be written on the page. Obviously you shouldnt be
leaving six inches of space for the writing, but you should also keep in mind that you

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dont have to squeeze everything together and bunch it up make as much space as
possible for the writing, because then it would look too busy and unprofessional.
Making a business card is pretty straightforward; its similar to a letterhead. The
reason I say this is because on both of these formats you have generally the same
information, just arranged differently. For a business card, you make the document
page size equal to the card size plus the bleed area, or 3.75 inches wide x 2.25 inches
high (Auburn University). Although a business card resembles a letterhead, obviously it
isnt one; so, theres going to be at least a few things that are different as I mentioned. In
order to make a business card, you need to make sure that on the card you have the
business name, their primary phone number, their street address as well as city, the
logo of the establishment, and the name of the owner or person youre making the card
for. Manchester Community College provided some perfect examples of the basics a
business card should have. Communication with the client is extremely important when
youre making a business card, because you have to be sure all of the information on
the card is correct. If you go to your client with the project containing a misprint or wrong
information, its going to look pretty bad/unprofessional on your end. Another reason
communication is key is because sometimes they will want to add an additional phone
number such as their cell phone, or give other specific requests for their card.
The price listing portion was fairly easy due to the fact that the only thing required
was the services they provided and the prices for said services. The only problem that
arose was trying to figure out which format worked the best, as well as which color
scheme to pick. This problem was easily solved by communicating with Freddy (owner
of Joes Cleaners).

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Lets start with the logo. I would like to begin the process of the logo by talking
with Freddy (the owner) about the things he would like/not like in his logo, and what
colors to use or avoid. With those factors out of the way, I want to tackle getting a basic
shape down for his logo, from which point I can start to add things to make it
memorable, timeless, etc. I want to make the logo either a wordmark or a combination
mark, each for different reasons. If I were to make it a wordmark, the logo would be very
simplistic and pleasing to the eye, because a wordmark is just a uniquely styled font
type that spells out the company or brand name (California State University,
Northridge). If I went with a combination mark logo, the logo would look very interesting
because a combination mark is just a combination of the wordmark and symbol logo
styles. The reason I would like such a graphic for the logo is because the purpose of
the combination mark is to create an identity that embodies a given company through
the use of a symbol (California State University, Los Angeles). Embodying the text in a
pleasing, relevant graphic helps the customer remember the logo and the client, as well
as makes the logo look a bit more professional than just adding a fancy text to words.
Lets transition to letterheads. For the letterhead, Im going to need to get the
name and contact of [Joes Cleaners], a logo, and [maybe] a background pattern
(California State University, Sacramento). All of this information will be obtained in the
meeting I have scheduled with Frank. As far as the design goes, Im going to stick with
the basic form of letterheads, meaning I wont have to put staff names and/or multiple
location addresses (Eastern Virginia Medical School). Everything from this point is fairly
simple and straightforward.

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Next come the business cards. The business card has similar yet different
requirements as the letterheads in order to be made. To be completely accurately and
professionally made, Ill need the givers name, company logo, and contact information
such as street address, telephone number (primary and possibly secondary), fax
number, email address, and website (Lantz, Nickolas). Although I listed it, its
completely possible that my client does not have a website set up for his company; in
that case, Ill just simply exclude it from the information provided on the business card.
Business cards are handed from client to customer to grab their attention and
showcase your brand, personality, or product (University of Central Missouri). Im going
to have to make the card stand out, and be memorable as I mentioned previously in
order to ensure that the customer remembers the service/business, as well as provides
a professional look.
All in all I expect this project to be a challenge to all of my graphical designing
talents. Its going to be a lot of hard work, but I think its going to be worth it in the end,
because Freddy seemed pretty excited about me wanting to help him renovate his
facility. Another reason I feel this project is worth my time is because first of all, it would
look really good on a rsum or portfolio to list that I redesigned Joes Cleaners logo.
Second of all, its going to feel really good every time I pass by Joes Cleaners in the
future and see my logo up there. Im pretty glad Im able to help Joe with this project.
Im pretty excited for this project because its going to help improve my graphic
designing skills, as well as improve my client communication skills. I look forward to
completing this project, as well as being able to help Freddy.

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MLA Works Cited

Ambrose, Chuck. "Graphic Style Guide." (n.d.): n. pag. University of Central

Missouri Learning to a Greater Degree. University Relations, Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Oct.
2015.
Auburn University. "How to Create Your Own Business Cards." Business Card
Size Specifications. PrintingForLess.com, 28 May 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Betz, Don. "BRANDING & GRAPHIC STANDARDS GUIDE." UNIVERSITY OF
CENTRAL OKLAHOMA, Jan. 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
California State University LA. "Adobe Illustrator CS5 Part 3: Real World
Illustrator." Information Technology Services. California State University, Los Angeles,
Summer 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

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C, S. T. "Flyers, Brochures, & Business Cards Using Illustrator CC." California

State University, Sacramento. CSUS, 16 June 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Dimarco, Paula. "Logo Design For Record Company." Art 354: Computer
Graphics. California State University, Northridge, 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Lantz, Nickolas. "BUSINESS CARD TIPS." Wesley. Wesley College, 5 Feb.
2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Manchester Community College. "MCC Business Card Request Form." Business
Card Request Form. Manchester Community College, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Oct.
2015.
Rhodes, Vincent. "Logo Style Guide & Graphic Standards." Eastern Virginia
Medical School. The Office of Marketing & Communications, Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Oct.
2015.