Blume Studios Logo Design
For this project, the goal was to design a unique icon or wordform logo in Illustrator or photoshop while building a brand (I chose to create a fictitious animation studio, Blume Studios) complete with a short 8-10 second motion graphic animation in After Effects or Premiere Pro. This was my first logo design task so I was able to experience just how much typefaces can make or break a design. I had a lot of fun earning how to animate the logo to match a flower in bloom was an exciting challenge!
"Blume Studios Logo" After Effects 2024, 1920 x 1080
Pre-visualization
Here are some of the design samples I created while generating ideas for the brand Blume Studios. I tried to incorporate flower designs that could have animatable qualities like stems and petals. I also focused hard on which design would be most legible and utilizing design principles like balance, unity, and proportion.
1-6
13-18
19-24
Logo design sketches
Production
Below are the two logo designs I created in illustrator. I chose to do a hibiscus flower design and felt the petals would be a wise choice for the later animation. I created the flower design in 2D and a 3D model, both organized and ready for export.
3D Hibiscus design
2D Hibiscus design
Designs 3D and 2D
Renders
To satisfy the requirements, I put together five different animation tests including my 2D and 3D designs them to test what was successful about the overall design and the smoothness of the animated items (hibiscus design, flower typography. I have included the four below that were most distinct and displays the true trial and error process. At this stage, I began narrowing down to one final version to render.
Render Test 1
Render Test 2
Render test 3
Render test 5
I ended up choosing test 3 as my primary logo design and animation. I felt it captured the flower blooming effect and overall tone of the brand. However, I did end up tweaking the overall design and the motion paths for the typography.
Final Product
"Blume Studios Logo" After Effects 2024, 1920 x 1080
After choosing the most effective video based on peer and personal review, I decided to do some slight color palette changes as they fit better with the scene and flower petal background. I also added on a wave filter animation, tweaked the rotation animation of the hibiscus petals, and smoothed out the animated typographical elements.
Logo Re-Design: R.K. Schmukkor's
R.K. Schmukkor's co. logo re-design
For this project and concept, the idea was to take a company's logo, and animate a newly created or re-designed logo for that company using After effects and other various software. The animated logo had to be ten seconds long and feature a variety of design principles, techniques, morphing, and general animating principles. There was another part of this project in which the logo had to be copyright safe, so letters and words may have been mixed up as to not violate any laws or be an exact copy that is too similar to the original logo.
Pre-visualization
To start, this project required heavy research to figure out what company logos were successful by looking at their typography, logo designs, animations, graphic assets, and so forth. Then, take one of the researched companies and re-design or create a new logo for that company. I decided on re-designing an appropriate logo for the parent company of Smucker's- J.M. Smucker Co.
brief 1
brief 2
McDonalds info
McDonald info 2
Pepsi info
Pepsi info 2
Smuckers info
Creative brief and research
Then I began brainstorming inspirations and styles through mood boards that collected symbols, patterns, colors, associated shapes, icons, and typeface choices.
Mood board 1
Mood board 2
Mood board 3
Mood boards and inspirations
After researching the basics, it was time to start creating. I began drafting different logo designs that would give the personality and missions of the brand while still being relatively on par with their actual logo. I did ensure the words and lettering were different enough to void any issues with copyright.
Story board 2
Story board 2
Logo demos
After deciding on the logo idea, I created the newly re-designed logo in photoshop drawing the elements my self and choosing a typeface that fit the overall image and brand.
Demo 1
Demo 2
Logo demos
After settling on this initial design, I began drafting a storyboard and proofs of concepts for the following animation where I planned to create graphic assets along with techniques of morphing.
Story board
Proof idea 1
Proof 1 page 2
Proof 1 page 4
Proof idea 2
Proof 2 page 2
Proof 2 page 3
Storyboard and proofs of concepts
Production
Next, I began creating graphic assets for the animation in Illustrator. I re-created the photoshop logo into Illustrator for easier transport. I then made assets of items the company sells such as dog food products, bakery items, and of course the infamous jams.
Graphic assets
Renders and Drafts
After gathering all the assets and prepping their layer order for animation, I took everything into Adobe After Effects to begin creating the ten second animation. I settled on effects like color changes, morphing, and other special effects of this kind.
Render draft
After receiving some peer review on the morphs, text effects, and overall appearance, I did go back into to edit some things. I felt the project wasn't quite there yet for a professional project so I fixed the sound effects, tweaked the music, tweaked the various morphs, and elongated some of the assets.
Final Product
"J.M. Shmukkor's co. animation, After effects 2025, 1920 x 1080
After editing some of the aspects, I think this project can now stand on its own and feels a lot more polished than the other drafts and renders. I was super happy with the way the effects looked and the transitions feel a lot smoother in tandem with the music, branding, and overall atmosphere of the project.
