Recreating Logos
magmike
However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is pretty
extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this logo)?
Thanks!
magmike
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Matti Vuori
news:qviUa.1727$FP5....@nwrddc02.gnilink.net:
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their
> website, and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The
> logo is pretty extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn
> for this beyond just using the pen tool (which is going to take me a
> million years on this logo)?
One "trick" is to use proper tools for each task. For logos that often
means an illustration program, like Illustrator or Freehand. But this
should be no news to you.
--
Matti Vuori, <http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/mvuori/index-e.htm>
J Stafford
<ne...@netterweb.com> wrote:
> I have a client that has asked me to create some literature for print.
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
> and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is pretty
> extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
> using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this logo)?
No.
Linda Nieuwenstein
news:qviUa.1727$FP5....@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
> I have a client that has asked me to create some literature for print.
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
> and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is
pretty
> extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
> using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this
logo)?
Easy enough. Download the trial for Photo Vector, or R2V (Raster to Vector
Toolkit) from http://www.algolab.com/. Run the .gif through the program (you
will need to play around with settings to match image detail with end
result. Both programs do amazingly well and once you know where everything
is turn a job like you are talking about into a no brainer, few minutes job.
Take care,
Linda.
steggy
Huh
I will try that one out, sounds indeed amazing..........as
far as I know Adobe Streamline is the best option but not
perfect at all. I hope your algolob works with Mac also:)
--
steg
Peter, Dutchie in Arizona:)
Bobby Henderson
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
> and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is
pretty
> extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
> using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this
logo)?
Do you have a link to show how the GIF in question looks?
Often when I do a logo recreation from some stupid raster/bitmap image I'll
purchase a copy of the font(s) used in the lettering and pass that along as
a design charge. To do the job correctly, it costs the customer less on
billable time charges by just getting the typefaces. In some cases though
you may have to tell the customer they're out of luck on a "perfect"
recreation. You know the old saying: garbage in - garbage out. Customers
must learn early on that they absolutely must bring good quality art if they
expect a good quality result. A fax is total crap. So is a business card
with tiny blobbular type. Don't treat them like they're stupid, but let
them know what you really need as source material and underscore the fact
that when they supply you with better quality source art you'll get logo
recreations done faster, better and cheaper for the customer.
Bobby Henderson
steggy
Hear Hear!
--
steg
Kingdom
> I have a client that has asked me to create some literature for print.
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their
> website, and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The
> logo is pretty extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn
> for this beyond just using the pen tool (which is going to take me a
> million years on this logo)?
>
> Thanks!
> magmike
>
Becareful here as taking on this kind of challenge can degrade your
credability, if the final result is still crap, they can think you have
no tallent/skill.
I have said no on a number of occasion to this type of senario and in
every case they bought my idea of a compleatly new image set.
If they don't have original artwork they are always going to be in this
situation so sell them the idea of creating brand new original artwork.
--
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Linda Nieuwenstein
"steggy" <stegg...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:3F221285...@cox.net...
> Linda Nieuwenstein wrote:
> > Easy enough. Download the trial for Photo Vector, or R2V (Raster to
Vector
> > Toolkit) from http://www.algolab.com/. Run the .gif through the program
(you
> > will need to play around with settings to match image detail with end
> > result. Both programs do amazingly well and once you know where
everything
> > is turn a job like you are talking about into a no brainer, few minutes
job.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Linda.
>
> Huh
>
> I will try that one out, sounds indeed amazing..........as
> far as I know Adobe Streamline is the best option but not
> perfect at all. I hope your algolob works with Mac also:)
>
> --
> steg
> Peter, Dutchie in Arizona:)
I think you will be pleased with it Peter, but I am not sure if it has a Mac
version or not. They have a download section to see for yourself. It is not
a pretty interface, but the results are worth the toyish look.
Could you post the source to the review that states Adobe Streamline is the
best option? It would be interesting to see the reasoning behind that
reviewer's option.
Take care,
Linda.
slvrspun
years, and was fairly frequently required to recreate logos and other
stuff from some pretty poor originals. We (four or five doing the same
kinds of jobs) were using FreeHand 5.5 and then later FreeHand 8.
FreeHand has an auto-tracing tool to do the type of task you mention
here. It is not perfect, but with a bit of practise and tweaking most
stuff can be done with relative ease. Certainly it would be easier
than manually tracing using the pen tool. The number of colours can be
chosen, and the line width, quality of trace, etc.
The idea is that you import an image into your FreeHand file, place it
in a background layer, lock the layer to stop the image accidentally
moving around, then choose the trace tool (double-click the trace tool
button to select options for it) and then simply click and drag the
pointer over the image to create a trace of it. If you don't like it,
then press delete before clicking off the (automatically) selected
points. If you do think it's good enough, or close enough to tweak to
what you want, then you can click off or group it all at that stage or
whatever.
Hope this helps.
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 22:51:02 GMT, "magmike" <ne...@netterweb.com>
wrote:
>I have a client that has asked me to create some literature for print.
>However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
>and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is pretty
>extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
>using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this logo)?
>
>Thanks!
>magmike
--
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give.
Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet)
magmike
magmike
"slvrspun" <slvr...@mailbouncer.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:njj6ivsaigta764ba...@4ax.com...
magmike
mentioned below.
(1) Logo1.gif is a good example of a small gif that I might get. It looks
fine
onscreen, but when printed in a magazine ad, it doesn't cut it. However,
recreating it wouldn't give me a perfect recreation. And if there was
something (like one of the programs mentioned) that could recreate it
automatically without the pixelization and unsmooth edges, that would be
wonderful. Although logostar.gif would be easy to recreate, I'm hoping there
are shortcuts that would recreate a perfect and smooth vector image.
(2) Sometimes, I just have a tif-ized fax to go on. As you can see, the
arrow.tif deal would be a bear to recreate, and the machine on this card was
something they got 20 years ago. The commworld.tif file, just like its
counterpart in logo1.gif, is grainy and unperfect, not fit for print. The
edges aren't perfectly smooth and straight.
(3) I have certainly had many talks with many clients about getting the
original source, which often happens. However, working in the construction
industry, I am often working with someone who had their logo designed many
years ago, and they do not even remember who did it for them. Furthermore,
often their printers only have film or printed proofs the photograph. That
is just another step for me, going to someone's location and then taking to
an image shop to get a high quality scan. Sometimes, they [printers] aren't
willing to release their only copy of film.
Sure, I don't like getting Word documents with pasted in logos, or faxes, or
gif files from their internet sites, but I am doing this work for ads, and
if it gets too difficult for them, they'll cancel the ad just to save
themselves the hassle of messing with it.
magmike
"Bobby Henderson" <bob...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:WOpUa.1582$7j5...@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com...
Linda Nieuwenstein
> http://www.cbamagazine.com/ngtestfolder/images.zip for zip of the four
files
> mentioned below.
>
> (1) Logo1.gif is a good example of a small gif that I might get. It looks
> fine
> onscreen, but when printed in a magazine ad, it doesn't cut it. However,
> recreating it wouldn't give me a perfect recreation. And if there was
> something (like one of the programs mentioned) that could recreate it
> automatically without the pixelization and unsmooth edges, that would be
> wonderful. Although logostar.gif would be easy to recreate, I'm hoping
there
> are shortcuts that would recreate a perfect and smooth vector image.
Your .zip file link is coming up as file not found so I still have not seen
the graphic, but most raster to vector programs have a cleaning utility that
perform the smoothing for you (well you set the amount wanted of course).
The one I mentioned has a particularily good cleaner for a low cost program.
Other CAD R2V programs that cost literally hundreds do not clean quite as
well as this one, although there are a few $500 - $3000 R2Vs that do a
better job.
Take care,
Linda.
magmike
http://www.cbamagazine.com/ngtestfolder/images/images.zip
magmike
PS: I downloaded the two programs you mentioned, Linda. I am still playing
with them. The first graphic I tried was unsuccessful, but it is a pretty
complicated one. I'll have to try a simpler logo. But then again, those are
easy to recreate anyhow, and thus remains my problem.
magmike
"Linda Nieuwenstein" <this-is...@email-address.com> wrote in message
news:n4QUa.2395$Gf3....@tor-nn1.netcom.ca...
Wizard of Draws
>
> I have a client that has asked me to create some literature for print.
> However, all they have for a logo is a 5KB GIF file off of their website,
> and I have been unable to find anyone with a native file. The logo is pretty
> extensive and detailed. Are there any tricks to learn for this beyond just
> using the pen tool (which is going to take me a million years on this logo)?
>
One method I've used to assist me in re-creating logos that are small
and low-res:
1. Using the best version of the logo you can obtain,
2. Take a screen shot,
3. Open the screen shot in Photoshop,
4. Crop to logo and zoom so that the logo fills the screen,
5. Take a second screen shot,
6. Now you have a fairly large logo, still at a low res, but easier to
see and work with for tracing
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
"Cartoons with a Touch of Magic"
http://www.wizardofdraws.com
http://www.cartoonclipart.com
Bobby Henderson
wrote in message news:5HJUa.6706$jB5....@nwrddc03.gnilink.net...
> Sure, I don't like getting Word documents with pasted in logos, or faxes,
or
> gif files from their internet sites, but I am doing this work for ads, and
> if it gets too difficult for them, they'll cancel the ad just to save
> themselves the hassle of messing with it.
Well, here's the thing you need to ask yourself: is this job worth the
hassle of taking?
I realize you have to do what you can to accomodate customers and make the
process simple for them. However, I turn down plenty of nuisance jobs where
a customer brings crap artwork that would take literally hours upon hours of
work to make useable. Very often, those same customers are newbies who
don't know what they're doing and want the work for next to nothing. I'm
more than happy to send them to a place specializing in cheapo junk-grade
printing.
I might sound a bit like a jerk for doing that, but I must amortize out what
the customer is willing to spend versus what my time is worth. If they want
me to spend several hours on a task yet only pay $50 for the job then the
job is not worth taking in the first place. No graphic artist should have
to work for what amounts to burger flipping pay. When doing freelance work
you have no obligation to take a nightmare job when it comes your way.
Now for the graphics in your link:
The Arrow Striping sample is pure garbage. Not acceptable at all. It looks
like a bad fax of a very cheezy business card design. The only way that art
would be useable is if the client told you who made it originally and what
clip-art and fonts he/she used in creating it.
The CommWorld logo would be fairly simple to recreate. But the artwork
definitely looks like it was originated in a vector drawing program. So
someone at that company should have a contact for you to obtain an EPS, AI
or CDR vector file of the artwork.
The Glacier Northwest "logostar" signature looks like it would not be
difficult to recreate either, although if you had to do it completely from
scratch it would take at least a couple hours worth of manual digitizing to
yield a clean result (I'm not at all a fan of using autotracing programs to
recreate logos). Again, this one looks like it was originated in a vector
program.
Basically it comes down to giving the customer a choice: do you want to
spend a lot of money recreating a logo from a low quality source or save a
lot of money by obtaining a better file? When they realize the difference
may be in terms of hundreds of dollars that may give them the incentive to
get you a vector file. It usually works for me.
Bobby Henderson
magmike
the bill is $60. If it takes three, then it's $180. However, my post
originated from the thought that, perhaps, there is a program or technique
out there, that in using, would be fairer to my clients, and easier on me.
Getting all this feedback just ensures me that I'm not a dolt for not being
able to magically turn everything into a usable file instantly. The
construction industry is littered with people who have artwork on their
identity items that was shot to plate from a catalog that is currently
sitting in the bottom of a landfill somewhere, and in order to get it, I
would have to get right-of-way from the homeowners in the subdivision that
was built on that landfill some 30 years ago. That's basically the idea I am
up against with these construction guys.
And now that I understand that I'm not missing some magic trick or program,
I feel more confident going back to these companies and telling them that if
they want me to produce them a clean logo, its going be (blank) hours and
dollars - without feeling like I am just a shade tree graphics guy.
Thanks for all your help and insight.
magmike
"Bobby Henderson" <bob...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:nbkVa.809$yI2...@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com...
steggy
The source was just me Linda. That as far as my knowledge
goes. The Algolab proggy is only for Windows I saw.
--
steg