Anyone good at drawing? I need something drawn...

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I have moments of brilliance, but not enough skill to do what I need done. And that is I need a logo drawn up. I tried advertising on Craigslist to have someone do it and got about 30 emails from businesses that wanted to do it and "only" charge me $4-900. (oh, and the "samples" of their work looked like something I could do in photoshop in about 30 seconds)

Between the few individuals that responded and several people that I knew before trying to advertise for it, I tried to get someone to draw it up. Several promised to draw something up and get back to me in a week or two. That was 3 months ago and repeated efforts to inquire as to the status have gone unanswered.

So I'm turning to the TRS crowd, surely there's gotta be someone out here with some skill in drawing for as many members are on here all the time. It would be nice if it was on the computer, but I can scan something in if I have to.

What I'd like is a leprechaun (cartoonish) wearing a toolbelt and wielding a pick or shovel over a shoulder. Or something that follows those general lines.

Anyone? (my budget is sadly limited).

 

[Original_Ranger84]

I would do it but I suck at drawing people... anything else I could probably attempt it but my people always look like they have some horrible disease or something. lol

 

[Great_Big_Abyss]

You wouldn't be drawing a person. You'd be drawing a leprechaun.

I would do it but I suck at drawing people... anything else I could probably attempt it but my people always look like they have some horrible disease or something. lol

 

[88_Eddie]

you've helped me out with some issues on my BII, i'd be glad to do it for ya. i dont wanna toot my own horn here, but i can draw pretty well, i've always been a doodler (that sounds kinda bad) i have a degree in industrial design (product design) and you need to be an extremely good sketcher to do that. for one semester we did only graphic design (basically it was a crash course which taught us the essentials) since then i have done logos for a few small companies as well as presented some ideas to the consortium on chicago school research.

you can go here and look at some of my sketches if you like:
COROFLOT

if you look on the right hand side, you'll see tabs with all sorts of stuff

i'll post something by friday

 

[adsm08]

That's still humanoid.

I know some people who are good at drawering, but I gotta find their numbers and see what they are up to.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I would do it but I suck at drawing people... anything else I could probably attempt it but my people always look like they have some horrible disease or something. lol

lol, Although I've had moments of brilliance, I'm not much of one for humanoid figures either. I have done it and they've turned out ok, but I haven't had a whole lot of success there. Most of my success has been in drawing things, and not a whole lot of that either. I'm far better with a camera than a set of pencils.

you've helped me out with some issues on my BII, i'd be glad to do it for ya. i dont wanna toot my own horn here, but i can draw pretty well, i've always been a doodler (that sounds kinda bad) i have a degree in industrial design (product design) and you need to be an extremely good sketcher to do that. for one semester we did only graphic design (basically it was a crash course which taught us the essentials) since then i have done logos for a few small companies as well as presented some ideas to the consortium on chicago school research.

you can go here and look at some of my sketches if you like:
COROFLOT

if you look on the right hand side, you'll see tabs with all sorts of stuff

i'll post something by friday

Those are some pretty good drawings!

That's still humanoid.

I know some people who are good at drawering, but I gotta find their numbers and see what they are up to.

Keep me posted.

 

[Xandor]

you've helped me out with some issues on my BII, i'd be glad to do it for ya. i dont wanna toot my own horn here, but i can draw pretty well, i've always been a doodler (that sounds kinda bad) i have a degree in industrial design (product design) and you need to be an extremely good sketcher to do that. for one semester we did only graphic design (basically it was a crash course which taught us the essentials) since then i have done logos for a few small companies as well as presented some ideas to the consortium on chicago school research.

you can go here and look at some of my sketches if you like:
COROFLOT

if you look on the right hand side, you'll see tabs with all sorts of stuff

i'll post something by friday

Nice work.

 

[88_Eddie]

hey lil blue ford, what is the logo for? (business, school, church, etc) where is it gonna be put? that'll make sure i get you what you're lookin for. get back to me when you can, i did some drawings last night but i dont like them yet.

Nice work.

thanks

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It's going to be for my business, I intend on using it on a set of magnets for the door of my truck and on my business cards. It could be a line drawing or color or one of both, whatever works for you.

My Business Website

 

[88_Eddie]

sweet, that helps tremendously, you dont want a line drawing of a face or person in a logo. if the lines are too thin, it "disappears" if you're too far away from it and if the lines are too thick, it'll look like a giant glob.

i still have some more questions.........

why a leprechaun? you're website doesnt refer to anything along those lines, just that it is family owned. i tried to look at the history but it said the page was down or something. (if you're irish, then i understand.)

is the name of your company 'J.J. Gavin Contractor' ?

is the blue truck on the main page where this logo is going?
u

i think you need to lean more towards a more family oriented, good craftsmanship, down home sort of logo. you want it to catch people's eyes and at the same time tell them that you'd be a good company to do business with.


lastly, i think you need to reword your "about us" section.......one part says that "there are few limits on what we can do". you need to scrap that, that is letting the customer decide if you can handle a job or not when you should be the one making that call.

you talk about the building over the creek, i'd put a pic up of it and then replace the pic of the literature that is currently there, with a pic of you and your crew or a pic of your grandpa or whoever started the company.

i'll probably have more questions later

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

sweet, that helps tremendously, you dont want a line drawing of a face or person in a logo. if the lines are too thin, it "disappears" if you're too far away from it and if the lines are too thick, it'll look like a giant glob.

i still have some more questions.........

why a leprechaun? you're website doesnt refer to anything along those lines, just that it is family owned. i tried to look at the history but it said the page was down or something. (if you're irish, then i understand.)

is the name of your company 'J.J. Gavin Contractor' ?

is the blue truck on the main page where this logo is going?
u

i think you need to lean more towards a more family oriented, good craftsmanship, down home sort of logo. you want it to catch people's eyes and at the same time tell them that you'd be a good company to do business with.


lastly, i think you need to reword your "about us" section.......one part says that "there are few limits on what we can do". you need to scrap that, that is letting the customer decide if you can handle a job or not when you should be the one making that call.

you talk about the building over the creek, i'd put a pic up of it and then replace the pic of the literature that is currently there, with a pic of you and your crew or a pic of your grandpa or whoever started the company.

i'll probably have more questions later

That was the logo for the company when my Dad ran it, he was known as "The Concrete Cowboy" - hence the logo. The line drawing one was used on letterheads and so forth while a colored version was used on his signs (what few he had made).

I'm roughly 60/40 German and Irish and have been known to embrace my heritage, especially the Irish side (my temperment). I'm also a bit of a natural engineer, so I guess that's where the German is shown. And yes, the history page hasn't been built yet (I'm working on it). My Grandfather was mostly Irish and started the first version of the company around 1952 (J.J. Gavin). My Dad didn't directly take over the company, but used pretty much the same name (J.J. Gavin Concrete Contractor). Now I took over and it became J.J. Gavin Contractor.

We've been known for our dark blue trucks since 1989 around here. That was the appearance of the '89 F-350 dump (still roadworthy in the driveway). We also have a dark blue equipment trailer (open deck) from '88, a '94 F-350 dump, my '00 Ranger, mom's '02 Explorer, and my '95 F-150 are all dark blue. (My '88 BII, my '89 BII that I sold, and my '89 choptop are all blue as well, but haven't been used as company trucks).

I'm willing to consider other logo ideas. I tossed around a few ideas with family and friends and the leprechaun idea got the most votes, but if someone else has an idea that I like, I'd be willing to go with it. My current run of business cards and business checks have an American flag sort of logo on them which looks kinda nice, but I don't think it really makes a statement about the company - it's too general.

Yes, I know that most of the pages I have up need to be gone over. I've just been trying to get something up so there's no dead links and then refine each page once I've gotten the bulk of things loaded and working. I'm not planning on trying to really kick off any serious advertising campaign until sometime next month anyway so I still have some time to work on it.

I'm working on getting more pictures. I have my dad's photo album of work now but haven't got around to scanning any in yet. It's a rather thin album I'm afraid but it does have some of his more crowning achievements. The picture of the building over the creek will likely have to wait until the snow melts. I don't have any pictures of it and dad is pretty sure he doesn't either. If there are any pictures of it, my grandma has them. I'm working on getting a picture of my grandfather who started it all, I thought I had a picture of him but haven't found it yet. Might have to raid dad's albums or ask my grandma for a picture. And I'm working on getting pictures of the current crew, but that's going to take a lil time, all of the current help is part-time on an as-needed basis because things have been that slow since early last summer.

Feel free to ask questions, I'll try to answer what I can.

 

[88_Eddie]

^
exactly what i needed, thanks. BTW, that was just some friendly constructive criticism on the webpage from an educated and experienced designer.

one thing i'd recommend is to go to whatever shop is gonna make the magnets and see how much they charge. it'll probably be by color and size of the magnets. just get an idea of how much you wanna spend and that'll tell me how many colors to use.

i'm still hesitant on the leprechaun....just doesnt feel right to me.

not to worry though, there are plenty of ways to communicate irish heritage in the logo. here's the first logo i did that i like, it aint a leprechaun but it has a 4 leaf clover
let me know what you think. keep in mind this is just a pencil/colored pencil drawing done quickly. i'll post more as i complete them. i dont have a scanner at the moment, so i'm just takin pics of them. if you see one you like, let me know and i'll do a line drawing in adobe illustrator and then color/shade it in photoshop....it'll look good. sorry it's so big, stand a few feet back from your screen when you look at it.


#1

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I had intended on ordering the magnets through Vistaprint. I can get two 17x11 full color magnets for about $25 plus shipping with my own logo. Perfect for a business on a budget. The magnets aren't quite as nice as the ones my dad has for his one business, but they're good enough (I have one of their small ones and it's actually better than I expected).

That drawing looks pretty good, but I'm not sure how much I like it for my logo. I'm not sure if the leprechaun idea would work any better or not, like I said, that's just the idea that came up. I guess if you don't mind giving me a few different choices I'll play around with it and see what I like best.

 

[88_Eddie]

yeah, i'll do a few leprechaun ones also

 

[88gt]

you've helped me out with some issues on my BII, i'd be glad to do it for ya. i dont wanna toot my own horn here, but i can draw pretty well, i've always been a doodler

shoot...toot away, that is a impressive drawing. the hammer looks real enough to grab from the screen and use! Awesome