I wanted to create a word mark to use in the loading page of the app. I put the name ‘cruit’ in illustrator in Philosopher and started to experiment with kerning and adding additional serifs. I think that this stripped thee font of a lot of it’s personality so decided to take a different route.
I then experimented with some typography through creating the shape of the neck of the harp with the ‘U’. I. This was immediately successful. I experimented with many different iterations of this, making changes to the kerning and the shape of the ‘U’. The neck of the harp is a great aspect of the harp to feature as it is possibly the most recognisable part of the harp along with the strings. I also feel that the bowl of the ‘U’ makes it a perfect letter to create a harp within with such a large counter to work within. The gradient tapering off the extended terminal is also quite effective and keeps a certain softness which I like.
I eventually landed on a shape I was happy with in regards to the neck of the harp. However, I still felt there was something slightly jarring about the form of the ‘U’. I decided to adjust the terminal of the ‘U’ to follow the curve of the neck of the harp. Instantly this felt more cohesive.
The creation of a logo flowed quite easily after creating my word mark. I wanted the two to have a strong relation so I took the upper section of the ‘U’ and played with that.
After adjusting the terminal of the ‘U’ in this cropped logo version, I was rather happy with how it looked. However, while creating my low-fidelity mock ups, I decided that the pillar of this harp icon felt unnecessary and detracted from the softness of the neck of the harp.
I decided to remove it, creating this extremely minimalist icon of the harp which I think is very effective. This works well on both a larger scale and a smaller one. I think this shape would also work well on an icon scale so perhaps I can work this into my icons to create cohesion.
I think it was a wise decision to create a word mark that featured an icon of the harp within it as ‘cruit’ is not understandable to many people outside of the tradition and non-gaeilgeoirí. I hope this will integrate well into the interface. It gives me a good starting point also to create graphics and illustrations around.