Radio Logo Evaluation: Pulse

Radio Logo Evaluation:

Pulse:

I think Pulse represents genres like techno and dub step; this would be music performed by artist like Deadmau5 and Pendulum as two examples.  I chose this name for the station of that genre, because a pulse line are commonly used in music videos for techno songs with the line moving up and down the beat of the tune being played; Calvin Harris and Deadmau5 both use these pulse lines a lot in their videos. In short I remembered that image of pulse lines used in dub step, and when I saw the name pulse in our choices of station names. I went straight forward using this as an idea for the station. As that image is commonly used to represent sound.

My target audience for this radio station is younger people around the ages of 18-25 years. The reason I chose this demographic is because the people in that age group usually go out clubbing on a night out with their friends, and techno music is usually played at nightclubs for people to dance with. To appeal to that target audience I made the logo for this station eye catching. I did this by giving it bright colours; the colour i chose was bright green.  I also added the outer glow around the logo itself so it can be eye catching and stand out when on a poster, to grab attention. Also I did this so it can link to the club like feeling with the bright lights and colours; similar to the multicolour lights they use. This will also help to show the lively, active and youthful personality of the station, as seen in its bright and vibrant design. 

I think the main competitor against Pulse would stations like Radio 1 on weekend nights. I say this because Radio 1 and other stations play similar music during that time of day during the weekend on Saturday nights, that music being: club music, dub step, techno music etc. Not to mention that stations like these and others often get famous DJ’s to remix the songs that the station plays.  Our station is trying to have a similar audience of people who enjoy and have fun listen to this sort of music on the weekend with their mates.

When creating this logo on Photoshop I wanted to create to something simple and yet eye catching and appealing. I did this by coming up with a simple and yet creative concept with the Pulse logo and having the pulse line dropping down from the edge of the word pulse.  This would give a good understanding of what genre of music the station would be playing, which is techno music. This way it would appeal to the 18-25 year old target audience who enjoy that type of music and have a good time listening to it. I then added the bright colours and the outer glow so it’ll be eye catching and the target audience could draw the connection to club music, by having the bright lights and colours.

First of all I started to find a suitable font from Dafont.com. I looked for different style for fonts that were: trendy, techno, clubby etc. In the end I found a font called Buzz saw, which suited the club style very well; I later used this font in the two other logos I was making alongside this one. I did that so I could show that all the logos were connected with each other. After I imported the font on to Photoshop I then typed Pulse onto a blank document, and coloured the Pulse word in bright green; I then messed around with the size thickness of the word itself changing it until I had at the right size I wanted it to be.

After I’ve finished with the word I moved on the rest of the logo. I took an image of a pulse line from Google images and brought it on to Photoshop. After that I made the size and width smaller and wider to match up with the pulse word I just typed, i linked the two shapes together and changed them into having the same bright green colour the word pulse had.

I made it bright green in order to make the logo eye catching and to stand out from the background. This was the same reason i added the outer glow around the pulse line, added a inner glow for the rest of the logo. I also did that to show the club style with bright lights and colours being present, as shown with the bright colours i used. This style also helps to link the station with other styles of techno like House music. I then added a thick line underneath the logo in order to make the logo look neat. I made this using a rectangle in the custom shapes selection on Photoshop and i then adjusted the size, width and length until the logo look right.


I'm very pleased with how the logo came out after drawing the design for it. I'm glad that the look of a pulse line dropping of from the pulse word. I feel it came out looking very well when compared to the design i drew up for it. Since starting to create it on Photoshop I've added extra features to the design. The main new feature I've added to the design is the outer glow around the logo itself. The reason for adding the glow helped me give the logo of being a club type look and helped make the logo more eye catching to look at. In short i have achived the desired effect for my logo.

When i asked my audience for feedback on the logo they said it fits well with the club and techno genre. They said they liked the glows around the brightly coloured logo itself because it makes the logo stand out and is very eye catching. Also they said that it reminds them of the bright lights shown at clubs and discos. In short the audience did agree that this logo did fit well for the genre.

During these lessons when i was creating my logos on Photoshop i have developed some of my Photoshop skills. First of all I've developed some of editing skills on Photoshop with tools like the lasso and the magic wand making of my work look neater. Also I've improved using layer filters in terms of changing colours, brightness, outer glows etc. Not only that I've developed some of my skills of identifying genres for the station options i was given, and to create and develop ideas solely based on those station names and what i could figure out from the names i was given for the stations. Such as genre, style of music etc.

This logo compares to the other two logos i've creatred in two major ways: The first feature is the font i used, and the second design feature is the design that the logos use. The design and look is used by all three logos, which includes the name of the radio station, and a shape representing the name; such as pulse having a pulse line, and Lock having a key at the end of the logo.I also kept the font of each of the three logos the same so it can be clear that all the logos are connect with each other as they are meant to be.

If i was to add anything new to the Pulse logo in order to improve it, i would've added a background, to be exact i would choose a dark coloured back ground like black or a dark blue. The reason i would add this to my logo is so the bright colours and glow around the logo and the pulse line could stand out further against the dark background colours. Because at times the edge of the logo's outer glow looks like its blending into the background when i put the logo onto a blank word document.