I thought it would be fun to revisit a classic assignment Michael Beirut mentioned in a recent post on DesignObserver.com where he showed his student portfolio. The idea is to simplify an animal to it’s most essential elements and create a logo-like image. It occurred to me that those same skills are exactly what is needed when designing characters for game design, and with the game engine Unity now free we should introduce motion as an element.
Beirut’s logo exercise included putting the logo in motion, his version was pretty cool for the 70’s but nothing like what can be done today. We’re talking true 3D motion that the user can control. I think motion will soon be added as one of the core design principles equal to geometry and color in logo design. A few of these have used motion to create a sense of character like the jellyfish and fast turtle. Others used idle sequences like t-rex to add personality. Punk Penguin has a jump that will crash your browser the first time, but works after that!
Below are the design student experiments created this week (with only a few days of working with Unity):
piggie | koala | kangaroo | fish | kevin | duck | penguin | t-rex | mega-bug | stingray | panda | crab | jellyfish | monkey | butterfly | | insect | block pig | alligator | turkey | punk penguin | dragon | hummingbird | koala | fast turtle | penguin | lion | squid