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Design

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

Feedback about a logo design

Hi Guys!

I am developing the front end of a website for my client. His objective is to create a website for different uloom (types of knowledge) of Islam integerated with NLP (Natural Language Processing) and Artificial Intelligence. In it's initial stages he has worked on grammer of Quranic Arabic and later on his intentions are to develop sections for every type of Islamic Knowledge.

His target audience is:

1. Those who want to learn Quranic Arabic (all age groups initially for Urdu and English Users). 

2. Research section with  NLP (Natural Language Processing) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and their implementation on Islamic Uloom. (CS researchers and Shariah Uloom experts) 

3. Ordinary user who want to recite or want simple search on Quranic text focusing on Urdu material.  

What should the logo portray:

The logo of my site should portray the combination of shariah uloom and modern technology.

For now I am developing the logo of the site. Name of his site is "Islamic Uloom". These are just rough illustrations of my chosen sketches. I will refine them later on but first I want to get some feed back from you guys about the direction I should be taking.

Here is the link:

http://imgur.com/h42VnK9

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

The last one seemed a little confusing. It seems to be a road, a power cable, a Quran and a sun. (this is just my personal opinion). A simple logo would give you the option of being able to reduce the logo to an icon (if that would be useful at some point)

15 Answers

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

@Simon Coates Yes it's a quran linked with a power cable. The concept is that quran is emitting light and is powered by electricity portraying the concept of merging of Islamic uloom with modern technology.

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

I understood what you were getting at. It just took me a second or two to put the power cable, the road, the light and the quran together. I appreciate that conveying the merging of technology and knowledge is a difficult visual idea.

Hi Omer, let the customer write a story about his website. Ask about 300 - 450 words. Look at the words that are unusual. The logo should be easy to understand for an ordinary user. For example, have a look at the icons/logo's Treehouse uses. Tracks, library, community and workspaces all are easy to understand. Try to decide for such a simple icon/logo first, then make it unique. Hope that helps.

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

I only posted appropriate info related to the logo. However, I am posting the full creative brief for your convenience

Bismillah Ar Rhaman Ar Raheem

PURPOSE: The more I know about you, your business, your product, or your service the better I'm able to isolate and focus in on an appropriate design solution that will enable you to market yourself more successfully. So don't assume I'll be familiar with any of your industry terminology, or processes, elaborate where you feel is warranted and please think through these questions thoroughly and with a careful attention to detail.

The process allows me to design from an informed perspective and is geared to help you think through not just what you like but more importantly what your audience will find relevant and captivating, what will engage a potential customer and thus make your business more successful.

Type your answers directly below each question. In general more information is always better than not enough so don't force brevity. After reviewing your answers I will follow up with any additional questions to clarify any information or glean additional insight I might need before proceeding with the creative process.

1. What is the purpose of your website?

I want to develop this website as a central point of different Islamic things. Like sections of different Quran translations for Urdu and English users, Quran grammar teaching section, Quran research section. Similarly for Hadith and other Islamic Uloom.

2. What is your target audience? Is it local or international? Any specific group, gender etc? 

International audience with following categories

Those who want to learn Quranic Arabic (all age groups initially for Urdu and English Users).

Research section with  NLP (Natural Language Processing) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and their implementation on Islamic Uloom. (CS researchers and Shariah Uloom experts)

Ordinary user who want to recite or want simple search on Quran text focusing  on Urdu material.

3. Do you have any color preference? Most favorite and least favorite color? Don't hesitate in specifying more than one colors.

Personal preference light blue color, but give priority to the designer’s opinion.

4. Should the English and Urdu versions of the website be separate? Do you prefer the redesign in two languages?

Did not understand completely however the website will be in three languages Urdu English and Arabic

5. Do you agree on displaying images and videos of living beings on your website?

We may need videos of the Quran teaching Modules but not sure right now that we will use audios only or need videos too.

6. Do you have any websites in mind which you like and would recommend as an inspiration for your design?

for Quran research work corpus.quran.com

for display of Urdu Quran tafaseer http://tanzil.net/#19:1

7. Do you have a logo for your project? Do you want it to get designed too? (Logo is necessary for you or your project's identification and recognition.)

Don’t have logo we have to design it.

8. In how much time do you expect your site be redesigned?

Not in hurry I can understand it will take time

9. If you have to explain your work in one word, which word would it be from the following list.

- Serious

- Excitement

- Energetic

- Wisdom

- Classy

- Modern

- Traditional

- Passionate

- Precision

- High Tech

10. What are your immediate goals and what are your long term goals? What do you want from those who visit your site.

Immediate goal is to provide online facility to find Quranic material in above mentioned areas. Longer term I want to established a website with enrich material of Islamic uloom with contemporary aspects of computer sciences.

11. What kind of feeling or message you want to portray? Do you want to impress some one, make people buy your products and services, teach, educate?

Teach, educate.

12. What is your national or local competition? (Directly or Indirectly) . How are you different from them?

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/arabic/

http://cqr.um.edu.my/

I got opportunity to have meeting with the core persons of one of the institute in Madinah Munawarah, I feel that we have better stuff in many directions and we can produce better stuff.

13  What do you think a successful design is in regards to aesthetics and functionality? What should a successful design accomplish?

aesthetics

14  Do you need a logo and slogan? What do you think about how your logo should portray you or your project?

Yes, It should portray the combination of Shariah Uloom and modern technology.

15. Name a brand or project which you like. Explain why? What things interested you in regards to design aesthetics?

Previously it was “uloomulkitab” currently not finalized because I just started to collect the scattered material, you may also refer appropriate name for that.

16. What do you want to achieve with your project in the next ten years?

Establishment of Authentic online resource of basic things to advance level research of Quran Hadith and Islamic Uloom.

17. Any additional information which you feel is necessary and will help me in the creative process. Remember, the more info you provide the better equipped I will be for starting the creative and ideation process.

As I told earlier I am software engineer and I recently appeared in final year of my Madrasah Degree too, there is very huge gap between both of these streams and we are not able to start even starting level stuff with combination of these areas. People around the globe are making too much of the research tasks which should be done by the Muslims being are done by the non Muslims. I want to startup the process to fill these gaps

Keywords: 

Technology                      Exploration 
Computer                Base    
Hi Tech                     Depth 
Shariah Uloom       Quality 
Research            Teach 
Religion                    Educate 
Arabic              Clean 
Quran               Elegant 
Islam               Simple 
Holy                Serious 
Sacred              Sophisticated 
Modern                  Mature 
Unique                  Artificial Intelligence 
Different           NLP (Natural Language Processing) 
New

Omer Asadullah logo design is a discussion. So propose a simple logo (e.g. something that shows the originality of the project), with a list of references that you've used. Let the client give feedback. Improve the logo, again with a list of more references. Ask again for feedback. This time the client should be much happier if you're doing it correct. Then maybe a 3rd or a 4th revision. Finally, both agree on the beauty, durability & usability of the logo. Then you can continue with the other parts of the project. Hope this helps.

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

Robert . Yeah I already know these things which you are telling. However, my questions was about these logos which I have designed. Which of the five are good enough which I can propose to my client for further refining and finalizing?

Only the tablet one.

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

you may want to create a new post on the forum to try and get more opinions from user others. I don't know if any of these will work if you need a small icon (eg. on a browser tab), unless you have a simplified version of the logo. The first one is a little complicated and it's difficult to draw a plug that look modern. With the ship, it's a matter of whether it makes sense. The audience for your site may know what the arabic text is (or not).

A lot of modern logos are one or two shapes that represent something about the service (eg. cloud for salesforce), or are stylized version of the site's name. (this option may be complicated by the multiple languages being targeted.).

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

you probably don't want black lines on a white back ground. Most favicons i've seen are just blocks of color (often with some transparency). The colors you use will need to fit in with your website's design aesthetic. You want it to look modern, and you want it to function - that is, to be recognizable as signifying your site, even at small resolution. If you're happy with it, test it in it's real world usage (as a favicon), and demo it in your website (or a mockup). You should be able to get a sense of if it works.

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

I have tried some variations and I think it's fair enough.

http://imgur.com/lckFkiL

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

You can play around with the colour system to see how it works within your site's colour scheme, and maybe try making some shapes thicker or narrower to optimize readability for small icons. You could make the symbol in the blue box slightly bigger, and increasing the width of the black bar, would make the detail of the circle a little clearer. (these are just ideas)

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

If the target audience understands the calligraphy enough for it to make sense as branding, and the reduced version of the logo makes sense as a visual shorthand, then i guess it could work.

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

my only new suggestion might be to use a slightly thicker line for the symbol.

Looks good Omer.

Omer Asadullah
Omer Asadullah
10,415 Points

Thanks all of you. And Simon, I will further refine it. It is definitely not the final version.

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

refinements are good. But with the simplified logo, you may want to think about the dimensions of fav/navicons, which are square, i think. If the icon was slightly more square (while still keeping the details like the circle and the sign at the current size), you'd get better use of the available space. But this is fine-tuning. You should be able to make our own assessment whether it works.