I am working on a tiger head to be used as an athletics logo at the school where I work. They want one that belongs to us as opposed to borrowing a logo like most schools do. Here's my first draft, please give any feedback that you feel would help!


NBerserk

I can't really call myself an artist, so I don't know if my comments would have any artistic value. Mostly I think it looks great! The main thing I notice is that it's not symmetrical. I don't know if maybe that's part of your purpose not to look "borrowed", and maybe you intend it to look more unique. But for some reason, I'm thinking if it were "my" school, I'd want it to be more symmetrical (if not completely). Also, I think making the eyes a little bigger might add more balance as well.

I have heard from many that the symmetry was not totally satisfying. Something wasn't right to my eye, either. I fixed and made the tiger completely symmetrical, as well as increasing the size of the eyes. But now I've run into problems with the "Scowl Lines" on the nose. Here they are feeling way to straight and symmetrical, but the way they were before no longer fits between the bigger eyes and without them the image loses all kinds of character. Please give suggestions. I'm new to posting so forgive me for not knowing how to post the .SVG file. Thanks!

Is there a-way to keep your left-side exact same as your right side while drawing?
thank you.

openmind, please post your question as a new topic in the Help using Inkscape forum.

Wow, the 2nd version looks like a much meaner, angrier tiger to me! Even with the change in the scowl lines on the nose, I don't see he's lost any character. I'm certainly no expert, but to me, a logo should naturally not have or need as much character as a stand alone art piece might. Because the logo is more like a symbol, where simplicity is equally important to character (imo).

I remember when I was in college (I attended 2 colleges, and this was the case at both) there was a logo version of the mascot, like would be put on athletic uniforms, for example. But then there was also a more artistic version of the mascot, containing more detail and character, that would typically appear on letterheads, and in places where simplicity wasn't as necessary.

Well, I don't know really what your logo is for, but that was just a thought, for whatever it's worth.

Thank you for your comments! I think in a later version I've actually solved the problems of the "scowl" lines. I agree that the second one is much improved and am really pleased with the changes made based on your feedback.

Openmind, I don't know of a way to draw symmetrically, but man, do I wish I did! This task was somewhat simple, I took the first version and decided I liked the left side better than the right. I used a rectangle and boolean operations (difference or ctrl+-) to cut each path in half, right down the middle (I put a guide in the middle so I'd have something to snap the rectangles to.) once I had reduced it to half of the original image, I grouped, duplicated, flipped and used the align tool. The last step was again using a boolean union (ctrl++) to marry left to right. Hope this helps!

One thing to remember with logo design is that it will need to look nice at different sizes. When you shrink it down those scowl lines might just look cluttered and muddy. Here's the LSU Tiger logo for example:

Notice the limited fine detail and mostly uniform line weight. I think you might benefit from using line weight on the nose similar to that used elsewhere instead of the fine lines used here. It looks very nice.

Also, with regard to the symmetry question, this thread might be useful:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1216&p=8609&hilit=mirror+node#p8609