Repository: https://github.com/Bartozzz/smog-alert-app

Details:

The Smog Alert App is an app which provides air pollution data around the world in real time and it also shows you the nearby polluters. The app has a very good motive behind it and hence I decided to ask permission from the project owner to make a logo and this was the result. The conversation : https://github.com/Bartozzz/smog-alert-app/issues/4

The Concept:

The concept is not simple, it combines many elements together. On your first glance you will notice a geotag behind some black smoke indicating smog. The geotag has an eye embedded in it which looks out for polluters and it also doubles up as an exclamation mark of sort. The exclamation mark correlates with the word "Alert". I used a geotag because the app lets you tag places geographically.

Evolution of the final logo

My first try at making a logo with the said concept was bad but it was enough to convey the concept to the project owner who apparently liked the concept but wanted a better logo so I made a nice proportional logo.

Design Process:

The first attempt

I usually don't sketch/draw stuff while making logos, I make all the designs in the app itself and improvise.

Video on making the outline:

This video shows how I made the outline of the logo. There was a lot of polishing done afterwards and the end result looked like this:

I combined the logo with Nunito Font, as they seemed to complement each other well when the weight is set to ultra-bold.

Choosing Colors:

I chose kind of a smoky black color for the smog cloud and red for the geotag/exclamation mark as alerts usually have red or yellow colored exclamation marks.

Shadows:

Shadows were used by both the geotag and the cloud to show some depth. The smoky black gradient complements the shadows well and emphasizes it subtly. On viewing the source files I provided, on other vector applications, the shadows are messed up for some reason. I still don't know how to get precise shadows on Inkscape. I have to rely on my eye to make sure everything is balanced.