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The Logo Collection (Lore/Images)
🕑 Added 2023-03-14 00:27:41 +0000 UTCI'll wager this is not super interesting to anyone but myself, but I've been designing various logos for the comic, beyond just the original VigoraVinum logo.
Below I'll discuss how they came to be, how they were made and what purpose they will serve in the comics.
The VigoraVinum title logo
The comic series logo, obviously and it was designed with a few quirks in mind.
First off, the logo font is a mildly modified version of "Froadmile", which bares a bit of a resemblance to the Coca-Cola font. When I noticed how well the tail of the G lined up with the overexaggerated swoosh of the V, I had to join them together and I love how this came out.
The odd coloration gradient of light-blue to green to purple is a reference to the shader I've used on the bottle that contains the titular substance, "BetterMatcap" which gives off a weird gradient shimmer of these colors. I also placed the bubbles texture over the logo to indicate a liquid or potion of sorts.
I also used the stroke method for the outline, but placed as a gradient of dark gray to white, going in the opposite brightness to help everything pop more.
The Club Academy Emblem
More things I hint at in the first episode without explaining, Club Academy is the front the girls put together in what was originally Suki's old high school. It's a way for non-Japanese people to experience the after-school club life that many Japanese people know well, or any Japanese people who weren't initially part of it.
Of course, the concept is just an excuse for the story events to happen, like almost all H-Manga involving a school environment. I debated making it an All-Girls school, which is the plot of the actual school in the game version of Koikatsu, but it's a bit too on the nose, and I know I needed Xan to show up at some point, and he's not the main character. For now, I think I'm just making it either a coincidence that only women seem to join it, or that someone in the faculty is very discerning about letting men with potentially dubious intentions join.
The emblem was made fairly simply by editing a capital A from the "Jupiter Pro" font (mirrored both sides, extended the top peak, and moved the crossbar down) then inserting a text code club (♣)into the center using Arial (very few fancy fonts offer text code symbols). A bit of embossing and slight drop shadow and I finally had it together.
Originally this emblem tried doing things the other way around, with the Club outside and the A inside. While I think that suits (no pun intended) the order of the words better "Club" over "Academy", the original logo itself never came out looking more than amateurish trash, and I was never happy with it.
There's also a patch version of the emblem that I made listed below this line:
The shield design was a bit of a pain to piece together, and it's also a mild IYKYK reference to the the girls' original clan crest. I was considering making the coloration match that crest, but figured the simplicity of black/white just worked better.
The Verdant Vitality Logo
Milori's history as an alchemist/herbalist makes her quite a skilled potion maker. As such I'd imagine such a skillset would carry over well into a seemingly magicless "Core Parallel" especially with the obsession that our reality has with "Natural" "Organic" "Homeopathic" and "Holistic" medicine.
The major difference here is that Milori actually knows what she's doing, and her miracle treatments and products actually work the way they claim to.
As such, I imagined that Milori would use this opportunity to capitalize on the market and made a good amount of money as a result. Originally I couldn't figure out how the girls were able to open Club Academy, but Milori carrying over her potion-crafting skills to this universe were always in play. Where do you think "Vigora Vinum" came from anyway?
So I left the naming of this store/business to the AI overlords of ChatGPT and got a list of names to varying usefulness. With my cringe ass's obsession with alliteration, I was very partial to "Herbaceous Haven," "Petal Potions" and "Herbal Harmony" but as soon as I looked over "Verdant Vitality" I knew it was perfect. You likely noticed Milori's green color scheme obsession by now, and the fact that Verdant Vitality not only shares alliteration with "Vigora Vinum" but "Vitality" was a word I was initially planning to use in "Vigora Vinum". I tossed it up to some feedback in the discord, and most agreed "Verdant Vitality" was the winner (and ensuring me that I didn't need to spice it up to "Vitaliverde") so I got to making the design.
About as simple as it gets, this is basically the font "Bernadette" with the wispy tail ends of the letters joined together with vines. The leaves are pretty amateur and non-descript, but I think it adds to the "homemade" simplicity. I debated on adding a flower to the dot over the second i in "vitality" but decided against it as it might throw off the look, and draw too much attention.
Simple Photoshop flair had me placing a large stroke outline over the entire logo until it engulfed all the empty space inside. (I did manually fill in a few spots that weren't cooperating.) The stroke outline was changed to a radial gradient that went from a white center to a green outline, while I used a dark green color overlay and a pattern overlay to make it look more plant-like. Finished it off with a simple drop shadow centered around the entire thing.
I can also easily see this logo on a bottle for overpriced vitamins and teas, which is the vibe I was going for.
The Kitosaku Mall Sign
While I'm still in debate if I want to use that same mall design in the mod that originates from Custom Order Maid (another often used character creator game)
Said map should look familiar to fans of the Suchiko content and a certain Leiko image set. I have to admit that the textures on the stores and signs on that map are... lacking. Since it's possible any map I use will have the same issue in its backgrounds, making signs like this is the better option.
The Kitosaku Mall text is simply the Marguerite font, with some simple bevel and emboss effects to look like raised molded letters on the sign. The font is surprisingly similar to the Bernadette font used in the Verdant Vitality logo above, with slight differences. I was debating on calling the Mall Kitosaku mall or Tokisaku mall, but the text looked much better as "Kitosaku" and when displaying "Tokisaku" had the added minus of looking like it said "Torisaku".
This also gave me the vibe of a pretentious tucked away outdoor mall that you'd see in in a gentrified neighborhood or tourist trap. Definitely the kind of place Milori's shop would thrive. I'm sorry, I mean Milori's "shoppe".
The bottom text is just EngraversGothicBT which gives off the same vibe but in a more "official" way, if you catch my drift.
