Many of the most unique custom profiles feature original art.
From paintings, chibis, GFX, comics, and shoutouts to other media, original art is a great way to make a profile stand out.
However, drawing an entire image from scratch only using the limited options in the editor requires a lot of practice to get right.
One great way to get familiar with the options in the editor is to start with a monochrome icon or logo.
When building a logo for one of the characters or groups in Project Sekai, I usually follow these steps:
- Search for inspiration and references on Pinterest
- Brainstorm and draft ideas in an image editor
- Generate guides for the custom profile
- Use text objects to build the logo methodically
- Whether it be trendy or niche, there's surely a Pinterest rabbit hole to go down
- Collecting references can be both easy and fun
- Some keywords that have been popular recently are:
GFX - "Graphics", slick designs like you see in User Interfaces, Magazines, and Posters.
Popular topics include anime, manga, video games, and K-pop.
Y2K - "Year 2000", inclusive of 90s and early 2000s trends featuring imagery such as stars, globes, and tech.
Also influenced by street culture, fashion, music, and company branding.
Abstract Design - Influenced by the Brutalism, Bauhaus, and Industrial design.
Commonly features blocks, molecules, chrome, concrete, and heavy fonts.
- Truly, you can find inspiration anywhere, so jump on Pinterest and start saving references.
- For the sake of this guide, I'll be using this post called BANKS Logo
- Once I have an idea or reference, I'll use GIMP, a free image editor, to start brainstorming.
- GIMP can be overwhelming if you're trying to understand everything at once. I suggest learning as you go.
- I'll start by creating a large page and importing my references as layers.
- Then I'll use the Pen tool to create a Path of some parts that I'd like to adapt for my profile.
- I like using the Pen tool because the Paths it creates can be repeatedly modified or transformed
- I've taken a part of the 'B' and used it to make a lowercase 'n'. The 'S' is a '5' now, and I used a flipped copy of it to made it into a 2.
- With this draft, I'll stroke each Path with Line, crop, and export to a
.png
- I'll copy the file into my Rainmeter directory and load it over the profile editor.
