Converting Bitmaps-same question as Lokisfenris?

[wjgrayson]

I read the previous post about conversion; this could be the same question.

For a school project (not commercial use) I want to take an existing major brand logo for a car company and modify it in Illustrator for cool effects. I thought this would be simple. The only accurate logos available are low rez bitmaps from the company website. I've taken those logos and tried to autotrace it (no good), and tried to hand trace it with the pen and pencil tools with no real success.

Can the bitmap image be converted to vector? Or, is there another solution? Perhaps I have to do some photoshop editing, which I'm not really comfortable with yet.

I'm currently using the CS Suite.

 

[blueark]

If the logo is from a website, it's probably too small to do anything useful with. Hand tracing it is the best way to go, but it's difficult with small logos.

Many large corporations have a "media" or "press" section that sometimes supplies vector logos for download. Failing that, they may supply some literature in PDF format which may have their vector logo on some of the pages. Try opening these files in Illustrator to see if you can isolate it.

Does anyone know about the legal issues involved in possessing / distributing company logos? I'm often supplied with them, and given guidelines about how to use them for specific purposes. I've never been given strict legal instructions though, and I can often get them with a simple phonecall anyway. Just curious...

 

[wjgrayson]

Working for my company's marketing department, I know there are strict guidelines regarding logo use. However, companies are pretty lenient with usage if you're doing something for a class project (like I'm doing), and don't plan on making any money off the logo, or using it for your own product.

I'm doing an international automobible company, so I don't know exactly who to call to get the native logo.

 

[lokisfenris]

Try just calling them and asking who you can talk to to get the logo. Blueark's advice is also very good, I've done that before. Being a frequent user of MS Paint, I can also suggest remaking the logo pixel by pixel in Paint, or tracing over it pixel by pixel, then perhaps you would have better luck with it. Your best bet is just contacting the company, I'd say. You might also use Yahoo! Image Search to see if you can get any better pics. If you give the name of the company that you're doing, perhaps someone could give you some more help.

 

[lokisfenris]

Hey look, I'm already famous. HA HA HA HA!

 

[wjgrayson]

I'm going to actually try and contact the company to see if I can get the logo. Thanks for the advice.

 

[BodesMan]

Another way - try bringing the file into photoshop - - create a clipping path around the logo - - export the paths into Illustrator - Photoshop will create a . ai file that you can open the file in Illustrator and try modifying the the file in Illustrator.




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