Evaluation for rebranded logo and website design. (Republic)

1. Explain exactly what and how you did each stage of the process?
For my logo, I started to begin sketching ideas. I drew some shapes and used different colors to fill them in and get some understanding of what I'd like my logo to look like. After sketching out ideas I realised I'd rather use an image. I then opened google and searched for 'urban images' as the shop itself is quite urban. I found a good one of a decaying door, zoomed in on the decay and began cropping to the image I wanted it.
I then decided I'd like it to be a circle with my decaying background and a capital 'R' for Republic in the middle. I then began checking the colors and deciding what ones matched, etc.
I used Photoshop to create the entire logo, and after sketching out ideas and messing around with it I found a design I quite liked.
This is what my final Logo design looked like:

I edited the contrast and changed the effects around to make it seem more mysterious and even more urban. I think it looks good and will be appealing to potential customers. The bright 'R' really stands out and will hopefully make the shop and logo more memorable and appealing to people. I think this logo is attractive considering the shop is quite grunge and it is like a little taster of the sort of clothes that would be sold inside the shop.

For my website design I started by printing a numerable amount of photographs, texts and ideas. I cut them out and stuck them all down differently until I figured out where I wanted them to go for definite. I then came up with a final design idea planned out on paper:

From this I could get some idea of where everything would go and an outline of how it would look, I then went onto photoshop.
I got a turquoise ombre background for effect, I then began uploading every photo and piece of text I had on the final design sheet. I took the magnetic lasso tool and cropped the models out of their white backgrounds. I brought the logo through using a mask layer that creates a composite image, this looked good and effective. The final product of the design was used entirely on photoshop and looked something like this:

2. List all the strengths and weaknesses of all aspects of the production.
My weaknesses for the production of the logo were definitely the design aspect. I found it hard coming up with different ideas and being creative and individual. It was a long process of thinking of different things to do, different shapes, colors, etc. Despite my weaknesses for creativity I still managed to come up with various ideas and decided to spend a little time messing around with the design until I found an interesting and different one to use. This was a good use of time as it helped me to find out what design aspects I liked, what I didn't like and what I wanted to use.
My strengths for the design of the website were very limited. Although I managed to get the final product done it still wasn't what I wanted it to be. I feel like my weaknesses were mainly based around my knowledge on using photoshop and my creativity. I was strong and efficient at working fast but had difficulties in choosing things such as color scheme, placement and models to use. I feel the final outcome was good but I could have done better.