app company logo
wgzn (1711 pencils) | Tue, 2012-02-21 07:22
working with an app development group. the focus of the products is productivity / small business / freelancer apps.
the idea was that the apps were designed to be handy and used on hand-held devices.
there was talk of handy devices, handeevices, hand devices, etc. but there were justifiable reasons not to use each.
we settled on handyvices. based on the fun muti-entendre and the fact that you dont HAVE to use the app, but it will make the experience better, faster, cooler, etc... and we are shooting for a sort of rebellious / outlaw nature, thus "vice"
the idea behind the spelling is the pronunciation would be handevices. to play up device... thus the middle ground of handy and dyvices...
just felt right.
have a look. have a thought. discuss...
Commenting on this Image will be automatically closed on April 17, 2012.
After all this time of you doing it to others, I'm going to poke fun at you. KERNING. :)
I like the possibilities of how this is spelled in theory. Comes up with a bunch of playful terms but my concern is the consumer being confused about the actual company name in the end. Eventually it will have to be a settled-on pronunciation to answer possible support phone calls. As far as it matching the probable target market of App users and developers, I do like the font for that very purpose.
Good lord, wg. YOU tell US what's wrong with this and how to fix it.
It's beating you over the head with a hammer.
think "handy something" is a little tired
yes I'm brazilian xD
"It's beating you over the head with a hammer."
maybe i'm too close to the project, can you elaborate a bit on that ; )
Either you're too close or I'm too far away.
Here's the problem - I read "die vices" in the green... "han-die-vices". So it seemed obvious to me that you should change it to "handevices" and it would work all the way around - you still get "handy" and "devices" out of the word. But now - on second glance - it doesn't seem as obvious as before. You might lose the "handy" part that way.
Not so sure what the answer is now. But - as is - I think a lot of folks will have the same first impression that I did and read "die-vices" in the green the way it is now.
yeah. the obvious answer would probably be to color break handy and vices. but i didnt want to put too much emphasis on vices. and id hoped there'd be some ambiguity in the crossover...
i played with a variety of handeevices, handy-vices, etc... but this one just made the most sense to me in the interest of not being too much of a novelty.
It might be the best answer (I'm not sure) - but the potential blowback would make me look for another answer. You'd be killing the entire project before it starts if a good portion of the people see what I see. Easy to get caught up in something we think will work when really it won't (or at least it's not as good as we originally thought).
But... jmho.
all due respect. but you're the only person who's seen it that way.
not saying there won't be others...
but so far (outside of this post) 100% of the people i've shown it to have seen handy and vice. which is what i was angling for.
but yours is a reasonable thought. and i will give it some more consideration.
Fair enough. But I think you just confirmed my point. Your color breaks are clear... "han" in grey and "dyvice" in green... two colors, two words... "hand device". However, everyone you show it to sees "handy" and "vice". They are interpreting the words - and not according to your color breaks. Sure, everyone can figure it out in their head - that's not the problem (although my interpretation was "handy device" - another story). The point is a good logo has an immediate visceral reaction - no interpretation necessary... no "die vices" as the first impression to be corrected upon further review.
As always... you know the drill. :)
ok. so maybe if i break it handy vices with color. it'll be a decent compromise...?
doesnt help in b/w uses. but personally, i'm not sure it was going to be a problem anyway...
handevices makes a good bit of sense. but i wonder if people will visually close in on hand. thus making it look at a glance like hand evices. or even "hand devices" (and i really dont want an easy masturbation reference) and i think the general consensus on the client side is that these devices are HANDY at their core rather than just another doofy app. so the knee-jerk identifiability of HANDY is pretty crucial.
i miss the days when i was just a designer ; )
Once you change it to black and white as you can see though that there's no longer a differentiating feature in the separation of words. I still think the most enticing feature of this is also the same that brings it down unfortunately. The word play is cute and fun but confusing if you have to make verbal contact with the company. The logo doesn't clearly tell you (or, at least me) what pronunciation to use, and without some sort of audible "name" in our head, people may not be 100% sure of what the companies name itself is which gives severe difficulty in developing a brand.
Hand Devices? Handy vices? Handy devices? Yes they're all close but when doing Google searches unfavourable searches may show up. I just think those who aren't Google professionals and don't actually know what they're searching for might get tripped up on it.
all good points. maybe i should try different fonts for each word or just say screw it and do something like "handy•vices." but still i dont want to hit vices too hard...
at the end of the day though, this isnt the kind of organization that's going to be getting a lot of cold-call interaction. just a few guys working remotely to create apps. in fact, it was discussed early on that they really didnt expect too much random 3rd party contact with them at all. so it really shouldnt be a deal-breaker even if somebody called them "hans' deveining..."
Okay - this might sound a little crazy at this point in the conversation - but what IS the name of the company? Is it "hand devices" or "handy vices" or "handy devices"? Did you cover that somewhere and I missed it?
It's intended to be a bit ambiguous. With the obvious answer being handy vices (as thats how its spelled) with a nod to hand devices
"think "handy something" is a little tired"
i wouldn't argue too much with you on that. but we're not attempting to blaze any new trails on this one. just looking for something fun, that rolls easily off the tongue.
suggestions?
I think it would be a tagline at most.
yes I'm brazilian xD
The first thing I read was "handy vices," and the on closer inspection I saw the "dyvices," which I assumed was "devices" and not "die-vices." I think it might just be Art.
Have you tried "han-d-vices" or "han d vices?" I know dashes in web addresses are a pain in the ass, but it could make a pronunciation and the double entendre a little more obvious. Plus that kind of gives it a cool retro feel, like Bug-b-gone or something.
Just my two cents!
good thoughts gnasm. but one thing im not looking for here is retro. at least i didnt think i was. will give all of this some thought and if i get something interesting will post back soon.
thanks for all input - even if i didnt agree with some of it ; )
I have come to the conclusion that I must not have explained that very well.
I think you explained it fine. I get what you're saying. I just think people who share your perception are, and probably will contue to be a fairly small minority.
Not saying its wrong. Just not typical.
I've always got 'Handy Devices' from this, but the spelling of 'dyvices' always unsettled me. I also don't really like the type choice. Is it OCR 8-bit?
I think that adding a graphical part might anchor it better, with maybe a type revision...
>> Cookie cut the chaos >>
"I think that adding a graphical part might anchor it better,..."
i completely agree with that. but this is one of those situations where neither the timeframe nor budget would validate nor accommodate the usual amount of research, sketches, trial and error, revisions, etc...
ive frequently in the past rendered a project more or less a loss financially, putting more time and effort into something than the client expected or could afford. just to satisfy my own goals.
sometimes thats worthwhile. more often than not, not.
ok. here's some riffing. in discussing "icons" with my girlfriend, she mentioned "a paper clip is a handy device. twist it into the v!"
you guys know me and my hesitation to make letterforms become objects. but i decided to try it. and im not sure that i dont hate it...
thoughts? (on the concept itself. not colors or kerning or whatever)
Yeah I like it, but think that it's a mistake differentiating handy and vices from each other, as it starts to sound like a handheld 'vice' - masturbation? Throw in a paperclip - Jesus :o But seriously, I think that maybe you need three colors on the type? to reiterate the fact that the 'dy' belongs to both hand and dyvices. Imo - that's what i'd do.
On a side note, i'm really pissed off about those posts being deleted from before. I lost 15 minutes of my life writing paragraphs there and now with nothing to show for it...
>> Cookie cut the chaos >>
on that side note: yeah. me too. but that same thing happened a few months ago. another "self-taught" guy, with what would appear at least a basic eye for vibe posted a couple of things, got a lot of the same kind of feedback valef got on his first post. and then EXACTLY as valef did, threw up 4 or 5 images at one time. which got the same response and the same thing happened.
my whole point to the guy was for one person to lay claim to all the attention at once, is kinda presumptous.
maybe I'M the ass hole? but if someone is THAT damned sensitive, they shouldnt be monkeying round with design in the first place.
"but think that it's a mistake differentiating handy and vices from each other," yeah, me too. and for the same reasons.
here is some more riffing... maybe i should just stick to the original...
Imho, you're trying too hard to make an okay idea work. Develop 2 other totally different ideas and I bet you find a better solution.
Also looks like you tried every solution possible except...
"Hand-e-vices" or "Hand E-vices"
Electronic apps - E-vices.
yeah. i guess im up against a deadline and trying too hard to make this a portfolio piece rather than utility project : (
and as far as the dashes and E things. i agree that they make a lot of sense mechanically. but all involved on the client end have made it clear that they consider it either too cutesy, too tired or just too far in the wrong direction from handy and device... and i tend to agree with that.
i think i may make one more pass with the old sketchpad and sharpie. then call it a day
It's not 1996 here. Let's get past the pixelly and terminal fonts.
and once again, mr coupon swoops in and saves the day with his sage, learned advice. and there was much rejoicing...
yay.
You've got an awful lot of pencils there, in a very short time. I can see the advice you give out to everybody - there's no need to overcompensate for your dated output.
"dated output?"
Really. OCR/Terminal/Cyber fonts were all over the place in the early 90's, when personal computers and the internet started taking off. At that time they looked high tech and futuristic. That type of font had a small comeback around 99 when the Matrix came out, but that was 13 years ago or so. It's a generation later. Those fonts don't look high tech, they're retro and kind of silly. Would you use Hobo for a sophisticated software logo?
well, no i wouldnt use hobo for ANYTHING. and thats kind of a doofy situational comparison anyway. thats almost like asking "would you use cake batter to brick up your house?"
i dont find OCR particularly "cyber" looking or overly stylized. and that wasnt the goal. i was just looking for something clean, not particularly trendy, and not currently used into the ground like a helvetica, eurostyle, futura, frutiger, etc... something non-descript and with a square-ish proportion. i stumbled on this and initially shrugged it off for some of the self-conscious reasons you mention. but in the end i just felt it did the job i needed it to do.
is it perfect? probably not. but ive seen several fonts; garamond, futura, eurostyle come and go from favor each a time or two over my twenty years in the biz. i find your argument short-sighted and more or less without merit.
It's not an issue of trends. Futura and Eurostyle are standard sans for general everyday use. OCR is a gimmick font made for one very specific mechanical purpose. You do know why it's called that, right?
Some designers delete their posts here when they don't get the feedback they want. You just ignore it and rationalize why you were right all along while pretending to be open minded. Here's your gold star for telling people they're not allowed to dislike your work.
anyone - EVERYONE is more than allowed to dislike my work. but if i find your reasoning dubious. am i not allowed to debate it?
You can do anything you want.
But look at the evidence on this forum and see your own process. You answered every single response with "not in my opinion" or "that's something to think about". Then ended up with your first draft. You can always rationalize a reason why you were right all along.
WRONG CRITIQUE TOPIC // DELETE