Bad Cheese Studio

Out of curiosity why is the sword and the fly required? It just seems they are hindering the design. on a business card you won't even see the fly, and the sword brings no meaning to the logo. Unless of course, you happen to have a brief.

Also this isn't a logo, it's an illustration.

The Fly has become a mascot of sorts. And when I asked several people that have seen the old animated logo the told me it wasn't the same with out the sword. Both are connected to Bad Cheese even though they were side bits.

Then more emphasis should be put on the fly, then the cheese and lastly the sword.

To be honest, just because something isn't the same without something does't mean it should be there. but if you insist on using the sword (or in this case a dagger, unless that's a HUGE piece of cheese and a HUGE fly) it should be the the third element to grab my attention. Right now there are five fighting for my attention.

i have to agree with leaky here.

you have to make the decision about what's really important and use that for your logo. a logo can't be everything to everyone, nor can it communicate everything about your business (although i struggle to understand what the sword/dagger and fly communicate about your business). this is where most unprofessional logos fail. they incorporate too many elements, too much detail, and try to say too much. look at what the most successful and longest lasting logos are. simple. there's a reason for that.

i think you need to unlink the animation from the logo and concentrate on them as separate items. the logo may be part of your animation, but your animation as a still is not your logo.

You need to look closer at what your fonts are saying. Many of your fonts I associate with diners. As far as the cheese type it seems repetitive with the illustration. I agree with the others simplify just to many elements that arn't working together.

On your color "logo" you said that the mold was necessary on the cheese to convey the badness. However that obviously doesn't translate to b&w. This is why you need to take everyone's advice and evaluate just what it is you are trying to say, and be able to convey that through b&w.

That said:

1. Too much going on. Like Leaky said. Soooo not a logo, but an illustration.
2. When I see a sword stuck in something, I think King Arthur and excalibur. A noble knight. Not bad cheese.
3. Can you just pull out one element, like the fly? Maybe try this - make it big, and give him a big snarky, smart-ass expression.
4.Typefaces are all just not working.

I think you need to separate the two ideas... the logo and the animation. Concentrate on the logo using (imho) - just the cheese. As everyone stated - you need to simplify dramatically for a logo. The cheese is the focal point - use that. The animation can be totally different. Think of the Hollywood studio logos... Universal is the planet earth, but they animate it differently at the beginning of each movie. MGM's logo is a lion's head, but they have an actual lion roaring when the movie starts.

BTW, that font I used was a real font - Velvet Teen - if you're interested. Shotgun (sometimes called Shot Thru) and many others have holes...

http://new.myfonts.com/search/shotgun/fonts/