New ReidDesigned logo
JoLeigh (13 points) | Sat, 2009-01-10 15:40
I recently deigned a new logo for my graphic design company, and I wanted to see what other designers/design enthusiasts thought of it. I believe that criticism can be very constructive so I appreciate anyone who is willing to take the time to review the logo and send me some feedback. I am new to this so I hope I am doing this correctly. I am also keen on meeting other designers and learning new skills from them, as I believe this will greatly enhance my development. If you would like to contact me directly in relation to the logo design, please do, .
Thanks for your time,
Jo
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
What is there to discuss? This is a gorgeous logo.
Cut, print, and ship.
"Those who dance are thought mad by those who do not hear the music."
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Thank you. I'm delighted that you like the logo, I appreciate it. It feels great to receive such a positive response. Cheers. I look forward to viewing your work when your site is up and running. Keep me posted on that. I'm currently revamping my own site, which should be up and running again in a couple of weeks.
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
I am currently in a course to learn Dreamweaver. I haven't designed for the web since the Adobe Pagemill days and have found trying to learn DW on my own a little frustrating and time-consuming! I will throw up the site link here once completed.
Also, great reply to all the posts.
Cheers.
3dog
"Those who dance are thought mad by those who do not hear the music."
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Woop! Go TextEdit!
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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Beautiful.
www.abovegraphicdesign.com
My Magazine Jewelry Site:
www.rpscreations.com
I'd be curious to know what the idea behind it is, the concept. The typework is very clean and stylish, but what does that big bold icon mean besides a stylized R and D?
Clean, simple.
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
“What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?”
~ Jules Winnfield
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
We artists are indestructible, even in a prison cell or concentration camp I would be almighty in my own world of art. Even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell. - Pablo Picasso
Does it have to mean anything else?
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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Everything must have meaning, little grasshopper, else why would it be?
"Those who dance are thought mad by those who do not hear the music."
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Sure - but it is the R and D. Does it need to have ANY OTHER meaning?
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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of course, if it has no other meaning than being an R & D, why that choice of font? Why stylized? What colours will you choose and if those are the colours chosen, why those? You surely get my drift, nothing "just" happens. Seems nowadays lots of stuff are being done, but no real concept behind it. EVERYTHING has to have a concept to a certain extent.
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
“What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?”
~ Jules Winnfield
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
We artists are indestructible, even in a prison cell or concentration camp I would be almighty in my own world of art. Even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell. - Pablo Picasso
See I dont agree totally. If it looks cool, sticks in your head and works - surely it works ?
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
Jack
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BRANDING | PRINT | WEB
www.jhousedesign.com
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It looks good, nice balance of positive/negative space. I'd be interested to see the non-reversed version.
www.alessandraandy.com
Great logo! But, I'd like to see this shrunk down; I think you'll find the type is too small compared to the icon. I'm a bit tired of the LARGE FONTsmallfont juxtaposition (it's as ubiquitous as the dropshadow) but that's my own personal opinion.
The good thing is you won't need the text after a while; the icon will be able to stand by itself if you market it right.
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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The Salon Design Tech
By the way, I'd recommend not posting your email address on CB; it's a popular enough site that you're going to start receiving oodles of spam from site crawlers. People can contact you through your avatar.
Thanks for posting your logo.
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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The Salon Design Tech
First of all I would like to thank everyone who took the time to reply to my post. I really appreciate the feedback, compliments, and questions. I hope you guys don’t mind if I reply to all comments in one post, instead of replying to you all individually? I will also properly introduce myself in the ‘New Members’ section after I have posted this message.
The file I uploaded was CMYK, hence the greenish tint. I was meant to save it as RGB (retianing a dark grey background). Tut!tut! to me. Anyway, the logo is for my graphic design company/practice. I felt that is was time to revamp my existing identity, and design a new logo which would reflect a more progressive or tenacious attitude, I hope you know what I mean. I wanted the logo to be clean, simple, balanced, strong and flexible. My intention was also to use the logo or an aspect of the logo as a favicon, which would keep the overall company identity consistant.
Now, the big bold graphic is an ‘R’ and ‘D’, which I am delighted to see that all of you recognised imediately, however there is a bit more to it than that. The graphic/icon is also a visual play upon the name ‘ReidDesigned’ as it connotes the motion of something being developed, created, or effecticely being redesigned. For example, the recycling symbol visually insinuates the process of recyclying, as does the logo but in a more abstract form.... I’m not sure if I am explaining myself properly. I also feel that is works well as simlpy an ‘R’ and a ‘D’ on a visual basis.
The graphic/icon is an imitation of a font, however I altered/redrew it so that it wouldn’t entirely identify as a font. The reason for the choice of font/graphic was to reflect a sense of durability, strengh and/or resilience. I personally found that this could only be achieved by something that looked strong, clean, and had a bit of a edge to it. The font used for ‘ReidDesigned’ is a (free) font called ‘Walkway’ by GemFonts, I think the typographer is Graham Meade. I really liked Walkway from the moment I saw it, I think that it is Meade’s most notable font, and is conveniently available is varying weights. Walkway is clean, crisp, simple and I feel that in this case in particular ‘less is more’. The font holds it’s own when placed with the graphic/icon. This juxtaposition creates an overall dynamic stability within the logo. However in saying that, I can understand your point of view, natobasso, in saying your are tired of this type of juxtaposition, but I guess at the end of the day there is a transicence in all aspects of design aestethics. What I am (trying, lol) to say is that you can’t win them all. ; )
The logo works just as well when reversed. My only concern is when it is minimised, the graphic is more prominant. I’ve tried to readdress this issue by changing the graphic from solid to outline, however, I feel that in doing so the logo loses is strengh and solidity. I also tried to reduce the graphic yet found that it became unbalanced.
I hope I answered everyone’s questions. If I have failed to do so, please let me know. Thanks again to all who replied. The logo is still up for dicussion and I will keep addressing it until it is to everyone’s satifaction. I’ve got my work cut out for me with you, natobasso, lol. I was going to repost the logo in various sizes and colour, however I thought better of it as I don’t want to monopoloise the ‘critique forum’. Thanks for the spam warning. Again if anyone has any questions or advice, please leave me a commment.
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
Jo, I'm late to the party, but I wanted to comment on your logo.
At first glance, I got the R and D, but picked up a lot more, too: all the things you said you were trying to express. So, win! To me, it has an almost minimalist Celtic knot feeling to it -- inherent energy, anyway. Really nice. The more I look at it, the more I like it.
The typeface for "ReidDesigned" just looks to me like a slightly extended Helvetica Neue. I'm amazed someone would do that and take credit for its "design." Also, I can't tell from your graphic if the dot over the lower-case I is rectangular, as in Helvetica Neue, or rounded. If rounded, that would be a deal-breaker.
I'm with natobasso in being concerned that "ReidDesigned" will, indeed, be difficult to read in smaller incarnations, but I doubt you plan to include them in your favicon, or that you'd have reason to use the complete logo that small anywhere else. The R and D alone will stand for you nicely wherever you might need to go that small. If you were imprinting the barrel of a promotional pen and were worried about shrinking down to the limited vertical space allowed, you could lead with the RD and have ReidDesigned to its right, with the R in Reid and D in Designed the same height as the RD, perhaps. Not sure about that.
I'm sure you've considered optional ways of handling Reid and Designed, possibly including running the two words together in cpas and having them share the internal D.
Anyway, welcome and thanks for a good presentation.You've clearly put a lot of thought into the design, are confident about your choices, and are able to support them intelligently. I'm very sorry, but I'm going to have to kill you now.
;-)
Mara
lol, thanks for your feedback, Mara, I really do appreciate it. I was absolutely delighted by your observation in relation to the logo graphic resembling a minimalist Celtic knot, something which I had overlooked. It was right in front of me, lol... I guess that tends to happen when one finds oneself staring at something for too long. I feel refreshed in sense by it now due to your perspective on it, thank you!
In relation to the dots over the 'i''s, they were in fact rounded. After slapping myself on the waist (for such a reprehensible deed), I redrew the dots as rectangular. I agree with you, Walkway does in fact replicate an extended version of Helvetica Neue, but it's not quite the same. I retyped 'ReidDesigned' in Helvetica Neue, however, it just didn't work for me and I found the uppercase 'R' to be too decorative... I know, I know, Helvetica is a highly regarded and established font but truthfully... I'd love to hate it. There is something about Helvetica that I can't quite embrace entirely... It has just occurred to me that I may receive a public berating for such ignorance, but I can't help it, maybe someone can enlighten me on the subject.
I also tried using all caps for 'ReidDesigned', yet I found that it looked too severe. So I reverted back to the use of upper and lower cases for a slightly more subdued effect. I'm not sure if I am making any sense... I wanted to use a delicate approach to the typography, enabling me to subtly soften the overall look of the logo.
I applied the logo or logo variant to some pens, (attached below). I hope they can be seen by all. I found this application of the logo, which I had previously considered and that you kindly suggested (thanks again, lol) most effective. Let me know what you think, please. Which variant of the logo do you prefer? I feel that the 'squared' logo works, however the horizontal logo variant is more flexible in both print and web application... set me straight please!
Thanks again Mara form your feedback, I found it to be very constructive and refreshing/enlightening. Receiving feedback from everyone has helped me a great deal, so thanks again to all who replied.
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
i think it's actually ok to have both a stacked and landscape version of the logo. it's not uncommon for companies to have both, if it can be done successfully. and it gives you a great deal more flexibility with usage.
A slap on the 'waist'?... I meant wrist not waist, lol.
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
I just remembered where I've seen your "r" before:
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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The Salon Design Tech
Holy Shit!
That is seriously freaking me out. I tweaked a free novelty font called troglodyte, as it had a few small but annoying kinks in it. Troglodyte seems to be more or less an extended version of the font used in the Rockport logo. I had never heard of Rockport before so I had to google it to find out what it was. I'll want to look into this further. Thanks for pointing this out... better safe than sorry.
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
if you ask me, I much rather your logo anyways.
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
“What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?”
~ Jules Winnfield
Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com
We artists are indestructible, even in a prison cell or concentration camp I would be almighty in my own world of art. Even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell. - Pablo Picasso
Thanks Leaky Penny, your opinion means a great deal to me, it cheered me up : ) . I still can't believe it though. It's very frustrating.
Thanks again,
Jo
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
I love it... especially how you have it on the pens. Very professional!
Hey Pokie,
I'm delighted that you love it : ) Your comment has definitely given me a boost in confidence, so thanks for that! I have some ideas for my business cards, which I'll upload hopefully some day soon. I'll keep you posted on that.
Thanks again,
Jo
'Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.' - Mary L Cook
the composition, the negative space, the pallet, the simplicity... perfect.
nothing pulls my eye away. Great work
living on dreams and custard creams.