Svedas Architects

Thank you for the brief! Very helpful!

I'm not feeling either mark as being something you'd want to explore further.

Of the two marks, the bottom is stronger. Butting up the purple against the black leads to issues of production/reduction and visual balance. As a rule, this dark color against black should be avoided. The bottom mark is stronger because it avoids that.

All of us here could point out a lot of problems with these marks but maybe the problem is more in the brief rather than the execution.

I'm thinking if you step back and rewrite the brief, giving yourself a firm statement about the company itself and what they represent to their clients, you may find the logo will draw itself after some sketches.

I'm saying it's not you, it's the brief. Write down strong vision and then see if the pencil can capture the essence of it in a single image.

I saw the thumbnail and right away thought "hockey team".

Start over.

yeah. sorry.

not a bad start for maybe a space tourism, synthetic tears or robotic loon company. but not even close for an architecture firm.

your brief was less a "brief" and more of a monologue.
i think part of your problem is that you're OVERTHINKING things. and
trying TOO HARD to be abstract.

on top of that. your vector control is VERY clumsy.

keep practicing. you're on the right track. but still a good deal wobbly ; )

I thought hockey too. Looks like someone colored the old Pittsburgh Penguin purple and then stepped on him.

Not seeing any definition or reason in the shapes. It's nice to have ideas about what you want - but you have to convey those ideas to people who are starting with a blank slate. We don't have any idea what you're thinking - your art has to tell us. None of those things you talk about in your brief are evident in the two ideas.

Thanks for the comments. I definitely feel this is not my best work but I wanted to get an opinion about it.
I do have a problem writing the brief because the client does not have a direction he wants to go, (Meaning the style, elements or perception he wants to portray) but has a strong opinion about the result.
What questions do you ask a client when they don't have an idea of what they want?

i always ask:
"why did you start the business?"
"what sets your business apart from others in the industry?"
"if you had to choose one word to describe your work philosophy. what would it be?"

then there are a pile of other abstract / personality questions...

what you gave wasnt a "brief" in the sense of what you were tasked with. it was an explanation to us as to YOUR thought process. which is ok. for us. but does nothing to help us solve the problem in front of you.

and on the subject of your vector line control. here is an exercise i always give my students:
try drawing as perfect as circle as you can. with the bezier pen tool. first challenge - how many points do you need?

Ok thanks for the questions that should clarify the majority of my brief issues.
I understand explaining the brief. The next post I will explain what I am trying to do an not just what I did.

As far as the vector line control, your right im new to illustrator, im more used to photoshop.
Im not sure how to create the perfect circle using the pen tool. I used four but obviously that wasnt right because of the way it turned out. Im guessing it is 8 anchor points but I dont know what point I would drag it to create a uniform curve.
I posted my quick attempt. Let me know how it is done or give me a hint. Thanks for the test.

and remember. a good mark MUST work in 1 color.

if you're looking for something to inspire you about the company, you should look at their work. for an architecture firm, what is their style? modern? classical? you're going for an abstract, slightly amorphous look in what you showed here, is that what their buildings look like? are they conservative or edgy?

i agree with the others that you're kind of out in left field here (and that you may be "trying too hard" here). not sure what to think of the first one, it really doesn't bring anything at all to mind. the second one makes me think of a high-speed train.

as a designer at an architecture firm, i can tell you that i've never seen a mark that looks anything at all like that for an architecture firm. and that the majority of the logos i see are built around the typography.

The bottom is stronger, but I see the puma mark that they put on their shoes. I am not sure if you are familiar with drafting, but you could use a drafting machine for the "A" and a french curve for the "S". I am not sure how good that will look but it is worth a try.

Ok thank you for your critiques they definitely helped.
wgzn i figured out how to make the perfect circle now. That was a good test. Thanks

Sorry I tried but couldn't critique this logo.