WA Designs' New Look

[Nick 1733]

Here is WA Designs official new logo package, comments and criticism are encouraged.

Blue is my color so I wanted to incorperate it into the new look. Silver, Blue and White are the primary colors. The different shades of blue are; Navy, Royal Blue, Columbia Blue & Tiger Blue.

*Colors on the smaller star are meant to be interchangable.

For comparison's sake

[Nick 1733]

no comments, ANYONE?

[HurricaneDavid]

I assume you're going to shrink this down to use as an overlay for your work, in which case I think the white font on the stars is going to be hard to make out. Maybe try a contrasting color? Other than that, it looks pretty good.

[Nick 1733]

The first one, the one that says "WA Designs" is a 'title' logo, like on a banner or something to indicate where it came from.

The second one, the most detailed one is a 'display' logo to show something off.

The third one is an 'indentity' logo meant to be a watermark and for slapping on my work.

[Nick 1733]

Any comments will do.

Please, if you don't like it then please say so.

[plattopus]

Reminds me a lot of Against All Odds' logos.

[chapi]

i like it its nice work

but the colour scheme is a bit too monochromatic

adding some contrasting colours (especially to the first and third logo's WA) would improve it in my eyes.

i'm not an expert tho

[Nick 1733]

After talking to some people individually, I've decided to change the first and second one's a bit, I'll have them up soon.

[eddie010]

It's cool. What does WA stand for, again?

Might spark some gradient-hating comments, though.

[Avenger]

My initial reaction is that it's really busy. I can't imagine it being very legible at a reduced size or with a reduced color scheme.

[Nick 1733]

My initial reaction is that it's really busy. I can't imagine it being very legible at a reduced size or with a reduced color scheme.

thank you, that's exactly what I think.

too busy, especially with the gradients.

Also the color combos don't go together, I need a base color for all three and get them to 'flow' together.

[paynomind]

Reminds me a lot of Against All Odds' logos.

it's really busy. I can't imagine it being very legible at a reduced size or with a reduced color scheme.

Insert gradient-hating comments

[Nick 1733]

Alright here's the better one, IMO.

[Avenger]

I would recommend trying to render the logo in one or two colors at a small size... If you can make it effective with a reduced pallette, you'll give yourself a better chance at a logo that is flexible, clean, and readable at small sizes.

After you have something that works like that, then you have the ability to apply effects (like gradients, lighting tricks, etc.) for different situations, but will always have that option to back to something more simple when you need it (like watermarks, small sizes, etc.)

Hope that helps.

[barnesdesign]

bears striking resemblance to avenger's logo as well

[Nick 1733]

bears striking resemblance to avenger's logo as well

not really, the only similarity is the second one because it has a star and a circle behind it.

[pcgd]

I personally would drop the star. Its used quite a bit. Its the Lone Star (go to texas and its EVERYWHERE), its used by those in your former name frequently as well. (Skaters)

I think you're creative and skilled enough to come up with a more orginal icon for yourself.

I like the font you've used however, and this is definatly an upgrade from what you had.

[slapshot]

Definitely minimize the stylish shading/beveling techniques. Those are fine for a large banner. But if it's going to be reduced (say, for a watermark, a small banner, or even a business card/letterhead design), you should stick with no more than 2 colors. Even with your simplified versions, there's a lot going on...highlights on the circle, beveled star, highlights/bevels on the "wa" mark. You don't want to get too cluttered...it ends up reeking of "look what I can do on my computer!"

Try designing it monochromatically at first, playing with a few screens. Once you get that down, then start adding color. If something will only work in color, and not in black and white, most of the time it's either too busy or otherwise illegible.

You might want to use a different font, or alter it a bit. I know you like Demonized, but it also sticks out as a freeware font. It doesn't lend itself well to good letterspacing with the odd-shaped serifs...it certainly isn't consistent with the kerning. Try putting in some ligatures in the word "Designs", similar to what you did with the "WA" logo. I don't know where you could put them at first glance, but maybe play around with that for a bit and see what looks better visually.

The "WA" should be the same in all your versions. The combined mark reads well on its own, so you don't have to worry about legibility by having the W and A separate in the banner, but combined in the other versions.

As a last thought, maybe you could have a simple star (no beveling) but knock the WA logo out of it, playing off its own negative space. It looks pretty good in the bottom right version, and if you position it right, the angled sides of the W and A can also act like the sides of the star. I like working with negative space, and I think logos that use it look a lot cooler than those that just look like everything's layered on top of each other.

[Nick 1733]

thanks JP, that's the kind of stuff I want to hear.

I might add that I have no idea what the color combinations look like, my monitor is messed up so everything is MUCH darker, I see the navy as black, the royal as navy, the titan blue as a darker royal blue.

[DarthMan]

i think that your newest one is good but i mught try another non- whitish or blueish color