Rome Imperials Concept

[AAO]

Ok, So i'm working on a request by Uniform Jippeto, and I'm not totally happy with the way this is turning out. The sketch I had for this looked 10x better. Specifically, I'm not too keen on the face, and I'm not sure if I rendered the Helmet Mane thing correctly:

[Cashcleaner]

I don't know. I kinda like it. The grey is a bit dark and kinda blends in too well with the black on one half of the shild. The image itself looks very nice. Maybe enlarge the ROME text a bit.

That's all I can really say. I think it's nay bad.

[AAO]

oh god the monitor color discrepencies killing me. It's a navy blue much like the Cavaliers, and the grey is very distinctable from the blue on my monitor. thanks though.

[Alphabet Man]

my opinion is to make the sheild a secondary logo as well and put an R or an I on it, overall it is great

[AAO]

haha aussie i was thinking about that but that would mean i'd have to redraw a new shield and out of laziness i didnt, but when its ready to be done ill probably do that.

[ColeJ]

my only gripe would be that the guy looks too skinny... armor like that doesn't fit like a t-shirt, so it should make him bigger than he really is... the guy looks like a toothpick.

[AAO]

damnit your right he does...amazing what a fresh pair of eyes can catch

[Nesi427]

This design would also look cool if it was altered to Rutgers...

[AAO]

Thanks dude...but isnt Rutgers' the Knights? This is more of a Roman warrior.

[nitroseed]

Alright, Ian. I'm going to tell you something, but I want you to understand that I mean this in the most constructive way possible.

Your work lately hasn't been as impressive to me as your earlier work, and I think I've figured out why. I remember your earlier concepts being heavily conceptual, very unique, and to me, it broke new ground in some ways. However, I think with your migration from Paint to Illustrator, you've lost some of the charm. My theory is that with Paint, you worked so meticulously on each logo that you were forced to look at it and work on it for extended periods of time. Now that you're getting the hang of Illustrator, you can work faster, and you're cranking out a new concept like every day, and I feel like the quality of your work is suffering.

I know that I've suggested this before, but I want to reinforce it with you. Slow down. Seriously. I know you're trying to build a big portfolio for the art director guys, but they want to see quality over quantity. Trust me on this one. You could show them a thousand of your logos, but if they find one guy who's done six to ten really quality pieces, guess who gets the spot?

I hope you know that I'm only telling you this for your benefit. You have a lot of potential that's being stunted by your enthusiasm. I know this because I went through the same thing. Early in my career (and for those of you who don't know me that well, yes, I am a trained professional), I did the exact same thing. I got so excited about creating all these logos that I didn't take the time to sit down and polish them, and they wound up mediocre. I could show you my early work compared to the newer work I've done, and you'll see what a difference patience and having an eye for detail makes.

Now, about this logo... honestly, it's just mediocre to me. The pose is pretty stagnant, the wordmark isn't all that atypical, and the secondaries just seem rushed to me. This just goes back to the whole "quality vs. quantity" thing. And this isn't to bash your work, but I'm being honest with you. You and I both know you're capable of better, Ian.

[AAO]

Thanks a lot Nitro. I'm glad you're looking out for me, couldn't be anymore thankful. This i did just because I was bored since we got snowed in, and I was going through my PMs and saw this request. I know the roman warrior in the primary sucks...the only thing im halfway happy with is the sword. I knew this wasn't going to be jaw dropping because I don't think I was putting in 100% into this, that's why i posted it as help, i needed input. I think i need to start over on this. I think i rushed through doing the figure of the guy himself. so yea i guess if i want to post jaw dropping stuff im going to need to polish my stuff and take my time. thanks a lot brad.

[AAO]

and damn just to prove you right that i need to slow down: check out my avatar and my sig

niceee...bandwidth exceeded

[slapshot]

It's not just this logo. You have been spitting them out like an assembly line. Granted, they're all better than anything I'm putting out, but between these logos (at least 4 this week, right?) and your uniform concepts, you're going to burn yourself out. SLOW DOWN. Why are you giving your work this 2-hour deadline to get done?

Look at this one for example...in almost every one of your latest concepts, the city name of your wordmark seems thrown in at the last minute. Most of them are tiny, bordering on illegible. I saw people giving you advice on that aspect, but it doesn't look like you've done anything to change this problem. The city is just as important as the nickname, especially if they are necessary combined to understand the meaning (Macon Whoopee, for example).

How are you developing your ideas? Do you sketch them out first, or start right on the computer? Illustrator and MS Paint are just tools...don't be forced to work your ideas to the medium, do it the other way around. If there's an idea you're not sure how to translate to computer, keep sketching and developing your concept outside the pixels and bits.

When you go on your interview and present your portfolio, the people you talk to will be just as impressed with how you come up with your concepts as how you execute them. Maybe even more so.

[AAO]

Thanks JP. The city name, I actually have been trying to make them more noticeable, i mean if you notice with this one i gave 'rome' its own box basically attached to the wordmark. Lately, I've been sketching stuff out first. Then, doing it in illustrator. For most of the stuff for the MLB project, I started straight in Illustrator. That was bad. The one I didnt do in illustrator was the Tigers, which I did in paint (i render better in paint then i do in illustrator). The Longnecks, Snowstalkers, Chimps, and this have all been sketched. But IMO, i think this is the worst one of these 4 yet. I really need to slow down. but its hard not to open illustrator up when im bored...

[slapshot]

You also might want to minimize your color scheme a bit. I count 6 colors in this logo. It looks nice for effect, with shading and stuff, but no team needs that many colors.

I'm talking to you, rainbow Astros.

[GMS1122]

i counted 7, and i agree 3 reds, 2 greys, 1 navy, and 1 tan is too much

[AAO]

well yea theres some colors just for accent and shading but not as official team colors, like the main colors would be red, champagne and navy, and some grey.

[BallWonk]

The wordmark just doesn't work for me. It's way too 1930s. If this was the Washington New Dealers, it'd be perfect. But it's not.

Also, the shield is too small and the wrong shape. Roman soldiers didn't generally carry tiny bucklers around; they carried curved rectangular shields almost as tall and wide as a man.

Finally, the soldier's armor looks more in the way of a late medieval knight than a Roman. Roman soldiers wore a lot more chainmail than plate armor, particularly on their upper bodies. The helmet also doesn't quite work for a Roman soldier. Try a helmet that exposes the ears but covers the cheeks with sideplates. For this kind of thing, it might pay to check out one of Osprey's books on the outfitting and equipment of soldiers in various eras.

[BBTV]

The lowercase M on the wordmark is out of place. I don't mind mixing lowercase with upercase (example would be mid-late '90s Suns) but I don't think it works here. I'm glad to see you have a wordmark without spikes shooting off the sides, though.

[Mings]

why dont ya try maybe googling a pic of maximus (russell crowe in gladiator) and maybe base the logo off of that? keep this one though, you could make a logo for the spanish inquisition....