logo design

[jana w.]

I saw someone else post about logo design and I have been stuck in the same

spot for a while. Being the "do-it-yourself" person that I am, I wanted to give

the logo design a try before I hired someone. Just wanted to know what your

thoughts are on what I came up. The logo would be on the splash page only with

a white background.<div></div>

[jana w.]

Sorry, I corrected the cetering of the flower but didn't save it!<div></div>

[Matt Laur]

I suppose, Jana, that my concern here would be about how well that artwork scales - especially when you reduce it to something that would be seen small in the corner of a proof, or on a business card. Also: if you intend to use it on a web site, it's somewhat boxy in shape - and that tends to use up a lot of vertical screen real estate. You may want to also work up a version - something in the same vein - that would work in more of a banner-configuration for the header area on a web page.

 

Also ask yourself: is this something that would ever translate into clean black-and-white... say, when rolling off of a laser printer on an invoice, or when sent via fax at lower resolution? Just some things to contemplate.

[jana w.]

REPLY: I agree that it doesn't work well for business cards or invoices. The scale is too small. I just planned to use it for the splash page on my new blu site. It be quite large scale for that purpose and I don't think I will be using it on anything else.

[dennis_vargas]

We are photographers not logo designers. We get so caught up in our creativity, that we think why pay someone (speaking from experience)

Try Guru.com alot of artist out there that would love to give you a million different designs at a great price. I found Tara at tara_andrysiak@yahoo.com she only charge me $50. gave me a ton of differnt options, then we narrowed it down and she did color schemes. well worth the price. I am very pleased. tell her VARGAS sent you. she then made me an awesome business card, front and back for $25 more. Hire someone, they are not that expensive

[karina_a]

For what it is worth (I am no expert) - I love it Jana! It is fresh, modern, and also includes flowers and icing (the font) which makes you think of weddings. For other media you may be able to have the writing all on one line with a smaller flower at the left?? Possibly having the flower being slightly transparent if it has to run along the bottom of a photo based business card? Where did you find the font - it's great.

[annealmasy]

Hi Jana!

 

I can appreciate your concept, but I don't think the execution is very good. All the

embossed/drop shadow/etc. effect on the text are very awkward. I think a cleaner, more

modern design would serve you well.

 

If I were you, and I didn't have the funds to hire a designer, I would use a simpler font with

no effects, and NOT place the text over the dogwood blossom. Instead, keep the blossom

to the left of the text.

 

You might even mess around with converting the blossom into a sketch-like flower, rather

than such a detailed rendition. This, combined with a nice handwriting font in a solid

color could be really cool.

 

Logos really should have a recognizeable, easy-to-duplicate FEEL to them. Good logos

aren't ACTUALLY easy to duplicate, but they should convey a simplicity that will help

people REMEMBER the logo.

 

This logo is far too cluttered and three-dimensional.

 

Check out this guy's site for some clean, contemporary logo work:

 

http://www.hybr-id.com

[mreul]

as i've stated before on here - drop shadows have a fairly tiny place in the world (by my design taste, standard and education)....that said i agree w/ Anne about the type treatment...you can go to dafont.com for lots of free fonts and there are plenty of safe ones there to choose from....when it comes to using a logo that uses pixels (a photograph) and not vector art (most flat art you see w/ bold color) it's fine as long as you can scale it down and it's readable. there are excellent logos that are created w/ pixel art - just not as many as vector art....you may want to use this flower and also use it as a vector logo to use various ways....use it on your splash page and then use it as vector on other marketing materials. for instance many photogs use their logo on pics on their blogs....and i think this flower (pixel art) will be hard to distinguish as a logo on a picture too...so a vector rendition would possibly be better used this way. most mistakes people make who arn't "trained" designers is the use of type....so you could look at books on design and take some of that to another try or take Anne advice....and hire a designer. i understand the need to create your own so just keep trying many options if you can't hire a professional designer.... ;)

[studio139portraits]

Jana,

 

I agree with Dennis' thread in general. There are many great options out there for inexpensive design. www.sitepoint.com is a great place for you to post a submission for a design/logo competition. You just need to post your request/infromation/& a reward & graphic artists will compete to design your logo! pretty nifty!

 

Good luck,

jen:)

[jana w.]

Thanks everyone. I have decided to scratch the logo and hire a pro as suggested. After looking at it more, it really doesn't fit with my style anyway. So for now I have a generic logo on the site until I can get a nice one.

 

Dennis Vargas, I will definetely be contacting Tara. I didn't know that logo design would be that inexpensive. Most places I have seen advertised are $200+. I can deal with fifty bucks! Thanks again!