That logo is missing something

[Monsieur OUXX]

Hi everybody!

Take a good look at that logo :
[imgzoom]http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6941/croppedt.png[/imgzoom]


It's a perfectly fine logo.
Yet, it's missing something to make it stand out. It looks a bit dull. I can't quite put my finger on it: is it the reflection effect that looks too artificial? Is it the contrast? I don't know.
Any advice to make it look really cool and catchy without changing the concept of it is welcome.

[Darth Mandarb]

It's hard to give advice for logos without knowing what the logo is for!  Given the background imagery of the shape-thing is 1s and 0s I'm gathering the 'B' is for binary?  What is the 'L' for?  Is this a 'games company' logo?

The two things that stand out to me are the "BL" feels crammed in there and, not knowing the significance of the shape, I don't much care for the shape of the background thing (or the huge photoshop bevel)!

This was the first thing that popped into my head (but it's a big departure)


Also, if you need/want to keep the shape you have now; I'd move the text next to it (all we can see if a cut-off B and L) down a bit to align with the top/bottom of the shape's right most edge!

Hope it was helpful.

[Anian]

Yep, align that text on the side.

All that bevel photoshop effect cheapens it a bit and it's not really that good for a logo - logo will be in different sizes and media so it has to be clear (I think even Darth's example might not adapt well with all those 1 and 0 in the background, but it is better), also it's good for a logo to be recognizable even if it's black and white. And I think the BL looks cramped because of that bevel as well.

[Monsieur OUXX]

All that bevel photoshop effect cheapens it a bit and it's not really that good for a logo

So, how would you make it look "not cheap"?
Maybe I should:
1) redraw the 0's and 1's to make them fit on pixels
2) Manually create the bevel effect, with a lot more contrast, a bit like this :




By the way, the logo is meant to stay at that low resolution, and with that shape (I didn't create it, ano I don't want to change the concept). BL stands for "Binary Legends".

[Eric]

By the way, the logo is meant to stay at that low resolution

Speaking from experience, even if the original intended usage is low-res, you'll be doing yourself a favor by creating the logo as a vector file that can be rescaled. Otherwise, six months from now, someone is going to want a t-shirt, and you're going to have to remake the whole thing from scratch.

[cat]

Quick vectorization in Inkscape:



Edit: I also uploaded the svg so anyone who wants can work from there: ouxx_logo.svg

[Monsieur OUXX]

you'll be doing yourself a favor by creating the logo as a vector file that can be rescaled.

I believe that file already exists.

@cat: Thanks for the vectorized version, but it doesn't help with low-res. What do you guys think of cat's bevel effect? Does it make the logo look better, or not?
Cat, you actually made me realize that the guy who made the logo used rounded corners on the left side, and sharp corners on the right side. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with that.

[Monsieur OUXX]

How about this?


[imgzoom]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1340/logoreworked.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1258/logoreworked2.png[/imgzoom]

[Cuiki]

Why don't you make your zeros and ones a bit bigger? This looks pretty crammed right now.

[selmiak]

the crisp pixely numbers look nice. But seeing it like this made me realise this form is a tilted monitor seen in perspective, so they should look like this:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/hZ9QNCB.jpg[/imgzoom]
the BL can stay in normal form like in front of the screen and even be a bit reflected by the screen. I just distorted it with the 1s and 0s as I only have the flattened image...

[Monsieur OUXX]

the BL can stay in normal form (like facing the screen) and even be a bit reflected by the screen. I just distorted it with the 1s and 0s as I only have the flattened image...

Ok, I get you, except for " and even be a bit reflected by the screen". How can it be reflected by the screen, since it's on top of it?

[selmiak]

hard to explain. Do you have psd of this that you can send me (or upload to the super secret dev board) then it would be easier to do some photoshop trickery on it.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I'm sharing my work files but I've been really stupid, I've merged the wrong layers.
All I can do is give you this : https://www.dropbox.com/s/fswt65wj4rlwgcd/logo.zip
(the .pdn file is a Paint.Net file with more work layers, and the .psd file, as you know, is photoshop)


When you said "reflected by the sreen", did you mean upside-down, like it's reflecting in the floor?

[Monsieur OUXX]

EDIT: I double-posted by mistake

[selmiak]

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/mfRa7S1.png[/imgzoom]
like this, the BL-letters are reflecting in the monitorthingy background. Should be more subtle but I left the opacity higher to show what I mean. Also the form looks crappy so maybe it is no good idea after all

[Snarky]

That doesn't really make sense if the screen is intended to be in perspective, since if it's at an angle like that it wouldn't reflect things in front of it, but rather things to the right.

[selmiak]

I figured that too, but atm it's still a straight thing with a strange shape and no tilted monitor yet... but the whole reflection idea seems crap to me now anyways, with or without tilted background.

[Monsieur OUXX]

My best effort.

I'm sad that the digits don't look as crisp as in the previous version, but I didn't figure out a way to make it work.

[dactylopus]

I really like this version, but I think the BL is a bit too large.  I don't think it should overlap the bevel in any way, personally.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I really like this version, but I think the BL is a bit too large.  I don't think it should overlap the bevel in any way, personally.

OK I'll keep that in mind for the next version. Thanks!