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Critique

Abraxsis

Abraxsis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 23, 2003
425
11
Kentucky
My friends and I are planning on starting a small design company as something for the side since we all have full time jobs. After pondering on the idea of a logo for about 2 weeks the one attached kind of popped into my head. When I look at it, it conjures up feelings of cleaniness and balance for me. A little bland yes, but I despise big gaudy logos that look like a free form blob that a child just vomited up.

What do you think?
 

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Lose the horizontal line and the ", inc" you don't have to have that in your logo.

You should make it one line in my opinion. I would go with something more like this (your design, of course, will vary):

logo.png

Also, if it hasn't been set in stone, perhaps consider replacing "group" with the name of the city you're planning on being based in, like these examples:

logo2.png

logo3.png

I just suddenly thought of that I don't know why.
 
First - what is going on with the red in the R, did you edit the R into that shape, it looks all patchy.

Second - personally I think the design is dreadful, doesn't say design one bit to me. To me it looks like something I would expect from a gcse (upto 16yrs) student and it would make me question if you can do the work I want you to do. I know it may not be finished draft but it looks unfinished if you get what I mean.

Also agree over the ,inc bit.

I think the main issue is that it has no definition as to what you do, theres no reference, be it title or image, in the title that has any reference to design. The colours before you say it are generic and pointless when looking at the design in a purely monocromatic way, colour doesn't say design.
 
Quick disclaimer. I tell people that I'm open to criticism as long as they're open to being told where to shove said criticism...

That being said...

That logo says to me that you know how to add color to uppercase letters. Which isn't necessarily a compliment. Your mark - especially for a designer - should give the viewer a reason to choose you over other designers. After all, they'll be paying you for your ability to think, not just set and color type.

There are zillions of different schools of thought on designing logos (and I'm sure you'll hear about a few of them on here). One of which is to treat color as secondary. I'd focus primarily on your typography a bit more. Try upper and lowercase. Try horizontal and vertical. Try jumbling them together and spacing them apart. Try black and light weights. Try tight kerning on one line. Keep playing and mixing around a bit. Once you've settled on a mark, then you can add color. Focus on how you want people to view you as a designer.

Despite my criticism, I think you're off to a decent start. Just keep at it.
 
IgnatiusTheKing said:
This is cleaner looking, but I could still see it being stacked. I also like both of these typefaces better than the original one.
Click to expand...

I think longer names lend themselves to stacking secondaries like "Group" or "Design" better. For example, if the name was Really Badass Design, rather than RBD.

Of course there are all kinds of creative ways to prove me wrong. I'm just saying in general...
 
Ill kinda hit everyone in one reply, so Ill try to keep it streamlined.

The logo doesnt have to say "hey, Im a designer" ... because Im not trying to sell people on the fact that Im a designer. Guess I should have mentioned that. All the freelance work I do is by referral only, so the "logo" (which it really isn't one) doesn't have to make people realize what they're there for, they already know that. It makes my life a little easier because it allows me to control who my clients are a little better.

That being said, I like the idea of the one liner, Ill def. experiment some more with the "logo." As I said it's just a first draft. I like to use this board when I can't bring stuff to my creative team for critique, so thanks for the honesty. I keep messing with it.
 
Abraxsis said:
The logo doesnt have to say "hey, Im a designer" ... because Im not trying to sell people on the fact that Im a designer. Guess I should have mentioned that. All the freelance work I do is by referral only, so the "logo" (which it really isn't one) doesn't have to make people realize what they're there for, they already know that. It makes my life a little easier because it allows me to control who my clients are a little better.
Click to expand...

I see your point, but on the other hand, why limit yourself?
 
dpaanlka said:
I think longer names lend themselves to stacking secondaries like "Group" or "Design" better. For example, if the name was Really Badass Design, rather than RBD.
Click to expand...

Very true. I was thinking he could make the short, primary element ("RBD") very large and the secondary, long element ("group" or whatever) small and the same width. You end up with something that's roughly a square, which can work pretty well.

That being said, I like your long logo idea with the city name the best.
 
Try 2 ...

amazingly, RBD Group was already a design company somewhere, lol. Guess its true where they say there is nothing new being created these days. So I changed the name.
 

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Putting 'creative group' in all caps and much smaller/bolder would potentially do very good things for your logo.

(Inspired by Hankster's concept).

Here's a quickie mockup of what I mean:
 

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Be adventurous

General advice…

Think about where its going to be used. Business Cards, mailouts, T-shirts, online. All these will affect the final look as you'll have printing restrictions to consider.

A few suggestions…

1. Start off designing in B/W. All the best logos work in monochrome as well as color.
2. Experiment with fonts, don't restrict yourself.
2. Aligning the texts helps tighten it up.
2. Introduce a device like a circle for instance, which could be used in other ways.

Take advantage of the fact you're designing something from scratch so you have no restraints. Have fun with designing it. My 2 minute effort below.
 

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Far too much space in-between all the letters. For what it's being used for, it doesn't work. The space just fills it up and it becomes more of a chore to read it, instead of looking and seeing a precise, clear and simple logo. I'm all for clean and simple, but the design still needs to work.

The one above with the circle behind the text is the best in here so far. Clean, and uses the horizontal rule well that you wanted in the first submission.
 
My main issue

My main issue is cohesiveness.

The one in the circle works better because it feels like the two parts of the logo belong together. Its still far from perfect though!

The attempts by the original poster don't feel cohesive. It looks and feels like two words slapped! (sorry for being harsh)
 
well, i like that you want something simple, but i don't think you have given it enough refinement to really be beautifully simple. Definately start in black and then work your way into color. It's amazing how that will change your perspective on if something works or not. I also love that you are using helvetica, cause it is such a nice clean font, but don't get hung up on it. Try other fonts and arrangements. Try different size proportions. TRY EVERYTHING.
 

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I suppose great minds think alike, the design I finally settled on was very close to the first one you posted. It turned out very nice IMO.

Thanks all for the help.




JasonElise1983 said:
well, i like that you want something simple, but i don't think you have given it enough refinement to really be beautifully simple. Definately start in black and then work your way into color. It's amazing how that will change your perspective on if something works or not. I also love that you are using helvetica, cause it is such a nice clean font, but don't get hung up on it. Try other fonts and arrangements. Try different size proportions. TRY EVERYTHING.
Click to expand...
 
I think you should first start by creating a logo treatment. What I mean by that is a custom font, or a custom modified font in just black and white. I think it looks for official if you do that rather than just use a stand font anyone can get. Once you do that then you can play around with colors.
 
More proof that just about anyone with a computer can call theirself a "designer."

Shameful really. Our field of work is in desperate need of official certification of some type.
 
No offense, but the examples above are just too cliche and conservative. At the same time, you would probably get lots of work that way. I should've been a fine artist.
 
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