Logo contest questions

So from what I have read so far, should we be working on a "rectangular" logo? It sounds like something that will be on boards, in books and on pages would be something along the lines of wide but short. I came up with a great, round button logo idea when I first heard about this but I don't see that being really 'Title Layout Friendly'.

And it sounds like we're not married to the font that is currently used for the Alliance Logo (aka the word in the upper left corner of these boards) - correct?
 
We aren't married to anything right now chief.

Stephen
National PR
 
text-only-logos.png


these are all good logos.. notice how from a design stand point they are simple and easy to recognize making them memorable and easy to use

pardon the pun but
images


this to me is a bad logo as you dont really readily recognize what it is quickly and at a glance.

in the end its subjective...

in regards to things that are difficult to vectorize.. its kind of tough to provide examples because most logos are in general made to be vectorized.. but just kind of think about how difficult it would be to break an image down into simpler shapes and easily trace them... the more shapes you have and the more you have to trace, the more difficult it will be to make that into a vector...

i hope that made sense...
 
I think we need a little more than just an overall "AllianceLARP Logo". This logo may be used in many different ways: on business cards, on the forums, on the website, on MikeV.'s books, on flyers that we may use to advertise, on t-shirts (and other "merchandise"), on official stationary, as a favicon (the tiny icon that shows in your address bar, like Google's "g"), banner ads (for advertising on other websites), large signs, and probably many other uses that I can't think of right now.

Some of those were mentioned before and most could use the same logo, but sometimes having a couple variations on a logo design would help it fit better in different situations. Also, some situations have specific limitations like the size of a standard business card and the space on the cover of a book. As a specific example, a favicon is limited to a 16x16 pixel graphic which is saved in the .ico format.

I just think that you shouldn't limit this contest to thinking about it as just one logo, but rather a style of representing AllianceLARP which must have different forms in order to fit different situations.

-Luke
 
That's all valid.

I said to submit logo designs.

I did not place any restrictions on what people send to me. If you have an idea for a transformative logo that can be expressed on multiple formats, then hit me up. I never said people couldn't do that.

This contest is about creativity. So bring it on.

Now, I'm ok with people just sending me a logo design. We have some very talented graphic designers who could take that single design and go wild with it. This is but the first step in a miles long journey.

Stephen
National PR
 
So far we have used this font (Stonehenge) exclusively, and my publisher has used it for my novels as well (and the new short story collection coming out) so that gives us some consistency, which I like.

The problem is that it's just a standard font available to anyone. There's nothing unique about it.

A logo does not have to have graphics. We don't need "Alliance" with a sword through it or anything, we just need a good font. Mind you, almost every one of the logos posted a few posts above are just the letters but are distinctive enough so that if someone else were to write "Alliance" using the Coca Cola style your mind would think "Coca Cola" first, probably. That's the uniqueness we want; so that if you see something else written using the same design, you think "Alliance."

If we had a unique font to go along with the logo that would be cool. I used Stonehenge for chapter headings in the book and such.

Anyway, don't take this post to be anything other than my comments, which for this contest are no more important than anyone else's comments. Do not think that designing an entire new font is required or that you shouldn't submit a logo with a graphic alongside the words.
 
Fearless Leader said:
So far we have used this font (Stonehenge) exclusively, and my publisher has used it for my novels as well (and the new short story collection coming out) so that gives us some consistency, which I like.

The problem is that it's just a standard font available to anyone. There's nothing unique about it.

A logo does not have to have graphics. We don't need "Alliance" with a sword through it or anything, we just need a good font. Mind you, almost every one of the logos posted a few posts above are just the letters but are distinctive enough so that if someone else were to write "Alliance" using the Coca Cola style your mind would think "Coca Cola" first, probably. That's the uniqueness we want; so that if you see something else written using the same design, you think "Alliance."

If we had a unique font to go along with the logo that would be cool. I used Stonehenge for chapter headings in the book and such.

Anyway, don't take this post to be anything other than my comments, which for this contest are no more important than anyone else's comments. Do not think that designing an entire new font is required or that you shouldn't submit a logo with a graphic alongside the words.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. That's some great feedback.

I've already gotten a few entries! Keep up the good work!

Stephen
National PR
 
Good explanation Mike,

That's what i was trying to express when I said quickly recognizable and memorable. but your explanation is much clearer I think.

And I agree. There is a difference between a logo that is a font and a logo that is a symbol. Sometimes they go hand and hand, but they are different and are used for different purposes. I feel the best logos are hybrids of the two. Where you dont need a symbol because the Font itself is the symbol.. Coca Cola is a classic (pardon the pun) example.. as you already mentioned.. but some other great ones are

Ebay, Google, Wal Mart

A example of a symbol without a font is Apple

new_apple_tv.jpg


we all know the symbol.. but if for whatever reason we had never seen it before or we were not familiar with the brand it would not be a successful logo as we have nothing to associate it to. Really the apple logo is a metaphor for its own success as its so memorable despite its lack of a word association.

In any event I feel (and this is just my opinion) that an Alliance Logo would need to Have the word tied to it. While having a spiffy memorable icon would be great (and encouraged) due to our lack of mass exposure the name needs to be tied in in order to make any sort of direct association possible.
 
Just some tips:
Also make the recommendation of checking your logo in the following, if we're branding:

White on black BG,
Black on white BG,
CMYK version.
RGB version.

It should be easily legible in all of these formats for copy purposes (black and white flyers, etc.). And your colors -will- tint slightly between CMYK and RGB - its the difference between print and computer screens.

If you're working with a graphic, try to go vector with that as well - logos should usually not include some sort of photograph, as they usually are sized/resized/stretched/etc.

you'll also want to work at a bare minimum of 72 ppi, but make sure you've got a nice high res 300 ppi piece if you do end up using anything that is raster.

If any of this was greek, feel free to PM me and I can explain it further.

-Ali
 
zehnyu said:
Just some tips:
Also make the recommendation of checking your logo in the following, if we're branding:

White on black BG,
Black on white BG,
CMYK version.
RGB version.

It should be easily legible in all of these formats for copy purposes (black and white flyers, etc.). And your colors -will- tint slightly between CMYK and RGB - its the difference between print and computer screens.

If you're working with a graphic, try to go vector with that as well - logos should usually not include some sort of photograph, as they usually are sized/resized/stretched/etc.

you'll also want to work at a bare minimum of 72 ppi, but make sure you've got a nice high res 300 ppi piece if you do end up using anything that is raster.

If any of this was greek, feel free to PM me and I can explain it further.

-Ali
Click to expand...

:wub2: :wub2: :wub2:

Thank you Ali.

Stephen
National PR
 
I'm just throwing out a casual reminder that the deadline for submissions is coming up.

You have until 05/30/2011 to submit your design to thesavvysolution@gmail.com.

I've gotten some great work so far. But, I want to see MORE!

Stephen
National PR
 
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