Advice on a Logo?

[torstan]

Hi there,

I've been fiddling with the idea of a logo for my maps for a while and I finally have a design that I'm interested in pursuing further. Here it is and I'd be very interested to see what people think. The name of my mapping website is Fantastic Maps. The question is whether it's worth having the initials on the logo or not.

Anyway, here are the small icons so far.

LogoSketchSmall..jpg LogoSketch2Small..jpg LogoSketch3Small..jpg

Thoughts? Criticisms? Please be brutal - I want to get this right.

Oh, and here it is large - so that you can see the detail that might well be lost in the smaller version:
LogoSketch1..jpg

[jfrazierjr]

I like the idea, but no the fonts. One is too fancy, the other is too plain. Have you given thought to spelling the name out? One thought is have Fantastic spelled down the left side and maps spelled down the left, top downward and bottom upwards respectively.

[Gamerprinter]

As a stand alone logo, especially if the name of the service/business/publisher is not provided along with the logo - I agree with JFrazierJr. However, as long as the logo is always used along with the title "Fantastic Maps" beside, it, using the FH initials seem appropriate.

For the sake of branding, getting people to recognize the logo you would need to consistently emphasize the logo in all your promotions, as part of your sig in various forums - as stated, if the logo is appearing alone without the added title "Fantastic Maps" - having the words as part of the logo may become important. Also, as stated, if that logo always appears with the service title, then initials will work just fine.

Personally I'd go with the logo incorporating the initials, but ensure that the title "Fantastic Maps" is always present when using that logo anywhere.

Regarding how fancy or plain of font choice, I'd say experiment - show me five different versions using five different fonts of varying style and complexity to choose from, and I'll give you a better recommendation.

For me, when you say, "Fantastic Maps" its already branded to me as Jonathon Roberts maps - but that's just me...

GP

[tilt]

I have a lot of logoes behind me - and in front I hope ... so I'm going at this from the pro-angel with a dash of cartography on top
I like the form - it makes sense to advertise your maps with a logo depicting a compass
I like the F... keep letters in a logo simple, so change your M to the same font
Colors work in CMYK also with only a slight decrease in saturation

please think about these things:
Does it print well in color?
Does it print well in b/w?
Do the fine lines print?
It's in its own sqaure here - how will you intergrate it with an existing map - should it have a border around it to separate it from the map?
If no border - will the background be transparrent to take into account different background colors?
Could the compass be confused for the maps compas?
How will it work on stationary and so forth? (you could make a simplified version for that use)

Looking good

[tilt]

please think about these things:
It's in its own sqaure here - how will you intergrate it with an existing map - should it have a border around it to separate it from the map?

wow tilt... nicely put *rofl* ... yep, I'm all for self contained logos - especially for games as the logo often will "compete" for attention with the cover (as oposed to a letterhead).

[Redrobes]

Since my product name shortens to VD I should like to chip in with the thought that really your logo is more important than the name because you will be putting it about more often than the words mainly due to space constraints. So FM is going to be a very prominent character set as you go around stamping it down. If Fantastic Maps is what you want to stamp about then maybe a logo without the FM would be better than one that has the characters on it. I think VD is almost the ultimate faux pas logo thing I did and I should have gone for something different maybe but I had the 'viewing' bit cast in stone before adding the more optional 'dale' but anyway just also thought that FM sounds like "eff 'em" and maybe you should not do what I did wrong.

With people like Microsoft their logo had the whole name and when making icons for their products then chose to have very iconic but abstract shapes. The E for explorer and DevStudio logos are particularly noticeable even tho they don't spell it out for you. Something unique in color and shape is more important than trying to force the acronym. Google has spent ages shaping up their 8x8 pixel web page "favicon" and although it is a 'g' its not a 'G' like the google font. In fact its very iconic and not at all like trying to force the google name into that space.

Also FM as in FM8 is associated with fractal mapper and though you wont think there would be any connection you would be surprised at what some people connect what with what.

My 2p anyhoo. But since I didn't do very well with my logo then its not worth much more than its 2p face value

[torstan]

@JFrazierj: Okay, you're the third person to say that it should be spelled out. I'll listen now and incorporate the full words. That's what the third logo was going towards. I'll pull the letters off the logo and write them under, over, or alongside instead. is the one without any letters too plain? Does it read clearly as a compass? Does the central arrow stand out clearly enough?

@Tilt: Thanks. I hadn't even thought about the CMYK look - good call and thanks for checking. Simple is probably better - I'll pull back the lettering.

Most of the use will be web and pdf use so printing is less of an issue. It'll go on the front of map packs and as such will be going onto a parchment background. That's a matter of having the whole thing as a smart object (apart from the background) and dropping it onto the front cover. So that should avoid transparency issues.

The fine lines will print but don't show up on web resolution images. However I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Would it be too busy with them in there?

I don't think that this is going to appear on stationery, but I can certainly see a way in which it could.

Thanks a lot for the careful and professional feedback. It's much appreciated.

[torstan]

Well then I'm doing something right then.

I'll work up a full banner version with and without the initials and also a square version with the full text and come back for further opinions. Thanks for the feedback.

[RobA]

When you simplify the lettering, you may also want to add "construction lines" to them as well.

Of course, all the construction lines can be dropped for mono/duo printing.

-Rob A>

[Carnifex]

I have made lot's of logos and I can see you've put some work into the logo. I like the idea of the two letters represent modern and fantasy style.
I do think it could be improved. Other than what Tilt says above I think it looks like it's four separate parts: the two letters, the compass background and the arrow.

What's the idea with the arrow? I'd remove the arrow and use the letters and the compass and make something nice out of that.

Do you plan to use the white background as part of the logo? It doesn't seem very practical.