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.

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[Ascension]

I've been using my "stylized A/pyramid with wings" logo as a brush so that I can put it on anything and not worry about the background, color, size, or anything. As a brush I can plop it down, put in any background I want, change the color or add layer styles...totally editable stylewise. So my point is that you should probably do something similar and that way it will never clash with the colors or paper of a map. If you want to emphasize more than just fantasy then make the M something techy or sci-fi. Or do away with the initials and include full text; put Fantastic in something gothic or scripty on top of Maps as something sans serif and techy.

[torstan]

Okay, a quick update.

LogoSketch4Small..jpg

LogoSketch4..jpg

Here I moved the M out of the way of the center of the logo - it was getting muddled up with the rest of the lines. I'm not sure this works yet though....

@Carnifex - the arrow is to highlight the direction of the compass, and also to make it more than just a straightforward spined compass rose. I agree that the overall colours were too different for it to fit with the compass. I've knocked it back a bit to help it blend in here. I'd be interested to hear if people think this is better or worse.

@RobA - I think I will do that - but I'll be holding off on that until I can finalise a font! Redoing those each time would get wearing....

@Ascension - That's an interesting idea. I'll have to play with that. I don't really use layer styles yet. I should really get into those. I agree about wanting to avoid being pigeonholed as pure Fantasy, but actually I prefer making fantasy maps to sci-fi so I'm not too bothered by shoehorning a tech font in there.

Hmmm - tried it on a different background and it looks a bit rubbish. Hmmm. Will have to do a little re-thinking....