Computer club logo

[RTK]

... I like the overlap without the under-line better! Perhaps the thin outline on the letter will just look blurry if printed smaller e.g, a business card?

Risto

diri@videotron.ca

[gwpriester]

Sorry Neil, but the outline is not needed. The text can be read fine without it and the shapes are more interesting.

When designing a logo, try to distil everything down to only what is essential.

Just my New Mexico 2 centavos.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[Ross Macintosh]

Joining my fellow Canadians with some more Canadian coins: I too prefer the non-outlined text but I really feel things might look better with the 'tracking' space between letters reduced. It looks to me like each letterform could quite effectively abutt the adjacent letter. (Allison -Your user-group is a tight bunch aren't you?).

Here's an idea for fun - just to try to see how it turns out. Select the letters and the 'city' and subtract (Arrange>combine shapes>subtract shapes) so that the letter shapes are subtracted from the city graphic. Then you can play with adding a drop shadow to the result. A bevel could be tried too. You could even take the result into xara3d and extrude and/or animate it.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[amoore]

>Your user group is a tight bunch, aren't they?

Well, actually... NYPC's mailing list is over 1000. I wouldn't describe the group as "tight". :>)

Butting the letters up against each other opens up interesting possibilities artistically, but it puts me in a corner practically. The size of the logo has to balance the "masthead" text on the letterhead. If I butt the letters, I have to shrink the city horizontally to match. The result is a logo that's either distorted horizontally or way too big vertically.

It's not practical to distribute printed stationery among the volunteer staff who need it, so we're distributing a template instead. Since these people use a variety of wordprocessors with varying levels of skill, the "template" is a bitmap that contains the logo and the masthead text (usual address info plus names and personal emails of officers), along with instructions for placing the bitmap and setting the letter text margins. That means that all the letterhead artwork has to fit in a rectangular bitmap, the width of which is determined by the longest email address.

It's actually an elegant idea, and so far the tests have worked pretty well.

Allison

[Mickie]

Allison the black and white version is great.

What an amazing improvement over your first post and yet it's the same elements and general placement. Xara has wonderful tools to "enhance" and this forum has a great crew of people who gently edge us toward better designs. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Mickie

[amoore]

I gave them a selection of variations, including the the cutouts and the plastic-looking one with the bevel and shadow. With no hesitation, they went directly to A and settled on that one.

I think B works better than A, so I'm still making a case for it.

C is the "seal" variation we'll use on the newsletter banner where the regular logo doesn't work in the design.

Thanks again for your feedback. It was a big help.

Allison

[RTK]

... Allison? Is this some kind of weird experiment with us as guinepigs? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] A and B... look the same to me... I think... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Risto

diri@videotron.ca

[amoore]

but it was the subject of some of the comments in this thread. :>) The only difference is the amount by which the letters overlap the cityscape.

Although they're all but identical, the difference in the overlap has more impact on the page on which it's used than you would expect. Version A produces a more staid, conservative page in which the logo steps back a bit and many people seem to see the cityscape before they notice the 'NYPC'.

OTOH, when I use Version B, the page design gains some snap, and the focus usually goes to the letters first, which is where it belongs.

The logo is the only graphic element on the page, so it wields more influence than it might if the layouts were more complex. And the pages aren't large -- either US letter for the letterhead or a third of a US letter page for the tri-fold brochure.

Allison

[RTK]

... I see it now...

... I guess I was hoping/expecting to see the version without the outline... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img] (my favorite).

A very educational thread!

Thank you!

Risto

diri@videotron.ca

[amoore]

I was very surprised at how instantly they zeroed in on the most conservative version in the bunch. Very much "Yes, that's it. Let's move on." There wasn't even a runner-up. Given the character of the group, I expect that they were right on target, although I do think we need to use the "snappier" version.

Altogether, the design of their materials is taking a big leap forward from where it's been. Perhaps they'll be ready for the no-outline cutout the next time. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

BTW, I'm partial to the green neon myself. <g>

Allison