These logos need better typography!

I thought I'd just throw this out for members to play with (or not): Creative Market was giving away "instant logos", and to be fair, they weren't giving away typefaces, so I think they used Google fonts.

To be un-fair (!), the typography sucks. Do you think you can do better? What typeface would you use? Can you take a sec' and post your makeovers?

Attachment 112062

I can't offer any prizes or anything: I can discuss this stuff with members, though.

And remember, because this page was free, you add better text and I think you've got yourself a few new logos to convince clients to use, right?

Even if not, at least this gives you some real-world experience with using fonts and good typography practices, something we don't get into nearly enough on tg.

My Best,

Attachment 112063

Here is a go at the mug one. The main font is Americana extra bold. . I altered the g slightly and rotated the u inside the cup. The secondary text is Switzerland Narrow

The ones that I think are the "Royal Mountain", "Beer Pub" and "Bowtie". When I see Royal Mountain I think of the west, the Rockies and therefore should use 1900's woodcut font. The Beer Pub total logo lacks definition all round and the font just doesn't help. Gee the Bowtie word is asymmetrical and the word could be the logo. It's always the case when I worked in a small design shop a price was agreed so you were allotted a time to complete the job so nearly always the font was last and therefore most times I took the work home if I wasn't satisfied.

Here is my idea with the Bowtie. The font is Desire Pro with the cap B and cap t replaced with extras ( I did use Designer Pro for this but it was a bit of a pain replacing the glyphs) I slightly altered the shape of the bowtie to add a bit of a whimsical touch. The idea was to bring to mind the image of a waiter straightening his bowtie.

The Pizza Oven was in distress (get it, hah hah) over its logo and name. So a change was in order...

Attachment 112091

Attachment 112092

Knowing nothing about typography guys, I just used what I thought looked ok!!!! so no gasps and shock horror what the hell as he used :D
For The I used Bubblegum sans reg.
For Mug I used Goblin.
For the bottom text I used Dominican reg.

Hope I've not freaked you typo. masters out :D

Stygg

@Stygg—

Good going! Nice use of more interesting and appropriate fonts. I thought the whole point of posting this was to get good designers to think about typefaces; how to use them as creatively as you would brush strokes. By the way, "Dominick" is FontShop's name for the industry standard "Dom Casual", available online just about everywhere, and sometimes legally.

@mwenz, you nailed it in one, and I got something coming up here that you'd like to critiqué,,,because it's my work. :)

@Frances, thank you for getting the ball rolling! Your versions are a definite improvement and I'm happy that you're "thinking font" here!

@Albacore: your observations are astute ones. And agreed, these guys aren't the easiest to work with, but nevertheless I'd like to see you improve one of the logos with your suggestion(s). And because you prompted me, I did vector copies of two of the logos for members to download. Oh, Crikers..I'm getting to the Monthly Giveaway again. :(

Attachment 112102

Davida for the headline; I thought if I angled the cup enough, the top of the drawing would be as good a place as on the side. I modeled the mug, and then used Cinema 4D's Sketch feature to posterize/cartoon the render. Then it was off to Vector Magic to pull the vectors. You might want to improve upon these auto-traces. Take 'em, split your commission 50/50 with me if you sell one of these. :)

I uses Mona Lisa Solid for the sub-text and then a frilly vector ampersand (see below).

Attachment 112103

Blackmoor—it's one of Dieter Steffmann's fonts you can easily look up and download for the headline and then Arts & Crafts for the sub-text. I just did a search for "Arts & Crafts" and scored a large number of free downloads of stuff that's close to the Dave Fabik "Willow" typeface I used in this example. Also you can do a search on "Renee Mackintosh", and I'm sure "Dyer" is free...and it's actually quite nice.


Oh, I also noticed that there's a of design opportunities here to use a fancy, frilly ampersand instead of the word "and". "And" :) so I've included some & that I've traced off from fonts on the web. I think one is from Pistilli, in case anyone likes the font.


Attachment 112104

My Best,

Attachment 112106

Not my finest, but if the client wanted a log in 15 minutes, this would be it. Attached; thanks for the concept, albacore. The wood panels were auto-traced and don't ungroup them unless you want to deal with 5.037 individual shapes.

Attachment 112108


Attachment 112107

I'll tell ya, this is more fun than what I'm doing (or ought to be doing) today...

Quote:

---

@mwenz, you nailed it in one, and I got something coming up here that you'd like to critiqué,,,because it's my work. :)

---

If I were to critique the work, it would be that due to the nature of an envelope producing such faired curves on the bottom of the text, I would investigate fairing the black behind the text, The Mug. Something sort of like:

Attachment 112110

But in playing, the enveloped text almost begs for a slight mouth shape. Maybe, perhaps. Something like this:

Attachment 112111

But I would go so far as to draw a mouth and convert the envelope to editable shapes and see about altering the middle portion to see if I could get the slight 'V' at the top middle of a mouth drawing into the shape of the text. Whew, not even sure I understand that...

With the text splitting between the two words, it probably wouldn't work out, though. Though the angular nature of the 'M' almost suggests it enough.

Mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gare

Not my finest, but if the client wanted a log in 15 minutes, this would be it. Attached; thanks for the concept, albacore. The wood panels were auto-traced and don't ungroup them unless you want to deal with 5.037 individual shapes.

---

I like it. When looking at the bow-tie, that's where I think I would have went.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words.

Had some more time to play so Improved on my previous ones.

Mug: same fonts but created an overlapping design that looks good both in colour and black and white. There used to be a coffee shop in the nearby city back in the late 70's called the Mug N' Muffin so I couldn't resist playing with adding the N' Muffin to the logo.

Bowtie: I did a name change and had some fun playing with the Desire font. Black Tie seemed like a better name and I tried to create a balance of formal and fun

+10, Frances. Improvisation, making your own rules...excellent results.

The Mug 'n' Muffin looks especially appetizing/attractive!

Looks like you spent quality time on type-fitting The Black Tie, too!

Marvelous use of fonts. Exemplary!

-g

Switched the bow tie from catering to outfitters! For Bow Tie, I used Great Vibes reg. and for Bespoke Tailors, I used CAC Champagne.

Stygg

@ stygg—

I like the typography, but your design leaves something to be desired, sorry! Look at it for a few moments and can you see where your eye leads you?

Nowhere. Please arrange the elements so that the focus of the logo is the name.

does this make any sense? I have not had coffee yet.

My Best,

Attachment 112118

Moved main text to Bow Tie and moved who they are closer, so your not scanning up and down as before in my last post, kept all black and white.

Stygg

Attachment 112122

Aces, Stygg; you nailed it, man.

Now, let's take a look at more logos...and bad typography, and quite frequently, bad logo itself!:

Attachment 112120

My Best,

Attachment 112123

Look at more? Heck, I just did the Bow Tie one listening to Muzak while on hold...

Bow tie had been done elegantly by Frances. So here's a not-so-much elegance.

Attachment 112124

Oh, does this place have the polka dot, squirting ones? And a matching flower lapel?

Attachment 112125

I did think (briefly) about using a crazy-looking clown rising up from behind the bow tie's center and widen the type apart. But then I thought it would take too much effort for the time I had. Might have another go if one of the new batch of logos doesn't catch my eye first.

Your instincts served you well, and better than mine!

I was just clowning around, sorry!

-g

No worries! I wasn't completely satisfied with the effort. But hey, for the price I charged...

One of the new bunch caught my eye and while it didn't work for a film company I think it does work for a retro/antique shop, the kind that sell items that you might remember from your grandmothers cupboard things like old corning ware, tea cups, and the odd true antique.

I normally wouldn't use 3 different fonts for a logo but I wanted to use the typography to convey the eclectic nature of such a shop.

This was weird, I had to give it a shot. The font is AR Bonnie

Attachment 112133


Ciao

Roly

As Frances in #22 I could only think of two industries that use this type of design, Antiques and Bereavement Services so I settled for the latter which is very much like the one I see in downtown Eccles :) The font I used is Angsana New and of course the "and" Myriad Pro.

Stygg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by roly

This was weird, I had to give it a shot. The font is AR Bonnie

Attachment 112133


Ciao

Roly

---

I like you reinterpretation a lot, Roly, thanks for contributing. Coincidentally, I thought of using Raleigh Gothic Condensed, issued by Red Rooster Typography about a zillion years ago. :)


Attachment 112138


I think the Bonnie font has an industry name of Plaza, if people want the typeface fore other projects. It's sometimes used in Art Deco illustrations.

Thoughtful, gives you pause to appreciate, and clean, well done Roly!

My Best,


Attachment 112137

Thank you for the comments Gary.

Ciao

Roly

Update for #24 :D

Stygg