Design a Logo for XaRT

[Rik]

Well.
I too had been thinking about gears.
I was also thinking about the 'x' in the gear. But, I didn't want the letter x itself.

I wanted less cogs on my gear, giving me a chance to make an 'X'

So, here's a couple from me and I'm sure in our efforts we will come up with something really good.

Gary: Thanks for the good lessons and I'm sure we will do our best to put it into practice.

[Gare]

Just a quick comment, @ Rik, or two—

I think the "X" is too subtle within the gear. You can "play your hand", and force the reading by making the "X" a different color.

I like it, though. I think we're beginning to jam on the idea of a gear...I like the concept! Concept is everything.

@Everyone—start looking around at good examples of typography. Find interesting and also utilitarian typefaces.

Rik, your use of Futura is a strong one (pun intended) but I'd like to see more of the kerning and creative linking of parts of characters like mindseye did with the "R" and the "T".

By the way, mindseye, I think everyone should pay attention to what you did typographically. That's almost exactly the font used in Xara's logo. The more the logo looks as thought it's a companion to Xara, the more easily people will begin to understand what the utility is for, right?

I am not suggesting that everyone tries to use Xara's logo, but fitting text together is interesting, or it can be. The favicon for the Xara Xone is a simple, blocky arrangement of negative space and alternating characters:






I'm just throwing out ideas.

Riff on them, eh?

My Best,

Gary

[mindseye]

I like the symmetrical'ness of the cog and the X.

I'm attaching the gear logo.. It's a bit cleaner and laid out better than what I posted..

x-gear-source1-mindseye.xar


mindseye.

[Gare]

I like the symmetrical'ness of the cog and the X.

I'm attaching the gear logo.. It's a bit cleaner and laid out better than what I posted..

x-gear-source1-mindseye.xar


mindseye.

I love the design AND your approach, mindseye. You're doing something cool with the drop-shadows, very subtle, more like an emboss effect.

@Everyone—If you don't own Fustian, what mindseye did for the subtext, I believe this is a "tribute font" to Frutiger Condensed, they're very similar.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

@ Frances—

I love the idea of an on/off toggle switch.

And I can tell you right now it's such a strong icon, that it will fight, not complement the gear.

You got something very strong here. Develop it without the gear. Perhaps use it inside the hole in the lowercase "a"?

-g

[mindseye]

Thanks for the input all..!

@ angelize -

Thank you for addressing the Trademark issue. I should have asked that from the get go.

I don't see a problem with a similar font style, do you?




mindseye / Vic.



EDIT:

Thanks for the font reference -

Take a look at OpenSans as well.

[Rik]

Gary: Thanks for the feedback.
I was thinking of the 'X' inside the gear and thought that it might have a gold look. Black gear and gold X.
I just haven't tried it yet - to see what it might look like.
I shall do that as soon as I get a chance.

I deliberately didn't make the 'X' thicker.
But, it's only when you get feedback, do you know that others might actually like it better with a thicker X.

[Gare]

@all—

I don't see a problem with incorporating the distinctive "x" that The Xara Group used to use on the splash screen.

XaRT is not spelled the same way as "Xara" so naturally there are unavoidable differences, thus you are not copying a logo, thus not infringing on it.

Generally it's good to err on the side of caution, but here we have an open source project designed to work with Xara. Okay, niether Frances nor I are copyright lawyers, so I can't advise anyone.

Would a programmer from The Xara Group like to step in and advise?

----------------

The flip side of this is I think a good designer with a good concept can do an original logo that reminds you of Xara and doesn't copy the text in any way. When I want to get close but not too close, I usually use Antique Olive. I have no idea what Xara actually uses.

-g