I'm not a designer but there is something about this that bothers me, I think it's the flames and the marble shape don't really go together. Just my opinion of course so don't make anything of my statement.
Larry a.k.a wizard509
Never give up. You will never fail, but you may find a lot of ways that don't work.
Okay, some critiques. Don't worry, these are things I'd tell anyone, so I'm not just being mean to you.
1.) It's TJ's Bike & Moped, i.e. TJBM, but the TJBM looks like NBM, which conflicts with something else...
2.) The image then is suggested subconsciously that this is a flaming basketball and NBM might be National Basketball Museum or something else related to NBA?
3.) the apostrophe-s looks weird, the s is floating on it's own. I'm not particularly a fan of the typeface, but that's not a problem as long as you treat the type with care.
4.) Overall, when doing a logo, you want to do something that looks good in black and white before adding color and I think the image is very strong and would look great single color, but my question is 'how much does this have to do with bikes and mopeds?'
5.) Overall, it's a good starting point. My instinct is that the logo image is intended to be possibly a flaming wheel while being original enough to separate itself from similar images, but this might be too far.
Also a personal thing of mine, I'm not particularly a fan of gradients on flat images. I dunno why, but that's purely just me being strange. :P There's no rule that says you should or shouldn't do that (and as you'll learn, rules are there as guidelines, if you know what the rule is for, then you know when and when it's not okay to break it...but afaik, there's no rule on gradients!) I think the wheel/ball image is very interesting and cool, like a weird 3D flaming yin yang, but because of the type issues with NBM, it first reads as a basketball. It's not until I read the bottom line that I can decipher everything, which is not particularly desireable for branding material like this. I think even simply adding a white space so the 'T's cross bar looks long and the J looks shorter would go a long way to make this work that and that would only take a white rectangle strategically placed.
Hope that helps a little. The image looks super cool, it's the type that feels like it's not doing it's job properly here.
See my some of artwork and hear some of my music at www.kniteforcerevolution.com
Thank each of you for your honest opinion, I didn't see it as you did until you mentioned it but you are right the T and J do look like a N That is easily corrected as they are so close together because I changed the kerning to put them close together I just need to widen it out a little bit so they are separate and I think that will cure that problem. As for the hanging s same thing once again simple cure. The Object of the Circle with flames was that TJ wanted flames and I thought the circle represented a wheel. I first tried to do a bike made out of flames but am just not talented enough for that, where as the circle was simple and adding a very few flames was within my limited talents. Good thing TJ isn't paying any more than a tune up on my bike or I would really be ripping him off. I will change the kerning and re upload to see what you think. As for the gradients I personally did not think the Flames looked right as a solid color and after your reply I went back and made it just black & white sorry it looks bad as far as I can see but I have to admit I am not very artistic. Once again thank you for your opinions as I find them both helpful especially the T & J being a N.
Although I'm not a fan of All caps, I think in this instance ALL CAPS would work better for the lettering. Unless there's a particular reason for that specific font, I'd also experiment with a couple of alternate fonts, and see if that makes a difference.
Keith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are 10 types of people in this world .... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
The logo is very effective. And the font you have chosen is OK though it kind of runs together.
I would use a simpler font for the bottom line of text.
Gary W. Priester
gwpriester.com | eyetricks-3d-stereograms.com | eyeTricks on Facebook | eyeTricks on YouTube | eyeTricks on Instagram
How about changing the circle so that it has four flames emanating from the centre to the circumference? Then there's no doubt that it's a wheel and it keeps the flame idea.
The fact that you have asked for advice and accepted it as a sincere wish to help, speaks volumes for your good sense.
You are already viewing your own work with a critical eye and the result is that your professionalism advances.
TJB
Actually I value each of your opinions very much and after sending it to TJ and he wants to keep it the way it is after I fixed the lettering thanks to you guys. Now I have a new problem, I should not have sent it to TJ as now I have decided to scrap it and give another try at creating a bike out of flames. By the way since I told you how my friend TJ is paying me I think I should actually tell you a holiday story. I called it a tune up on my bike, well it is actually a bit more involved than that. You see I am handicapped and confined to a wheel chair and TJ just before Christmas he came up with a wonderful idea. In exchange for creating a logo for him he is taking 2 of my old wheel chairs combining them and modifying the final product so that I can race in our local 5k race next summer so that was his Christmas present to me. So as untalented as I am this logo must be my best. So thank you for your critique and will post my attempt at a bike.
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