Designing your own logo
April 28, 2007 – 6:26 pm
As I have now incorporated (become a Limited Company) and got totally sick and tired of Helvetica Neue I’ve finally got round to doing a new logo for myself. Here it is. Done very quickly with one curve and two line lengths in Illustrator. What do you think?
Amazing.. I never thought that it’ll be that much easy.. but yet to try it
14 Responses to “Designing your own logo”
I have an idea to make it more interesting. Thanks for your comment.
By Rob Cubbon on Apr 29, 2007
hi rob,
here’s how i try to help: i’ve created a new logo proposal for you. i hope you find my opinions useful.
here it is: http://www.webee.ro/2007/05/01/new-logo-proposal-for-rob/
webee
[is a design blog]
By webee on May 1, 2007
Hi Rob,
Was this your only option? I’d love to see what else you came up with, sketches etc.
By David Airey :: Creative Design :: on May 2, 2007
Hi, I’m afraid this was the only option of my current attempt. I did it on-screen in Illustrator sort of making it up as I go. Now I’ve added some curves and incorporated webee’s superscripting idea which I like. The website’s header is now amended (you may have to refresh) it’s not very different. It’s hard to show you in comments but here goes. I’d love to hear what you think.
By Rob Cubbon on May 2, 2007
I think it looks quite nice. I think it looks a lot better reversed out of your masthead graphic though. The blue you’ve used on this page doesn’t do much for me — it’s too bright and hyperlinkish.
The Quark/Airey similarity is a non-issue in my view. You’ve got two right angles in your Os and it’s not nearly as round a shape. I didn’t make the association until I followed the creativepro link. OTOH, I instantly made it when I first went over to David’s site (sorry!)
I prefer the superscripted version because it allows the focus to stay on your name.
I’m assuming, though, that this is the first of many stabs you’ll take at this. I can’t imagine your first-shot being your last-shot!
By Ahsan R. Shami on May 2, 2007
Hello Ahsan, welcome to my site and thanks for your helpful comments.
You’re absolutely right about the colour. I have to be honest, not a lot of thought went into that as I was hurrying to post it. That colour blue is impossible to match in printed material so I’ll probably go for a darker blue or even black for my business stationery.
Yes, I like the superscript as well. As you probably saw I have webee to thank for that.
Now I’ll play around with the curves at the ends of the letters. You can’t really see it here but they curve in on the “c” and “r” and out on the others and I’m not sure that’s right. And I’m sure the tracking needs checking. No, there’ll be other stabs!
By Rob Cubbon on May 2, 2007
This is what I love about the internet: I decide to do a new logo, write about it and I get invaluable advice from all around the world – Romania, Pakistan and Scotland!
Here is the latest incarnation. I have rounded off all the ends more uniformly, had another go at the tracking and changed the colour to a more CMYK friendly dark blue…
By Rob Cubbon on May 7, 2007
Stuff em Rob, I like it. It makes me dizzy. Also, a man of your google rank deserves a real logo, so you are right, this is better than Helvetica, which is overused (it’s what I use, but I have a pictorial logo as well, so I am excused). Also, as an artworking man, it does reflect your philosophy of keeping it simple, efficiency, etc.
Two comments - first of all, you are allowed to have different colours for Web and print, of course, but to my taste your new blue does work better. Secondly I think you could drop the ‘ltd’ to the baseline - I actually think it dominates the logo in that position. Thirdly I think you’ve over-tracked. But of course the difference between design and art is I like Art, but Design works.
Be interested to see what you have to say about my logo. It doesn’t normally spin around like that.
By Peter McCabe on May 7, 2007
Hello Peter, and thank you for your comments. You’re absolutely right that I like to keep things simple. It’s great fun to develop letters just from a small collection of lines and shapes.
I’ve never heard that quote about design & art before. Did you make that up? I love it! One of the things I think about a lot and confuses me a great deal is what make good art or design good.
I’m not sure about dropping the ‘ltd’ to the baseline. You may have a point about the tracking but whenever I try to space it normally it looks sort of … eighties. I don’t like it.
I like your logo. Your skills are so wideranging it would be difficult to sum up in a logo. What was the thinking behind it?
I look forward to seeing more of your stuff online. Thanks again for popping by and commenting.
By Rob Cubbon on May 7, 2007
hi rob,
i like this dark blue better. i think it’s even more eye-friendly.
and i also tend to agree on the overtracking…
but hei! you need to draw a line sometime. so just decide on the logo you consider it’s more appropriate for you and then… give-it a go!
webee
[is a design blog]
By webee on May 8, 2007
Thanks webee, you’re right, I’m sticking with the dark blue and the penultimate one here.
By Rob Cubbon on May 8, 2007
That’s it? Romania says game over so Scotland and Pakistan don’t get a say? That’s not really fair!
I like the new blue. I think this last one is too tight — perhaps something in btwn the two.
Interestingly though, I noticed the letter shapes are lot more on the tight one — the R and O pair up nicely and so do the B and O — but it also feels a little to dense.
If you do keep the tightened tracking, have another look at the kerning btwn O and N.
I assumed you need to have LTD in there for legal reasons. If it’s not mandatory, then dump it — absolutely.
Congrats.
By Ahsan R. Shami on May 9, 2007
The subject is still very much open
I have tried a tracking option between the two above and it still looked tight to me. Will post it up here shortly.
The advantage of the tighter tracked version is that it can go bigger and notice the letter shapes a bit more.
I agree – the LTD I’ll use for invoices and business correspondence and will drop it elsewhere as per the website header.
Once again, thanks for your comments, Ahsan.
By Rob Cubbon on May 9, 2007
Here we go again. I was just about to do a business card and found the long horizontal logo to look very boring. So I’m taking the advice of many of the intelligent commenters here and tracked it tight eighties-style and … my wife likes it!
By Rob Cubbon on May 28, 2007