# New website logo



## Battou (Jun 17, 2009)

Well, Photo Lucidity is needing to be revised. When that site was created it was literally thrown together by illustrators and now I want to reconfigure it to be more accomodating to it's initial target audience. I have been toying with the concept of changing the Site Logo, the existing Logo is just plain spartan and I would like some thoughts on the new one I threw together tonight.

What I currently have in mind is going from 







to 






It's not much of an improvemant and might be completely redon in the event of further site overhaul. I wanted to try and stick to the original colors for the time being. Any C&C on this would greately be apprieciated.


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For those of you who don't know what Photo Lucidity is, it's a free of charge community for photographers where professional and amateur photographers can display and discuss photography similar to DeviantArt without all the distracting anime illustrations or the added hassle of making and maintaining a website.

Main - Photo Lucidity


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## Andrew Sun (Jun 17, 2009)

It looks more like another 'banner' rather than a 'logo'. 

However if I were to critique them as logos then, then for starters, I would say the old one is better because a logo should never contain so many elements of pictures / designs. The banner plus the website design is just too bland for me - especially with the whole solid grey theme..

Anyways, if you do up others, I'll let you know again.


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## Battou (Jun 17, 2009)

Andrew Sun said:


> It looks more like another 'banner' rather than a 'logo'.
> 
> However if I were to critique them as logos then, then for starters, I would say the old one is better because a logo should never contain so many elements of pictures / designs. The banner plus the website design is just too bland for me - especially with the whole solid grey theme..
> 
> Anyways, if you do up others, I'll let you know again.



That is always a disteinct possibility. I have always thought the site was rather bland as well but no one seems willing to work on designing a new layout at the current time. Designing a new logo is one of my ideas to hopefully help build some confidence so that I may tackle that over all design of the site.


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## Yemme (Jun 17, 2009)

Hi Battou I agree with Andrew.  If you are interested in changing things up first play around with fonts.  Download fonts that you don't have and play with them and see what works for you.  Also if the color scheme isn't to your liking get a color wheel.  Just make sure it's something that you like.  In the end, it is your baby.  Um... I sometimes use color schemes/palatte from HomeDepot paint department... shhhh, don't tell nobody.


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## Battou (Jun 17, 2009)

Yeah, Um perhaps I shouldhave mentioned that I do not own the site. I am the primary administrator but I have to run everything past the owner, otherwise I would have overhauled it quite some time ago. Given that the owner of the site is generally open to suggestions I posted it here and sent him a link to this thread so he can see what unrelated eyes think. Like I said this is still concept so....


Further note, my original though containing half the image elements was rejected stating that the middle was a little barren. I'll post that one as well and see what yall think.






I thought that font was a little plain and changed it to the one seen above but.....


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## Yemme (Jun 17, 2009)

No no no... You have to get to work on finding a font.  Step outside of the box that you're in.  Try 50-100 to see what's out there.  Start here...Search results for fonts - Mininova  download what you might need... start with the 3800 fonts.

I feel funny about a logo using images.  The Background is nice but work with a logo that is yours and yours alone is the way to go.  Play with shapes as you did before even the letters to create a unique form.  

Post at least 10 for us to look at if you have the time.  No hurry.


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## Battou (Jun 17, 2009)

Yemme said:


> No no no... You have to get to work on finding a font.  Step outside of the box that you're in.  Try 50-100 to see what's out there.  Start here...Search results for fonts - Mininova  download what you might need... start with the 3800 fonts.
> 
> I feel funny about a logo using images.  The Background is nice but work with a logo that is yours and yours alone is the way to go.  Play with shapes as you did before even the letters to create a unique form.
> 
> Post at least 10 for us to look at if you have the time.  No hurry.



I have plenty of fonts, and I know where to get more should the need araise.

Additionally, the original logo was not my creation, just what was there when I registered for the site back in 2006. I wanted to try and keep it similar for the time being to make it easier for the development team to put in place as they are busy with working on preparing FAC v3.2 for release right now. I think I am going to ditch that idea and just start from scratch like you suggested.

Sadly I lack the time to work on new ones right now, I leave work for home in a half hour, but time permitting I might do some work on more concepts at home and bring them in tonight.


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## Omitinibu (Jun 17, 2009)

Sry i didnt read anything.. but the second one is way too busy.. so i like the first. simple easy to read and remember..


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## twozero (Jun 17, 2009)

Another great way to see colors together is Adobe's Kuler. Just search for anything and it will give you some color schemes.

As for the logo, I like the first better. Generally, I don't like script fonts, especially really bold ones.


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## RyanLilly (Jun 17, 2009)

Battou, I kink of like the three boxes on the right side of your original logo. Can that be incorporated into your new logo? I think that it is simple but effective.


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## mikemicki (Jun 18, 2009)

Love the idea of the website Battou.  I thought I'd give you a few ideas here since I couldn't sleep.  Here's 2 designs I came up with.





-


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## Battou (Jun 18, 2009)

well I did a little brain storming on some simple ideas. They are nothing spactacular  They are all transparencies. I wanted to incorperate a camera into the design but...









RyanLilly said:


> Battou, I kink of like the three boxes on the right side of your original logo. Can that be incorporated into your new logo? I think that it is simple but effective.




...I never understood them to put it bluntly


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## Battou (Jun 18, 2009)

mikemicki said:


> Love the idea of the website Battou.  I thought I'd give you a few ideas here since I couldn't sleep.  Here's 2 designs I came up with.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I got a phone call and was in the middle of my previous post when you posted.

I like those, this is precisely why I have been putting this off for so long, I suck. I'm having such a creative block right now it ain't funny, I could not come up with something like that if I wanted to and the site owners standard responce is "You're the artist". 

That is definately the kind of thought process I would love to have. I'll definately take the suggestions to heart and sit down over the weekend and put some real time and effort into a few along those lines.


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## mikemicki (Jun 18, 2009)

Glad you liked them.  I'm still suffering from this inability to sleep tonight.  I thought I'd play around some more.  Here's an animated version. 
-


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## itznfb (Jun 19, 2009)

^^ that's pretty cool


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## Yemme (Jun 19, 2009)

mikemicki said:


> Glad you liked them.  I'm still suffering from this inability to sleep tonight.  I thought I'd play around some more.  Here's an animated version.
> -




Like the animation... The font for me is still an issue... even though i love the letter C.  The height of the letters is messing with my eyes, especially when it come to the word Lucidity.   I love the orange color one more because the gradient is not that noticeable as in the gray scale.  And I like the logo in gray scale without the shutter image even though it helps.  It just gives off a different mood to the logo.  Great job.


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## Josh66 (Jun 19, 2009)

mikemicki said:


> Love the idea of the website Battou.  I thought I'd give you a few ideas here since I couldn't sleep.  Here's 2 designs I came up with.





mikemicki said:


> Glad you liked them.  I'm still suffering from this inability to sleep tonight.  I thought I'd play around some more.  Here's an animated version.
> -



I like those a lot.  I _don't_ like the font though - the "t"s look too much like "l"s  <-- (that's a lowercase L).


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## Yemme (Jun 19, 2009)

mikemicki said:


> -




The font of lucidity I like the evenness in height.  That's what i meant in the post above.  This font is the one, it's great to me.


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## c.cloudwalker (Jun 19, 2009)

As someone who once made a living as a graphic artist, my favorite is the original one. But the main problem with all of them is the shape. If this logo is going to be used on a website, choose a shape that is plenty different from a banner.

mikemicki's designs are nice for banners but not for a logo. Especially the animated one. How are you going to use an animated logo outside the web?

A logo is part of your "company's" image so it is very important. And it needs to work wherever you are going to use it such as on letterhead, invoices, business cards, etc. Even if today you are only using it on a website, it still needs to be usable somewhere else. You just never know what the future will bring.

When I designed a logo with more than one color I also made sure it worked with a one color version. And if it didn't look good in B&W, I'd go back to the drawing board. Again, one never knows.

It also helps to understand the printing industry when you create designs such as a logo. Even in the age of digital printing some of the old rules still apply.

I am in the process of designing a t-shirt for a non-profit group I belong to and because we want as many members as possible to buy it, so that people know who we are when we do an event, it has to be kept cheap. At the same time, we want it to look good enough that we may be able to sell it to raise some money. So far, the old screenprinting technique is still the best looking one and, to keep it cheap, it is going to be two colors only and it needs to look good on either a white or color t-shirt. Those two colors will not touch because, if they did, it would be more expensive to print...

Sorry for the lesson in printing but, with the age of computers, I have seen many people call themselves designers whose designs are unprintable at a reasonable cost.


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## sleepingdragon (Jun 19, 2009)

O|||||||O said:


> mikemicki said:
> 
> 
> > Love the idea of the website Battou. I thought I'd give you a few ideas here since I couldn't sleep. Here's 2 designs I came up with.
> ...


 

I agree 100% with O|||||||O.


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## Battou (Jun 22, 2009)

c.cloudwalker said:


> As someone who once made a living as a graphic artist, my favorite is the original one. But the main problem with all of them is the shape. If this logo is going to be used on a website, choose a shape that is plenty different from a banner.
> 
> mikemicki's designs are nice for banners but not for a logo. Especially the animated one. How are you going to use an animated logo outside the web?
> 
> ...





I appologize if I was misleading, this is a free public website, so the chances of the logo being seen in print are slim. However you do bring up a good point in that, that possibility should be kept open in a cost effective manor. The original logo was litterally thrown together. It currently double tasks as both a banner and the logo, I am almost positive the one who designed it has absolutely no interest in photography resulting in lazy design, to put it bluntly.

Even then the animated banner could proove useful in the event we do purchasse some ad space on the web at some point, but I am not seeing that at the moment, we are still trying to sell our own ad space.


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## skieur (Jun 22, 2009)

I don't think that black and white sufficiently stands out, particularly when the title blends into the background.  It also does not give a modern, latest technology feel to the web site either.

I would go colour and consider a 3D font for a raised, or embossed look. You could also consider setting up a photo of "photographic items" and then photoshop in the title in 3D.  Of course, since it is for a web site, you should be considering an animated gif, also as a possibility.

You need to consider what impression, feel, attitude, do you want to engender in the viewer through the logo about the site, and then think about all the tools, and methods possible to achieve it.

skieur


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## c.cloudwalker (Jun 22, 2009)

"I appologize if I was misleading"

No need for apology whatsoever and I don't think you were misleading.

I'm an older guy offering my experience and one of the things I've learned is that too many people forget to think about the day after tomorrow. And, again, you never know what the day after tomorrow is going to bring your way.

In case it wasn't clear in my last post, I actually like the animated design. I even like the font although I would make it color to bring some more life to the overall design. But it is not a logo.

If you need inspiration, just open a magazine or just look around your place. One thing you should notice is that most very well known logos are actually very simple designs. Apple (mac), Coke, Nike, etc.

Coke is the best know logo in the world.

Apple's is a great example of possibilities. Even though the basis of the logo (the apple) is super simple, I have seen quite a few variations in the actual design.

Here is an exercise for you: without looking anywhere, think of ten logos. I'll bet you they'll all be fairly simple ones. Why? Because they're easier to remember 

Good luck with your re-design.


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## Battou (Jun 23, 2009)

and I definately apprieciate your input


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