Which possible logos are least rubbish?

[movietub]

Which of these two sets looks the most professional? We sell pond and aquarium supplies to the public online/offline.

The original brief was too come up with something pretty basic that would become recognisable, hence why neither set is particularly arty.

We have to stick with the 3 fish feature as our current logo sports the 3 fish and has been viewed by about a million fishkeepers and nearly 10 thousand customers.

The ones which arn't very good were designed by me tonight whilst waiting for my tea to be cooked - extra points if you can spot the set I did ;)

http://warehouse.pearlsoftware.co.uk/images/website/originals/logod.jpg
Or these...
http://warehouse.pearlsoftware.co.uk/images/website/originals/logol.jpg

[promsell]

i like the orange and green one second set at the top.

[movietub]

Forgot to say, these won't actually be used - but the most popular set will be developed. At the moment we are stuck between arty and light or simple and bold. Which wins??

[Gavin-Design-Right]

I reckon you did the first set ?

If I am being honest i do not like any of them, Not being nasty though mate. I just do no think it comes to life (Very Dull and uninspiring) Also does not say anything about the business.

If I was to pick the best I would go for ..6 But that would be at a push.

[movietub]

I reckon you did the first set ?

If I am being honest i do not like any of them, Not being nasty though mate. I just do no think it comes to life (Very Dull and uninspiring) Also does not say anything about the business.

If I was to pick the best I would go for ..6 But that would be at a push.

No offence taken!

You say it says nothing about the business.

We sell aquatics stuff from a warehouse, hence the name and the fish. What would be clearer from your point of view?

I accept I have tunnel vision as I obviously already know what we do!

[promsell]

it also depends on the context of the rest of the web site as to which one are going to fit best with the existing colour scheme !

[movietub]

it also depends on the context of the rest of the web site as to which one are going to fit best with the existing colour scheme !

The whole website is being revised. The idea was to pick a style of logo, refine design and the colours, then use that as a colour palette for the rest of our website and corporate image.

So the blues (as we are an aquatic company) seem quite an obvious choice. I like mixed blues and a little orange. There are sooooo many different opinions though!

[Craig Kirby]

I quite like the one in the top right (Aquatics in green) or the one two down from it.

Definitely think it looks best with the fish in a 'solid' colour rather than outline only. 'Aquatics' also seems to jump out at me more in green or white. Just my opinion though...

[mrRed]

The whole website is being revised. The idea was to pick a style of logo, refine design and the colours, then use that as a colour palette for the rest of our website and corporate image.

So the blues (as we are an aquatic company) seem quite an obvious choice. I like mixed blues and a little orange. There are sooooo many different opinions though!

I agree that the blues look best. I like the first set, in particular the 3rd down from the top, on the right.

Although I know nothing about logo designs, not bad considering you came up with them while waiting for your tea!

[promsell]

orange is very good idea mixed with blue but also green is soften the blue little bit. i think you are the right path.

[movietub]

So all four people who have commented perfer logos from the top set - and everyone seems to perfer the more colourful examples.

More opinions please! This forum normally has a hundred opinions on one subject :D

If I get 10 opinions I will be honest about which were my attempts...

[Stephen Berry]

I would go for the 2 words in different colours but the same font.
Why are the fish either line only or one colour? Butterfly fish are great - so why not utilise their colour for real?

as for dull ...... that's OK for the market I would suggest - you are attracting fishkeepers not graphic artists.

but ... take no notice of me on colours - I'm colourblind.

[maxine]

I don't like any from the bottom set and only like the ones with the dark blue background with any colour fish :)

[red-source]

I prefer the top set, bottom two! However I would use the same font and differentiate the words with colour.

I feel your pain with logo design, its hard work! Im in the process of creating my companies stationary too.

[movietub]

I would go for the 2 words in different colours but the same font.
Why are the fish either line only or one colour? Butterfly fish are great - so why not utilise their colour for real?

as for dull ...... that's OK for the market I would suggest - you are attracting fishkeepers not graphic artists.

but ... take no notice of me on colours - I'm colourblind.

Did you see the top set? Those are solid fish in same or different colours.

The classic gutterfly fish (actually most people mistake tangs for butterfly fish!) which are used in advertising are yellow. The reason we omitted that colour is we need to use the logo colours as a pallette for other corprate designs. Yellow is not a great colour to be stuck with when laying out a website for instance!

I think you and others are right about the fonts...

[GreeceMonkey]

The very top left one. The simple one is the best. You need to consider many things,

what is you fax it,
what is you print it

The simple ones are always the best

Graham

[movietub]

So... not one single person likes the bottom set so far :|

[movietub]

The very top left one. The simple one is the best. You need to consider many things,

what is you fax it,
what is you print it

The simple ones are always the best

Graham

Cheers,

Whichever one we choose we would create a black only version. If it had a background we would remove it and if the fish were white they would be swapped for black.

Similar to the way shop logo's appear on reciepts.

You are right - simple is important.

[Stephen Berry]

Did you see the top set? Those are solid fish in same or different colours....

sorry, I wasn't clear - each fish is in a single colour, rather than using the natural colours of each fish.
However, I agree about yellow.
and ... no, I can't tell an tang from a butterfly!

[movietub]

sorry, I wasn't clear - each fish is in a single colour, rather than using the natural colours of each fish.
However, I agree about yellow.
and ... no, I can't tell an tang from a butterfly!

Ahhh, maybe you would have liked the old logo!

It was three fish, but instead of vector images we used photos of the fish. It looked good but it kind of looked good becasue of natures work, not ours! I always felt that made us look a bit like a start up company, anyone using Google images could have made something similar in 2 mins. - Which is exactly how I made the first one back then!

Also causes problems with print and instant recognition when people glance at it.

Are you a fishkeeper?

[GreeceMonkey]

I struggled a long time when I was doing something simular.

In the end I paid a logo company to design it. Once I got it back I cropped it, and before I knew where I was I had gone back to the simple version, which I had in the first place.

The most sucessful logos are simple, a good current example is facebook.

I think the best of the bottom set is the bottom left one, as it is could be faxed, it could be printed on a different colour background if needed.

Keep it simple and everybody will reconise it.

Also I think if this goes on a website, then if the design is good, the logo does not matter to much

graham

[movietub]

I think the best of the bottom set is the bottom left one, as it is could be faxed, it could be printed on a different colour background if needed.



You perfer that to the more simple ones on the top set? I wsn't sure if the fine, feathered outline might be lost when its shrunk or faxed.

[davidshaw89]

I prefer some of the ones in the top set. Probably 3rd down, 2nd column.

However, the word "aquatics" has dodgy spacing and it looks a bit odd because of that.

I also think the font is wrong for what you are doing. I think you need something a bit more rounded?

[movietub]

I prefer some of the ones in the top set. Probably 3rd down, 2nd column.

However, the word "aquatics" has dodgy spacing and it looks a bit odd because of that.

I also think the font is wrong for what you are doing. I think you need something a bit more rounded?

Rounded text - noted. Until you siad that I couldn't work out what I didn't like about it myself! Stands to reason that people interested in nature are not fans of straight lines too...

I think the spacing was inspired from the badges they put on some new cars, the letters are often spaced. Not sure why.

[GreeceMonkey]

I also think the font is wrong for what you are doing. I think you need something a bit more rounded?

I was also going to mention that - what about bottom set

The top left one of the bottom set - use that font and the fish of the bottom right - bottom logo

The one with a yellow shadow is definatly a NONO

It needs to be bold clear colours that can be read how ever they are presented. I did exactly the same as you are doing now and finally came up with this one for my site.

http://www.malia.co.uk/assets/group/images/Image36.png

The logo is the logo and to logo is to be reconised, the excitment and the presentation in most cases come of the product and the website. Look at sky and bbc or facebook and myspace

[movietub]

The logo is the logo and to logo is to be reconised, the excitment and the presentation in most cases come of the product and the website. Look at sky and bbc or facebook and myspace

Thanks for all your comments.

In particular the bit above. So far many of the people I ahve asked have picked the same logos when saying which the like most and least!

Is a marmite logo good? Does it matter if people like it, so long as it raises an opinion one way or the other surely its more memorable?

A bit like when Paypal changed their logo - there we hordes of people who hated it, maybe it was designed to be contraversial?

[red-source]

Your obviously not afriad of colour :)

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3002/90506804.gif

[Mattonella Tile Studio]

I like number 2 (top right)

[movietub]

You are the second person to draft out their own idea - compared to other forums I use people always seem to go the extr mile on here!

Out of the two I perfer top one, although I don't think it suits our company very well.

The problem is it's difficult to describe the image we have, for one thing I may be wrong, and for another its more of a feeling. If it feels right for warehouse aquatics I know.

Do you design professionally?

[red-source]

You are the second person to draft out their own idea - compared to other forums I use people always seem to go the extr mile on here!

Out of the two I perfer top one, although I don't think it suits our company very well.

The problem is it's difficult to describe the image we have, for one thing I may be wrong, and for another its more of a feeling. If it feels right for warehouse aquatics I know.

Do you design professionally?

Im way too picky to design professionally. Its taking me AGES to design my own logo haha. I just knocked that up quickly as I was sat at my pc waiting for a dvd to burn :D.

Do you have illustrator / photoshop so you can knock up ideas yourself ?

[movietub]

Im way too picky to design professionally. Its taking me AGES to design my own logo haha. I just knocked that up quickly as I was sat at my pc waiting for a dvd to burn :D.

Do you have illustrator / photoshop so you can knock up ideas yourself ?

Yeah, both of the sets I posted were done using illustrator, so they can all scale no probs. I designed one of the sets. But have yet to reveal which one :)

[red-source]

Yeah, both of the sets I posted were done using illustrator, so they can all scale no probs. I designed one of the sets. But have yet to reveal which one :)

Oh cool. I was going to offer my amature services to you to create your chosen logo in vector format, all for £20000 ofcourse :D

[Gavin-Design-Right]

I have placed an Offer to MovieTub which I think Is a fair one :D Not sure If I can beat your Quote Red-Source ;)

[red-source]

I have placed an Offer to MovieTub which I think Is a fair one :D Not sure If I can beat your Quote Red-Source ;)

haha.. I had to go right back to basics to get that price ya know !

[movietub]

Oh cool. I was going to offer my amature services to you to create your chosen logo in vector format, all for £20000 ofcourse :D

Design me the perfect logo and I will use it! If we do 80k extra profit in the next 12 months I will pay your fee ;)

And also hand over to you my girlfriend and my cat.

[red-source]

Design me the perfect logo and I will use it! If we do 80k extra profit in the next 12 months I will pay your fee ;)

And also hand over to you my girlfriend and my cat.

Haha... but ive never seen you cat :| lol. The girlfriend I am sure is fine :D

[movietub]

Haha... but ive never seen you cat :| lol. The girlfriend I am sure is fine :D

Maybe I could post pictures and see which one people perfer?

:rolleyes:

[davidshaw89]

Design me the perfect logo and I will use it! If we do 80k extra profit in the next 12 months I will pay your fee ;)

And also hand over to you my girlfriend and my cat.

If citizen erased had sold you those Adobes you might have managed 80k! Entire business plan ruined! ;)

[red-source]

Maybe I could post pictures and see which one people perfer?

:rolleyes:

HAHA. We all know you`ll find a pretty girl on the internet and pretend its your g/f lol.

Its about time I hit the sack. Good luck with your logo mate. I`ll check up on you tomorrow.

[Dot Design]

Sorry, I'm not sure that any of them are working as well as they could, but if I had to choose - the top logos are working better, maybe the top left if developed.

The typography does need sorting out and as some have said its not very inspiring, lively, abit bland. Colour wise its not working either. There is the possibility of a very memorable logo here if worked on by the right designer.

Maybe time to get a professional in, your company identity is so important!

[BlueprintAnimation]

I think I like the top right one best overall. The fish outlines in the bottom set are nice but I'm not keen on the fonts I'm afraid.

[Elizabeth -Atelier Maison]

I like the 3rd one down in the second column!

Looks catchy to me:)

[hostedweb]

I think the first line looks best, maybe a white outline on the fish?

[koogorah]

Orange warehouse and white aquatic...

[Fuzzy]

Fuzzy doesn't like any either:redface:, surely what matters is what you like ?;)

[Call Tracker]

The last two blue blocks with the white background. Definately not any of the freehand ones at the bottom. I think the lettering could do with a bit of neatening up.

I think you couldn't be more clear about the nature of the business - fish..right?

[cmcp]

I don't really like the fish in the logo - I'd take the fish out and have just lettering in a box.

To keep the branding of the fish I'd maybe keep them in the header of the website, but phase them out of the logo.

Also I'd use a linear gradient of blue - dark blue / blue - white on the header as this will convey the vision of water.

[Wendy.Rule]

After all this feedback, all I can offer is a lot of good luck.

To jump in though... I do not like the bottom set and the top set is OK, any of them, but not great.

[movietub]

Here is the final result of this thread!

http://warehouse.pearlsoftware.co.uk/images/website/originals/Image6.jpg
The colours and font will probably be played around with a little more, also the 'W' in the bubble needs playing with.

But essentially this is how the logo will appear.

I hope at least some of you feel its a success :)

[red-source]

Much better ! :)

[breonsnow]

good luck, I hope the new logo works for you...

Brand development is a time consuming and challenging process, designing a brand/logo for yourself is always more difficult.

[davidshaw89]

I like that! Well done! Did you sort it out yourself?

[movietub]

good luck, I hope the new logo works for you...

Brand development is a time consuming and challenging process, designing a brand/logo for yourself is always more difficult.

I'm confident its more than good enough. We already have a 5% conversion rate so the core business is obviously getting things right. The logo is a huge improvement - although I accept I am not a naturally gifted designer!!

The next time we expand and relaunch I will be bringing the experts in, currently we are a significant (in our industry) business but still not cash rich. A very young company!

[movietub]

I like that! Well done! Did you sort it out yourself?

I did the design myself - although yours and others input on this thread has been invaluable (not that I'm suggesting anyone needs to send me an invoice).

Big thanks to everyone! :)

[promsell]

it is a really big success fantastic well done !

[breonsnow]

I'm confident its more than good enough. We already have a 5% conversion rate so the core business is obviously getting things right. The logo is a huge improvement - although I accept I am not a naturally gifted designer!!

The next time we expand and relaunch I will be bringing the experts in, currently we are a significant (in our industry) business but still not cash rich. A very young company!

Sorry I didn't mean anything negative by my comment - even as a long standing designer, developing my brand has taken a long time and as I said its always difficult when designing a brand for your yourself.

I am happy the new logo is already working for you - that's great news and I am sure it will continue.

[movietub]

Sorry I didn't mean anything negative by my comment - even as a long standing designer, developing my brand has taken a long time and as I said its always difficult when designing a brand for your yourself.

I am happy the new logo is already working for you - that's great news and I am sure it will continue.

Ahhh now you misunderstand me! The 5% conversion rate is with the old logo, a bog standard EKM template site and no real design effort whatsoever.

I setup the retail side of the business as a sideline, and it did very well. So we have had to expand to cope, hence my new keeness to look a little sharper now. The problem is expanding has led to 50k new stock, a premesis 6 times larger, new staff, new systems... So not much left for employing designers this time round.

I also enjoy designing, despite my many useless attempts before producing something a proper designer could probably have done in an hour. I also learned the basics of illustrator during this thread last night - which I'm glad of. I used to use photoshop for eveything which is really not what its meant for... I now know..

:cool:

[GreeceMonkey]

I like to new logo - good luck

[movietub]

http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk/images/website/originals/WAlogonobordersmall.jpg


Well the new logo can be viewed here ----> http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk
(http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk)
And below going up on the shop!

Thanks for all the input, seems to do the job well. Shops now busier than ever and stands on its own feet as opposed to just being a stockroom for the website.

Cheers all!


http://warehouse.pearlsoftware.co.uk/images/website/originals/IMG_0943.jpg

[BUCKdesigns]

Nice one! The finished logo looks pretty good, especially considering you did it yourself :) Good luck with the business!

[Dawg]

Ace! Nice one, onwards and upwards ...:)

[MrsPWN]

Wow, I think that looks great. Hope it works well for you, it must have been a real thrill seeing it up on the warehouse.

Can I say 1 thing tho, on the website I don't think you need it twice on the front page, the one in the banner feels out of place, the one on the white background looks fab :D

[movietub]

Wow, I think that looks great. Hope it works well for you, it must have been a real thrill seeing it up on the warehouse.

Can I say 1 thing tho, on the website I don't think you need it twice on the front page, the one in the banner feels out of place, the one on the white background looks fab :D

Noted ;)

I'm going to redo the banner, using the logo with no border. The logo in the content area will be swapped for a 'Welcome' written in the same font with the bubble forming the 'o' in welcome.

It's on the list...

[MrsPWN]

Woohoo, you are really getting into this! next you will be advertising free logos :p

[movietub]

Woohoo, you are really getting into this! next you will be advertising free logos :p

Free at just £150 a pop! :D

Actually whilst I would not want to put logo designers out of business designing your own logo is quite a useful excercise. It forces you to think about what you want your brand to be, and what sort of customer you are targetting. It can also dictate the colour scheme and tone of your website, stationary and so on.

[Eagle]

Nice and fresh-looking; well done. :)

[which_08]

I reckon you did the first set ?

If I am being honest i do not like any of them, Not being nasty though mate. I just do no think it comes to life (Very Dull and uninspiring) Also does not say anything about the business.

If I was to pick the best I would go for ..6 But that would be at a push.

Sorry but i am in agreement, about the designs, they really dont do your business justice. The silhouette style just doesnt do it for me. best of luck what every you choose.

[which_08]

on the back of my comments, i had a logo designed 3D it was maginficent so i thought, i wouldnt have a bad word said against it , until 6 months later i heard that many people trying to tell me nicely that it just wasnt good, i had it changed to a more simple design , at first i couldnt beleive how silly i had been but i realise now that you need an outsider to give you an honest opinion to know where you stand.., My suggestion is REPOST. but with a different approach.
Please can i have honest feedback , these are some logo designs for my business which does XYZ , I am looking for honest feedback should i keep them or try again , i am confident you wont like the answer but the future of your business may rely on it.

all the best

[Eagle]

The silhouette style just doesnt do it for me. best of luck what every you choose.
The 'silhouette' style is what most professional companies across the globe use - and there are many very good reasons why. :)

[which_08]

please enlighten me ? .. this i have never heard of but then i am not in marketing so if there is some particular reason why this will excel above my own then i would love to hear ?

[Eagle]

please enlighten me ? .. this i have never heard of but then i am not in marketing so if there is some particular reason why this will excel above my own then i would love to hear ?

I'm referring to flat colour designs: most corporates have them.

• Lower priniting costs
• Ease of reproduction across different media
• Colour consistency across different media
• Scalability - and retention of quality

:)

[movietub]

I'm referring to flat colour designs: most corporates have them.

• Lower priniting costs
• Ease of reproduction across different media
• Colour consistency across different media
• Scalability - and retention of quality

:)

Silhouettes in particular get used for the above reasons and:


They are instantly recognizable, outline form is the first visual information our brains use to match shapes.
Lack of detail is lack of wasted information/distraction
Basic shapes are memorable

Different brands require different logo's of course but if you want to illustrate a fish, or any animal or person, anything which is complex in fact, then silhouette is ideal. Either sold colour or outline.

[movietub]

on the back of my comments, i had a logo designed 3D it was maginficent so i thought, i wouldnt have a bad word said against it , until 6 months later i heard that many people trying to tell me nicely that it just wasnt good, i had it changed to a more simple design , at first i couldnt beleive how silly i had been but i realise now that you need an outsider to give you an honest opinion to know where you stand.., My suggestion is REPOST. but with a different approach.
Please can i have honest feedback , these are some logo designs for my business which does XYZ , I am looking for honest feedback should i keep them or try again , i am confident you wont like the answer but the future of your business may rely on it.

all the best

Look back a few pages - I posted an image of the final logo being installed over my shop - and the business does seem to be relying on it quite nicely ;)

Maybe you only saw the first logo's I posted at the start of the thread?

I did take a lot of opinions, and took as much on board as I could. Eventually of course you get to the point where every alteration puts off as many people as it pleases. At that point if you are happy personally I would think 99% of the time you are ok to proceed!

[Julie Coelman]

if I had to pick, I would say the first one, the simpler and less colours the better.

Just a note, think of what you want to use the logo for, signs, on flyers, in advertising on uniforms etc. you want one that can easily be used with all these formats.

Think of the big players in branding, easyjet, coca cola, HMV - they are one colour simple logos that can be used on a variety of backgrounds, not just white.

[YODspica]

I like my logo,
http://www.yodspica.com/images/Header_nova.gif

[Dawg]

I like my logo,


Be still my beating heart...