Logo/business name/slogan critique

Hey guys,

Wanted to get comments on my logo, business name, and slogan for a promotional and design company that I am launching very soon.

The niche is that the actual Web/graphic/video/audio design will be secondary to consulting with businesses, analyzing their market and their position, their current branding and marketing strategy, fully researching their competition, then devising a comprehensive plan to help them increase the growth of their business by implementing more effective promotional strategies.

Anyway, here's what I've got...

LOGO/NAME/SLOGAN

I'd sure appreciate any constructive feedback you guys might have so thanks in advance for the help.

The logo: no good. Reason being a logo should be easy to recognize and memorable. As of right now.....i cant tell you what that shape is....and it doesnt stick out in my mind so chances i'll remember it are slim. Also I think the bold for the name is boring. It doesnt create as much interest as say a diff. font.....or varying weights etc.

The slogan: Its ok. Does it fit though?? I mean its not exactly "fusion" of design and promo if design is secondary to promo. Maybe something like "Creative Promotional Strategies" would work better.

The name: good. I like it. It's easy to remember... etc.

No offense to you, but I don't like any of it.

The Logo: For the same reasons Rodder has.

The Slogan: ditto

The Name: It's pretty good, but will lock you into a color scheme that is hard to deal with. Orange is hard to match to.

Thanks for the comments so far.

The logo was a tough one because I wanted something relatively round (like an orange or the letter O), comprising 2 colors inter-twined and "fused" together. Something conveying some *energy* as well. Not sure what other direction to take for this one...

The fonts are still being played with a little although I like the simplicity of the bold Myriad font as I think it *grounds* the wilder look of the logo creating a better balance. Maybe a crazier font with a more tame logo might be the answer?

On the slogan, when I said the design was *secondary* I didn't mean to say the design was less important or of less focus. What I meant was that it would follow the systematic resarch and planning that goes into promoting a business before anything tangible was created. Sort of the "horse before the cart" if you will.

The actual name has already passed the "common man" test so it's staying. As for the color, there's plenty of different shades of orange and plenty of ways to abuse or limit the use of the color if it's done right so hopefully it won't be a major issue.

Anyway, it's not finalized by any means and I appreciate the comments.

The Name: It's pretty good, but will lock you into a color scheme that is hard to deal with. Orange is hard to match to.

I have a domain called yoyolounge it has nothing to do with yoyo's nor do people seem to be surprised when they find no yoyo's in my lounge. ;) In fact they don't even seem to badly affected when they find no ****tail waiter or muzak (can't believe it censored my waiter who shakes metal objects word).

Don't concern yourself that a part of your name limits your business, only lack of creativity (such as suggesting that because your name contains orange, your website must be orange :p ) limits potential. By all means go with some orange but you could just as easily go the other way and use little or no orange.

As for the rest of it. Logo is not at all in the right area. You need a clean and simple object or group of the usual (but obviously artfully arranged ;) ) abstract images and white space. Just go look on the few logo websites out there, both those that create them and those that showcase them.

Umm.... the slogan..... It doesn't really gel with your company name, although it might sum up your core business market/area. With the word Octane in your Co. name it would seem obvious to work off associated ideas and words - I wont go into any, but think dynamically.

Don't know what font you have used but it looks like a standard screen font and is really unprofessional to say the least. I don't even like the non capitals. Oh you might want to change the grey text colour too, its a little washed out, if you are going with grey use a 75% or so.

Here are some websites for your perusal:


Eagle Imagery - designs his own
Logoed - showcase of companies logo
Design Outpost forums - loads of logo insipiration

Oh and my one piece of advice for any logo is: create it in B&W, if it looks good in one colour it will look good with more colours.

Good luck, hope you post back if you do any revisions.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment hermit.

Very valid points. It's funny you mention omitting the color orange in the color scheme. I had played around with that logo in blue and kind of liked it. But again, you guys are right about the logo needing to be more "iconic".

I'll keep tweaking the font as well and darken the grey up a bit. Maybe with a revised logo, a more appropriate font will fit.

The slogan... I ventured into the area you are suggesting but only came up with cheesy cliches. I'll keep at it though.

And thanks for the resource links. I'm checking them out right now - good stuff.

you might want to just look at some oraganic chemistry stuff for the logo :/ I dunno just an idea you can go from there if you want.

do some research into the branding stefan sagmeister did for a store called "blue", seems to keep in line with some of the thinking going on here

as far as the logo/tagline/name, i dunno. i actually like the tagline, the logo itself doesn't work for me, if nothing else because its not too reproducible. at a small res on a business card or letterhead its simply not going to read well, i'd keep redesigning and find a more defined form to use. the name is interesting, not my particular brand of vodka but to each their own, i prefer obscure one-word names myself. i think its also because "octane" makes me think of this leather-pants wearing 80s rock/glam cover band that my brother played a show with one time (he was in another band, just to clarify ). the type is ok but i'd like to see a bit less mainstream typeface.

overall its a good start but keep playing. do LOTS of thumbnails, which i'm sure you're already doing

chris

The logo mark is just a mess and looks very unprofessional to me. Especially since you're using the cutout filter, and the bevel filter. Ew.

Think about where you may end up using that logo, embroidered on polo shirts/hats, etched into glass, silkscreened onto a storefront window, etc. The only place that logo will look good is on the screen, and some printing processes. Simplify it a lot.

The first thing that pops into my mind is a illustration of an orange with a black drop coming out of a spout on it. Because of oil/gasoline/octane, etc. But that may be a too literal interpretation of your name. But I still think it could be cool.

Or just a more simple swirl of orange/black, almost like a ying-yang.

The tagline is totally forgettable... Looks like something from http://www.enormicom.com/

But I hate buzzwords like "fusion" so maybe that's just me.