Friends,
I think the time has come to redesign the FFW logo. I love the classic, steadfast look of our current logo, but it is just more of a wordmark than an actual logo. It says "Freethought Fort Wayne", but nothing about it really stands for what our groups stands for.
I've been wanting to figure out how to incorporate a head, or a brain, or something else that would imply "thinking" into it. I have a few different ideas, and I want as much feedback as I can. Not just which logo is your favorite, but what parts of it do you like? The color? The shape? The font? What needs to be changed or modified to make it the perfect logo?
1.
This is the first one I came up with. Using some awesome image art from iStockPhoto, I found this guy with a lightbulb in his head. The color is really nice -- it's my favorite shade of blue, and trust me -- in print, this color really pops out. The font is called Officina Sans, and although it makes the logo slightly reminescent of Facebook's logo, I think it is casual, while still showing we're down to business. I also incorporated the tagline "Be Reasonable." in there, but if we ever change that it will be really easy to change the tag.
I put "FreeThought" in all caps because that's, in my opinion, the most important word of the name. "Fort Wayne" is all lowercase, not only because it is sorta the trendy thing to do right now, but also because it really adds a nice contract to "FREETHOUGHT".
2.
This logo has rounded corners, and the face is facing left. Notice also that instead of the lightbulb hanging down, it is coming up from the neck. There is also a really cool greyscale cascade effect, which makes it seem like the light is illuminating his head. Otherwise, it is really similar.
3.
This logo is a different shape, and can either be instead of the more square shape, or in addition to it. One of the tenants of a really strong business identity is a dynamic logo that can be used for different purposes. This one would make a really good letterhead, for example, while the squarish one could be a little stamp or something on the website.
Also notice that I make the head the "O" in "FREETHOUGHT". One of the disadvantages is that it severely decreases the size of the graphic, but it makes up for that in the coolness factor of being part of the word. Also notice that the lightbulb is coming up, as in #1, and I put a white border around it, just for clarity's sake. Finally, "Fort Wayne" is in proper caps, making it less lower-case-trendy and more classic. But do you think that this works for it?
4.
Finally, this is a radically different design. Instead of head, I have an offset particle orbit logo with a brain in the middle, which gives it a more science-y feel rather than a philosophy feel. I don't really like that brain graphic, so if this is something we like, I will find a better looking brain. I also turned "FREETHOUGHT" sideways, to sort of border the logo, and, of course, it is green instead of dark blue.
Please give me all the feedback you can, and please tell me why. I need to know what sort of emotions or symbolism it invokes in you, and where it is effective and where it is not. Also tell me if anything gives you the wrong idea, too. Here's a good example:
Feel free to post your comments here or email them to me if you don't want the world to view them. Also, if you have any ideas that you want me to play with, I am certainly open to it.
Logo creation is less of an art form than a collaborative, living process. In order to get something really effective, we have to be as picky as possible, and run it through as many people as we can. Our ending logo could look nothing like what you see above. It's just a good starting place.
Thanks!
-Andy
I think the time has come to redesign the FFW logo. I love the classic, steadfast look of our current logo, but it is just more of a wordmark than an actual logo. It says "Freethought Fort Wayne", but nothing about it really stands for what our groups stands for.
I've been wanting to figure out how to incorporate a head, or a brain, or something else that would imply "thinking" into it. I have a few different ideas, and I want as much feedback as I can. Not just which logo is your favorite, but what parts of it do you like? The color? The shape? The font? What needs to be changed or modified to make it the perfect logo?
1.
This is the first one I came up with. Using some awesome image art from iStockPhoto, I found this guy with a lightbulb in his head. The color is really nice -- it's my favorite shade of blue, and trust me -- in print, this color really pops out. The font is called Officina Sans, and although it makes the logo slightly reminescent of Facebook's logo, I think it is casual, while still showing we're down to business. I also incorporated the tagline "Be Reasonable." in there, but if we ever change that it will be really easy to change the tag.
I put "FreeThought" in all caps because that's, in my opinion, the most important word of the name. "Fort Wayne" is all lowercase, not only because it is sorta the trendy thing to do right now, but also because it really adds a nice contract to "FREETHOUGHT".
2.
This logo has rounded corners, and the face is facing left. Notice also that instead of the lightbulb hanging down, it is coming up from the neck. There is also a really cool greyscale cascade effect, which makes it seem like the light is illuminating his head. Otherwise, it is really similar.
3.
This logo is a different shape, and can either be instead of the more square shape, or in addition to it. One of the tenants of a really strong business identity is a dynamic logo that can be used for different purposes. This one would make a really good letterhead, for example, while the squarish one could be a little stamp or something on the website.
Also notice that I make the head the "O" in "FREETHOUGHT". One of the disadvantages is that it severely decreases the size of the graphic, but it makes up for that in the coolness factor of being part of the word. Also notice that the lightbulb is coming up, as in #1, and I put a white border around it, just for clarity's sake. Finally, "Fort Wayne" is in proper caps, making it less lower-case-trendy and more classic. But do you think that this works for it?
4.
Finally, this is a radically different design. Instead of head, I have an offset particle orbit logo with a brain in the middle, which gives it a more science-y feel rather than a philosophy feel. I don't really like that brain graphic, so if this is something we like, I will find a better looking brain. I also turned "FREETHOUGHT" sideways, to sort of border the logo, and, of course, it is green instead of dark blue.
Please give me all the feedback you can, and please tell me why. I need to know what sort of emotions or symbolism it invokes in you, and where it is effective and where it is not. Also tell me if anything gives you the wrong idea, too. Here's a good example:
"I think that the way the light hangs down from the top of the head in #1 makes it look dark inside his head, like it's just a bare closet. That, to
me, doesn't seem freethinky. And although I prefer the illumination in #2 compared to #1, it has sort of a strange feel too it, like the guy is being
electrocuted. Can you make the lightbulb stick up instead of hang down, and make the illumination less so as in #2?"
Feel free to post your comments here or email them to me if you don't want the world to view them. Also, if you have any ideas that you want me to play with, I am certainly open to it.
Logo creation is less of an art form than a collaborative, living process. In order to get something really effective, we have to be as picky as possible, and run it through as many people as we can. Our ending logo could look nothing like what you see above. It's just a good starting place.
Thanks!
-Andy
