New Logo (suggestions welcome)

[Jonathan Walton]

This is the kind of thing I would put in my own forum if I had one.  But I don't.  Yet.

http://www.godmachine.org/1002.jpg

This came to me a couple days ago.  What d'ya think?  Does it work?

[Matt Snyder]

I wasn't sure what the graphics were until I realized it was "1001". Took me a good minute or two to figure that out after focusing on it. The details are too rough, and I found myself trying to discern what each element was before I parsed them all together (still not certain what each piece is). Just before I saw "1001" I thought to myself "Toot"?!?

I think the spires (those meant to be the 1s) are too jagged and/or ornamental to really convey the slim figure of a numeral. Also, the circular pieces (the left of which I interpret as a watch/timepiece, not sure what the other one is) are irregularly shaped, and I find this distracting on this stark black style, especially so on the one on the right. Given shading, they may make more sense (BUT I LIKE the stark style for logos better).

My suggestion is to simplify, or streamline, these figures. I actually like the overall layout of the numbers, the proportions, etc. I'm just not seeing them appropriately as "1001" yet.

For exampe, if I am indeed interpreting one of the circles correctly as a watch, I'd say make the thing a fairly "perfect" black ring with tick marks on the interior to infer minutes. Not sure if I'm right about this vision, but I mean it as an example of how to "clean" the image so its more, I dunno, seamless and obvious.

My 2 cents, man.

Oh, and I very much like the "Designs" typeface.

[C. Edwards]

Hey Jonathan,

I figured out the 1001 part fairly quickly, but only because I remembered that you have that in your signature. I'd definitely work on making the 1001 more distinct. Other than that, I think it's a great design.

-Chris

[Shreyas Sampat]

Agreed on the 'Designs' typeface.  On the 1001... yeah, beautiful concept, could use some tuning in the execution.  My thought: the circles would look more like numerals if the black portions were stressed ovals rather than doughnuts.  The 1s could be more 1like if you were to suppress the bulges in the middle and turn the top portions into something more like the 1's traditional sloping serif.  I'll try and work up an image...

[Jonathan Walton]

My suggestion is to simplify, or streamline, these figures. I actually like the overall layout of the numbers, the proportions, etc. I'm just not seeing them appropriately as "1001" yet.

Seems to be the general opinion.  Thanks guys.  I'll try to refine it some today and post a new version (though if you want to take a shot at it, Shreyas, go right ahead).  The two fonts I used were Samarkand (for the Arabian Nights-eque cityscape components; though I can see why Matt saw a pocketwatch) and Niederwald (which strikes me as kinda "art nouveau meets the Brothers Grimm").  Had to modify the capital "S" of the latter to get it to fit nicely under the final "1," but I thought that peice worked out okay.  Be back in a flash.

[Jonathan Walton]

Finally, an update.

I worked with the last logo idea for several hours, but just couldn't get it to look like I wanted it to.  Just seems like a no-go.  Additionally, I've been trying for some time to get a "1001.something" domain name and can't get anything at a reasonable price.  So, eventually, after some creative thinking, I settled on "thou-and-one.com," thinking it kinda serves as a bad pun about roleplaying anyway.

So I was messing around with some new ideas last night and came up with this:

http://www.godmachine.org/thou-and-one.jpg

Comments welcome.

[ethan_greer]

The 'nd' seems a bit jagged and angular next to the thoroughly scripty 'A.'  Other than that, I like it.  Classy and simple.

[C. Edwards]

The 'nd' seems a bit jagged and angular next to the thoroughly scripty 'A.' Other than that, I like it. Classy and simple.

What he said.

-Chris

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah, I had noticed the jaggedness too, but unfortunately, that's what the font looks like.  Luckily, Flash MX has several smoothing functions I could try, or maybe I'll look for a less jagged "nd" in another font.  But classy and simple is what I was going for, so I'm glad it came out that way.  Back in a flash (no pun intended), with a semi-final design...

[Lxndr]

I like the jaggedness.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Jonathan,

This is just my opinion, but I wouldn't change the name of your company based on what domain names were available. Jethro Tull didn't change their name because only j-tull.com was available. The Forge is found at indie-rpgs.com. It's up to you, but that's what I'd do, even if the only domain I could get was wankers.com*

So, I like the previous logo. What you needed to do was make the 1001 more eviden, perhaps by superimposing grey 1's on it so the number shows up a little better.

My two cents.


* I checked. This domain is unavailable.

[iago]

Here are some domain names that are available.

onethousandandone.com
onethousandone.com
designs1001.com

Your options are not absent. :)

[Jonathan Walton]

This is just my opinion, but I wouldn't change the name of your company based on what domain names were available.

I'm not.  There are more reasons for the change than just that.  I love some of the connotations of "1001" but don't want to get stuck with the rest.  While I like having the Arabian Nights on my side, it also reeks a bit of Orientalism and I don't want to be stuck with that.  "Thou & One" gives me some distance from Richard Burton, and more of a hip, modern feel.  Hopefully, this is a more organic move than the one from "Hundred Flowers" (referring to a Chinese intellectual movement that nobody's heard of, sounding to US ears like a place to order roses) to "1001," since I'm only changing the wording of the name and not the basic concept.  It also lets me keep my Forge site, //www.1001.indie-rpgs.com, and not give Clinton the hassle of changing it yet again.  Furthermore, I've made no press releases as "1001 Designs" and have gotten little attention outside of the Forge, so the time to make any shifts is now.

This isn't really an official shift yet, actually, which is why I was testing graphical ideas out on you guys.  Until I get a finished website with a finished product to sell or make an official press release, having a seperate business identity doesn't really mean much anyway.  I've just been thinking about my business identity as I get drafts of my games closer and closer to being publishable.  That's why it's been developing organically like this.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Ok, Jonathan. You're in a state of flux. I can understand that. I'm not personally wild about Thou and One, but that's me. I also didn't think 1001 had much of an Arabian Richard Burton flavor, however Mr. Burton figures into it. It's just a number to me, but I'm one guy.

That said, I still like the previous on better. It gives me something to look at It is a word and a picture and catches the eye better.

Two more cents.

[Jonathan Walton]

That said, I still like the previous on better. It gives me something to look at It is a word and a picture and catches the eye better.

That's cool.  If you don't like it, I want to hear that too.  Friends are often there to tell you when you're doing something stupid and foolish.  And in the absense of real friends (being at home and not at college) I turn to you people :)  Your 2 cents always matters to me, Jack.

Anybody else hate it?  My brother just told me I should "add an 's'," illustrating that it doesn't work for him at all.  I'm beginning to wonder whether the confusion around the pronouciation of "thou" (like the archaic "you" or the slang for "thousand") is going to be a problem.