I am in the middle of re-designing my Arts Ablaze Website, and I am looking at designing a new logo to go with the new site design. The Website is an online art gallery, where artists can exhibit various examples of their work.

I'm only at the early stages of the design process, so I'm not particularly precious about my first attempt at a new logo design.

I want to try and keep the design as simple as possible, maintaining a modernist look that wont draw too much attention away from the art on display. This simplicity should also help when it comes to resizing the logo for banners etc. The present design becomes a foggy mess when it is reduced, which is far from satisfactory.

The design, below, is pretty much in keeping with the look I want to achieve. The design itself is a result of one of those 'flash of inspiration' moments, but I'm now begginnning the validity of my original concept. My main concern is with the use of a single letter 'a' to start off the words 'arts' and 'ablaze'.

Is this confusing or not particularly obvious?

Is it obvious what the words are?

Is it clear that the letter in the red circle is an 'a'?

I would appreciate some feedback on this. Sometimes it's easy to get too involved in a project, so I thought I would seek out an objective opinion.

If you want to see the logo in context, you will find a rough sketch of the proposed layout for my Website makeover at the following URL:

http://www.artsablaze.co.uk/new.htm

If you want to compare this with the old site and logo, simply visit http://www.artsablaze.co.uk

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

No. It definitely reads as "rts blaze". And why don't you take that red line with the dot on the end and stand it upright but somewhat angled, and duplicate a few times to create a modernist blaze of sorts? Idon't get the symbolism presently used--and I'm an artist.

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Hi, as a graphic designer myself I have to say the fears you have about that new design are justified, it is unclear to what the logo is trying to say as it look more like "@ rts blaze" which is not what you had in mind i'm sure. maybe if the A was larger and not in lower case it may be clearer as it does look to much like an "at" symbol as it is now.
Hope this helps and if you want I could come up with some alternatives for you.

Another thought is have you considered getting lots of potential designers coming up with a logo for you, sites like www.worth1000.com have contests where designers submit their version of a concept, in contests.

Regards

Ian

Obviously my main concern was the legibility of the 'a', and I will take your comments on board.

So far, out of all the people I have shown the logo, around 50% get it and the other 50% don't. It seems like something of a gamble to stick with the current design.

However there is a certain something about the design that I find appealing, so I will keep this one on the back-burner and play around with it some more in the future.

In the mean time I have been playing around with some other ideas, the result of which can be found below.



There is one major problem with this design in my opinion. It suffers from the same problem as my old logo, in that it doesn't hold it's detail when reduced in size.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Once again you see this logo in context by visiting the following URL:

http://www.artsablaze.co.uk/new.htm

I definitely like this 2nd one better. Can't you just increase the size of the arts ablaze text and oval that contains it slightly, and thicken your aa symbol? You wouldn't have to increase the other ovals' size, and then you could shrink it down if need be (although there shouldn't be much need for smaller than what you have). If so, you could just use either the arts ablaze oval with name on its own, or the aa in its ovals with www.artsablaze.co.uk underneath.

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Having looked at your site, your newer logo designs do nothing to lend to the current image of your business. I found the old one lent more to it, but could definately do with a bit of a new design. You seemed to have taken a whole new route with the new logo...is this intentional? This new design seems more techno than contemporary. Is your site or business image being redesigned too?

Personally, I would like to see you do more with your old one.

In regards to not getting the image to reduce well.... what program are you using to design it with? Are you using vectors? If you can use vectors with your program, when you want to resize it, group the vectors, then scale. You will get a lot better quality resizing. It will also remove the pixelated looked.

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Both my Website and original logo were developed when my computer skills were in their infancy. My Arts Ablaze Website was my first attempt at web design, and although that was completed a mere 18 months ago, my abilities and knowledge have developed in leaps and bounds. I therefore wanted to redesign the site to reflect the advances I have made in the past 18 months, hence the new look:

http://www.artsablaze.co.uk/new.htm

Since my Website was going to get an overhaul I decided that a new logo was in order. I was never very happy with the original design; it was executed with very little thought and was created to a tight deadline. On top of that I had only picked up Adobe Illustrator 3 days prior to creating the logo, I had only been using Photoshop for a couple of months. On top of that I had only begun to use a computer a couple of months before getting to grips with Photoshop..

I suppose the biggest problem with the old logo is that it reminds me of how little I knew about computer aided design at the time, and I am sure that I can do a much better job now.

As far as influences are concerned, I try to absorb as much as possible from all areas of design, including anything from architecture through to record sleeves. Almost all of these influences come from the latest developments in contemporary design and I hoped that this would be reflected in any new designs I come up with. One reason this is so important is that the majority of visitors to my site are, much like myself, extremely interested in all the latest developments in art and design, and unfortunately I don't think the original logo meets this need in any way. I will however take your comments on board and see if I can update the old logo in some way.

I find it hard to see any techno or industrial influence in the new design, but as with most things I'm sure it's just a matter of personal opinion and taste.

With regard to resizing, I think it’s more of a problem with the design than the method of scaling. No matter what the design, when scaling an image down there always comes a point when details begin to merge, lettering becomes cramped and lines become too thin.

I suppose one of my reasons for my original posting was that I thought that I didn't have any real ideas for a new logo, and having come up with only one idea I was desperate to know if it worked. Having said that, all of the replies to my posting have sparked quite a few new ideas to work with. I now have a worksheet with various concepts in development. I suppose I just needed the impetus to get my ideas flowing, and thanks to everyone’s input I now have a plethora of ideas to pursue.

I am in no particular rush to complete my design, so I think I will keep working on the ideas I have until I approach a decent solution. I'll post any solutions I come up with so that you can see how things have developed, and hopefully you will let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all the advice

Communicate, communicate, communicate. This is way too busy. This is called "visual gymnastics". We need to know what your business is in a simple form. Instant communication. The basis of relationship marketing communication is trust and understanding between customer and company.

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I completely understand where you’re coming from. I personally still prefer my original idea. Although the concept was a little out of the box, the simplicity of the design is still appealing.

The second design is indeed too complex for my own tastes, and the variations I've been working on since have been much simpler and pared down.

Although I can take on board your comments about communicating with my chosen demographic and establishing trust in my customer, all covered extremely well in the 'What makes a powerful logo?' thread, there are always exceptions to the rule, and I'm not sure these concepts apply to my own logo. I always try to implement such ideas when I create a logo for someone else, but things become a little more complicated when I am my own client.

In my mind, my logo should both embody the theme and attitude of my online art gallery, but it should also serve as an example of the type of design work I am capable of. As well as running an online gallery under the Arts Ablaze business name I have also worked in other areas of design since founding the company 18 months ago. For example, in the last 6 months I have produced various logo design, Website designs, I have also worked on interior design projects and produced three architectural designs for contemporary luxury villas. The one thing that unifies these different areas of design is my individual approach to the design method. My work is always Modernist and I always try to come up with a unique approach to each design, often coming up with ideas that are far from conventional. Ideally my logo should embody this approach, as if it were a badge of identity that encompasses what kind of solutions I can offer for a potential client.

I originally felt that the first logo design met this requirement. It is simple, wearing its modernist influence on its sleeve, and is a little left of centre in its use of words. Unfortunately only a handful of people get it. But then again, perhaps only a select few would commission the sort of design work that I do. I don't suppose that I can please all of the people all of the time, and perhaps I should be resigned to that fact, and if I feel strongly enough about a design, perhaps I should go with a logo design that I am passionate about and damn the consequences.