Logos (and I mean more than one)

Thinking about improving the Artwork in Vega Strike, or making your own Mod? Submit your question and ideas in this forum.

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jackS
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Logos (and I mean more than one)

Post by jackS »

So, here's the plan -

There's some interest in redesigning the website, and there's some interest in a new logo. These are not new interests. I believe both are reasonable, the second more aesthetically pressing than the first.

However, what we really find ourselves looking for, in this case, is at least two logo incarnations, potentially distinct - one for a website header, one as a more iconic logo for general usage, and any scaled or otherwise altered versions thereof for various tasks. These logos may end up being fairly divergent in nature, as the requirements differ.

A website header needs to be highly legible. Artistic license with the font is clearly allowed, but if we can't clearly read it, it's not a good choice for the web. It'll need to take up manageable amounts of space across various viewing resolutions. Acceptable color schema will impact heavily on compatibility with the rest of the site, redesigned or otherwise.

The iconic logo needs to be readily distinguishable as "The VS Logo" If the text doesn't jump out at you, so be it - that's not it's most important feature. Ease of recognition and degree of visual impact are key.

I'm going off to Barcelona at the end of this week, and when I get back towards the end of next week, I'm hoping to see the submissions and discussions thereof sitting in this thread.

Clearly, there have been a number of logos already proposed, but none have ever really been 'commissioned', in large part because of grand indecisiveness as to what exactly we were looking for. In light of more definite (if only slightly so) details, and a split of what is wanted for logos, some of the existing authors may wish to revisit their previous work. So, to engage in a bit of redundancy, some things we know we are looking for:

All Logos:
* It's Vega Strike, not Vegastrike. Being able to tell that could be a plus.
* Avoid use of 3D models that aren't actually in the game
* Be careful not to overemphasize game art, even if it is in the game - game content is not static, and the logo could become an anachronism, or a relic of a pre retcon era.
* Be cognizant of the relation of any expressed themes to the thematic directions of the game (i.e. VS isn't about blowing up planets, avoid exploding planets. VS also isn't about any sort of good vs. evil conflict, so overt use of themes commonly associated with such should also be avoided)
* Evoke something. Just writing "Vega Strike" in a petty font gets us... our current logo, with a better font.
* Remember the difference between a logo and a poster (although the website logo will likely be embedded in a richer background) - a good example: Star Wars episode IV logo versus, ep IV poster. Easy, non?
* We're a fickle bunch - there's no guarantee that, even if we choose something now, a couple years from now we won't decide to make alterations. On the bright side, at that point the previous version becomes "Coke Classic" ;-)

Website Logo:
* Legible
* Legible
* Plays nicely with others (layout-wise) That is, it will likely not be the only interesting thing on the screen, and will have to integrate (although compromise works from both directions) with the rest of the website design.
* Did I mention Legible?
* Is clearly the Logo - that is, when you arrive at the website, you can look at it and know that if you read that part of the screen you can figure out where you are (if you didn't already know)
* In the same vein - it should be at least slightly eye-catching for new visitors (in the above sense - it doesn't need to make them want to go buy prints or anything so extreme), but it can't be such a "pleasant only in low-doses" experience (due to gaudy or garish color choice, etc presumably used to make it eye-catching) that those of us who'll be seeing it several times per day would come to think it an eyesore.

More General Usage Logo:
* Somewhat iconic in nature. This should be something that is recognizably the VS logo and not something else, without spending a lot of time staring at it. It doesn't need to be as simple as the "lambda in circle" Halflife logo or that quake thingy - we can save that sort of fully iconic nature for more distilled versions of the logo (.. like actual icons ...). However, there should be something distinctively VS about it.
* Expression, not information. The logo doesn't need to go into gory detail about the subtitled name, or even the full Vega Strike name, if it doesn't artistically work, although variants are going to need to exist that can have the name coherently attached to them.
* Has longevity. Whether it be subtle and vast in its complexity, demanding lasting study, or secure in the timeless nature of its minimalism, the logo will stick around, even if it gets replaced and becomes the "classic logo." This means that there's a responsibility for us to choose something that we can live with for a while. It's like getting a tatoo - unless you're willing to endure the annoyance of covering it up, you have to choose something you still want to be showing people when the years have rolled by and you're no longer quite the same person you were when you got inked.

So - link to the relevant submissions here. Discuss them here. Explain them here - what were you trying to accomplish, why is this appropriate for Vega Strike, and why do you think you have succeeded?

P.S. In case anyone has wandered out into left field, FWIW, the subtitle is "Upon the Coldest Sea."
Last edited by jackS on Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

Maybe I'm misreading, but, I think there's a critical point that's being overlooked.
The VS logo is going to be the cornerstone for ANY graphics that will be done. Having a Vegastrike logo, a website logo, and some icon logos is all well and good, but, they need to be inseperable from one another. The VS logo should be the one used on the website, and the icon should be some pared down version of the VS Logo.

I've seen a lot of decent artwork floating around, and I know people can use photoshop/GIMP, and we've got quite a bit of artistic talent, but nothing, to me, really stood out as a good logo or emblem. This is a marketing game, and while the art that people have created would make some cool sig-pics, they would never fly on a business card or letterhead. Yeah, I know we'll never have BCs or LH, but, I hope you get my point.

Go run around the web and look at major companies' logos -- Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, AOL, Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds. What do you see? Simple, two color logos that you just can't get out of your head -- and the moment you even see the vague shape of them, you instantly recognize it. And look into their history -- the images have barely changed, and the colors probably haven't at all. This is what we need.

In my opinion, before we can even start tossing out comps, we need to establish a 2-3 color scheme. Right now, it seems to be blue, white, and grey (judging by the website). Since white is a netural color, I would say replacing it with a gold would be a good move -- something to add a little splash of brighter color. Blue and Grey being the primary colors, with gold being used as a highlite.

In my experience, vector art works the best as it can quickly and easily be altered into various forms without losing size ratio and resolution, which is an all-too-common problem with raster art.
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Post by zaydana »

I agree with CoffeeBot mostly... however, I don't think basing the new logo on blue, grey, whatever is a good idea, mainly because the current logo, no offence to whoever made it, but its not really something to base work on. It looks like it was a quick hack, basically. However, I do agree that we need some sort of emblem. In my mind, the thing that is important isn't that the emblem's colour scheme, but the emblem itself. We can try plenty of color schemes later, as long as we have it in vector form (like you said).

Maybe we should start with advertising a competition to create an emblem for vegastrike, around the same time that 0.5 is launched? (which i'm told should be soonish...)
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Post by jackS »

To start with a semi-aside, I'm not a fan of a lot of the connotations of gold, at least in the shiny sense of that color.

I don't think it's pressing to start with an imposed color scheme or limit to the number of colors. I'm sufficiently patient to see what directions people are going in before trying to decide which colors best represent this.

I also think that what will end up on the website is likely an expanded/enhanced version of the VS logo - a somewhat de-iconified version (e.g. if the logo features, for the sake of example, line drawings representing cogs, the website would have... maybe some cogs). Hopefully the relationship between the two versions will be clear - otherwise there's an issue. But what I'm hoping for is a family of related images, not just scaled versions of the same image. The header for the website is a different beast than what we would stick on a splash screen or manual cover, which is yet still a different thing than what passes for representation in a 64x64 pixel icon or whatnot.

I'm not certain that I agree that the logo should be the cornerstone for all graphics work to be done - rather, while it will have to be worked into a number of things, I don't see that directly translating to having the logo dictate the terms of the rest of the graphics design, it has a role to play, but I doubt it will be quite that critical.
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Post by charlieg »

We already had a ton of logo submissions. To "restart" the submission process is to epitomise exactly why a new logo has not yet been adopted.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... 26_Signage
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Post by CoffeeBot »

charlieg wrote:We already had a ton of logo submissions. To "restart" the submission process is to epitomise exactly why a new logo has not yet been adopted.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... 26_Signage
Why? My impression was that no one was overly keen on the logos on that page. If they were, one probably would have been implemented by now, wouldn't it?

WRT the blue/grey/gold thing: I just threw that out, because it's what we already have. No more, no less.

And, jackS, the logo is that critical. Because it will be worked into a number of things, it's going to be everywhere. At least, it should be everywhere. That's what a logo is for -- something you tack onto your products to identify them as yours. In this case, it will be part of a website header, sitting in the corners of splash screens, on cd covers (if we burn/distribute physical copies), in the printable manual, etc.

The logo itself should remain simple, completely legible, and easily recognizable. Within seconds, it should be able to be turned into a 2-color bitmap, plain and simple. A great example is the Paramount Pictures logo -- at the beginning of movies, you see this fantastically rendered mountain with stars flying around it, but on the DVD case, it's a white 2D piece of vector art. That is what we need to create.
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Post by klauss »

I happen to agree with CB.
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Post by jackS »

CoffeeBot wrote: And, jackS, the logo is that critical. Because it will be worked into a number of things, it's going to be everywhere. At least, it should be everywhere. That's what a logo is for -- something you tack onto your products to identify them as yours. In this case, it will be part of a website header, sitting in the corners of splash screens, on cd covers (if we burn/distribute physical copies), in the printable manual, etc.

The logo itself should remain simple, completely legible, and easily recognizable. Within seconds, it should be able to be turned into a 2-color bitmap, plain and simple. A great example is the Paramount Pictures logo -- at the beginning of movies, you see this fantastically rendered mountain with stars flying around it, but on the DVD case, it's a white 2D piece of vector art. That is what we need to create.
I agree completely that the Paramount logo is an excellent example of a range of renderings of the same fundamental logo. That's a great example of what we should be looking for.

WRT the importance of the logo, perhaps I read too much into 'cornerstone' but the point I wanted to make (and, it would seem, didn't - my apologies) is that the design of other graphics work shouldn't exist to serve the logo. There's a difference between a website that exists to show off the logo and happens to have content on it, and a website that exists to show particular content, and happens to have been explicitly designed to show off the logo. That's what I was trying to express - that, even as important as it is in saying that whatever it's on is part of VS, it won't say much more than that - while content will have to be designed with a means of showcasing the logo in mind, neglecting the content on behalf of the logo leads to rather vacuous works being created (while stamping a big, well known logo on something and saying "you don't need to know more than that it's from us" may work to cause people to buy certain products, we're neither in that position, nor do I find that an appropriate attitude.) So, in summary, I probably agree with you more than I seemed to... but I'm just firmly given to an opinion as to the dominance structure and need for compromise between content and marketing.

As to a reason why I wouldn't worry overly about the colors or their number right now, it's this - if you look at the paramount example, you have a family of representations of a common scene/concept. Adding more or less detail is less important, and more possible to do in a post-facto manner than coming up with the base concept. I wouldn't worry about how to represent X in 2 colors (although, I also think that there's nothing hard and fast about having to go all the way down to 1-bit color reps - 1-bit is often very effective, but 2-4 colors can be just as memorable as well) when we haven't decided upon an X yet. This is not to say that, when deciding upon an X we shouldn't take into account whether we have a clue as to how to reduce the complexity of the image while still ending up with a recognizeable depiction of the scene/concept.
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

I'd propose, then, that submissions include 3 things:

A simple, 2 or 3 -color logo like for letterhead.

A rendered version of the same logo, for the website.

A 3D animated movie clip for the splash screen, based on the logo; or concept work and a description of the envisioned animation.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

chuck_starchaser wrote:A 3D animated movie clip for the splash screen, based on the logo; or concept work and a description of the envisioned animation.
Really?

I agree with the first two, but, at this point, I'm not sure it should be required -- not all of us (me, for example) know how to do that.
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Post by CubOfJudahsLion »

jackS wrote:Website Logo:
* Legible
* Legible
Heh. Legibility is never overrated, I guess. If people spend five seconds trying to make out the text in your logo, it may be art, but it's not design.
* Plays nicely with others (layout-wise) That is, it will likely not be the only interesting thing on the screen, and will have to integrate (although compromise works from both directions) with the rest of the website design [...] eyesore.
I think you're asking for sober, yet eye-catching.

I agree with Coffeebot that a well-picked color scheme is a good start in the road to sobriety, but it goes against artistic freedom to predefine said scheme. While cold colors may seem like the obvious choice, it's not necessarily the only one, or the best.

Regarding marketing, once more, this is design, not just art, and design in service of marketing is seeking to attract a target audience. There are certain characteristics to art and design meant for entertainment that satisfies that audience. Look at movie posters, comic book covers, game boxes--values here are different than those sought after for, say, law firms, sodas or automobiles. In particular, they are some of the most energetic designs around. That's how they sell.
I also think that what will end up on the website is likely an expanded/enhanced version of the VS logo - a somewhat de-iconified version (e.g. if the logo features, for the sake of example, line drawings representing cogs, the website would have... maybe some cogs). Hopefully the relationship between the two versions will be clear - otherwise there's an issue. But what I'm hoping for is a family of related images
More than just a logo, this sounds like a call for design of a graphic identity. As a suggestion towards this end, the following are possible submission requirements:

"1. Every submission consists of the following elements:
a) a long-text treatment, i.e., a stylized, legible rendering of the words 'Vega Strike', line art and full-color
b) a short-text treatment, i.e., the letters 'VS', line art and full-color, in likeness of the long-text treatment
c) an optional isotype (visual 'emblem') capable of standing on its own, line art and full-color rendering
d) at least two separate details or elements taken from the above, or at least matching them thematically/stylistically.
e) combinations of the previous elements, including at least the following arrangements:
i. a 'square' iso+longtext (i.e., designed to fit in a more or less square area.)
ii. a 'horizontal' iso+longtext (designed to fit banners and other areas that are decidely wide.)
f) a suggested treatment for animated sequences (not necessarily 3d.) Sketches, storyboards, arts <edit>and renders</edit> are accepted.

Line art should be black or black plus an additional color preferrably, delivered in .SVG, .AI, .FLA or .PS format, all in flat-color lines and/or fills. Line art is often more easily adaptable to further processing (such as 3d lofting), better suited for low resolutions and for certain types of media.

Full-color art can be presented in up to two different color schemes. It should be initially prepared in 300+dpi resolution and presented in either 72 or 96 dpi .JPG or .PNG. The winner must be able to supply the 300+dpi final artwork upon request by the organizer(s) in .PNG, .PSD, .TGA or .XCF format, in all cases over transparent backgrounds.

It is admissible for the full-color art also to be line art."


This would give you different layouts, formats and applications for a variety of applications. I hope this example helps.
Last edited by CubOfJudahsLion on Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

I like it, Cub. +1 vote from me.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

Here's a comp of the first iterations of my logo idea. It's still rough and very two-dimensional, and I'm not happy with it currently, but I still think it has promise.

Please critique.
Image
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VS Desing Proposal

Post by Zeog »

Alright, here it comes. I already made up a VS design as this discussion and the webpage discussion were developing. My design proposal is by far not finished but it's far enough to let the VS comunity decide whether or not it is worth to put more effort into it.
This proposal consists of: a VS symbol, the VS Logo, a intro movie clip (so far just the script, I can do a complete movie with blender if the effort is worth it), a basic web page layout (heavily WIP) and a color scheme (needs some tweaking).
I'll start with introducing the logo:

Introduction of the Logo - Intro Movie Script

- space, one sees nothing but utter darkness and a few stars

- the camera starts panning to the left, a planet comes into the field of view, one can clearly see the day/night boundary, it's appearantly lighted from its star which is according to the planet's day side somewhere in the distance to the left forward direction

- the camera moves closer to the planet and into its core shadow (which is according to the cameras view point on the planet's right side), one might see the faint light of some civilizations' cities

- when the camera reached (rather quick) the center of the core shadow it starts panning towards the star (which comes now for the first time into view) revealing a total eclipse

- the bright ring of the corona burns a white circle onto the black screen

- in its middle the infinity sign is been drawn, starting at the right loop's top, going through the crossing point to the left loop's lower part, up again, through the crossing and closing the loop

- that's it, the logo symbol has been drawn, one can now starting to reveal the VEGA STRIKE title: the logo symbol is filling the entire screen, but it's only part of the complete logo-title-compound: @ VEGA STRIKE (@ being the logo)

- the screen is just filled with the logo, we are zomming out (the logo becomes smaller and moves to the left side of the screen), the other letters come into the field of view (starting with the V, E, G, A and so on) until the entire title fills the screen's width

- now the subtitle "Upon the Coldest Sea" is being written in smaller letters below the "VEGA STRIKE" part

Detailed Logo Description and Explanation

The circle represents Vega Strikes connection to space, the universe and everything (mhh, sounds somehow familiar). The infinity symbol represents the sheer vastness of the VS universe, the counless ways one can walk on. After all, VS is not only about fighting other space ships or being a travelling salesman. It's about much more but including that.

The VEGA STRIKE title is of the same height as the symbol. All letters are of same height, possibly capitalized.
The subtitle's size is such that the width of "VEGA STRIKE" and "Upon the Coldes Sea" match, the height of the subtitle is at max half the heigth of the title, one might use spaces between the letters of the subtitle to achieve this desired effect. Lower case or even better small caps should be used.

When used as a rather small symbol (or bad resolution) the given shape might be too small. Therefore the ring is made thicker and the infinity symbol might be filled with a single color (giving the shape of a double droplet).

The shape of the symbols eclipse circle reoccur in the letters E and G of the VEGA STRIKE title which also have a perfect circular shape. The arches of the S letter are perfectly circular as well. The other letter accompany that style.

(I made up my own font. I'm not very happy with it, though.)

I favour a version in which the symbols ring's thickness maches the stroke thickness of the letters, the infinity symbol is filled.

For a colored and more picturesque version of the symbol, outgoing flames/rays of the solar eclipse can be added.
The letters might have a look of sheet metall.

An attempt of the above description is made in the sample below:
(colors follow the proposed color scheme, cf. below)
Image

Webpage and Color Scheme
(This is WIP! -- still buggy)
Webpage Design Proposal (merging the VS-front-page and the wiki front page)

This fluid webpage design is in preparation. With it comes a color scheme. I noticed that a rather dark appearance is favoured by many forum users. Therefore it uses an anthracite background with white letters. For highlights (header backgrounds, different colored areas) a mouse-grey and/or white is used with black/antracite letters on it.

For colored text (links) and highlights a golden yellow is mainly used giving a good contrast to an anthracite background. Two further colors are a "LED green" and a color I'd like to call "not pink". It's a light red with a portion of blue in it (to blueish for pink). A pure blue is not used, since it gives only a bad contrast to the background and a good portion of blue is already blended into to "LED green" and the "not pink".
Image
The website is thought to replace the start page and the wiki start page combining them into one. Everything for a potential gamer is listed as well as everything for the devs to quickly acces the most important pages. Further links to dev-pages are at the dev-main-page.

This style might also replace the current wiki style (corporate design).

Implementation

Every graphical element is already availabe as a vector graphic (svg). I can supply a strict geometric description for the letters (distances in units of stroke thickness, angles, etc.)


Please critique this proposal and evaluate whether or not it is worth continuing.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

@Zeog: It's definitely an interesting approach, unlike anything else we've seen. It's got merit, for sure. A few things caught my attention, though:

*Size: it all seems sort of large, and akward. Maybe if everything (including the website) were scaled down about 3/4 to 1/2 that size?

*Logo: I follow your explanation of why you chose it, and it makes sense, but at the same time, I don't feel that it fits. So many other things use the lemniscate that, in my opinion, it's no longer unique.

*Font: I think this is along the same lines as the size-factor, for me. Also, I'm not sure why the letters in "Vega" are consecutively higher than the previous, only to have the "A" drop to the back. Then, having only the "S" and "T" overlapping in "Strike" seems uncongruous (though I understand those letters don't all lend themselves to being visible, if overlaid).

Like I said, though, your designs are a great start, and overall, I like where it's headed. It's very in depth, and well thought out. Awesome!
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Post by zaydana »

Heres my first shot at a logo, text, etc. Sorry i havn't said anything bout u guys' yet... i'll do it in a bit :)

all the versions of this one (lotsa different fonts) are at http://zaydana.servebeer.com/vegastrike/logos/ ... just for reference. This is only my favourite one...

Any ideas, criticism?
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Post by hurleybird »

I think you're on the right track, zay.
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Post by CoffeeBot »

holy crap, zay. that is awesome. I really like the first one, too, with the "logo" in the center, with the megalomania font.
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Post by Zeog »

@zaydana: These font are really pretty and you have a lot of them for sure! We just need to watch, that the vega strike title has its own identity. It should't look like the star trek font.
The symbol is really beautiful also. It reminds me of a galaxy cross section. It is is a good basis to build a clip/animation on. (I had to save your logo, open it with gimp and double the contrast, though. It was too dim to see on my monitor which is already at it highest brightness (and its day time already).

@CoffeeBot: Thanks for the comment. You put it into words what I was unhappy with.
About your proposal: The font looks good to me (it's *legible*). The two bottom ones could be hard to recognize when done with only a single color due to everything being stacked. The beautifully symmetric VS-shape with that swirl has style. The S is looking a bit screwed though. The colors being the same as the current one add definitely to its brand recognition. Thumbs up from me!
How about the top one without that ship and the VS-swirl-compound a litte smaller? How does a 16x16 pix icon look like?
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Post by CubOfJudahsLion »

Weeeeery noice!

Version 1 has my vote, I think. I like 2 (the iso as the 'i'), but it makes it less versatile than 1. With 1 you have more flexibility for layouts. 2 anchors it down to the i.

The font is legible enough IMO, and it definitely makes the logo (in that respect, the space age version was my second favorite.) I had no problems seeing it as is, possibly because I've spent lots of time calibrating my monitor, but not everybody does. I often find myself having to compensate for that.
Last edited by CubOfJudahsLion on Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by klauss »

Oh... the simpleness is really... amazing.
I like when things manage to be good, yet simple.
Until now, the best candidate IMVHO.

I like the Space Age font, though.
Mostly because of its horizontally stetched look.
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Post by zaydana »

Thanks for the feedback peeps :) Does anybody have anything i should do to it apart from the space age font thing?

I personally like the first font better just because it has a bit more identity to it than the space age one. I think "space age" is found in a lot of places. Also, the narrower the font, the better in my opinion, even tho the width does look nice...

Any other things you want me to submit? line art, etc?
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Post by hurleybird »

zaydana wrote:Thanks for the feedback peeps :) Does anybody have anything i should do to it apart from the space age font thing?
Maybe experiment with the symbol, get it to stand out more.
chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Here's some matters of my personal taste and thoughts.
I like Zay's symbol and font. The symbol says something abut shields perhaps, and the central thing looks a bit Aerish. But, over-all it is highly mysterious. I think it's perfect.
I like Zeog's color scheme ideas, and font. But I agree with CoffeeBot about the overlapping details, and would go further and say I'd prefer no overlapping. Tight kerning yes; overlapping no.
I like CoffeeBot's touch of having a ship in the logo, but not so much the tight orbit :)
I wouldn't put an orbit. Or maybe a couple of straight trails.
Zeog's animation idea sounds very good. Excellent, in fact, moving the camera into a planet's shadow, then panning toward the star as it is eclipsed by the planet. What's missing is some action. Maybe over the faint city lights, suddenly like a bunch of sporadic firecrackers. You wonder what they are, then the logo comes in, and at the end, flying through the logo, a wave of pieces of ship hulls and twisted debris engulf the camera and momentarily darken the corona. Then they are gone and the logo and corona are visible again.
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Post by jackS »

@zeog

I'm going to have to ditto Coffeebot and say that the lemniscate's been around the block a few too many times to be our workhorse.
However, I greatly appreciate the format of your post - it had all the pieces we needed in it, and should be a guide to what additional submissions should be addressing.

@zay

Elegant iconography, and assuming an appropriate font is settled on (a decision that need not be immediate) I'm certain a beautiful and usable long-text version as well.
However, I've yet no indication from you what you've presented a stylized rendering of - the substance behind the symbolism. Is it a representation of a barred spiral galaxy? Is it some strange mystic eye peering out from the unknown? Don't know. Can't tell. (although you might guess which is more appealing to me ;-)). You should work on that. Then, when you've go that down, we can consider what the de-iconified (expanded) version would entail.


@all

Caution yourself about over-extravagance when considering the animated/fleshed out/expanded/de-iconified version of the logo - this ties directly back in to having a good grasp of whatever the root symbolism is for and how that ties in with VS. With all respect to Chuck, I'd avoid too much direct "action" unless the proposed symbol concerns such. There's a difference between constructiong a graphical identity and a set of various representations thereof, and starting work on how we're going to integrate the logo into an as-yet-unmade intro video of as-yet-undecided content. A solidly constructed and relevant symbol can be made to withstand some contortions in representation for the sake of integration with the flow of other media, or to stand on it's own, as the situation dictates. Let's not jump the gun (any more than we already tend to - there's a song entitled "Naming the Band" that sometimes comes to mind).
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