UPDATE: Could you comment here instead? I had to make some changes 🙂
Would love to hear any and all suggestions: I’m creating a new logo for my wife’s (upcoming) new website at voiceresults.com (just the old one there now).
We’ll also be using the logo on jackets, e.g.:
I like the middle variation below as it seems to work best against both dark and light backgrounds. But the left variation adds color. My feeling is that if we do a solid, we should just use black/white, as in the right-hand variation.
There is also the possibility of doing the middle variation with some color, as in the example above of putting the logo on a black fleece jacket (compared to the white solid). What do you think?
I’ve also tried some variations with sound waves around the microphone, though they seem to complicate things:
When I first started designing the logo, I tried some much more colorful and complex variations, but decided simpler would be better. Your thoughts? Any suggestions, ideas or tips are welcome. Thanks!
UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions here and on Twitter. I’ve made some adjustments and am leaning toward a web look like this:
Update: I created a new post because I had to go in a completely different direction after Doug Canning drew my attention to how similar the work above was to some voice icons on both iPhone and Android. This is the new direction:
Before I had to make major changes, this was supposed to be just an update of this initial, overwrought effort:
(We paid someone to do the initial voiceresults site because we needed it in a hurry, and it was okay. But it’s purpose has changed now.)
When I first started trying to design logos, I was pretty good at manipulating pixels in Photoshop, but not good with vectors. Here, for example, is a partially done old retouch of mine:
Over time, I got better with vectors, but my work was still too “busy” to be a decent logo. I lacked design training. Here are some examples of my efforts, one for a client (Uturat) and the rest for myself, trying to teach myself to do logos:
As an example of what I’ve done with my Photoshop hobby, I did accept a job designing a photo-heavy site a while back:
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Several suggestions – for what they may be worth.
eliminate the circle – makes it look too much like an ikon. then consider
voice and results as two lines of text directly under the mike. If you
want to emphasize “voice” use caps. I like the sound waves – consider
a second color from the mike and coordinate the color of voice with the
mike and results with the wave.
Awesome tips, Dick! Thanks very much. Experimenting with the sound wave now 🙂
I think the sound waves add energy to the logo – but only when the logo is rendered in a larger size, such as on a sign. On a business card or letterhead, the sound waves do seem to make the whole thing seem a little too busy.
In the interest of creating a single logo that can cut cleanly across print, web, and promotional merchandise, I agree that the black/white variation shown above on the right-hand size looks best. Two suggestions you could try while experimenting:
1) Keep the font the same for the two words, but place the word “voice” in a slightly larger-size font than the word “results.”
2) Or, keep the font size the same, but elevate the word “results” in a barely-perceptible superscript so that it floats just slightly higher than the word “voice.”
Great advice, Dennis. Will experiment a bit more.
Any reason why it looks very much like the Voice Memo App icon on my iPhone?
I don’t have an iPhone or iPad or use any apps, but the type of icon for the mic is pretty common. I’ve hand-created it as a vector in PhotoShop and tweaked it to my liking, but I got the general idea from similar icons I’ve seen over the years.
UPDATE: I see what you mean! It’s much more identical than I expected. In fact, virtually all the small tweaks I made made it MORE similar…sigh…so I’ve begun doing a much different version.
Hey Todd,I’d be really interested in something a bit more in detail about your conversation with Scott Rafer. I’ve started using MyBlogLog. It’s an interesting concept of &#;2M082yspacing” the disparate un-hooked blogs out there.
I bought 500 DJ Tee Shirts to give away for advertising purposes. Pretty simple, SLOGAN on front, DJ Business name on the back, with Contact info.
Ironically, MEN were concerned more about the colours! For example, even though Neon Pink showed best on BLACK, and Bright Yellow on BLUE, those two colours were the least desired by men. The most popular were not *bright* at all, but White lettering on Navy, or Black Lettering on White.
But, in the styles you show above, the one I like best, I believe is the one you speak of in the middle, or as shown in the Jacket on the LEFT (OUTLINE FORMAT ONLY) in BLUE. That colour stands out, and if I was picking a jacket from a group of the various logo styles, that is the one I would pick.
Also heard about this through @tweetsmarter
And the *soundwaves* make it look more crowded, and simplicity works
The WHITE outline version is also great looking on BLACK, as in the back of the jacket.
Hope you get lots of help and feedback, I am not a Subject Matter Expert on this stuff, but I did put a lot of money into 4 different colour patterns of my Tees that any woman would wear, but some men avoided some letter colours. I was asked by professional consultants to give my opinion on stuff they were paid extremely well to decide themselves, so maybe they valued my opinion. I engaged a lot of people in years of entertainment, so I have some idea what they liked.
Good luck
Wow, thanks for sharing your wisdom from personal experience! Really helpful, and very much appreciated.
Howdy. Found your site thanks to @TweetSmarter. Based on what’s shown, here are my gut level thoughts, worth approximately $.02:
· Current lowercase & round button-like shape indicate “hip,” “techie”
· Soundwaves = good movement. See if you can get the same effect with less
· Unless you want “voice” diminished, I’d suggest not bolding “results”
· Might want to experiment with “voice” on top, then icon, then “results”
Overall, what you have is defintely decent; it’s just a matter of finding the right “voice” for the logo! Good luck.
Awesome, thanks Richard! Great advice and observations. I’ll experiment.
Paula, thanks so much for the quotes; both are wonderful. I know just what you are saying. I find such joy in time spent with my golden reetrevirs, Liza Jolie and Zydeco Ardoin. Over the past 56 years, all of the dogs and cats (and guinea pig, hamsters, and fish )who have blessed my life have given me a great deal of happiness. Our furry friends – canine, feline, feathered, … – teach us a lot about the magic in moments, don’t they?
Tu élèves la gourmandise et la gastronomie à un niveau inégalé ;-D Une belle amélioration que je tenterai lors de ma prochaine Tatin (par quoi est-ce que je pourrais remplacer la ventrèche, tu penses?) Votre convivialité (and your grace) me ravissent! By the way, I love your picture in the article, a frank and direct gaze that’s worth a million words! Makes people want to meet you!