Opinions/Critique Needed On Logo Design

[Hypergear]

Hey guys, I was wondering if I could get some help on a new logo I'm trying to design for my website. I have been trying to follow as many design procedures as I can however my graphic design skills need a bit of a polishing.

Below I have 4 short listed in the first draft phase, I'm a bit worried about the repeating ink mark pattern, I'm really happy with it and I think it contains quite a lot of energy however I'm not sure if it communicates the artistic/creative nature of my website.

The other shapes represent the title Hypergear Studios, colour to come later.

Any help would be great guys!

-HG

[DAMJAN]

Tell me what is that brush/calligraphy thing suppose to be? When you first look at it, you might think its some Asian symbol for those of us that don't know any of the Asian languages. Out of all 4 your strongest design is A. However, you need bold text for HYPERGEAR and make STUDIOS smaller. Bold text to add contrast between those 2 words and to balance out with the heaviness of the logo itself. Second, you need to fix spacing between each letter, it's too much spaced apart. Have you tried to scale these logos down? Do they read well on a small scale as well as large? Have you designed this in Illustrator? Try taking logo A, resize the black design and make it fit within the gear. I would like to see that. Also, try taking out white outline on logo A as well and then let me see and critique it.

[Jason Rainville]

an "H" inside of the gear, even a stylistic, ink brush one would not only have some relevance to the identity but would be way more readable and memorable than the random thing you have right now. H-gear, hyper gear, easy peasy.

[Ethlen Rain]

The graphics in A, C and D are too complex - you should probably only choose one element to represent your brand or combine them into one element.

They layout I think would be best is symbol over the text - in B, the text is awkwardly placed to the side, however the lack of excess is good.

Like DAMJAN said, the calligraphy does look like an asian character, which is okay if you do asian inspired art but if you don't maybe you should emphasise the gear in an artistic way.

[nauvice]

the symbol looks like an Asian character, but I don't think it is? i've been trying to make out what it is.

I love th Gear symbols though, especially the one in C. But I like the simplicity of B

[DAMJAN]

Yeah, when I take a second look, A like others are too clustered. Stylize the gear like said above, try adding letter H and make it integrated in the center of that gear.

[DAMJAN]

Yeah that was a good idea with stylized H within. Here it is a quick one. U refine it and make it good.

[Hypergear]

Thanks for all the help guys! Gave me a lot too think about putting into the next revision!

DAMJAN: Yeah the ink brush symbol was a design I came up with which was ment to represent the creative energy of the website, I can see now with other people looking it loses that and becomes just a random symbol. Also thanks for the advice and the illustration as well!

Jason: Thanks! I feel a bit stupid now not seeing the design you mentioned, very simple and much more effective! Thanks for the help!

Ethlen: Much thanks, I'm starting to see the running theme here with changing the random Asian symbol to something more effective and making sure things relate to each other in a balanced way!

zwarrior: Thanks! I have to say I am quite fond of the more simple design, it was just trying to incorporate the gear part of the brand into it!

-HG

[kittymeow84]

Aside from what the others have said, you need to add some more contrast in you typography.

When choosing fonts try and think exactly what 'feeling' that font is conveying and whether it fits with what you want your logo to say.

The typeface you've got at the moment says to me 'modern, simple'. It's probably good for one of the words but not both (and you do need to fix those tracking/kerning issues ). I think something a bit heavier for the 'hypergear' would be nicer - and a bit more edgy. But not so edgy that it becomes illegible when you print it small. Also, it would be good to give preference to 'hypergear' and make it larger than 'studios'.

And you've done well to start your design in greyscale. That's probably one of the most important things you need to do when designing logos

[DigitalNoesis]

Just a thought:

The H inside of the gear is cool, but if you invert it and turn it upside down its a Y... and it kind of looks like a P when its in that direction... and it kind of looks like an E... and so on...

..So on your website you could have the gears start out disoriented and then have a motor start and move/rotate them...all linked up...to spell HYPERGEAR.

The navigation could have some gearing, linkages and so forth so when you click on a tab people watch the gears work to put the information on the screen. There are some books on neat mechanical linkages and so forth that you could check out. If it was just simple gearing it might be kinda tacky, but with some semi-complex gearing that is interesting to watch it could mezmorize people.

I think playing off the 'gear' theme is cool.

The idea needs refinement, but, maybe that will spur some ideas for you?

[Hypergear]

Thanks too kittymeow84 and DigitalNoesis for your comments! great help

kittymeow84: Yeah I need to think about typography a lot more, it has never been a strong point of mine! Another reason why I'm glad I get to think about it a lot more here Thanks for the comment!

DigitalNoesis: Ah yeah I see what you mean about the gearing and how the letters look depending on the orientation of the gear! Definitely something I will look into incorporating, thanks much!

-HG

[Rowtree]

I like the greys of A, but the gear of D.

[Hypergear]

Ok, onto the second draft. After some working out I've come up with these 4 designs, quite fond of B myself, even tried a capital H just to see what would happen.

Also thanks again to everyone who commented, great help, just need some more now!

I tried to keep the designs to a bare minimum again, making sure I get the core design right before I add any flare to it. A few previous revisions looked too much like the Half-Life logo, so changes were made.

Opinions?

[DAMJAN]

check out my revision. replace some text where indicated.

[DAMJAN]

Here is a cool and simple one. Of course I didn't use the same font as you did. Which program r u using to make these logos?