Choosing logo fonts

[jonnie]

It has come to my attention that most logos these days are just the company name written in a font.

I have been designing logos for a band named The Faint, and I have developed one idea very thoroughly. For variety I would now like to create some new ideas, but i don't exactly know where to start...

I have all the background info on the band, and have used it very well to create a logo that I feel suits their image, but I can't think how to use this info again to create a different idea.

What fonts should I used? Where can I get them from? How do I go about choosing a font?

Basically, where do you get your inspiration from?

Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

[greyghost]

I just mull logo ideas over for a few days, then I sit down with lots of paper and a pencil and sketch out some ideas. I usually wind up with 30 ideas, then start mixing and matching until I pick out three that look like they might do the trick. Then I hop on the PC and work 'em out!

[morea]

Logo design is an art in itself, one that takes a lot of study. It's not a simple matter of choosing a font and typing a name.

You have to consider who your client is, the values they want to project, the type of clients they want to appeal to, what they do, what sets them apart from their competition, etc...

[jlknauff]

What fonts should I used?Comic sans and don't forget to add a bevel & emboss and a drop shadow :D

[Navian]

:eek:

How dare you used the name of the font that "shall-not-be-named"!

It is forbidden to speak it!

[jlknauff]

Lol...oh yeah...don't forget to make it a chromed rainbow color too!

[greyghost]

Comic sans and don't forget to add a bevel & emboss and a drop shadow :D

You forgot outer glow. Oh, and some sparkly effects too!

[morea]

lens flare. Gradients. Swooshes.

Actually, please don't. ;)

[greyghost]

Oh come on, it could be a mighty cool logo with all those effects!

[tZ]

might as well take it all the way- create it in photoshop at 72 dpi also.

This way the logo is scalable and easy to manipulate versus creating it in a vector program which doesn't allow the same capabilities as raster- ability to scale, etc.

Now to answer your questions:

What fonts should I used?
Any one your little heart desires.

Where can I get them from?
Places where you would buy fonts, fonts allready on your system or create your own.

How do I go about choosing a font?
good question... isn't that what we are paid to figure out?

As for inspiration... my best source of inspiration comes from interactions that are not premeditated. For example, just seeing a design out of no were that I really take to... stuff of that nature.

However, what you are looking for is a way relate your band typographically/visually to that of market. There for, what one should do is rather then searching for inspiration most likly the better pursuit would be that of researching bands logos which close resembelence of music to that of your clients.

Also, if time and budget allows research bands of totally contrasting music style to that of your clients. You may find something "interesting" in either case and also once you start to interact with others designs you should be able to better create a design influenced by the ones in interactions. Using this as means of creating a effective and sucessfull design based on the target market from existing design rather then just your "wim".

At least those are the first steps I would most likly take.

Because you can't manipulate what you don't know about- correct?

and in this case.... it happens to be market. So you should first try to gain as much knowledge about design associated with that market as you can before even touching a pencil to paper. Alot of the time when researching things just so happen to "pop up" also... which tends to lead to some interesting results that would have been overlooked without the time devoted to research.

[Logo-Mechanix]

The answer depends on so many variables its almost impossible to answer. I just brain storm with pencil and paper until I have at least 3 or 4 that stand out from the others and than I scan them and go to the computer.