2 logos I made

[4lander]

Hey,
I just stumbled upon this site today and its amazing since im starting my own graphic design buisness.
Here are two logos I made. The first for my design company HK-DESIGN, and second a logo I made for a band called Melissa. Im new to graphic design so all critques are welcome.
Thanks

[tZ]

I have no clue what these are meant to communicate therefor, they need to re-though as to what you want them to say to your audience.

A logo communciates something and these communicate nothing at all.

They merly exist aesthetically interesting pieces of art rather then a design solution which communicates something conceptual about the company/buesiness in which they represent.

These say nothing at all and are therefor, not sucessfull.

I would suggest getting some books on logo design if you don't know what I am talking about before you start to sell your designs. You said it yourself your new to this and maybe starting uo a design biz isn't the best thing at first. Maybe learning how to design is.

I'm not trying to come off as mean just honest for your benifit.

[4lander]

no harm done...thank you for the advice...i will continue to try to improve these designs...since i am only 16..

thanks

[PrintDriver]

I'm gonna assume you posted as .gif to get make them small and viewable.
.gif is not a logo format. You want to be working in Vector format, not Raster.

I commend you for wanting to start a business at 16 but you may want to research what it is you are offering for a service. Professional GD is not just a computer and software. You need to understand marketing principles as tZ pointed out as well as the artistic and file format needs of the industry. Pretty pictures are just that. Pretty pictures.

[4lander]

i do my work in illustrator cs2....i made them gif so they could be viewed online

[Mike Stone]

I like the first one, a good start, but the second with the red marks is confusing...maybe if you tied them together with another element, it could work.

[4lander]

yeah the red marks are supposed to be a play and a pause symbol, but i guess i need to make it more clear.

[peterbrowne]

i do my work in illustrator cs2....i made them gif so they could be viewed onlineI suggest downgrading to 8 or 9. People will start complaning when printers can't open the files.;)

I'm also 16 and it happened to me, I use CS/11.

[Neballer]

I suggest downgrading to 8 or 9. People will start complaning when printers can't open the files.;)


:confused:
There's a way to back save to pervious versions of Illy in CS2, or you could always send them a pdf - everybody loves pdfs. Anywhoos I would definitely suggest NOT down-grading in any senario

[tZ]

save as a legacy file.

[carter the artist]

Neballer, actually you have to becareful of Pdf's exported out of illy. In my shop, we run into occasional problems with those as well.

[Neballer]

right, everywhere is going to be different. So talk to your friendly printer before hand to avoid any complications. But speaking in generalities - saving/exporting as a pdf makes alot more sense than down-grading to Illy 8.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Your HK logo reminds me of the Mini (the car) logo only their wings face up and yours face down.Also it does not communicate Design. The work on it though is very good, you may want to get rid of the reflection ting at the bottom, that may lose visual value in small size say on a promo item like a pen.

The second one for the band: Not quite there I'm afraid :). A logo needs to be clearly identifiable and legible, if text is used. This looks more like a debut album name (you could keep this for that purpose in the future- very good). Look at other logos for long standiong bands, then look at good papers online about what a logo is and ways to think out and develop one. There was a very good paper on logo development on Logomotives' site- Blogomotives...perhaps someone here will assist you locate it.


Found it! http://blog-omotives.blogspot.com/

You need to look at:
- what kind of music do "Melissa" play?
- what's their style?
among other things. For the logo to grow with the band it needs to be symbolically strong and similarly representative of the band- when the band is not there, the logo is them!

Push these further...;)

[panzer]

i like the idea of the play and pause the font makes me gag

[Jeff Fisher LogoMotives]

Hey,
I just stumbled upon this site today and its amazing since im starting my own graphic design buisness.
Here are two logos I made. The first for my design company HK-DESIGN, and second a logo I made for a band called Melissa. Im new to graphic design so all critques are welcome.
Thanks

I don't think the logo for yourself conveys enough information about the fact it is for a designer. It is an image I have seen way too often - and Mini Cooper is the first thing I thought of when I saw the design. It's not a rip-off of the design, but it projects a similar image/feel. The HK is very evident - but HK what?

I like the band logo a great deal - and I got the musical graphic references immediately. If the frenetic type treatment is appropriate to the music played by Melissa the logo could be successful for the group.

At 16 (34 years ago) I was also already doing design and art work for friends, family and clients coming to me via word-of-mouth. Hang in there. Educate yourself about all aspects of design in any way you can. Be a sponge and soak up every bit of information about design. You may want to read my columns at Logo Notions (http://www.creativelatitude.com/logo_notions/index.html) for more information about logo design. I'm not sure what specific bLog-oMotives (http://blog-omotives.blogspot.com/) entry was being referred to by Samakimoto Graphics - I suspect one might be Anatomy of a logo design (http://blog-omotives.blogspot.com/2006/01/anatomy-of-logo-design.html) in which I dissect an identity I created. I'm going to post a list of logo design reference books on my blog today as so many people request suggestions from me on a regular basis.

EDIT: I've posted the list on bLog-oMotives this morning: Logo design by the book (and the Internet) (http://blog-omotives.blogspot.com/2006/07/logo-design-by-book-and-internet.html)

Good luck!

- J.

[carter the artist]

I noticed a lot of people are harping on your second logo, but it's not a problem of legibility as much as copyright infringement. Because it looks a lot like this:

http://www.shewantsrevenge.com/

Bands logo.

And some people have stated that your first logo is pretty reminiscent of Mini's logo.

Try to do something a little more personal.

[Jeff Fisher LogoMotives]

I noticed a lot of people are harping on your second logo, but it's not a problem of legibility as much as copyright infringement. Because it looks a lot like this:

http://www.shewantsrevenge.com/

Bands logo.

That would be a HUGE stretch for any copyright attorney's case - it's just a handwritten font treatment and the example you have shown is far from the same - even in the same industry.

With the band logo image, what immediately came to mind for me was the type treatment being a much more unrefined example of something like the Stussy (http://www.goodlogo.com/vote/?id=31) identity - and yet being reminiscent of another logo/style is not necessarily a bad thing. The less refined type may be exactly the style being sought by the band in question.

- J.

[G-Man79]

Stussy...wow, that takes me back.

Echo previous comments on your first logo. It's doesn't convey what you want it to.

The band logo (#2) works for me. Being a musician, I can appreciate a logo like this for perhaps a pop-punk style band. A little messy and wreckless but effective.

[Logo-Mechanix]

I did a logo for a friends band when I was about 17, it was one of those things the guy kept harping on me about. I was busy with other things and didn't really have the time to do a freebie so I just took a black marker (this was before people were using computers for this sort of thing) and I just wrote the name of the band one time really messy and crappy looking. Everybody loved it, they had shirts printed up and flyers, I have to admit it did work rather well even if it only took about 5 seconds.