Mag logo critique

[incubeezer]

Just for fun/maybe portfolio, this would be a logo for a magazine, maybe something like a local news music and happenings type thing for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, if it was real. The one on the left is the one I like, the one on the bottom right was kind of a quick one i wanted to try but I thought I'd throw it in while I was at it

Any thoughts, comments, feelings of discust would be very welcome, Thanks. Yay

[Pointyhat]

I love the idea of the first two but you can't read it well. The third one is very brandable, clean, simple, the "T" is brilliant. What about using the same typeface for the whole masthead. Your using three right now, pare it down a bit and let the design and typeface speak for themselves. I really, really like it though.

[Randomhero]

I do like the first one a lot. It is hard to read tho, and unfortunately it wouldn't fit very well across the top of a magazine. The "Timber" needs to be a bit bigger I think.

[incubeezer]

Yea, that's a problem I had with the first logo, the visibility and the placing for the front of a magazine. The second one I felt like was very plain. A more magazine type logo but plain. The yellow and brown one has more of a concept behind it. Any more suggestions or comments?

[Optimusdinkus]

maybe giving it a more organic form to the letters, so that it looks more like a tree

[budafist]

I like the idea, but the first 2 are hard to read.

[drawingguy]

There's no rule that says the logo has to be horizontal in magazines. I've seen plenty of magazines with their logo in the upper left corner, either square or vertical.

[akataka]

maybe giving it a more organic form to the letters, so that it looks more like a tree

I agree, just like you gave the first idea those roots at the bottom of the tree, maybe you could add those to the second idea without being too obtrusive.

[Rosger]

Yeah, first things I learned in Typography was to keep it down to 2 different fonts at the max except for the odd occasion where 3 or more are used.

[CkretAjint]

There's no rule that says the logo has to be horizontal in magazines. I've seen plenty of magazines with their logo in the upper left corner, either square or vertical.

I agree. My friends and I put out a bimonthly magazine and the mast head runs vertical up the left side.

[incubeezer]

Thanks to all who commented.
Yeah, The horizontal one I brought down to two fonts, same font on the words Timber and Magazine. I've been thinking about the other one, I liked the idea of using the organic look of the roots and bringing it to the word timber. That solution could work. I'm debating whether it should still be cutting into the tree with the white half or just pull the whole word out and do the letters in kind of branches but still readable.

[Jackimalyn]

i think the third one is most brandable and has the most potential. i would, however get rid of the exclamation point. then, the logo could be "Timber" or simply the "T". have you tried other fonts besides helvetica?