stretching text is a big no no. all the little shadow pieces or going to get lost at smaller size. overall not very memorable.

So you can only criticize but no ideas to help me out on this blog apparently. I agree about the word design and will fix that issue. As for the outline, I see what you are talking about but it will not make the font illegible. Any suggestions for improvement....

Hi 4twenty3design. Welcome to the forum. If you haven't already, make sure to check out the forum rules and FAQs. We try to point all new members to those important theads.

Now...

Step back and think about what you're asking. This is your personal logo and we know nothing about you except for a couple posts. All we can surmise from that is that you call yourself a graphic designer and you intend to operate under the name 4twenty3design. Can we really give meaningful ideas about what kind of icon you should have to uniquely represent you?

Which leads to another point. We're happy to critique what you come up with and offer guidance, but the ideas are your responsibility.

I agree with Typ, the shadow bits are extraneous and really muddy up what could be a clean logo, not to mention the sizing issues that incur. You have already acknowledged the stretched text, so I won't add anything except that you should consider a different font for it.

That aside, the name itself is hard to remember because of its number|text|number set up, perhaps a different iteration would help, like "four23". Another thing I should mention I originally see 4twenty, which makes me think 4:20 and because your business name is 4:23 makes me think you might like to party before work. This might not have an effect on older generations, but you have to consider that younger generations familiar with the term are slowly acquiring those positions held currently by older generations.

sorry i didn't know i was supposed to come up with ideas for you you asked for feedback and i gave it.

That's not what we do here. Coming up with ideas is the best part of your job as a designer! =)

I have to agree with the above. The shadow doesn't necessarily bother me as much but you may want to iterate the color of it to help un-muddy the logo read. As it stands, the shadow is very pronounced.

Also, the "t"s bother me a lot. Perhaps I'm just a type purist but the mixing of cases in this instance isn't helping me at all. In fact, the "t"s stop my eyes dead in their tracks.

Overall, the type mark doesn't have a lot of personality in it from where I'm sitting. But perhaps that's what you're going for. My best advice is to do more free-wheeling sketching and see what concepts come up from that. Remember: There is no judgment in brainstorming!

Shoot higher than "not illegible"!!!


What other concepts did you work on?


I think one reason you aren't getting much positive feedback is there really isn't all that much in this logo that is compelling in any direction.

Sometimes the best advise is to tell you to go back to the drawing board and work up a couple dozen new concepts and ideas.


One part of how I assess a logo is if I have any trouble reading it, it is usually a fail.

I misread your logo. That shouldn't happen.

The 4 and 3 bothers me a lot. It makes the text look inconsistent. It could work if you change to old-style text figures, where they actually are supposed to stop at the x-height.

Wouldn't say it's the "best part", "vital part" would be more appropriate.


I wouldn't stretch the text. I wouldn't have that shadow in behind - think for example getting stuff printed on a t-shirt, even a thin stroke like that on a flock transfer print, the thin edges would peel right off - even if it was screen printed directly onto the garment it's going to be too fine to hold a solid weight.

And on a printing plate, for brochures, flyers, stationery, etc. that thin line could break apart on the plate after a few thousand impressions or something... that's if the printers RIP can actually reproduce the thing line onto the plate, and then the printers can transfer the ink from the thin strip on the plate to the substrate.


Any - ideas for you?

I'm not keen on the name - it's too awkward to pronounce, and it's not memorable. I can't even remember the name of it I'd have to scroll down to find that out.

It's very generic. Some text and this new fangled cool dude way of wr1t1ng w0rd5 with numb3r5 is very bland.

I don't know if that's what you were aiming for but hey - that's what it looks like to me.



You're best bet, I reckon, would be to sit down with a pencil and sketchpad and sketch out up to 20 different unique marks for yourself. Only when you've narrowed it down to 4 or 5 should you attempt to bring it to a computer screen.

Agreed. My original take on it was that you were three minutes late for a 4:20 party. I immediately thought of time.

Maybe it's a few minutes after 4:20 that his creativity peaks? But if that's the case, why would he need any ideas from us?

Thanks for the feedback so far. What I am gathering is that I just need to stop all design ideas for this and change everything, even the name of the company. I wanted just to use my name but there is someone with the same name and using it for his graphic design company. I just started freelancing after graduating with my degree until I find a job so, this is going to be a on-the-side job. I thought that using my area code was a good idea but, apparently not. For the ones being ridiculous, I was only asking for a jump start on ideas not for you to do the work for me. Critiquing work and being an ass are two different things so, just keep that in mind.

If the name means something to you, stick with it, it's your personal logo. We're just giving you our opinion of what we see. I didn't get area code at all.

I agree... I'm trying to read it like fourtwentythree like all strung together and 1 word... it sounds weird when I look at it.

why the 4 and 3?

EDIT: oh, area code, gotcha. Yeah I'm not crazy about it, it just reads funny to me.

Learning to accept criticism is something you should keep in mind too.