I too have been a victim of designing stuff in golden ratio, especially after my high school art professor, (also my mentor for getting into design college) completely filled my head with it. Unfortunately it often turns out to be “Sisyphean work” (Speaking of the Greeks…)
I think the circle idea might work but I’d definitely rethink the colours. Yellow/black combination in this setting reminds me of Batman a bit. Not a big fan of these colours generally, I usually refrain from using basic colours like red, yellow, magenta, …unless print is the association you want to achieve here, but even in that case, I think cmyk colour are being overused in print related logos. Also, try using colour combinations for a reason, e.g. combining complimentary colours, if you want to achieve the contrast. The combination of this yellow and this pink looks very amateur to me. Pink and yellow could work nicely together but not saturated like this. Maybe different shades? If you’re struggling with picking the right colours, see if Pinterest can serve as inspiration.
About the candle/brush issue, look up brush icons and see how they are outlined. Not saying copy them, but maybe you get a heureka moment and realise something you could change to make them look more brushy.
Have you tried using a flat brush on both ends as oppose to the round tip? I think the flat brush resembles a castle tower more than the round brush. You can also make the round brush thinner, and fray the tips in a way that look more like a brush and less like a flame. Also, more/different line variation may help.
That said, I think your stuck on the castle idea. I’d hit the sketchbook and create new ideas. You may land on something more impactful, or inadvertently solve the issue with your castle.
Normally a logo would be created for a specific company, with a specific goal and target audience. In my opinion, unless you have that as a starting point, all the exercises and work you’re doing are just exercises.
So how will you understand when it gets better or worse? What exactly is the goal for this logo?
And here it comes, the current status. At the moment I like the blue on white circle castle below left best. I am considering to add a drop to the rounded brush, to eliminate last doubts about seeing a candle in the brush…
So, the purpose of this logo is to use as a “artist signature” or mark on a piece of art?
I can only reiterate what I said earlier. Start sketching more concepts. If you have a hard time putting pencil to paper, than start by writing words or mission statements, then sketch concepts based off that.
after some thinking I discarded the brush castler and tried something different. The artists name contains two “K” s as first letter. So I started sketching a monogramm
I’d probably go with a more squared diamond shape and align ‘Karla Kurz’ to the centre as opposed to the base line of the ‘KK’.
I’d thin up the lines of the shape, so there is more contrast between the thickness of the ‘kk’ and the shape, it will also make it look more elegant and not clunky.
As for font, I’d suggest using the same font for ‘Karla Kurz’ as the ‘KK’. My argument for that would be they represent the same thing, so there is no reason to differentiate the typeface.
I went further with my logotype and followed your suggestions. But honestly I am not sure about the typeface useing for “karla kurz”. And I am also not sure about the position of the name referring to the monogramm in the middle…
As you showed your measurements on paper & you want your final logo to be like that example logo, just be careful about both side brushes height with the castle, if you are using the same brush just flip the brushes to look like a mirror image of brushes on the side of the castle.
But if you are using different brushes, then keep both side brushes sizes equal. I hope it will work for you.
