Hi Bill - It's a great start! You are right - the whole blue area with the star just doesn't look right. I also need to make sure the design will look good in both a full color imprint as well as a one color imprint. Maybe put the sign inside a larger rectangle - like the highway signs are - and put at the top "American" and at the bottom of the sign "Embroidery Co." and then inside the red area you have already drawn - put: "Your Route to" and in the blue area..... heck! I don't know...... "Exceptional Logoed Merchandise"? or "Branding Your Logo The American Way" ? Jeez this is tough!
Yes it's not easy and it takes time to do it right.
All the logos I create will always translate to one color, That's the way I design them before I add any color. I think most designer work that way.
You really don't want a lot of text in your logo. The simpler the logo the better it will serve you. Keep the tag like clear and to the point, "Promotional Products", or "Promotional Items" All that other "teaser text" never works in a Logo (otherwise you'd see it all the time :) Since you are doing business in areas outside embroidery I think it's important to have that tag line (especially since the word Embroidery in in your name!), no need to overthink it.
If you want to use a Hwy sign (which is a great recognizable symbol) I would stick with this Route "66" interstate type, it's visually appealing and impactful. The green rectangle type won't come across as anything other than a green box.
We could put the Star with some stripes (and possibly a needle) in the center (blue area) and then put "& Promotional Items" in a script font underneath. That would give us the much needed action we are missing in the center... do you think that would be worth doing?
Ok, here we go ... much needed improvements for this concept.
I've made sure there's a solid foundation with good weights to the all the typography and shapes so they can be produced in any color combinations and stitched easily.
All the logos are interchangeable as you can see, mixing and matching colors, etc. as needed. I've only shown them in red/white/blue solid colors so you won't get distracted by gradations, tones or special effects. Those effects can be added later if needed.
I've thickened up the name "AMERICAN EMBROIDERY CO. with a better Condensed/Bold font so it reads better. I've also shown three different scripts that all have good thick strokes and no hairlines.
One of the versions has a half of the letter A with the stripes outlining the star in the negative space.
Hi Bill - Thanks for putting so much thought behind all of your renderings! You have some great ideas - and I like the way it's going, but it's still not hitting me right. The half of the "A" is unique - but until you told me that, I didn't realize that that was what it was - I was thinking "airplane..... hmmm, what does that have to do with my company".
How about with the street/hwy sign, we focus on "Driving Your Sales" - but I would still think about adding the rectangle around the hwy sign - look up Route 66 sign images and you'll see one that has what I'm talking about.
I can see you have a ton of talent! Thank you for all of your ideas! As of yet, though, I'm still leaning towards the design that's in first place - but I think you are on to something!