Here are some of my concepts. I've gone for something that's fairly clean and simple, yet striking. Creating an icon that works well within the logo or as a stand alone element, one that can be used for things like favicons or watermarks.
With #124 and #125, I went with something a bit different ... You mention that you turn the information into "stories", so with these the icon is a combination of lines of text with a bookmark ... Every good story needs a bookmark, and in this case its literally Anne Folan & Associates - here to help you.
The logos are 100% vector so will scale well to any size, and works well in full colour, B&W and on coloured backgrounds if needed.
It would be my pleasure to work up any variations so please do say. I look forward to your comments or thoughts.
Hi, Angus! Thanks so much for your entries. I really appreciate the thought and creativity that have gone into them. I am not sure about the bookmark, though. I get the concept behind it, but I think, for someone coming at it cold, it looks like a flag or a pennant. If you have to think about it for even a split second, the impact is lost, and as I thought about "OK, well, what if we just make sure it's instantly recognizable as a bookmark?" I realized that even then, the connection is too attenuated. It might work for a library or for an initiative to promote literacy, but my clientele would just not "get it."
With the fountain pen nib, I think we are closer but that, too, could be mistaken for a coronet . . . the last thing I want to be mistaken for (or to be) is arrogant.
I like the way you think though . . . could you take another crack at it, along more stylized/less literal lines?
Thanks for the feedback and comments, always appreciated! And completely understand your reasoning.
Here is a slightly different approach; #127 Its an "a" and "F" combination, where the "F" is actually in the negative white space between the left and top black lines and the red "a".