I like your original colors better.
I do have a comment on the gear graphic. A few people have questioned "what is in the gear?" They did not realize it was an E. I like the current style, but I am wondering if you can do something with that E, so that it is a little more obvious that it is an E.
One idea is to put (1) thin line within each of the white lines. The length of these think lines would be equal to the length of the middle line...