First of all, I hope it's HatBox and not Hat Box (two words). If it is two separate words, please let me know and I'll fix them, sorry about that. :)
I wanted to make the logo modern but retain a vintage look with the fonts I chose and the coloration. On some, I chose to make the colors more typical of old screen printing ink pigments as seen in #32 compared to #34. I also wanted to present variations so that you can mix-n-match, so every design is slightly different. Because of the strong nature of the women you portray in your shows, I chose to give the woman in the logo a "stoic" and very self confidant appearance. I hope you like them. Your thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I forgot to mention, that for some reason, all my entries uploaded twice. The currently withdrawn designs were all repeats, so I pulled them to avoid confusion.
Night Owl - Looking for the attitude in the illustration. Your technical execution is exceptional - use of typeface much appreciated as well. Would like to get the twinkle in the eye of your beautiful but maybe a bit on the serious side in terms of expression. Can you try some modifications to the expression of the illustration to get a twinkle in the eye? Gay never takes herself too seriously and it would be ideal to capture that in the illustration.
Thank you for the ranking. I had removed most of my designs (not the repeats from the first day) because, I saw that they failed to rank yesterday. Seeing that one is in second, then I wanted to bring those back. Because the contest went into Top 5 yesterday (only the top 5 designers were able to submit) I lost a day, so please let me know of what changes you might want to see. I will only have very little time to make changes in color or fonts... before the next phase, which means I might be "locked out" from submitting once again.
I designed based on your original brief, but I may need to adjust my drawing. Do you need it the design to reflect a more playful mood? Also, I still have concern about the name, one word with capital H and B or two separate words. I noticed that most of the designs (on Saturday were using two words). I can change this easily. Lastly, I tried to keep the proportions of the logo more horizontal for your website (more long than tall), should I change that? Please get back to me with these answers it helps us designers tremendously.
Yes Marcelo - on the more playful mood! Also, Gay is very attracted to the attitude of the inspiration illustration but more playful. She like the straightforward cast of the eyes with a twinkle and the hand under the chin. The hand we could get away without but that "twinkle" attitude, however it is captured, is essential. L
Logotype on tagline in #24 is communicates American western - not really an area that HatBox emphasizes- if a historical period were to be emphasized in a font it would probably be more appropriate for a 1776 type of font (however, this is not necessary. The tagline font in #34 is fine. Energy of the ribbons and stars in #35 is excellent but there is a bit too much going on for it to be distinctive (too much for the eye to capture and remember) - can you keep the energy and modify elements to simplify the impression? Just an idea.
Thanks for getting back to me. There are two option, I can try, one is to will adjust the highlight in the eye, so that it appears that the woman is looking more straight ahead. The other is a slight upturn of the lips. For lack of better words, my first thought were "confidence" and "empowerment" when I envisioned the woman portrayed, in the plays. I just wanted to be sure that she did not come across as mean or stern looking, just very confident. :)
BTW- I saw the comments of the HatBox writing. I will try the current first rank design with uppercase H and B. Thanks for answering that.
Hi Marcelo - yes on the power and empowerment - but really more important(that we should have communicated earlier) is the wink, twinkle or element of playfulness that would capture Gay's sense of humor. Also - anything to make the design a bit less static. Thank you for letting me know your thinking - that is very helpful is knowing what we are communicating and how it is being interpreted. Make sure to see general comments to all as well.
#1 holds together best for me as a design for HatBox right now but #11 with the flag background on a white background appeals because it has more energy. With a white background and some work on tagline, #11 would probably be preferred over #1 in terms of composition and logootype. The flag background brings more movement and dynamic energy to the design - essential for capturing the spirit of the company. I'm going to stop here. Thank you fo
IMPORTANT - MANY ENTRY REFERENCES ABOVE ARE INCORRECT. MY APOLOGIES.
Marcelo - I am using all the wrong numbers to reference your designs above. I am redoing the incorrect comments with correct #'s in the comments below:
#27 and #28 illustrations without the veil is a bit more contemporary - and it loosens up the illustration a bit more - I prefer it.
Please don't spend time modifying illustration #25 - since client prefers the more feminine font this would be the wrong direction.
IMPORTANT: Would like to see entry #30 on white background.
#30 again. Can you work a bit on changing color and/or emphasis on tagline in entry #30 - the black doesn't work for me.
Currently your entry #34 holds together well for me as an overall design for HatBox right now (with some tweaks to the illustration attitude) . However #11 with the flag background on a white background appeals because it has more energy flow. With a white background and some work on tagline, #11 might be preferred over #1 in terms of composition and logootype. The flag background brings more dynamism to the design - essential for capturing the spirit of the company's founder.
More corrections - argghhh....#11 is referring to design entry #30.
However #30 with the flag background on a white background appeals because it has more energy flow. With a white background and some work on tagline, #30 might be preferred over #1 in terms of composition and logootype. The flag background brings more dynamism to the design - essential for capturing the spirit of the company's founder.
Please remove veils on illustration in #30 as well.
I thought the the comments were meant for others, then it dawned on me that they must have been the ranking number rather than the entry numbers. :) I will try to sort this out. Don't worry it's a common problem. If you need any help, contact Admin and they may be able to help sort it out. For now, I might be able to sort it out, but should any of the ranking change, then I won't know which were being referenced. For instance #1 is a design by another designer which has been binned, so I can safely assume that you meant my ranked first which is #34. However once the designs get re-ranked, it will become more difficult to know which designs were being referenced at that time. Hope that made sense. I may need to ask about some of them as soon as I can get back on this project. Because these are much more time-consuming than regular text based logos, I want to be sure that I don't put effort into the wrong entry.
Thank you for your patience and understanding Your revisions to the illustration definitely are mch closer. I've asked Gay to review designs herself - so you will be reading a different voice - if you need clarifications you can reach me at lorisavit@gmail.com. Have you removed your design variations?
I'll make the changes. Let me know if you need any designs reposted. In order to not clutter the the page I remove designs that drop down below 4th place to make it easier on the client. Just let me know if there was any that was still be considered. :)
Thank you - very response and much appreciated. Gay is leaning toward the more "spare", line-oriented illustration styles right now. Not sure if you want to try making a variation in that direction but thought I would let you know her status.
Let's bring the colors in #76 to more contemporary - oranger red etc. She'd like a more contemporary look is the feedback I am getting. The sparer line in the illustration should help with this as well.
Marcelo - Please restore any of your designs that have a more contemporary look. I'm afraid, that is the direction that the client is moving right now - away from the original brief's illustration example.
It could have saved so much time knowing this beforehand. In fact it would have also been simpler to do and I'm sure many more designers would have joined in too. Have you considered extending the contest with a revised brief?
Thanks for your input Marcelo - Hold on anything I have finally got Gay on the phone and am trying to focus on what is most critical and will get back to you.
Dear Marcelo - Gay sends her apologies for her seeming non-communication - but her computer continues to give her problems. She has been commenting to you but for some reason, her comments have not posted. So sorry. So we are writing together to try and distill what is most critical to making your logo work for her.
Great news! We have re calibrated. We want you to know how much we appreciate the sophistication of your illustration and work and would like to make it work.
The most critical thing is the jawline - it seems too square for her. She really liked the chin in your original illustration. Can we work to recapture a more "feminine, inviting, softer, refined and less-square chin?" That's the big thing.
Her other comments include "perhaps it would be helpful to have the hat at a jauntier angle and the feathers could be a little perkier." Gay recognizes how much work this is and feels terrible for not getting the feedback to you earlier.
Otherwise, she loves the stars, the ribbons, would like to see the veils added in again and I think might be very close to there.
Please don't feel bad for me, all the designers here have put in great effort. This is the tricky part with doing illustrative type contest. When other mentioned upping the price it was not because designers want to get as much as possible (OK, we do, but that's not the point here. LOL). Illustration contest are very hard because we essentially roll the dice and illustrate, that means we hope we get it right the first time. With logos that are text based or a simple icon "back to the drawing board" might mean just a text adjustment or recreating another symbol, which might be done quickly. In the theater world this is the difference between drafting out a screenplay and acting it all out. Illustrations need to be done pretty much to completion to visualizes and know someone's style. I thought, I would mention this, because I reread my comment and thought that it could sound a bit snarky. I just want you and Gay to know that it was not meant to be that way. It was an honest suggestion.
Anyway, I just noticed that Gay is right, I adjust the shadow on the left side and bottom and did inadvertently give her a square jaw. I'll fix that. Also, I will try to work the feathers and hat. That may be more difficult since the hat was initially hand drawn with the face. Changing the angles and/or feathers will change the face so, I may need to redo that too.
I would like to ask a favor from you. Can you let me know which of the entries to work on? (If I need to reinstate any of them let me know then if you can narrow it to two or so would be great. Otherwise, what ever change I do to one, I would need to to the other that might be in contention... this can take hours. Please let me know which one I should narrow down to.
Thanks and both of you have a great evening. :)
Marcelo
PS. Lori, I want you to know that I did not ignore your comment above, about reaching you via email. Logotournament, prohibits us from having contact with a client outside of Logotournament while a contest is still active. After a winner is declared than we are free to contact one another regardless of winning or not. :)
Hi Marcelo - Yes, your points are all well taken. But no worries - we know this could have been done much better and were asking a lot of designers for little money. Being artists ourselves we have too often been in the same situation. We would understand completely if you decided not to do any more modifications - unfortunately our process has been faulty. I have told Gay it is very, very late in the process for getting these requests to you...and she understands that completely.
If you'd like to continue, I'd suggest using #76 as your base. During my conversation with Gay yesterday - the comment she kept running through my mind this morning is she keeps emphasizing she is drawn to a "lightness" in the design- contrasting #76 with the other designer's concepts will illustrate what she means. The feathers in the hat are heavy is another comment she made. If I were you - I'd produce a very rough outline of your thoughts for modification and then if she likes continue to refine...
Very much appreciate your input and working style - whether you decide to go forward or not.
I needed to start with a new face. I'll go on to make the simplified hat and then from there I can start simplifying the complete illustration to basics line with no added depth (shadows). Have you considered having Gay pose for the picture herself? Then the photo could be illustrated in any style you like (from simple lines to complete rendering) and it would actually be her on the logo. (just a thought.)
Dear Marcelo - As an actress, Gay understands all the work you have put into this and is extremely grateful. But at this point, before you do any more "rewrites", she's goint to go in another direction and wants to save you putting in more time to your excellent work. We are so sorry that we weren't able to give you clearer direction earlier in the process which perhaps would have made a difference. Again, we both are so appreciative of your time, your insightful feedback and willingness to help. Please feel free to request a recommendation from me. Thank you again. L
Sorry I was not able to get back to you sooner, the week ended on a busy note. Thanks for the kind words and the recommendation. I really appreciate the thought, but I have run my own advertising/marketing/design company for over 20 years and am well established (please check my LT profile). You may ask yourself, Why design on LT? For many of us this is a "no pressure" atmosphere and most US designers do this as a challenge to keep us on our game and meet other colleagues in the design community. Bottom-line... it's fun. :) However, I would welcome the opportunity to continue a business relation in the future.