I like your ideas a lot. The text is cool on both of them. I also like the idea of the drum strainers being the "M" My critiques are: The strainers are little too "flat." If they could be tightened up, that would be cool. The mallets on the drum are a little bit too "field drum"ish. In other words, they remind me of the type of mallets you might see in a pipe band, and not really the type that I would write for. If you can make them into sticks with a more focused tip, it will appear more marching band-ish! Can I also see what it would look like to invert the colors and have the background be the light and the text and picture be the dark? I like what you've done, I'm just curious!
MUCH BOLDER!!! nice work! I think I like the blue M in the drum better for some reason. It looks more like a marching drum and the sticks are cool. I think the M in the drum as the letter M is too much though--thank you for showing it to me, but it seems overbearing maybe? I can't put my finger on it completely. But that's definitely the right drum! Right now, the thing that's keeping you in 2nd (or 3rd I guess) is the shine and the sheen stuff that I've asked the first place one to do. If you add that, it make yours more of what I want. It's definitely cool!!!
I like the new ones, but they might be TOO bold. I don't know if you thought I was telling you to be more bold in the last comment, but I was saying that the ones you had done were much bolder! I thought they were great--I don't know if you need to go any bolder or darker at this point--I'm more thinking that a sheen on 38 would be cool (like the sheen in 39). The M is still kind of odd as the drum--I don't think that's going to work even though it was worth it to try.
A weird thought---I noticed the fact that you made it one word--just to see, would it be possible to make the "o" the drum?? Maybe make it smaller? I don't want to keep throwing the letters at you, but I would love it if I could make that happen.
At this point--if you're still interested, I think it's about the blues and the M as the drum...I think the M could still work as the drum, but I don't want it as the first letter.
Another question--can you throw a shine on the northeastern side of the drum? Also--I dug the lowercase style/font that you used--particularly the shading-from before. If we can meld those elements with the sweet logo, I think we may have something (ala 39)...but not the M as the first letter. Just the font with marcato thicker and the shading....I also liked 106 as well. It has a classier look font-wise. I wonder if you can pull up the withdrawn ones so I can have more to compare to?
Nice work. I think the shine is too much. I wanted to check it, but I think it's just too much info. Is it just me or is the spacing between the "o" and the "m" in 144 greater than the spacing in 39? Maybe it's just a trick of my eyes, but I like 39 better. Can you leave 144's color and font but add the same shading effects to the letters as 39? Thanks!