Hi Husk--thanks for the quick submission. I just posted an update to the brief--partly a clarification, and partly a change upon further reflection. I've reproduced it here for your convenience:
"An slight change and clarification: the squid itself should be a relatively neutral color since it will be extensively "costumed" at different places on the squid.by site--additionally, the design of the squid should be able to accommodate the addition of facial hair and silly hats! Please make sure to see the "Sample Squid.by Squids.jpg" attachment I uploaded to get a sense of what I mean by this."
I like what you've done with the play button and clouds! I hope you'll consider submitting an update or two
Ah, ink clouds--gotcha. Nice thought. The service itself is going to be hosted in the cloud, so I think that works nicely as well.
I know Nintendo's Mario squid was just my temporary logo, but I became quite enamored with it. Would you be willing to try starting with Entry #2, removing the mouth, making the eyes bigger (with a space in between like you had in #1), and making the tentacles a bit shorter and fatter?
Husk--thanks for the revisions. Definitely moving in the right direction! We like the simplicity of this design, in particular. A few comments:
SHAPE: Could you try making his shape a bit closer to the original, inspirational Nintendo (Mario) squid? The current shape looks a bit "strawberry" like and we'd love to see what it would look like with a more "eggplant-like" shape.
FEATURES: Can you try expanding his features--specifically, making them larger and also having them cover more real estate on his overall head?
MOOD: Can you try removing his smile (or making it extremely subtle), but still making him look like positive/optimistic/energetic? Maybe with eyebrows, cheekbones, general look, etc.
TENTACLES: Can you try making his tentacles look a bit more stubby?
Cheers--looking forward to next round of revisions!