Hi :) My entries basically revolve around an elegant fountain that you might find in a courtyard or large drive of a Mediterranean-type home. The illustration style is loose to perpetuate a feeling of casuality, but not sloppiness. The selected font is **not quite** a formal, serif font, but more of a semi-serif font that brings elements of modernity to a classic look. The secondary font is a timeless, but modern & clean font to mirror the clean & modern treatment of the graphic. I chose the colors to reflect both (premium) as well as terra cotta / clay with a corresponding blue-gray as a complement. If there are any variations that you'd like to see, please just let me know!
Oh, my gosh, you are AWESOME! Way to think out of the box! I'm heading out right now, but I'll review them more closely later tonight. Thanks for doing something unique!
Up to this point, everyone had such a hard time coming up with anything that connected to real estate. You're sort of a mind reader because fountains and courtyards are two of my most favorite things about Med design.
Mine too! I studied abroad for a long semester back in school - a few months in Greece and Italy (and then some time traveling around Turkey and through Europe). The courtyard fountains that you'd see through the gates of so many estates were always so cool to see.
If there's anything else i can do, just let me know :) Thanks! josh
Hi there! I showed your logos to my family this evening. Overall, 265 is our favorite! We love how original it is, and I personally love the artistic rendering of the fountain! We like the defined square outline around it, and we like that the fountain is more easily identifiable than in the other two.
Feedback: - We'd like the water in 266 to go on the fountain in 265 :) - Could you have more water coming out and around the fountain, possibly droplets? - We would like to close out the bottom of 265 so that the outline goes all the way around it (I worked in a very corporate, structured environment for 13 years, and I like the structured logos). - What if the white and outside borders were a tiny bit thicker so that they stood out more? - I'd like to glam it up a tiny bit to really get that casual elegance across (less casual, more elegance), but I can't say how... could be changing the background color to more of a gold color... I think I'd like my name to be darker (dark gray).
One last thing... I have a black background on my website, which I don't think I can change, so the logo will need to be able to work on different colored background.
What do you think? Feedback OK? Thanks again! You really did make my day with your submittal. :)
I like the changes! OK, so I'm still looking to give it a more luxurious feel. The beige, to me, makes it more casual, and I guess I'm really not looking for casual. Luxury and elegance or higher priorities. What if the background was slate blue, no gradient, and the water was white along with the fountain? This would give it an even more abstract quality, which I think I would like. I'd also like to see the outer and white borders thicker, more prominent.
And here's a really over-the-top idea: What if instead of a square, it was in a quatrefoil? Cool? Not so cool?
Hey Tami :) Thanks again for the feedback! I bulked out the lines a little more, but obviously not enough, so I'll push those out quite a bit more. Sorry about that. I like the slate suggestion - the beige was supposed to be a flat gold color...I was trying to keep it from looking to brassy, but again - not quite enough. I need to step it up today!
Quatrefoil could be cool. My initial thought for the square was to balance the dimension of the fountain. It might not even be an issue, though. I'll get up a couple options n that direction and let you decide :)
I played with the logo in Photoshop, and I think the slate blue background is sharp! Gives it a more dramatic look! Also, I love the thicker borders, and they look excellent with 265 (where it's open at the bottom) because it really contrasts those sharp, thick edges even more. I wish I could show you what I put together, but it's essentially what I wrote above. :)
I've got a couple slate ones (they do look really nice!), but I want to tweak them some more. I'm hoping to have a new round of options up either later tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm also working on another fountain for comparison.
You might be right about the square versus the quatrefoil. I have leaned toward a square logo... and the quatrefoil may be too trendy? Can't wait to see the new designs!
Hey Tami - here are some new versions. I pulled the color code form the black from your website and put them on that. I would also create a light-colored background option if you ended up picking one of those. I tried out another fountain, too - I put a pineapple at the top (obviously, quite small) to reflect the greeting nature of many fountains. I'm still working on the quatrefoil version - should have those tomorrow morning. I just wanted you to see these new color palettes / thicker strokes tonight :)
309 is so awesome! That gold/copper color is perfect! That blue is also perfect! So elegant, so luxurious.... Me encanta!
I think I'd still like the border to be thicker but not as thick as 305. The fountain in the other design is gorgeous, but I definitely prefer a more subtle, less literal take on it.
I love the one with the blue background as well -- 308 -- but with one less white border, I think. The water looks thicker. Is that just a trick of the eye? As they say, white makes people look fatter, and black makes them look slimmer. :)
So in sum, 308 and 309 ROCK! Just need to tweak the borders.
bummer! I just write up a nice review and must've hit something that reloaded the page!
These options have the image bumped up with the border also scaled up a little thicker. I added a subtle shine to the logo just to show it as an alternate version in addition to the flat version (not a dated, web 2.0 - but sometimes it's nice to have a little gloss on-hand) I also put together a horizontal layout to show the versatility. I think the mark just by itself cold be really useful, too - powerpoint, flyer watermarks, etc. and marketing merch like stamped keychains, custom water bottles, convention handout-type-stuff, etc.
I still plan on having the quatrefoil version tomorrow morning - just wanted to run those scaled-up revisions by you tonight. Good night! josh
Hi Tami - I've been working with the quatrefoil shape for a while now and it looks too forced / busy with the fountain graphics. It leaves a cutoff space at the bottom that looks unintentionally empty. Let me know what you think.
314 is great! Looks beautiful. I will most likely be using something like 315 on my website, and now that I see a smaller version of that logo, I realize the fountain is hard to identify. What if the fountain was enlarged within the shape? I played with it a little in Photoshop, so I think it will look pretty good. I also added back the uneven bottom, which looks pretty neat. I used the wrong water element, but you get the idea. Here is a very crude version of what I'm referring to: https://www.dropbox.com/s/967fv2er4ud6qac/logo-1.png?dl=0
I don't see the quatrefoil ones, but I'll keep a look out.
Also, if you don't think the quatrefoil idea will work, don't worry about it. I appreciate the honesty about it. I think a lot of the designs that come my way from other designers are "forced", as you say. It pains me to have to tell them it's just not working.
that's great - thanks for that! I'll make the change and have it up soon. I didn't post the quatrefoil versions - I didn't come up with anything that I was really happy with.
Hey - unrelated question - but, are you a coffee drinker? I did a logo for a coffeeshop / roaster in Austin and I'd definitely recommend them. She's sent me some samples and their roasts are incredible. Wild Gift Coffee - you should check them out!
haha - me too - I NEVER turn down coffee. I usually read or work on sketches for an hour or so at the coffeehouse down the street in the morning (unlimited refills).
Hey, Josh... Honestly, I don't think the bigger fountain works as well. 314 is still my favorite. My concern is that when this logo is very small, it becomes hard to identify. What do you think?
hmm...well, I did notice that there was some open space / "breathing room" at the top that was lost when I increased the size. The only part that bothered me - and I'm guessing it's the down-side for you, too - is the bottom going so wide. Maybe if I crop the bottom a bit and put some of the open space back? I'll give it a try and see what you think.
I was also working on another fountain this afternoon, but had a minor emergency and became distracted (a pipe burst in our basement?? so weird - it was an easy fix, but I had to get the water shut off from the street...which was trickier) Anyway - this fountain is a little less abstract which, I was just thinking, might help with also help with the small use legibility.
I'll still get a revision together based on my last comment's thought, too.
I love your skill for drawing beautiful fountains! I still love 350 the best, but I think it looks better with the fountain a little smaller so that the sides of the second level don't touch the edges. When they touch the edges, it becomes unclear what it is. Does that make sense?
The only other suggestion is to make the blue outline thicker and white to see if two-tone works with this.
One last thing... when I look at the other designers' logos, yours is much smaller in proportion, so I have a hard time comparing. Could you make it bigger so that its comparable in size to the others?
I do tend to make my logos a little smaller at the beginning so that you can see what it looks like smaller than you'd normally use it...that way you aren't surprised down the road. Looks like maybe its hurting me a little on this contest though! I'll make the revisions larger for a fair comparison tomorrow morning.
So do I. I'll sleep on it, but another option is to fancy up the border. That doesn't make the fountain bigger, but it sounded interesting. Just a thought. I really love this fountain idea and want it to work. Getting pretty delirious at this point. Sorry to hear about your plumbing issue!
I was working on this initially, but then thought of the fountain concept and when with that. With this concept, I was thinking of a wrought ironwork that you see on gates. The keyhole is another way to show new doors / opportunities and also suggests that you're the one that can unlock them (as a Realtor) When you mentioned the fancied up border, it brought it back to mind.
Honestly - the most annoying part of the plumbing was trying to get hold of a public works guy on a Friday afternoon at the start of Labor day weekend to shut off my water at street level!
I like the revisions a lot! The gold behind the fountain looks like a sunset, which I LOVE! 409 and 414 are my favorites. 414 has four borders, and 409 only has two. I think I would like to see 409 with an additional gold border.
I also love the uneven bottom edge. I'd like to see that raised up so that there is more black at the bottom and the fountain has less of a pedestal. Think of your original design. The pedestal is nice, but when the logo is small, the fountain starts looking a little like a tree. :)
412 is gorgeous! I like the key hole, but part of me thinks it's too literal. This is just being plain picky on my part because it really is a beautiful design. You're making it very hard to choose one.
By the way, right now, I think you're tied for 1st. There's just no way to show that in the rankings.
Regarding colors - we can supply all of the color options (as it's technically the same logo / concept - it's not ever a problem), if that makes things easier?
any changes you want to see, just let me know :)
#413 - that was more of a flat design / watermark approach to the color. That'd technically be just a single color design (20% opacity white and 100% opaque white) I can throw up a quick silver option, though :)
here's a silver option. I meant to mention - as this is more solid / single color element, it could easily be printed in either a metallic ink or foil stamped. (Actually - the fountain could be too - it's really a single color design as well since it doesn't have a lot of color-dependent separation) A matte silver foil (or gold - but I think silver might pop more) on a thicker charcoal stock would look amazing for business cards...at least that's kinda what I was thinking when I started that design. :)
I also stretched them vertically. logo-3 is now square. The other one is close. I did it because I felt the fountain needed height, more grandeur. What do you think? I still really love your original design (essentially logo-4). It has so much more interest.
Sorry...you even mentioned that comment again and it still didn't quite sink in until now. I'll have revisions on this (as well as this like your photoshoppery) soon.
That's super helpful, btw. I wish clients were as adept with photoshop!!
okay...now bear with me here because these all look pretty similar. :)
#450 / #451 / 452: These are the ones with bottom stroke removed. #450 has a thin gold stroke per feedback from earlier (9:57a comments) #451 was made following your photoshopped feedback. #452 - it's subtle - but you'll see it once I point out, I think - I took some of the movement out of the bottom and shortened the bottom-most pedastal (so that it was more like the initial logo entry)
#453 / #454: These have the stroke on all four sides, but made square following your photoshop example. They also have the additional stroke per the feedback from this morning. I was wondering wha tyou thought about the blue stroke over the gold stroke, so I submitted both. I'll try not to do that too much - I imagine with as many logos as you're seeing come through, it's fairly overwhelming.
If I didn't quite hit the mark on these - or it sparked another idea you'd like me to try, just let me know. I'll check tomorrow morning, but I'll be gone until noon or so. Just so you're aware - when the contest time runs out, it doesn't automatically lock you in. You can stay shuffle ranks. The first-ranked designer can even still make revisions in judging mode, if necessary.
Thanks again for all of your great feedback. This logo is really looking great!
Awesome! Love 450... prefer the more wavy bottom... but would like to close the gap between the top water droplet and the black frame. For some reason, there is more space in this version. Would prefer to lengthen the fountain than shorten the whole icon to close the gap a bit.
Prefer the gold/white frames over the blue for sure. The water color is enough blue pop for me.
Honestly like 450, 451 and 453. Hard to choose! Which one do you like best?
Also, I would like to see a version with a white background for 450, 451 and 453 as well as the lion head one. The lion head is so perfect... no changes needed there. :)
BTW... these are really my favorites overall.
Oh, and if it hasn't become obvious with my pickiness and photoshoppery, I am a designer... used to design logos and websites for a high tech corporation. I still do some things, but I'm really out of practice.
Another option: I made fountain taller so that it is more prominent than the water. The water was taking up roughly half of the length of the logo before. It's the beautiful shape of the fountain that I want to accentuate.
Hey Tami - I can make both of these changes when I get back (sorry - been a crazy morning, realllly thought I'd have more time that I did!) We're headed out the door right now, but I'll be back for the day at noon and can have the revisions then. They should take too long. You bring up a good point about the water vs fountain height. Then I pulled the height on the box, I didn't even think about the water height. Great catch.
(I KNEW it! You've got some photoshop skillz - lol!)