Tinkered IncLogo Design Contest

Iterating to Excellence

Develops novel products that solves problems in unique ways.

Not much direction here.
Black, white, greys.
If you have an idea for a color that you believe would work, we're all eyes.

[update2]
Great stuff so far—thank you all very much.

To add a little more direction since we’ve learned more what exactly we’re looking for.

-Professional, modern, simple, easily legible
-I know this may sound in contrast to “professional”, but is there a way to add a single element of “tinkering” with the logo. But, not making it feel childish like “Toys R US”. Bonus if you can also include this same element (or similar) into the “Ti” lettermark.

[update] We've decided we like the capitalized versions of TINKERED best. Since the word "Tinkered" is already childish/playful, we've found capitalizing helps balance it out to more masculine/bold. Unless you can find a way to make lowercase "Tinkered" more masculine... Thank you very much!

-Try designing a logo around the idea behind our product development process: "We've found that often times you need to travel along the wrong path before you even have the vantage point to see the right path."

-Eligibility is paramount. The eye can’t be fighting itself to read the word.

-simple is better
.......

-Our brand develops new consumer products, primarily end consumer product, home goods.
-At this time, our selling channels are all ecommerce.
-The target audience is adults 25-70
-We want a professional looking logo. Since our name has the word "tinker" in it, it is already exceedingly playful, so we want the image of the logo to balance it out, being more professional & modern.
-The slogan may or may not be in the logo
-We'd like a small 'lettermark' stamp for "Ti"

Our company is defined by our product development process--which is half 'Exploration & discovery' (aka learning) and half 'Iterating' (aka tinkering/trial & error).
Really, we're just a group of chill folks that get overly captivated developing a new product, iterating the hell out of it, then testing it, lots of testing, more testing, more iterating, more testing, repeat, repeat, repeat again. We allow time for the ideas to ferment, giving the product time to take shape.
How do we know when a product is done? When two things are achieved:
1) It elegantly solves a problem in a novel way, and
2) The testing feedback is overwhelmingly positive


Slogan ideas (not necessarily needed to be added to the logo):
Invention through iteration
Iterating to excellence
Iteration & Discovery
Discoveries through iteration


.......
Ideas for the logo:
I don't want to lock in too many specifics, as I want a large range of logo designs, to help us hone down what the hell we want.
I will say, we want something special, or unique about the logo. A simple font with no art will not do. Also, please stay away from the generic stuff when you google 'tinkering', for example: gears, light bulbs, hammer, nails, etc.
Some element of the logo denotes "iterating" or "trying crazy things" or "Finding our path through trial & error".