Thanks for the ranking. I'll work some combos of #328. Is there anything you might want me to try? I kept the icon bold and used a very abstract representation of a bull. I wanted to make it so that one gets that " Oh, it's a bull", eureka moment. Both the icon and the wordmark are strong enough to stand alone and get brand recognition. Your feedback and suggestions are very welcomed.
I forgot to mention that the basic shapes used to create the bull is inspired from the Cossack swords and the angle of the bull represents movement (agility).
We like the simplicity of #329 but make sure that the final result doesn't look too much like the math Pi symbol. BTW even we experienced the " Oh, it's a bull", eureka moment. You achieved your goal.
We actually also like a lot the design on #323 because of the great mix of toro/cossack/agile, but it doesn't seem to mesh well with the font. We would love to see another version of this one. Maybe that cool toro/cossack/agile image is centered on top of the name Torak, or extend the full length. It might work on the right like you have it but the lines seem too thin compared to the thick font.
Please submit more creative entries. We are so happy that you joined this contest :)
In the previous post we mentioned #329 but we meant #328. Although they are very similiar we prefer a flat looking logo just because we think it has less chances of looking out dated over time. With that said #329 looks gorgeous, but we will most likely prefer a flat logo. By flat, we mean no fancy effects but we love depth and movement.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll be doing some variations on the logos as well a seeing some new ideas over the weekend. I understand exactly what you mean by a flat logo. That's the way it should be, a simple 1, 2 or 3 color logo can withstand the test of time much better. Many of us designers here joke about how our portfolios on the site do not reflect our portfolios from our regular business. On contest sites, it's about the "eye candy". Thankfully every once in a while a CH as yourself, come along and works with the designers by presenting feedback. :)
How do you feel about the font? I wanted to give it a unique (but, not trendy) look, something that would become as distinguishable as say, the Dell, Oracle or Visa logos. All simple, but with enough customization to build brand recognition. Hopefully the "O", "R" ligature, achieves this.
We are looking forward to you next entries and thank you for the find words.
It's so interesting that you mention the font. We love the idea of a custom font and for some reason, your logo continues to offer more nuances as we keep looking at it.
We noticed that all the letters are connected to each other except for the T. It feels like they should all be connected because the T is left alone like that. Once you connect the T, please play around with Making the TOR in black and the AK in red or vice versa. We are also ok with the same color on all letters but if we do a break with colors it would have to be where the two words that make Torak connect TOR-AK.
We are liking your logo more and more as we dive deeper into every aspect of it. The OR ligature is very cool.
I just submitted a few more ideas. I was not sure about joining if joining the T to the OR would loose visual impact, but I was mistaken, your idea worked quite well. In fact, I think it looks better too. I threw in a few more combinations, with the colors (all flat this time). Would you like me to try any other colors?
We really like #390 but it's the only one without the connected T. Can you please connect the T in a new entry based on #390. Do you think that the left side of the top of the T should be extended a little, so that the T is as large as the O and R. It feels like a minor extension on the left of the top bar of the T would make all the letter the same width/weight in this very cool custom font.
Lastly once the entry mentioned above is done, please use that entry to do a small variation where all the letters are black.
This logo is really looking great ...
On a complete separate note, once this logo has been finalized, do you think that a touch representing the Cossack could be added somehow? We know that adding too much might ruin the great feel this logo has but just in case you find a neat way to add that touch, it would be amazing. The only concern we have with the other top contending logo is that there is no Cossack in it. This would truly put your logo over the top.
The last two entries have the T connected and widened.
The bull was originally done using the shape of the sword (actually the three swooshes cam from the sword shape. I will try adding a subtle hint of the hand guard to the horn. In the mean time, I'll research more on Cossacks to see what other element may work without it looking too much over the top. Please let me know if there are any particular images that you feel might be worth a try.
The best images we found about Cossacks are in the attached document in the original brief. If the swooshes are the Cossack inspiration in the logo, we can work with that. Don't hesitate to submit anything new if you are inspired to do so :)
#391 is top choice. Because the font is custom and that's a huge appeal for selecting your logo as the winner, we can only imagine what goes into creating a new font like you mentioned for Dell. In our case we love what you did, the only piece that could use a slight adjustment in our minds is the OR. Because you focused on the OR ligature first, it still feels like these 2 letters stand out more than the other 3. The T is in line with the others, but could you try to squeeze a little the O and also the R respectively. It looks like a change of 1 or 2 pixels is all that's needed to bring back a full balance in width for all 5 letters.
Unless you think about anything else, we are very happy with the #391 concept and once the letters are all in balance, we believe that this might be the winning logo.
We are so glad that you joined the contest when you did. We had requested to re-open the Open phase just to get a few more different ideas, in you absolutely made the difference for us in this contest.
#399 is the changes to the letters mentioned above. You are right, because the OR was done first that is why I kept them as is. Now that they no longer take center stage, it does look better to make the whole word, uniform and have all the letters work together.
I also threw in some more ideas playing on the abstract Cossack hats. I see that there were several styles used, (don't know if it was the time period or the Hosts, that made them different). Anyway I tried a more traditional version as in #402 and then another version in #400 (which also resembles a mountain). Both maintain a very abstract look in line with the bull. I would be to easy to go over the line by making the hat be too obvious.
For #403 and #404 the horns also resembles a mustache, though not too obvious. I did not want to curl it up any more or the bull might look like an African Cape Buffalo or Asian Water Buffalo. Right now, all the logos still maintain clean simple and abstract lines while still resembling the the letter "T".
#399 is the Top logo. The attention to details and the story behind each element of this logo are very impressive. We deeply appreciate all your work in creating such a simple yet intricate logo.
Thank you for also trying alternatives, the hat and mustache were extremely clever ideas, but this concept behind #399 is just great.
Thank you so much for your great work. We really liked the creativity that went into this logo and especially the custom font, that was such a great idea with the cool ligature. We wanted to make sure to recognize your work by ranking your fantastic creation in the top 3.