I thought I’d tart up my blog and give HP’s Logoworks design service a whirl at the same time.  This post has two purposes.

1. Get your feedback on my current batch of logos thoughts (See the section titled “Need your help“)
2. Share my experiences with HP Logoworks (so far, so good. Excellent in-fact)

Why do I want a logo and what on earth do I want my logo to say?

To cut a long story short, I wanted a logo for my blog (this one). It’s a personal blog, so I wanted something fun and frivolous. I certainly didn’t want the cliched padlock or safe.  I also really wanted to try and have a picture based logo rather than pure text.

This logo really inspired me to have a stab at creating a logo.  I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that @securityninja’s logo is awesome. Note: I didn’t want to blindly have his logo copied, so I didn’t mention it in my brief to Logoworks (read on)…

Logoworks

If you’re not familiar with Logoworks, it works pretty simply.

1. You select a design package. The key thing to be aware of here are the number of initial concepts you’ll be provided with and the number of revisions you’ll be able to make.  I went for the “Gold” package with unlimited revisions.
2. You provide a design brief, providing basic information on your company or sites mission, the general feel (fun v serious, classic v contemporary etc), colours your like/dislike and whether you’d prefer text versus a picture (or a combination there of.)
3. You review some concepts. Essentially, your design brief goes out to tender and a number (depending on the design package) or designer pick up the work.  You get your first batch of concepts back within about 5 days.
4. You pick a concept to take to the next level and provide feedback on what you liked/didn’t like from the original concepts. At this stage you can request the designed to incorporate a variety of ideas.  Of course, if you like the first concept, you can pick it and be done.
5. You review revisions and go through any number of iterations to refine your logo.
6. You complete the process and get your logos.

What I chose to work with

If you scroll to the end of this post, you’ll see the initial concepts I got back. I wanted a combination of the follow two concepts.

Round 1 – 4

Round 1 – 5

Need your help

So, now I’m at stage 5 of the design and now have 3 revisions to consider.  I need to choose one of the following logo’s to have refined even further.  What do you think?

Round 2 – 1a

Round 2 – 1b

Round 2 – 2a

Round 2 – 2b

You’re comments, DM’s, emails would be much appreciated as I figure out where to go next.

Thanks.

Initial Concepts

Here’s what I got back initially and what I thought…. did I get it wrong? it’s not too late for me to change back.

Round 1 – 1

Round 1 – 2

Round 1 – 3a

Round 1 – 3b