Here's my new B&B logo PART II ~ Prairie & Top!

[candlelady]

Hey! Prairie and Top? What about this one????

Thanks and I do appreciate your input!

Carrie

[thesoapbox]

Does it have to have the blue box behind the name? I like the logo but can't get past the blue box

Angi

[prairieannie]

I'm guessing the blue box is there to keep the font easy to read over the top of the background image?? Maybe not LOL.

I like this one much better, however there is still a flow issue.. as in, it's not flowing! LOL.

Ok.. you want a soft approach.. everything from your business name to the colors you chose screams soft.. so that's obvious, and I think you're on the right track with those things. I think the blue box isn't doing anything for your softness.. it's creating starkness and i'm not sure if it's good. What about asking your designer if she could put a ribon there.. same color.. same general size.. but with the curves and flowing that a ribbon might add.. OR curve the text a bit.. that will help with the flow I believe as well as keeping some of that softness there, but I believe in order for that to work, the blue box will have to go completely.. The text can be readable with a drop shadow applied. Maybe your designer could try that?

[suzanneg]

I agree with Prairie Annie (by the way I am a GRAPHIC DESIGNER) and yes that blue box needs to go! Sorry but it is too distracting. Besides rule of thumb in business website design and your GD should know this, a business website needs to have a white background and not a busy background. You can still achieve a soft elegant logo. In my opinion I would the add woman outline from the first graphic and add that to your text (with a faint drop shadow) and nothing else. Choose a soft color for it, and make your text a soft black, not the black black color. May I try it for you and post here? So you will see the difference? Less is more, and my motto is: "Simple but Elegant" will catch the eye quicker and hold it longer than a busy of anything, whether it is a graphic, or webpage or clothes we wear, etc.

Oh and if you send this to a printer, it will cost more cause of all the colors involved in your graphic too! plus you will have to enlarge it and the graphic needs to be at least 300 or more dpi and saved as a .tiff image for this.

HTH

[suzanneg]

I agree with Prairie Annie (by the way I am a GRAPHIC DESIGNER) and yes that blue box needs to go! Sorry but it is too distracting. Besides rule of thumb in business website design and your GD should know this, a business website needs to have a white background and not a busy background. You can still achieve a soft elegant logo. In my opinion I would the add woman outline from the first graphic and add that to your text (with a faint drop shadow) and nothing else. Choose a soft color for it, and make your text a soft black, not the black black color. May I try it for you and post here? So you will see the difference? Less is more, and my motto is: "Simple but Elegant" will catch the eye quicker and hold it longer than a busy of anything, whether it is a graphic, or webpage or clothes we wear, etc.

Oh and if you send this to a printer, it will cost more cause of all the colors involved in your graphic too! plus you will have to enlarge it and the graphic needs to be at least 300 or more dpi and saved as a .tiff image for this.

HTH

here is a sample only! I would in my opinion get rid of the purplish color, in the bottom font, but you can use any of the colors in the background. Also the top font you used didn't portray soft to me, so I changed it then switched them! LOL But either way they can work! I enlarged the font a little bit, too! Thanks for the challenge this morning!!!!!!! I love it!

[Jadryga]

For suzanne's sample, the cursive font suits Simply Soft much better, but I don't think the font for the Body Shop suits it, though I realize that may just be a temporary solution. I think she's hit on something though - since she switched the font styles (cursive/bold rather than bold/cursive), it draws the eye properly to the brand name. Before this it looked more like Body Shop - Simply Soft, rather than Simply Soft Body Shop (Wait, it IS Simply Soft Body Shop, right? ).

The line art drawing also strikes me as a little jagged for the "soft" concept. It also doesn't quite flow well, since everything is leaning to the right except the woman. Was it done by mouse? Would you mind if I did a little sketch? Fingers are itching with inspiration

[suzanneg]

For suzanne's sample, the cursive font suits Simply Soft much better, but I don't think the font for the Body Shop suits it, though I realize that may just be a temporary solution. I think she's hit on something though - since she switched the font styles (cursive/bold rather than bold/cursive), it draws the eye properly to the brand name. Before this it looked more like Body Shop - Simply Soft, rather than Simply Soft Body Shop (Wait, it IS Simply Soft Body Shop, right? ).

The line art drawing also strikes me as a little jagged for the "soft" concept. It also doesn't quite flow well, since everything is leaning to the right except the woman. Was it done by mouse? Would you mind if I did a little sketch? Fingers are itching with inspiration

Apparently the GD has the clipart for the girl, I just drew it real quick to make a point! and if everything went to the same direction, it would be dull and boring and redundant! lol I was just making a point about all of the graphics being too busy and not drawing the customers attention, any font will do and color also! it is just preference. HTH

[prairieannie]

Apparently the GD has the clipart for the girl, I just drew it real quick to make a point! and if everything went to the same direction, it would be dull and boring and redundant! lol I was just making a point about all of the graphics being too busy and not drawing the customers attention, any font will do and color also! it is just preference. HTH

NOW we're on the right track... candlelady.. can your GD use what Suzanne has done and perhaps expand upon it a bit for your labeling?

It's just so much less busy, it curves and flows, i LOVE the woman as a graphic element, and well, she did pretty much exactly as I would have done for one of my logo clients.. but since I know you are trying to create a label and not just a logo here, I know you will want to see other stuff on it too. It's just sometimes getting the actual logo down is necessary before trying to put a label together.

I've seen lots of label designs show up here that are overly busy like yours and I think lots of folks like that look.. so again, it's preference.. But I think it's also important to keep things simple and remember what actually draws the eye. With both of your lables, my eye didn't quite know where to stop.. was drawn away from the most important thing.. your business name.

[candlelady]

How about this one? We're getting close! I do truly appreciate all of ya'll input on this as I AM NOT a graphic person and do depend on others to help me out as I know this group on CT is so capable. Thanks so much!

[Jadryga]

Apparently the GD has the clipart for the girl, I just drew it real quick to make a point! and if everything went to the same direction, it would be dull and boring and redundant! lol I was just making a point about all of the graphics being too busy and not drawing the customers attention, any font will do and color also! it is just preference. HTH

Ahh... Yeah, that's why I figured it was a temporary solution. I like the font style switch though! :highfive: I also agree with you about the woman, if everything went one way it would be somewhat dull, but (it looks exactly like the original, especially on my small, slightly fuzzy workplace monitor) I was thinking that it could be drawn so it flows a little better. I love the simplicity of the woman, just not the way it's... oh, hard to explain. I think I didn't phrase it well earlier, and I'm still having trouble now! I'll just sketch something later when I go home to my beloved tablet (in about half an hour) - a picture speaks a thousand words

[topofmurrayhill]

This may not be greeted warmly, so I apologize in advance.

I think perhaps the latest is more of a mess than the original. I was going to start detailing why, but that's a little beside the point.

When you engage a designer for something like this, it's because you want a professional looking brand identity. If you're working with someone who can help you with that, you won't be on a candle board getting such detailed feedback on how to fix the design. You should never be handed something that screams amateur no matter what you tell the designer.

Honestly and truly, the best thing you could do is hand this project to someone else. Maybe you could give Suzanne a crack at since she had a good idea that your person mangled.

:tiptoe:

[Jadryga]

There we go! My take on it

I'm slightly worried it may be a little fussy, but I kept most of the elements intact.

[Jadryga]

Logo alone minus the flower background (which, if ever used, should be credited to my awesome European friends at http://www.brainsgoboink.com).

[topofmurrayhill]

Yay Jadryga! That is worlds better, except maybe for the lady outline tangling with the typography.

[candlelady]

Jadryga, you are totally awesome! Yes that's it! Simple, soft, not messy or busy at all! Just simply soft!!! woo hoo!!!

:highfive: :highfive: :highfive:

[thesoapbox]

I like Jadryga's flower better than the first ! It looks like it's coming along great!

ANgi

[Jadryga]

Yay Jadryga! That is worlds better, except maybe for the lady outline tangling with the typography.

Yeah, that was the fussy bit I worried about

I was considering shortening it, but figured I'd just put it up for comments before going through the extra trouble. The flower, as mentioned earlier, should be credited to Jenny & Andreas at http://www.brainsgoboink.com They're great photographers!

If you'd like to use it Carrie, or you'd like me to tweak it a little more, just let me know.

Glad you guys like it!

[candlelady]

Hi! Yes, I would love to! About the lady, could you use the lady on the original logo? I kinda like the back view of the lady, maybe it wouldn't get so tangled in the typography like Top mentions. Just an idea.

Thanks much!

[Jadryga]

Sure, if you'd like!

Alternatively, I can edit the pink lady to resemble the original lady more, and shorten the hair so it doesn't get tangled up. It was just hard for me to copy the original lady since the sample I used for reference was so small :embarasse

Could you send me the original, full-sized clip art of just the lady? Once I get it, I can do both and let you decide

[topofmurrayhill]

I think you may run into frustrations trying to make the lady look good as an integral part of the logo, since the logo is already pretty intricate. But you could also consider other ways of incorporating her into the overall label design.

[Jadryga]

I think you may run into frustrations trying to make the lady look good as an integral part of the logo, since the logo is already pretty intricate. But you could also consider other ways of incorporating her into the overall label design.

Hmm... could you clarify on that, Top? I'm not quite sure I get what you mean.. Do you mean the pink lady or the original lady?

[topofmurrayhill]

I mean the stylized line art lady.

I see two separate but related design objectives here.

One is to create a logo that can be used on all different identity pieces such as stationary, envelopes, business cards and website. Ordinarily the logo is exactly the same on every piece - changing it around is discouraged.

The other objective is to create a product label, which includes the logo but can also have its own unique design features.

The question I raised is whether the lady art should be part of the logo itself, or just used in some way on the product label. The latter option gives you a little more freedom in what you can do with that element and how you can position it.

[Jadryga]

Ahh, I get you now!

I thought you were talking about the technicalities of the design itself, not the function of the design. I'll have to wait for a reply from Carrie about that one then. Not sure if she'd like the woman as an integral part of the logo, or simply as an addition for product labels.

That was an excellent point, Top.

[candlelady]

Boy, you guys are good! OK, I do like the lady but on the product labels only. The logo itself is stunning as it is.

Adding the lady to the product labels will be a nice added touch to the bath and body feel for each item.

Oh, I'm so excited! :yay: :yay:

Now, another question: Will it be possible to get each graphic separately so I can have it configured into a webset? Topper, buttons, etc... You know, the flower, the text, the lady?

Thanks so much!:highfive:

[prairieannie]

Yeee Hawww!! You guys covered a lot of logo ground today!

Jadryga ~ well done! Between you and Suzanne you guys did a great job of pulling a very nicely done logo right out of a mess of a label!! (Candlelady I know you're not gonna smack me for that because you love the way it turned out.. right? ) It's looking great! Amazing changes.. cool to watch it transform!