At the moment I'm not really feeling up to anything as involved as game coding when not working, so I think I need to aim a bit lower on the brainpower scale for an activity to do as a break from thesis write-up and will stop me from just idling flicking through the internet. So I might use my breaks to work on a bit of basic graphic design and work through a few potential logos over the course of the next week or so, at least until I feel like coding again without it being too much of a distraction from the real work I need to get done right now.
Trazoi Logo Design - Early Brainstorm
My goal is to design a logo for my website, games and possible indie business in the future. As I go, I'll brainstorm some ideas here, then maybe write the whole thing up as a proper journal article later. I haven't properly designed a logo before so any feedback I get will be a real boon. Since I'm doing this as a break from thesis write-up, it'll be done in bursts. I also don't expect to get a final version that will last a lifetime down from this activity as I've got an awful lot on my mind, but whatever I get done will be useful in the future.
My website is called "trazoi" (trazoi.net, to be precise, although I also own trazoi.com). It's a shorter, snappier version of my current internet handle; easier to spell and sounds more like a business name than "Trapper Zoid". I also chose it because it doesn't mean anything in and of itself, which became an issue when it seemed that every combination of English words I liked was already taken.
The problem with an abstract name like "trazoi" is that it doesn't lend itself to any particular imagery. If I called my website something like "Electric Goose", then it's fairly obvious what direction to go with the images in a logo. With trazoi, I'll have to stick with the words and abstract shapes. (Interesting Side-note: Despite just picking Electric Goose as a random company name, it does appear that the website is taken. And it also appears to be a comedy film from 1905.)
There's a few basic things I want out of a logo, in terms of practicality and the impression it gives:
- Fun, yet professional
- Easy to view at small and large scale
- Fits in with my overall cartoony vector-based art style
- Works with casual games as well as slightly more hardcore strategy titles
Other than that, I'll just go with what seems to work. I think I'll aim for simpler rather than more complicated, but that's also part of the style.
I think I'll design the logo to be mostly based on text, and fleshed out to "Trazoi Entertainment". The second word helps give an impression of what Trazoi is all about, rather than Trazoi Plumbing or Trazoi Souvlaki. I don't know if I'll stick with Entertainment as the second word; I could go with Trazoi Games or Trazoi Software; but "Entertainment" has a nice ring to it and is a nice length.
Here's a couple of very simple rough knock-ups to get a feel of the spacing. This is just barebones stuff for me to build on:
Trazoi with a capital "T"
trazoi with a lower-case "t"
The colour scheme is completely arbitrary for now; I'll play around with it later. I'm really trying to get a feel for shape at the moment. The same goes with the font - I'm sticking with my trusty default Trebuchet MS until I get a chance to experiment. I'll almost certainly try moving the glyphs closer together, for a start.
The first question I need to answer is whether I go with lower-case "trazoi" or a capitalised "Trazoi". The capital "T" is how I use Trazoi when I use it as an internet handle, but the lower-case makes more sense as a reference to internet domain name. The curves and low rise of the lower-case 't' makes a nice compact shape out of "trazoi", but the straightness of the capital "T" works with the edge of the "i" at the end. Although the left end of the cross line on the capital "T" puts the shape out of whack with "entertainment" - I tried shifting it around a little but it didn't make much of a difference.
Next break I'll try playing around with the font and letter separation some more. If there are any comments or suggestions on logo design then I'll be happy to read them and try them out.
