InitMarketing logo

 
InitMarketing logo
Posted Mon, 04/07/2008 - 13:05

Based on my feedback, Wira has created below modifications of the logotype based on his submission to our logo contest. Please let me know what you think.

InitMarketing logo (vertical)

InitMarketing logo (horizontal)

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Comments

Suggestion for font change

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 13:31 — vikram

Although I'm not an expert, I tend to agree with Rory that there is dissonance between the font and logo. What's bothering me a little is that 'init' appears to be styled differently from 'marketing' - different case, different size, even though they're both part of the same company name. It might look better if 'init' was in the same typeface and case used for 'marketing'.

Comment on the Logo - reposed from email

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 14:35 — rory

I'm not bowled over by the font, especially not the yellow dot on the 'I' of init. For a start it is at an annoyingly different level to the same dot in the logo itself.

Personally I would go with a really crisp, hard edged, probably quite fine font in jet black.

Just my 10¢

I would also put the company name under the logo not to the side. When it is at the side, the angle of logo really does look wierd. Underneath it would look great.

Ok, so its 20¢ now and I'll shut up.

Logotype font

Thu, 04/10/2008 - 20:13 — ordnas

I second Rory concerning a "crisp, hard edged" font, not so sure about the "quite fine font" though. @Rory: Do you mean a "thin" font?

Here is why: At InitMarketing, we combine traditional marketing and social media marketing. On the one hand, the "social media" aspect would be represented by the icon, which has the shape of a human being and thus denotes "social". On the other hand, "traditional" should be represented by the font of the logotype.

The challenge is to find a font which still harmonizes with the icon's style and yet also contrasts it. If Wira can work that out, he will have visualized the essence of InitMarketing (sorry for the pathos).

The consequence would be that the logotype cannot stand for itself and should always be combined with the icon. The icon though could also stand for itself because it is somewhat the abbreviation of the whole logo.

That annoying dot

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 21:23 — spinspire

Rory is quite on the spot, actually.

When making this version of logotype I was faced with a design decision of whether or not I should put the extra dot in the "i".
What really annoyed me at this point is that the dot ini "Init" looks slightly larger than the dot in the logo (purely illusional, they're the same exact size).

Regarding logotype place, it's an optional thing. InitMarketing can opt to rule out horizontal placement altogether. It's a legacy thing, as the previous version of logotype sits better with lowercase "i".

Font-wise, I try to avoid hard edged fonts due to the fact that there's no hard edge in the logo itself. However, this logotype is still a quick adaptation of one that was suggested in the email I received.

I'll try both Rory and Vikram's suggestions and let you guys know.

Revision

Wed, 04/09/2008 - 17:41 — spinspire

Hi guys,

After spending some time with the logo and suggestions, I'm here to report:

  • I have tried using same font for "Init" and "MARKETING". Unfortunately it doesn't work. With too much rounded corners in the font, the font was giving a kindergarten-ish "Comic Sans" effect.
  • I tried applying multitude hard-edged fonts to replace the logotype. The hard-edged fonts conflicted with the overall rounded feeling of the logo, creating a sense of visual discomfort (in my analogy, it's like sleeping on the floor)
  • I believe the problem actually lies on the "MARKETING" font. After some observation, I found that the font was actually sharing too similar of a quality to the "Init" (large spacing between letters, and also seemingly 'rounded'). I think the logotype itself was already sending impression of "too much fun", making it a bit harder to put it in a more professional perspective. I modified the annoying dot to an arrow, in the same spirit as the part of the logo. This sits in the eyes better, as well as creating a visual pun of the word "Init", reinforcing the impact of the word when read. I also changed the font for "MARKETING" into something more conservative. Overall, I believe it reflects more professionalism and the contrast between the two typefaces harmonise pretty well.
  • Regarding colour, jet black couloured font on the logotype overpowered the colours of the logo itself. However, I adjusted it accordingly with a dark gray swatch with a bit of orange shade, and it suits nicely as well, so I'm attaching 2 different colour versions and see which one you guys like better.


Re: Revision

Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:48 — ordnas

Hi Wira,

thanks for the modification!

  1. I would avoid placing the icon the way you did, because it looks as if the icon crashed into the logotype.
  2. "For maximum visual impact, a logotype should have the same shape as a windshield, roughly tow and one-fourth units wide and one unit high" (Al and Laura Ries in The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding). The logotype itself in the InitMarketing logo seems to fullfil this requirement without the icon. If the icon is placed left of the logotype, it's still ok. The problem is the icon placed above the logotype, which we will only use as an exception, because it will very likely cause layout problems in different settings (letterhead, Website header, etc.). Hence, we should answer the following questions first: a) Will we ever use the logotype standalone without the icon and would the current standalone logotype be unique enough to serve as a true logotype? If the icon is placed left of the logotype, should it be tilted or not (Rory says it does not look good tilted, I don't think so)? I think we all agree that the standalone icon looks great (even as a favicon in a browser address field). @Wira: Can yo please let us know your thoughts on this?
  3. The colours of icon or logotype do not matter at the current point. I think  they all can still change once we get a feel for the corporate design e.g. after seeing some Website mock-ups.
  4. The InitMarketing is not a perfect brand name, because people will shorten it to "Init" in daily conversation. This has been taken care of by using a larger font for "Init" compared to "MARKETING" in the logotype - good! Having said that, it is not a problem if the font for "MARKETING" is a bit different from "Init".
  5. Maybe we should leave out the dot above the lowercase "i" in InitMarketing or make it the same color as the whole logotype, because the icon is already quite colourful and the logotype without the icon would still be recognizable due to the font even without a coloured dot.
  6. "MARKETING" is too bold for my taste.

Angle of Icon

Fri, 04/11/2008 - 12:06 — ordnas

Thought a bit more about the icon.

There are two impressions I have about the angle of the icon:

  1. This is a happy person, dancing and jumping.
  2. This is a drunken sailor falling from the boat :)

With the current angle roughly 30° to the left, the abstract "i" that the iconogrpahic person is holding seems to drag it to the ground. Hence, the 2nd, negative impression prevails.

There are two solutions:

  1. Reduce the existing angle to let's say 15°.
  2. Have the icon tilded to the right (maybe also with a smaller angle).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one. 

Revision 2

Sun, 04/13/2008 - 10:51 — spinspire

Based on the feedbacks received, I decided to go back to the drawing board with the logotype.

I came up with these two: A rather conservative one with straight logo, and one with slanted logo (reduced angle):

The straight one has an advantage in which the logo and logotype can be placed completely separated. However, the slanted one still has a more "human" touch to it.

Re: Revision 2

Tue, 04/15/2008 - 14:08 — ordnas

Hi Wira,

thanks for the new revision!

The font of the logotype is now less rounded, but too playful and with a vintage style.

Keep in mind that InitMarketing serves open source software companies. Our customers offer highly technological products. Hence, the logotype needs to be simple, clear, modern.

Take a look at the Logitech logo for example. The icon is organic while the logotype font is plain simple:

We need the same kind of logotype for InitMarketing as well. The icon already represents the "human" side of what we do, because marketing is about emotions and thoughts of potential customers, community members, etc. The logotypes we have seen so far do not truly represent the technical side of InitMarketing. They do not show that we at InitMarketing actually understand how Open Source software works - some of us were even software programmers themselves in the past.

A general note: I hope you don't get frustrated by our comments :) I actually think you are doing a great job because you always present highly creative new ideas to us. Let's continue that way and I am sure we will end up with a magnificent logotype (the icon already is superb).

 

My, what a lot of comments.

Fri, 04/18/2008 - 16:27 — rory

My, what a lot of comments. Wira you are very patient. Any designer I know would have thrown a creative primadonna strop by know and told us to "do it your f**king self if you are so clever".

1. I definitely prefer the logo at an angle

2. I now agree with Wira that black on the font would be too much

3. Yes Sandro, by fine I did mean thin fond and your example of the logitec logo is exactly what I was thinking of. Personally I find the grey a bit too anemic in their logo, I am also not keen on where Wira has added the orange into the dark grey (it looks brown to me and brown is bad in a logo unless you are a jazz club or a record label).

4. I agree with sandro that the logo is sufficient that we don't need to contrive the font (for "init" or "marketing") this was exaclty my reasoning behind suggestiong a plain crisp font. Personally I don't think it would clash with the curves of the logo, I think it would set them off.

5. I think putting the font offset to the right of the logo would make the whole task a lot easier, and bearing in mind Sandro is Schwebian, it will also save money as it uses up less workable realestate on the letterhead. Seriously, I find horizontal  logos so much  easier to implement and work with.

 

 

Revision 3

Sun, 04/20/2008 - 19:57 — spinspire

My apology for the time it took me to reply.

Since we are going to have no/minimal modification on the logotype, I had to do a bit of research on the fonts. I had to make sure the font pool I'm working with has no possible royalty problem just in case.

The comments are all fine with me. We had agreed to try the design process in a more open manner and see how it goes. Although indeed there's more work invovled, I'm actually quite happy that through each revision the logo does seem to be more "refined", so it's all good, really.

I've set up two alternatives. The biggest problem with putting the logo on the right side of the logotype is that the negative space created would make people read it as InitsMarketing.


Re: Revision 3

Mon, 04/21/2008 - 20:22 — ordnas

The font is great! Well done, Wira!

So, now we have the icon and we have the right font for the logotype.

I suggest some minor tweaks:

First: Don't distort the icon perspectively, because it will loose its well balanced form.

Second: I am not sure why, but almost none of the leading global brands uses an italic style for the logotype. Maybe because it makes the logotype look elusive as if it tries to escape.

How about one of the below suggestions? They are simple and straightforward:

Hmmm... regarding italic

Mon, 04/21/2008 - 23:44 — spinspire

Hmmm... regarding italic style for logotype, I do believe leading global brands do use them. Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Dunlop, HP, Gillette, Nike to name a few. It represents movement, being dynamic, growth.

The logo you suggested is indeed simple and straightforward, but you might want to adjust the tracking and kerning of the font (some needs to be done individually to ease the weird spacing effect when printed small).

Again, the problem with no slant is that it represent solid structure and sometimes can be too conservative. It will depend too much on its colours for impact, which can be a bad thing. If you are using non-italic typeface, may I suggest putting the logo at an angle? 

Revisions

Wed, 04/23/2008 - 08:17 — spinspire

Okay, I've modified all the logotypes and implemented differently, both with all caps for "Marketing" and Uppercase/lowercase version:

1. All straight, normal typeface, left logo on left side:

2. All straight, normal typeface, logo on right side:

3. Right slanted, normal typeface, logo on left side:

4. Right slanted, normal typeface, logo on right side:

5. Left slanted, normal typeface, logo on left side:

6. Left slanted, normal typeface, logo on right side:

7. Right slanted, italic typeface, logo on the left side:

Slants are angled at 25 degrees, as I find that 15 degrees looks a bit odd (it looks like it's slanted, but not meant to be slanted, sort fo like a mistake). I adjusted some cuts on each of the logotype to make the logo sits more comfortably.
Personally, I would go for number 4 (the uppercase/lowercase version), but that's for InitMarketing to decide.

I like #6, the full

Thu, 04/24/2008 - 05:40 — vikram

I like #6, the full lowercase version. I would however reduce the size of the logo so that it is the same size as the logo in #5.

Final decision

Fri, 04/25/2008 - 12:34 — ordnas

Hi all,

first of all: thanks to Wira for creating the variations, which was very helpful to make a final decision.

I did ask the InitMarketing team members about which variation they would pick. Vikram let us know here, the others via email. Everyone would pick a different one.

The same happened when I asked five other people, 3 of them customers, 2 of them not in the software business at all. 5 people, 5 oppinions.

Hence, I'd like to follow the expert's, i.e. Wira's, recommendation.

Our final logo is the variation " 4. Right slanted, normal typeface, logo on right side" where "Marketing" is not completely in upper case (The reason being that I don't want to confuse people who might think that they are supposed to write InitMARKETING in text).

The icon should be smaller though, with the bottom of the yellow dot being above the capital "I" of "Init" so that the complete logo better fills up the windowshield ratio.

Thanks so much Wira for your excellent work and thanks to everyone who contributed with comments! 

Regarding resizing

Sat, 04/26/2008 - 13:19 — spinspire

I would have to strongly suggest not to resize the logo in accordance to the logotype.
The reason being:

As we can see, as soon as the logo gets resized, the negative space creates the letter "s" unintentionally. People can misinterpret this as InitsMarketing. As much as I'd like to follow windshield ratio, we should not sacrifice proper legibility of the logotype. I personally think it's ok to not fully follow the windshield ratio in this case.

What do you think?

Re: Regarding resizing

Sat, 04/26/2008 - 14:43 — ordnas

Sounds reasonable to me.