logo for software developers

edited October 2015 in creations
tasked with creating a logo (ok, and likely fuller work for branding, and wobsite stuff) for a small software startup who focus on big data manipulation, natural language processing, and data visualisation.

so far, i've done very little in the way of research, or moodboarding for them, but they seem to like my initial ideas (which may well be bollocks, sure :D).

company name is 'datris' (uh, i know). and i'll just drop some of my initial ideas here for now, in the hopes that someone will simply say "do this, to that one, and bingo!".
«1

Comments

  • edited October 2015
    image

    this is a take on one of those circular graphs. in my head, i'm representing the letters of the name abstractly - starting from the innermost circle (or semicircle), as a 'D' and working outwards. yeah, i know it's not readable as that, but that's not the point :D

    image

    this, and the following were my initial faves, but there's nothing particularly revolutionary about them, sure. i'd imagined the 'blob' being a generative element in use, so could change, and animate, depending on the medium in which it's used. bear this in mind, as i kept that kind of overarching 'changing' theme with the next few ideas, too ;)

    image

    image

    as luck would have it (or not, maybe), the initial blob shape was kind of 'd'-like. this became one aspect they were then wanting to experiment with a little.

    image

    stupid sketch trying to work lines in to the logo, showing data points and links. gash, i'm sure.

    image

    i fucking love this ^

    image

    starting to play with the type a little now, and bringing a hand-drawn (cheat!) element in to it, trying to show a link between human and machine. they are going to want blueness for the final thing, so i recoloured the initial blob to please, then told them to stop worrying about colour for now.

    image

    i do quite like this idea, and i stretched the concept out a little to show how many different 'styles' we could use - handy for secondary uses, and other fun shit.

    image

    they liked that, then wondered what it would look like using a different font as a template, suggesting a single line loop-like d instead. i asked 'like this?', and they said 'yeah, like that'. so i'll work that up a little later, but it'll probably not hold up quite as well as the helvetica black, when it comes to the more way-out dots and lines from the initial tessellation.

    disclaimer: as previously mentioned, very little in the way of research yet, i've mainly been exploring from a small number of keywords in a verbal "brief". no contract signed, also, family member. basically, don't do it like this, if you're watching!
  • edited October 2015
    nick' will have a better idea than me but my quick, initial, gut reactions are:

    For me there's more than one workable idea here. Sure you don't want to build-up a couple of the ideas too much but revolution doesn't often happen, does it, with some many ideas gone before…

    I do like this
    image
    but might it be too abstract for some?

    I think this is fine too, prefer the monochromatic form over the others but yes safer
    image

    Not a fan of "sketch trying to work lines in to the logo, showing data points and links…" but the graphs/wire frames below I do like. Not sure about the hand-written type but do like what you’re playing with in the Ds below but not the last solo d, which reminds me of a company I know.

    Hope that is of some use, probably not.

    I'll stare at it again later :)
  • image
    These are the ones I'm leaning towards more in those Ds :)

    But noticing the comment re blue from them, would the wireframes look too weak in bleu?
  • they may well do, but we can work around that if needs be :)

    thanks peak'! :)
  • ^…number three (of my favs) might be too indistinct in form for non-designers?
  • i like the red icon but not a big fan of the font used
  • Searching for patterns in the data.

    i like #1 the most - to be honest are the others a bit too design of the day?

    will giving them an entire logo system actually work? how many times have we all done that only the realize the client can't handle what to actually do with it...

    that said, lots of good ideas to play with - try to narrow their mission in words and then look at them again?
  • sorry if it's not much of good input - just my random fast thoughts.
  • edited October 2015
    thanks vask :)

    i also liked #1, but i couldn't see quite as much scope for playfulness with that, as i could some of the others. i'm not too worried about any wasted effort on my part here, regarding the full system stuff. i hope that i'll get some print and web work out of them too, so i'll then have some ideas to use for that side in the bag. also, remember, family member (blessing/curse).

    and yes - getting a better idea of where they see themselves, via descriptive yet succinct written word is a good plan.
  • needs to be sexed up but here's another thought...

    image
  • eeeee, i dunno, man :)
  • the different parts of their biz that fit together. it's not unlike everything you have above - just more explicit. of course, it's an old metaphor and the image above is fugly.

    the first i thought about was how do different parts of the biz fit together. coding is alot of pattern building and recognitiion. anyways...

    ;)
  • yeah, i'm not totally against it, but i think you hit the nail with the 'old metaphor' part.

    i'm also interested in expanding the possible outcome of fun experimentation with the logo / ID system, something which i'm not so sure a jigsaw metaphor works that well for - the pieces being fixed, and only one possible answer/position for them, etc.

    i love the wild and random nature that the line stuff makes possible, and ties in well with the huge and random (to humans) data sets that they play with in their work.

    image
  • I am most excited about these two concepts:

    image
    image

    I think you should persue those over the polygon stuff.

    I'm not keen on the script type treatments. Somehow feel your typo should be more "engineered".

    Regarding the full company name in there. Solutions is bollocks... everybody overuses that word these days and it almost feels insecure using it in the logo. You don't need to include Ltd. etc in the logo. Obviously it will appear elsewhere where it is a requirement. So just produce logos with the single word "Datris".
  • thanks nicko!

    yeah, i hear you on the sub text on the logo, i just made it up for a bit of visual balance in the heat of the moment.

    i also like both of those ideas, but i feel like the second one is very related to what i was doing with the polygon stuff - as in, it could be the same thing (if i made the lines roughly follow the shape of a 'd'). at least for some versions of the logo. i think i'm keen to do a generative logo mark, so i could change bit of it for different uses, or even just randomly. they also like the idea of a 'd' mark.

    gutted, i also liked the script treatment as part of it :D
  • #1 will be so much fun to animate - all the possibilities!

    you could make the 1 second version and then a 30 min mashup techno thump thump thump version. or something... ;)
  • Yeah, think of the 2001 Flash intro you could make with the first one :D
  • edited October 2015
    But yeah, the second one... as a generative logo would be ace.

    Incidently

    image
  • yes! and also the mit media lab logo, and a few others.

    image
  • image

    image

    image

    image

    image

    but yeah, maybe that nordkyn memory had too much input in the last thought meeting :)
  • edited October 2015
    might round the terminals off, because that's pretty much just a straight-out-of-the-box bauhaus light atm (with slightly less janky kerning).

    i realise that this is getting less exciting, shame :( they like it though, so far...

    "can we have it in blue and orange?"
  • DD datris! ( . Y . )
  • don't give them what they want. give them what they need.
  • well, it's not such a bad solution, really (imo), and i think i can utilise some of the previous elements in the overall branding!

    they don't need to be so experimental (they haven't a strong enough presence for that anyway), but i'd like to lay some foundations so that it will be easy to introduce some cool elements at a later stage :)

    i'll still be playing with these for a while, i'm sure!
  • edited October 2015
    i seem to be terrible at listening, right? :D / :(
  • Well, you have to listen to the client ultimately – unless your name's Sagmeister and the client is _insert_name_of_large corporation!

    I prefer the top option, of the two.
  • ^ of my last post? it's all the same idea, really. the heavier lower case d being a possible standalone element, etc.
  • Yes, I did mean your last post. Thought the big-d was going to be a solo element (which makes sense).
  • i'm definitely trying my best to NOT snigger every time someone says "the d", or "the big d", or "the fat d", or "the heavy d"... it's a struggle, mind :D
  • i'm definitely trying my best to NOT snigger every time someone says "the d", or "the big d", or "the fat d", or "the heavy d"... it's a struggle, mind :D
    It's a strain is it :!:

  • edited October 2015
    Just got this in my inbox... scroll down to see the wee animation:
    https://meetthenew.500px.com

    image

    Reminded me of
    image
  • ^ i thought the exact same thing (saw it a couple hours ago too).
  • there was a famous danish design firm a few years back and they split. one of the partners formed his own studio:

    http://big.dk

    probably the most brilliant domain possible for an architecture firm.
  • Hah!

    Also, tres cool, that 500px logo
  • lol @ big.dk :D
  • image

    i'd posted this in the anigif thread already.
  • did you make that, chris?
  • nope, sorry! i'd posted a couple of similar things in the anigif thread ages ago - i'd just come across this one whilst posting something else in there today.
  • really? you're going in that direction?
  • i'm posting only to show my support for whichever direction you aren't going.

    ;)
  • yup, they definitely don't want to go the circles stuff. ah well :)
  • oh, i'm not going with the heavier weight 'd' in front, i'm planning on that being a stand-alone element, and having the possibility of changing it through a number of styles and colours, in a pseudo generative way.
  • edited November 2015
    image
    image
    image
    image
  • love the low poly stuff
  • you do? :D i thought you didn't hehe
  • but i quite like it and can see it looking pretty good across a range of media for them :)
Sign In or Register to comment.