My first-ever GIP

[jducoeur]

I think this is the first time I've ever done a gratuitous icon post. Indeed, after all these years on LiveJournal, this is only my third userpic.

My geekiness shows in many different ways -- today, it was that my frustration at not having a logo finally boiled over. Eventually, I'm going to need to contract with a Real Graphic Designer to do this right, but I've known for a long time *roughly* what the logo wants to look like. So I spent a little while hacking around with the GIMP, to come up with the first-draft logo:

Not a work of art, but it at least gets the idea across, and gives me something I can use for a few business cards -- and probably more importantly, the first initial can now be a first-draft favicon for the service itself, so I can tell which of my tabs are Querki...

Comments

[vortexofchaos.livejournal.com]

FYI, my daughter is a Real Graphic Designer who does free-lance work. She did the Collision Imminent! GM shirts we wear these days. She's working on some Play-dough stuff for Hasbro even as I type.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I like it.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Overall, I like it! I do, however, find the colours chosen for the dots within the Q to be a bit dull and seemingly random. Perhaps there are reasons for those particular colours that I'm not aware of, or you specifically want a certain tonal range. As a brighter alternative I replaced those with six primary colours (three from RGB, three from CMY) placed opposite their complement. This may not be at all what you're looking for though. The other thing you might think about is using a neutral fill within the Q so that whatever colours you settle on will look right, regardless of your overall background.

[russkay.livejournal.com]

I'm a sometime graphic designer; been doing it for over 40 years now. I agree with Oakleaf Mirror that the original color dots are too dull, but I dislike the modification that puts brighter primaries against a gray background. Particularly if that Q is used any smaller, the inside of the Q will turn to mush. The brighter primaries are good; the gray is bad. IMHO, of course.

If I were designing from this starting point, I'd look at other sans-serif fonts that had more interesting/nicer letters to spell out "uerki". But what you've got is certainly serviceable for now. Good job!

[jducoeur]

Thanks. I agree that this font is mediocre for the bulk of the word, but I like the Q quite a bit, and that was the highest-priority. (And it's free, which was also a non-trivial consideration at this stage of the game.)

[jducoeur]

Heh -- you are attributing much more method to my madness than actually exists. I am *way* out of my depth here.

Thanks for the suggestions! Probably going to be a little while before I noodle on this again, but the ideas make sense...

[etherial.livejournal.com]

I think it has potential, but ATM all I think of when I see it is "Welcome to Zombocom".

[jducoeur]

... didn't even think about that. It's a sufficiently obscure reference in the grand scheme of things that I'm not too worried about it, but good point...

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I'm sure the designers of Zombo.com are flattered that I remember them.