[mrgaskell]

I'm a teacher and a wanna be webmaster for my small urban high school in Denver. I came up with a header logo which I think is lame and would like to ask your help in redesigning the logo/interface.

The site is MQHS and the logo is the blue thing at the top. Thanks in advance!

John Gaskell

[I WAS the One]

what is exactly what you want?

[mrgaskell]

I don't know...something cleaner, more professional. Just a logo for Millennium Quest High School, without the kids?

[tr]

Originally posted by mrgaskell:
I don't know...something cleaner, more professional. Just a logo for Millennium Quest High School, without the kids?

yeah, i was just going to say it looks kinda busy there, with those student pics. at a quick glance, i didn't really even know what the pictures were. also, the red lettering on that blue background makes it hard to read.

here are my suggestions:

1. play around with the font, and lose the underline. with the right font, you may not need the extra emphasis of underline.

2. play around with colors (font and background)

3. if you're stuck on the 'pictures' background, may be you could try different, less-busy pics, or zoom in on sections of those pics. i dunno...

don't mean to sound like i'm cutting you down or being overly critical of what you have. just my opinion...and i'm no expert. i'm just a physicist trying to get into a design program!

maybe you can tell us what kind of look or feel you are trying to achieve? or ideas that you have?


tr

[art_director]

tr is giving you good sound advice.

being an art director / designer i always look for icons / imagery that are appropriate / related to the product / service. that said, i might suggest you start by looking at the big 'M' in the courtyard. it has a history, a distinct look and feel and may provide a starting point.

i would agree with tr that the present treatment is lacking. the red and blue are jarring visually and the photographs void of detail and focus.

imo drop the photos, create a simple, yet definable mark (logo) and consider the school colors for your palette. you may walk away from all those thing but they'll get the wheels rolling.

good luck.

[mrgaskell]

Yeah, I do totally agree with your assessments. That's why I was asking for the advice! I have Photoshop and Fireworks MX. Which should I use for coming up with a logo? I was thinking using the MQ from Millennium Quest and incorporating it into the Big M (which is "left over" from our days as a comprehensive high school, Manual HS that's been around since 1898!). I was thinking incorporating some imagery of "science" like a microscope or something since we are a "science and humanities" themed school. Our school nickname is "Thunderbolts" or "'Bolts" as in "Go Bolts!" School colors are a Carolina or Powder blue and red.

Thanks again guys!

jg

[chris v]

Brite red on brite blue is a real no-no that I have to correct my customers on frequently. While they may be be at opposite sides of the color wheel, they're the same value contrast-wise. Orange and green will yield the same result. You want high contrast with text. I'd suggest if you're going to use that color of blue background, that you use something very light for your fonts, if not just white.

Either that, or lighten up the blue significantly, and darken the red slightly, to more of a blood-red tone.

CV

[godzookie2k]

yeah, but orange and green looks hotttt! erm. sorry, I like orange. I'd also throw in a recommendation that you don't strech your type out like that, it looks funky.

[zubro]

send me your original pictures, I ll find some time to fix it i got anidea... ;o)

[email protected]

[art_director]

Originally posted by mrgaskell:
Yeah, I do totally agree with your assessments. That's why I was asking for the advice! I have Photoshop and Fireworks MX. Which should I use for coming up with a logo? I was thinking using the MQ from Millennium Quest and incorporating it into the Big M (which is "left over" from our days as a comprehensive high school, Manual HS that's been around since 1898!). I was thinking incorporating some imagery of "science" like a microscope or something since we are a "science and humanities" themed school. Our school nickname is "Thunderbolts" or "'Bolts" as in "Go Bolts!" School colors are a Carolina or Powder blue and red.

Thanks again guys!

jg

ideally you want to create a log in a vector based app like illustrator or freehand. that way the mark can be scaled up and down without hurting the quality.

[gadster]

Well, you are right, it is lame. But, even for professional designers, logos are the hardest things to do well, so don't worry, you did OK.

Logo'. NOUN:
Inflected forms: pl. lo�gos
A name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition, especially one borne on a single printing plate or piece of type

I have to agree with the art_director, here. Use the M thing in the courtyard. But to my eye, that does not look like it came from 1898. I would suggest doing some research on the original M, see if you can find an older version. Try finding some old school year books in the library or something.

Also, it might be nice to use the lightning bolt as the stroke through the bottom of the 'Q'.

As for colours, get the thing working in greyscale first, then add colour using similar tonality (eg: if you convert your current effort to greyscale, I'd wager it would fall apart). Whatever you do in graphics, it should still work in greyscale, unless you are after a sort of strobing effect (which is fine for certain things).

Finally, avoid using such super saturated colour, it looks a bit... um... 'windows'.

[mrgaskell]

Thanks, guys. I'll work on it over the weekend.

jg

[B.I.L]

Good advice in these replys. Use Illustrator or Freehand. I would start with just the intials, maybe stacked like
MQ
HS
to make a square, with the MQ bigger (taller). I would prefer a sans-serif font since your school has a modern-sounding name. The lightning bolt as the slash in the Q is a hot idea. Once you get the intials working good alone, you could add the full name of the school in small type under or to the right of the intials. Begin with solid black & white, add color last.

Keep in mind that a good logo should be able to be photocopied, faxed and reduced to 25% and still look like your logo.

[DeathMan]

Originally posted by godzookie2k:
yeah, but orange and green looks hotttt! erm. sorry, I like orange. I'd also throw in a recommendation that you don't strech your type out like that, it looks funky.

might look hot, but you still can't read it. (assuming you're using values from the edge of the color wheel).

[Superchicken]

Fireworks in my opinion is the best for doing vector work in a paint app. Both would work, I'd suggest cutting the background from that M statue thing and using that... although it might look bad that's my first idea... but ultimately just do text and some effects to it everyone loves effects

But yeah, for websites generally if you wanna make something look pro, go with one colour and black and white and shades of that colour in between. Personally I always end up with blue and orange in the main site I work on, but if you want less work just do one colour and black and white as accents they contrast the most with any colour.

[Colonel_Panic]

I did`nt read through the replys much so I`m sorry if I restate what everyone else said. I wanna get out my ideas first.

1) don`t put a layer over the the images, make them duo tone in photoshop

2) blend the images that you just made duo tone

3) Do some cool effects to it

4) Text is key. Make the text not only easier to read but something people wont stop looking at because its so damn good

Here is my quick and dirty version

[andi*pandi]

there seems to be confusion here over whether he is designing a logo, or a banner. What KPanic did above is a banner. What other folks are suggesting is a logo, something that will be recognizable on a fax, envelope, yard sign, etc as well as the web. The webbanner can use the logo, but the webbanner is NOT the logo.

Text over busy pictures is never a good logo.

[Colonel_Panic]

he said the "logo" is the blue thing at the top, the only blue thing the top I seen was a banner..

[andi*pandi]

hence his confusion. Not yours.

[mrgaskell]

:Cry: Weak in the force I am. Thanks alot for the pointers, but geez, I really suck. You whipped up in probably 10 minutes what took me two or three hours to do. I suck...

jg.

[mrgaskell]

Alrighty, for the logo (not the banner) I've taken some advice and gone with the MQ (72 point) on top and "High School" (11 Point) in Century Gothic. The problem I'm having is getting a lightening bolt going across the "Q". I can draw it in Photoshop (My fireworks doesn't want to work since upgrading to 10.2.5). How do I get the lightening bolt into the Q and made the same color?

Here's the link to the .psd file: MQ Logo.psd

Thanks again,

jg

[mrgaskell]

Allrighty. Would you like to take a look at the new, updated but still under construction website and tell me how it looks? MQHS
Thanks again!

John Gaskell

[Demonhood]

the background photos appear to be of greatly varying levels of brightness. the second from the left, for example, seems rather dark.

the text needs some kind of effect (drop shadow, outline, etc..) so that you can read it on top of your varied pictures. when your background goes from black to white, it's hard to have readable text without some kind of trick.

i don't think you need the text flush with the top, the left, and the bottom. try moving it a few pixels off of the edges.

[DeathMan]

John, I think its great that you're putting your own time and energy into this, and that you've got the intellegence to run your work by some pros.

One suggestion. Squint your eyes when you look at any of your designs. If you loose the design when you squint, you need to change something. You need to create more contrast between the background and the foreground.

When you squint it helps you decide where the background and foreground mingle. Sometimes its okay for this to happen, sometimes desired. But on Headline text, copy, you want redability over slickness, or whatever ideas you might have had originally.

[mrgaskell]

Thanks guys. I'll play with it today and see what I can do. I appreciate your advice!

jg

[mrgaskell]

Okay, I'm back! Give it a try now...MQHS or here...actual banner...

jg

[godzookie2k]

don't lay high contrast type on a high contrast image. you can't read it.

[mrgaskell]

Could anyone suggest a font to use? I am using Century Gothic, but it doesn't have any shadowing or shadowbox text options in Photoshop. Are there any other options on how to make the text stand out and be readable? Thanks,

jg

[Colonel_Panic]

Try going simpler.. Like this quick mockup I made:



As for the text, Strokes and dropshadows help bring out text.

[DeathMan]

That swoosh graphic almost looks like you took a screenshot of the paintbrush dropdown.

[Colonel_Panic]

wow yeah it does.. Hmm I didnt notice that before.

I just used the swoosh I had in an image I made a long time ago - I was not about to spend real time making an image for free.