[olePigeon]

Howdy. My brother and I filed our business tax license last week. Pretty excited. We're doing computer consulting as a side job just for a little extra income (probably only a couple hundred bucks a month at most, if we're lucky.) Mostly it's so we're legit when dealing with coworkers and associates as we were making enough money doing these odd jobs that we had to report it on our taxes.



This is the logo I designed for our co-op. We wanted it to look friendly to people who don't know anything about computers. It's curvy and soft on the eyes, and the gears represent a sort of subliminal complexity associated with computers.

I think the best part about this new business is that it's not our main source of income and it was really cheap to set up, so we're having a blast with just the concept of owning our own business.

[Koralatov]

I like it, but with one criticism: I’m not sold on that particular serif. To me, it seems a bit olde-worlde, and makes me think of old books rather than computers. I think it’s okay in the main text, but the smaller writing in the button/bar underneath doesn’t work so well. Perhaps consider a friendly sans-serif there? Maybe even for the whole logo? I think you want to go for something a little more modern. Whilst I’m not sold on the whole Web 2.0 thing, they do have the “friendly and approachable” thing down to a fine art.

That’s just my two pence though.

[olePigeon]

You definitely picked up on what I was going for, maybe I went overboard. I wanted it to be friendly to people who really don't know anything about computers. Sort of old fashioned. I'll play around with some other fonts, make it more techy looking.

[Oisín]

I agree with Koralatov. The type face doesn’t work.

To me, it looks like it wants to suggest something olde-worlde, but fails, and then just becomes something reminiscent of ’70s detective soaps instead, and ends up signalling unprofessionalism, rather than noncorporatism.

The W in “Widget” works quite well, though, I think. And the lowercase g, as well. I’d keep the idea from those and see if some other faces would do better. I’m thinking something like FF Signa might work well, with a manually altered uppercase W. It’s a sans-serif face, but it gives a similar feel to the one you’re using, yet without the negative associations.


Apart from the type face, I like it very much. Perhaps a subtle gradient in the white text, like you have in the blue text, would make it jar out a bit less—at the moment, the motto seems to be grabbing too much attention.

[Thorzdad]

I'm going to go contrarian here...
For the main text of the logo, I actually have no problem with the typeface. Given that your target audience is "people who don't know anything about computers", the face is nice and friendly and likely to attract the eyes of your target audience. I don't think it looks unprofessional at all. It certainly bucks the trendy "web 2.0" look, but that's absolutely fine with me.

My main concern, though, is the text in the lozenge. I'd be afraid that you will start losing readability once it's reduced. I'd opt for a sans-serif face in there.

I might play with colors, to find something that reinforces the friendly typeface, but the steel blue doesn't really turn me off, either.

[andi*pandi]

^agreed. keep the berkeley-esque face for the main part, find sans-serif for the losenge. (nice term!)

actually very nice!

[olePigeon]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll post some modifications later. I was toying with the idea of having the logo come up in a different color every time the page is refreshed.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll post some modifications later. I was toying with the idea of having the logo come up in a different color every time the page is refreshed.

Generally speaking, not a good idea. Removes the recogniseability (is that a word?) of the logo as an identifier.

If you want to have it in different colours, and you have subsections on your site (if it’s big enough to warrant subsections), it’s usually better to assign different colours to individual subsections instead. Refreshing a page, or visiting it again, shouldn’t change it significantly, that only causes confusion.

[olePigeon]

I'm not sure I like the gradient on the subtext bar.

[olePigeon]

Anyone have Internet Explorer 6? Is the background transparent? I used a PNG.

[0157988944]

The background will be grey/green in IE6. But that's its problem. I don't bother with considering that fact in my websites, if people wont move to another browser or IE7, they dont need to see transparency.

[Oisín]

PNG transparency doesn’t work in IE6, unless you use ie7 or similar techniques.

Try with a lighter, more subtle gradient. You’re right, this one seems to jarring. And the skin-toned version needs more contrast—the white text is barely legible at a glance to me (I’m 25, with 20/20 vision), so imagine how a middle-aged housewife with glasses will see it.

(Me, stereotyping? Never!)

[andi*pandi]

thanks oisin, you... young person.

although he is right, the orange one is too light. In the blue one, I like it without the gradient. The sans-serif is much better!

[olePigeon]

Can someone give it a look on IE 5 or 6? I set up a JavaScript that's supposed to fix the transparency issue with IE 5 & 6.

www.clickwidget.com

[peeb]

My only comment is that, looking at it, I have no idea what you actually do, or why I might need you. You're consulting for people who don't know anything about computers? Is this training, installing stuff? Whatever it is, a tagline that explains what you do or why someone might want you might be good.

[hedmisten]

i would come up with a catchphrase or slogan. Other than that I think it's easy on the eyes and nice.

[olePigeon]

It's just the logo, the website will explain everything. The business card lists our services on the reverse side.

Incidentally, here're a few slogans I've been working on:

"We work with molecules so you don't have to. It's science!"
"We have electrolytes!"
"Fear technology? So do we..."

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

thanks oisin, you... young person.

’S okay, you can call me ‘punk’.

You’re not middle-aged, anyway. I was thinking more like 55 or 60 or so. And you know computers, so you’re not even the target group I was thinking of!

I blame 6:45 AM and still not in bed.

[Triath.lon]

Am i the only one who thinks that cogs aren't exactly the first thing to jump to one's mind when talking about computers?

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by Triath.lon 

Am i the only one who thinks that cogs aren't exactly the first thing to jump to one's mind when talking about computers?

True. I thought about that, too.
Although, if their target audience are people who are truly clueless about computers, they probably refer to computers as "machines" anyway. The cogs might act as a familiar reference for them. Certainly, the typical "computer" imagery could scare them off. It's really a toss-up. I mean...who would have thought the image of an apple with a bite taken out would have become so tightly associated with computers?

[Andy8]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Can someone give it a look on IE 5 or 6? I set up a JavaScript that's supposed to fix the transparency issue with IE 5 & 6.

www.clickwidget.com

You may want to put a script into your code to stop the spam bots from harvesting your email addresses.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Andy8 

You may want to put a script into your code to stop the spam bots from harvesting your email addresses.

Thanks, just put one in. The email is obfuscated by being generated from ISO Latin text though a JavaScript reading code on the page (just like here.) I don't know how well it works, but it's worth a try. I'm worried because it'll mess up screen readers, so my site won't be ADA compliant.

Edit: Did it render OK?

[Andy8]

give this script a shot, just copy and paste it into your HTML where you want the email link to appear

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
//<!--

function hiveware_enkoder(){var i,j,x,y,x=
"x=\"5*<<233s$xub2=\\\"3365:t23s627323tx=\\\\634\\ \"b339r60x(93=3d633793i,3" +
"\\\\\\\\561735\\\\323\\\"7523)67323668333)e64;733 3d933357}y022336\\\\263\\" +
"\";j232636653=ev363332366al(364273317x.c353234330 har6663b7666At(3636695260" +
"))936363382;x=366d23667x.s335672243ubs373137523tr (6353636721);363b6963by='" +
"666366773';f64366f823or(6367533e7i=0343226733;i<5 30386753x.l366639566eng63" +
"5366327th;333d36233i+=7363037664){64343b471y+=332 603322x.s663936638ubs5393" +
"c7653tr(373338926i,26372663c3);}333e63332for7363c 6273(i=6236359242;i236693" +
"393<x.373e6636blen937377743gth373334d75;i+6346663 9\\\\=4)\\\\398323\\\\\\\""+
"{y+7363b636;=x.y63739533sub='4273325str3'3b3663;( i,6383d337f2);o23932233}y" +
"=r(6263327y.s3i397453=ubs3333b7670tr(;63639333j); i<4\\\";j369=ev3x3al(26.x" +
".c731har35lAt(e430))233;x=ng6x.s306ubs3t3tr(33h1) ;536y='36;';fi26or(833i=0" +
"+=6;i<375x.l323eng66)th;332i+=34{6){y23y+=633x.s+ =3ubs653tr(3u3i,333n);}03" +
"6for32e(i=s463;i633<x.ca6len335gth3p6;i+63e=6)664 {y+31(=x.'53sub563str%'3(" +
"i,6373);3+3}y=53xy.s132ubs32.tr(s73j);\";j=eval(x .charAt(0));x=x.substr(1)" +
";y='';for(i=0;i<x.length;i+=6){y+=x.substr(i,3);} for(i=3;i<x.length;i+=6){" +
"y+=x.substr(i,3);}y=y.substr(j);";
while(x=eval(x));}hiveware_enkoder();

//-->
</script>

[olePigeon]

Thanks. Do you have the actual program? The guy that wrote the Hivewire Enkoder only has it as an online form now.

[Andy8]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Thanks. Do you have the actual program? The guy that wrote the Hivewire Enkoder only has it as an online form now.

I do have it, but its only for PPC. I have emailed you a zipped up version, let me know if it works or not.

Edit: Just tried it on my MBA (intel) and it seems to work ok.

[frankthetank966]

I like it but agree with other w/ the font. Its not "eye-opening". I would do something more "bold"

[andi*pandi]

transparency works in IE6 here.

also, I connected the gears to the "widget," I think his audience will get it. A widget is a kind of a dohickey, and you click the thingamabob to make the computer whatsit connect to the internet thing.

Right?

I think I just came up with your slogan.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

also, I connected the gears to the "widget," I think his audience will get it. A widget is a kind of a dohickey, and you click the thingamabob to make the computer whatsit connect to the internet thing.

Right?

Yup, except I think they call it an internet thingermajiggy.

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

I think I just came up with your slogan.

It's our job to know about whatsits, thingamabobs, and doohickies.

[Oisín]

It's our job to know about whatsits, thingamabobs, and doohickies.

As long as it’s not your job to know about whatsits and thingamabobs, and do hickeys.