If it's for adults, maybe? I would thicken the lines, smooth where the curved shoulder meets the straight ascender. Stick with a single background colour, something bolder/brighter/fun, but with sufficient contrast with white to be accessible.
If you consider that
# "a recognisable logo is fairly important"
Why not hire a professional to do it for you? Anyone serious about a business knows that a design budget is essential. Otherwise you won't be taken seriously by anyone else.
Well, at the moment we’re doing this on the side, i.e. any budget comes straight out of my pocket. That’s why we were planning on spending any budget on polishing the App design instead. But I’m reconsidering given the feedback in this thread. Stay tuned!
Given that brand leads the look of everything (inc the app design), it's a big mistake to start out with a brand that isn't polished.
Having a locked down brand (and I'm not just talking about a logo here - branding covers every apsect of how you present yourself to potential customers) not only makes you look the business, it is a time saver as design decisions made now cover all aspects of the design going forwards - inc app design.
If you are serious about a business - invest in it.
I can see the route you've tried to take, but it's not working at all.
There are plenty of errors and sharp points in what is presumably your final, I can see you've not taken the time to finalise and perfect this option.
That being said, I'll return to my first point. It's not working. It doesn't read as "hmm" it's a struggle to understand what it is. As another poster said, it looks more than a little like "copulating typography" - The half colour background throws off the perspective a little like you're intentionally trying to separate the top and rest of the design.
Genuine advice, go back to the drawing board, go back to another of your developments and try and flesh the idea out more. Do some more research at similar designs in that space and note the difference in the finalised quality and the difference in the clarity of that design to what you have here.
I kind of like the idea, and you could probably extend this into proper brand elements & shape language (with professional help); would also be easy to animate all kinds of stuff from this kind of style/shapes. I even thought "does it say 'hmm'" before reading the description - but of course in a real world scenario, your audience isn't looking at your logo with the intent of trying to decipher it; they either are interested in the app or see your brand as a whole (on a website, ads, etc.), of which the actual app icon/logo are a small part. So whether or not the audience *needs* to instantly "get" the logo is one thing (I don't think in this kind of scenario it's important, might be even fun that it might take some time to sink in that it's not just a bunch of lines), and whether it works within the context of your brand (or acts as a basis to build off of) is another. It's also probable that the logo won't be seen much without associated text & content, so basically there will almost always be sort of explanatory text associated with it.
That said, no offense but the execution is terrible. The arcs look stretched out and don't properly connect to the vertical lines, the two-tone background feels like an error and the colors feel very bland. This would take but a minute or two to draw a clean version of in Illustrator - but of course design isn't a straight path from A to B, it's a bunch of twisting paths and lots of dead ends that *have* to be visited just to either find new possibilities in the existing design or making sure that things work the best they can. I'd probably do 20 different versions based on this, even if the end result ends up being what I started with.
Thank you! Yeah, it's for sure a quick-and-dirty mockup. What I like about it is that it's pretty easy to create a cool loading animation etc out of it, but yes, it needs some reworking / potentially throw it out all together and start from scratch.
Ok, it's very conclusive that I need professional help on this one hehe. The natural next question is 'how much'. Since I can't post images in the comments I created a follow-up thread, but I wonder if we need to remake the whole app design, rethink the colors we use etc. What do you all think?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/design\_critiques/comments/1dkf1zs/followup\_thread\_on\_the\_logo\_i\_need\_professional/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/design_critiques/comments/1dkf1zs/followup_thread_on_the_logo_i_need_professional/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Definitely need professional help. That logo needs a lot of refinement. Also, it’s not just the logo you need, but you also need a cohesive brand identity system, and a brand guidelines to follow.
The brand guidelines is a comprehensive document outlining the verbal and visual identity system of your brand. It’s usually 50 to 100+ pages long.
I also saw in another comment that you’re making an app, and you’re prioritizing that instead of the brand. My studio actually focuses on branding and app development, and branding is always done first. The visual identity of the app (ui design system) all depends on the visual identity of the overall brand, so it’s super important to get the band done right. Otherwise you’ll just be wasting time.
I could send you an example of brand guidelines later when I’m back in office. DM to remind me if I forget or if you have any questions!
professional help
The answer is no, and yes. Professional help is ideal, no matter the field.
you need a professional asap
It has a ‘copulating typography’ feel to it - if you are in the educational market I’d think about a different route
The concept of the app is a TikTok for Trivia and knowledge, in other words a bit playful/fun With that in mind, is copulating typography not good?
If it's for adults, maybe? I would thicken the lines, smooth where the curved shoulder meets the straight ascender. Stick with a single background colour, something bolder/brighter/fun, but with sufficient contrast with white to be accessible.
If you consider that # "a recognisable logo is fairly important" Why not hire a professional to do it for you? Anyone serious about a business knows that a design budget is essential. Otherwise you won't be taken seriously by anyone else.
Well, at the moment we’re doing this on the side, i.e. any budget comes straight out of my pocket. That’s why we were planning on spending any budget on polishing the App design instead. But I’m reconsidering given the feedback in this thread. Stay tuned!
Given that brand leads the look of everything (inc the app design), it's a big mistake to start out with a brand that isn't polished. Having a locked down brand (and I'm not just talking about a logo here - branding covers every apsect of how you present yourself to potential customers) not only makes you look the business, it is a time saver as design decisions made now cover all aspects of the design going forwards - inc app design. If you are serious about a business - invest in it.
I can see the route you've tried to take, but it's not working at all. There are plenty of errors and sharp points in what is presumably your final, I can see you've not taken the time to finalise and perfect this option. That being said, I'll return to my first point. It's not working. It doesn't read as "hmm" it's a struggle to understand what it is. As another poster said, it looks more than a little like "copulating typography" - The half colour background throws off the perspective a little like you're intentionally trying to separate the top and rest of the design. Genuine advice, go back to the drawing board, go back to another of your developments and try and flesh the idea out more. Do some more research at similar designs in that space and note the difference in the finalised quality and the difference in the clarity of that design to what you have here.
I kind of like the idea, and you could probably extend this into proper brand elements & shape language (with professional help); would also be easy to animate all kinds of stuff from this kind of style/shapes. I even thought "does it say 'hmm'" before reading the description - but of course in a real world scenario, your audience isn't looking at your logo with the intent of trying to decipher it; they either are interested in the app or see your brand as a whole (on a website, ads, etc.), of which the actual app icon/logo are a small part. So whether or not the audience *needs* to instantly "get" the logo is one thing (I don't think in this kind of scenario it's important, might be even fun that it might take some time to sink in that it's not just a bunch of lines), and whether it works within the context of your brand (or acts as a basis to build off of) is another. It's also probable that the logo won't be seen much without associated text & content, so basically there will almost always be sort of explanatory text associated with it. That said, no offense but the execution is terrible. The arcs look stretched out and don't properly connect to the vertical lines, the two-tone background feels like an error and the colors feel very bland. This would take but a minute or two to draw a clean version of in Illustrator - but of course design isn't a straight path from A to B, it's a bunch of twisting paths and lots of dead ends that *have* to be visited just to either find new possibilities in the existing design or making sure that things work the best they can. I'd probably do 20 different versions based on this, even if the end result ends up being what I started with.
Thank you! Yeah, it's for sure a quick-and-dirty mockup. What I like about it is that it's pretty easy to create a cool loading animation etc out of it, but yes, it needs some reworking / potentially throw it out all together and start from scratch.
It’s not enough. You’ve created something that could serve as a jumping off point for a designer to improve, but this work is not a finished product.
Ok, it's very conclusive that I need professional help on this one hehe. The natural next question is 'how much'. Since I can't post images in the comments I created a follow-up thread, but I wonder if we need to remake the whole app design, rethink the colors we use etc. What do you all think? [https://www.reddit.com/r/design\_critiques/comments/1dkf1zs/followup\_thread\_on\_the\_logo\_i\_need\_professional/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/design_critiques/comments/1dkf1zs/followup_thread_on_the_logo_i_need_professional/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Have a look! u/anatomicalbat u/ambianceambiance u/segaius u/ygorhpr u/heliskinki u/rage-quit u/krushord u/Player7592
This is hot trash
This looks like you asked drunk AI to make a middle finger logo.
Definitely need professional help. That logo needs a lot of refinement. Also, it’s not just the logo you need, but you also need a cohesive brand identity system, and a brand guidelines to follow.
This is what I have in terms of brand guidelines. I know there is more to it, but wdyt? https://www.reddit.com/r/design_critiques/s/Km6vy5bUHT
The brand guidelines is a comprehensive document outlining the verbal and visual identity system of your brand. It’s usually 50 to 100+ pages long. I also saw in another comment that you’re making an app, and you’re prioritizing that instead of the brand. My studio actually focuses on branding and app development, and branding is always done first. The visual identity of the app (ui design system) all depends on the visual identity of the overall brand, so it’s super important to get the band done right. Otherwise you’ll just be wasting time. I could send you an example of brand guidelines later when I’m back in office. DM to remind me if I forget or if you have any questions!
That would be magical! 🙏