There is much to like here. First off, I beefed up the snake a bit and cleaned up his geometry to strengthen the psi symbol. Second, I dropped the full shield surround down to the lower part of the design so I could enlarge the title. The key and torch, representing efforts to unlock the prison of the mind and the light of knowledge, balance nicely.
Several commenters on the earlier post suggested a single silhouette behind the psi and this was the first iteration of that. The rayed sun motif doesn't look half-bad, but I'm leery of adding too many "pointy" elements because I want a passive, non-threatening design.
Then again, I may be thinking too much.
Another iteration of the background element idea, this time echoing the curves of the psi symbol to emphasize it even more. I like this, but I worry that it's too modern looking.
Another try, taking the basic idea from above and blending it with the shape of a beacon basket from heraldry. I think it's weaker, and the beacon thing is probably too obscure.
Going back to the beginning and simply swapping the white background for black. I'm liking it. The multiple symbolic elements echo the overly arty seal designs of the past, but it has the clean layout of more modern designs without being too abstract. The black and white print version of the logo could drop the dark field altogether. If I wanted to go really period I could hand ink each of the elements and import them to replace the current versions.
As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Shaping up very nicely, with one potential glitch: very first thing I thought of when I saw the last iteration was: "Hmmm... I didn't know Arkham Sanitarium was an Interstate Highway". Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteOnce again, nice work. I like Rev-8, with the silhouette of the PSI that blends in to the shield, better than the others. The black area reminds me of a goblet, which makes me think of those goblet/faces illusions. If there is desirable symbolism in this, you may want to explore some other variations.
ReplyDeleteAccordingly, you might make the negative (white) space between the edge of the shield and the silhouette in the shape of something Lovecraftian. If it could be done subtly, of course.
I like how its developing. One design tip I have is regarding the snake around the logo. An image is generally stronger if its silhouette is recognisable. If you were to colour the whole symbol and snake black it would be difficult to distinguish the snakes head, maybe try moving the snakes head a little lower so that it stands out better. Although, to be honest this doesn't always work in practice!
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ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteHeh. That didn't even occur to me until you mentioned it, but now I can't get it out of my head.
@ PhilO
I like #8 as well, but as more of a modern era logo. If time allows I'm considering adapting some of these ideas for a timeline of logos used by the sanitarium stretching from the early 20th century to the modern era.
@ Carl
You raise a good point. I think it might be resolvable by beefing up the line width a bit, but I'll fiddle around with adjusting the geometry again.