Zym Blog graphic

[JasonElise1983]

I may be biased, but I like where the one on the left is going. Try playing with the type placement. Try it to the side, either side, centered below, inside it... Whatever. I will say, if you do have interest in design, take the time to really learn about it. It's not about software. It's about theory and ideas. Read up on it. Look at other designers. It's not an easy thing to do. Designers go to school for a long time, and it takes years to harness those skills. You may not have any interest in doing this anymore, but if u did, I don't want you going into it thinking it's easy, and not respecting the trade. Ok, my rant is over, good work!

-je

 

[jdl8422]

www.faveup.com

Use these for inspiration. Dont steal their designs

 

[monke]

I hope I don't come off sounding harsh, but your logo's just don't look good. They don't really look like anything, other then bad photoshop tutorials.

Past that, try incorporating different elements into your design, and not just copying and pasting stuff. For example, you could try using the iPhone home button as the 'O' in blog, or better yet the the logo in the App Store icon, that would look good.

Try staying away from the fun fonts, try something sharper, edgy, or bold. Look into some more indepth design tutorials and logo tutorials (try www.good-tutorials.com) and learn from there. Look at logos that have related sites to yours. A simple google search pulled up this site that details 100 blog logos. Try and find inspiration or ideas from there and then design your logo. Hope that helps. 🙂

 

[xtrmntr13]

I guess the problem lies within the name ZYM.
nobody knows what it could stand for. In my opinion you should
look for a font that links zym with technology, a good scource is
http://www.dafont.com/.
most or all of the fonts are for free.

 

[jdl8422]

I think you are focusing too much on the computer/photoshop part of the logo. You need to focus on the basic fundamentals of graphic design, THEN you can worry about a digital composition in photoshop.

 

[LeviG]

Might as well throw mine in (I was bored so spent a few mins doing it so not 100%) - I took a different approach to Jason Elise (which is quite nice I might add) and took features of apples marketing style (ie the angle gloss, the reflections etc) and added it to a simplified ipod touch style (note old one and more to just edge the design more than anything), I took the dimensions from zimms blog image so should work with that ok.

I picked a font for ZYM (Madison Avenue) and kept the rest as myriad to keep it clean and simple.

I will agree that if the zymblog square logo (post 25 left one) can be tweaked a little it could turn out quite nice and simple too.

 

[macbookairman]

Might as well throw mine in (I was bored so spent a few mins doing it so not 100%) - I took a different approach to Jason Elise (which is quite nice I might add) and took features of apples marketing style (ie the angle gloss, the reflections etc) and added it to a simplified ipod touch style (note old one and more to just edge the design more than anything), I took the dimensions from zimms blog image so should work with that ok.
[snip]
I will agree that if the zymblog square logo (post 25 left one) can be tweaked a little it could turn out quite nice and simple too.

I'm one of the reviewers at the Zym Blog, and I love your design. I agree about the square one too.

I also like xtrmntr13's design. (its at post 14)

 

[JasonElise1983]

I also like xtrmntr13's design. (its at post 14)

just for clarification, i'm post 14. xtrmntr13's design is post 16. Not that i really care if someone else took credit for the one i did, it's not that great. Just didn't want someone not seeing xtrmntr13's design, if that's what they were looking for.

LeviG— I love yours. Nice and clean, straight to the point. By far my favorite so far, though the rounded square (home button) one is coming in second for me. With a little tweaking, and maybe adding some of the elements you used in yours, (the nice subtle gloss in the corner), it would be perfect.

-je

 

[LeviG]

This is the good thing about having several designers working on a design, different people see where different things can be tweaked or used in different ways and hopefully come up with a decent final design 😀

Now we just have to hope that zym blog's 'wordpress' styling doesn't stay brown because all our grey's and blacks won't really go too well 🙄

 

[TheZimm]

Hey,

I've been hard at work trying to create better logos and icons.

Heres what I came up with, on the icon i dont know if the reflection is too much, just let me know:

Zym

 

[JasonElise1983]

honestly, i think you went in reverse. it's too cluttered. too messy now. the original one with the square is much better. keep the words together. and never...never, ever, ever, ever use vertical type like that. Anyway, i did another one. Kind of based on LeviG's but, different type and another element. Maybe it's the home button, maybe it's an outline of an app...who knows. Not too bad for someone who's been drinkin. Happy New Year everybody!

-je

 

[TheZimm]

Okay, so I asked but no one answered, is he logo as good as the others people made?, or no?

Also, is the one with the apple better, or without?

And finally, I redid the icon, how do you like?

Zym

 

[JasonElise1983]

Okay, so I asked but no one answered, is he logo as good as the others people made?, or no?

Also, is the one with the apple better, or without?

And finally, I redid the icon, how do you like?

Zym

Honestly, you are still going down hill from where you were at post 25. You are oddly placing text now. Yours aren't as good as one's other people have done. LeviG's is very nice, and the last one I did, isn't too bad (well, i don't think it is...but i'm still drinkin, and it's highly influenced by LeviG's). Look at those. What about them makes them good. simplicity. that's all. in post 25 you were getting there. now you are complicating it. I also am a little confused why you are working so small. work at the size it's going to be. i mean, what size is your blog header graphic giong to be? now work to fit that size. The iPhone slider thing isn't that great of a visual. it's boring and has too much going on, and doen'st say very muuch. I don't know, I applaud your effort, but i'll tell you like i tell most people. If you want a brand to be successful, hire a professional. a few hours in photoshop won't get you where a good professional designer will. YOu'll probably eventually get something good, but you are going to have to take people's advice, and really listen. sketching things on paper is always a good idea. even if you can't draw, a sketch is the birth of creativity...or something like that. but...at the end of the day, it's better to get someone who know's what they are doing to do it, though i love a good effort.

-je

 

[TheZimm]

Okay, so I completely redid the design, tryed to make it simpler. Also, I have no idea where to go with the icon, any ideas?

Zym

EDIT: click on the pic to view full size, otherwise it doesn't look nearly as good.

 

[monke]

One of the things that is just ringing a bell is your resizing.

Always, let me stress this, always hold shift to keep the proportions equal when resizing an image or logo.

Secondly, don't put the Apple logo in your logo. It's copyright and also its your logo, why would you put another on it in?

It seems like you are just plain confused.
Design the logo first, then the header, if I'm seeing things right.

Here's an idea I'll through out there, done in less then 5 minutes:


When designing and colouring a logo consider that it might be on both dark and light background. Make a dark version for lighter backgrounds, and a light version for darker backgrounds.

 

[jdl8422]

I still feel like you are just saying thanks for the advice and not following it. People say its getting too cluttered and then you clutter it more. Its starting to look like 5 or 6 elements just pasted on a board. You are also trying to make an icon but still squeeze the entire name of the blog on there. Look at photoshops logo and icon. There is a logo for photoshop then they use their dock icon that just has Ps in it. They arnt trying to squeeze Adobe Photoshop in a tiny square.

 

[TheZimm]

I still feel like you are just saying thanks for the advice and not following it. People say its getting too cluttered and then you clutter it more. Its starting to look like 5 or 6 elements just pasted on a board. You are also trying to make an icon but still squeeze the entire name of the blog on there. Look at photoshops logo and icon. There is a logo for photoshop then they use their dock icon that just has Ps in it. They arnt trying to squeeze Adobe Photoshop in a tiny square.

Whih one is too cluttered, this one (the one attached?-if it is then how, I tried to simplify it) or some other one, also is the icon w.o the writing better?

Zym

 

[TheZimm]

One of the things that is just ringing a bell is your resizing.

Always, let me stress this, always hold shift to keep the proportions equal when resizing an image or logo.

Secondly, don't put the Apple logo in your logo. It's copyright and also its your logo, why would you put another on it in?

It seems like you are just plain confused.
Design the logo first, then the header, if I'm seeing things right.

Here's an idea I'll through out there, done in less then 5 minutes:
View attachment 150835

When designing and colouring a logo consider that it might be on both dark and light background. Make a dark version for lighter backgrounds, and a light version for darker backgrounds.

What image are you talking about with the resizing?

Great point with the apple, never thought of it that way.

Zym

EDIT: Now I've got a new logo, that header and a new icon, better? worse? all criticism needed

Also, is it better with or without the ipod ion the side?, I kinda think it looks badly put on, someone told me to put it there, so I did(not in this forum)

 

[LeviG]

Quick review of latest -
grey one with white 'glow' - what's with the ellipse at the bottom under ZYM Blog - it has no relevance to apple design or the 'touch' products in my view. You still haven't quite grasped the text principles that myself and jasonelise used - if you look at ours again and see whats quite obviously different - look at the line of the text your b is higher and breaks the line or flow that we used.

The new darker grey options - again whats the ellipse in the background for, what is the logo relating too and why is there a graphics tablet pen on a device that doesn't even use a stylus 😕

And you still seem like you just play with the filters/effects within photoshop on a lot of the designs, design isn't just about seeing what filters work well 🙄

So lets start from the beginning again shall we as your designs aren't really working as is 🙂

Now several of us (myself included, most of some sort of designer I would suspect) have given alternative designs (for free I might add) which have been highly regarded (including by one of your own bloggers) but you still seem to ignore the essence of what we had been doing so lets see if we can make you think slightly differently about your design approach.

So this is what I would like you to do before the next design comes out (note theres more to it than this but this might help - its not the easiest thing to break down doing logos etc) 🙂
1) Draw 10-20 different logos with pen and paper - no colour. Might be worth knocking out a quick grid with the correct proportions that would end up on your blog here.
2) Now take the top 3-5 designs and break them down into key parts, ie things like positions of image or text, thickness of text, style of text etc, what style of background.
3) From that list you should see what aspects seem to be drawing you in, ie is the text in a set area for example
4) Using these key points do a rough sketch of what the layout could be and then work around this for your next couple of designs.
5) once you have a black and white concept (you can do this in photoshop if you wish) then start to consider colour as at present your site is brown and the logos all slightly different.

Lets see if that makes an improvement 🙂

If I get some spare time I will do a very simple design revision of mine along with a 'iphone' app icon 🙂

edit: heres the revisions/app icon - think the home/start button 'o' might make zym look a little like ozym in one of them but they're only for ideas more than anything 🙂 Took some aspects of jasonelise variation (not bad for someone who was a little under the influence 😛) of my original and used the same sort of idea (different colour - felt blue was a bit last year for mine if you get what I mine so went for a more zesty colour 🙂) to add a bit of 'life' to it 🙂

Zimm - can you see how subtle alterations can give an entirely different feel to an image without having to resort to an entire redesign 🙂

edit: actually on thinking about it again the second iphone app button (zym) could easily be made into the basis of the header design. Just use zym and then a simple text (on a horizontal line like the other designs) to say blog/forum or whatever depending on section.

 

[macbookairman]

Quick review of latest -

The new darker grey options - again whats the ellipse in the background for, what is the logo relating too and why is there a graphics tablet pen on a device that doesn't even use a stylus 😕

I'll speak for Zimm on this one. Its not a graphics tablet pen. Its the side of an iPod Touch 2G (2G cause it has the black volume buttons)

5) once you have a black and white concept (you can do this in photoshop if you wish) then start to consider colour as at present your site is brown and the logos all slightly different.

Also, I don't know if Zimm wants me to post this or not, but we are working on a new site with a different color scheme. You can see it here (note its still under construction).

 

[TheZimm]

I'll speak for Zimm on this one. Its not a graphics tablet pen. Its the side of an iPod Touch 2G (2G cause it has the black volume buttons)

Also, I don't know if Zimm wants me to post this or not, but we are working on a new site with a different color scheme. You can see it here (note its still under construction).

Thanks for the clarification,

I've been pretty busy at drawing/sketching and then putting into photoshop. Here are my 4 logos that pretty much put together all the good parts of my sketches(sums up my sketches). theres one that I did not make that seems tacky to me, it would say Zym Blog with the slider and instead of it saying slide to unlock, it would say slide to read.

Criticism please and thank you =]

Zym

 

[LeviG]

they're the best you came up with 😕 what happened to all the suggestions we've all put forward?

quick input - my opinion.
top left - best of the bunch in my view but still not really anything more than text with (unnecessary) iphone icons.

top right - the g makes the shadow look wrong and the black o is out of context

bottom left - no just no

bottom right - the emphasis is on the blog not zym, I would do it the other way round, the background blends with the zym too much as well.

You say you left off the one based on the iphone slide - try doing with it with a simple zym blog (look at mine and jasonelise with colour and text combo) it may work if you can do it right.

I'm also going to be quite blunt here (on review of new site) - remove the link offering photoshop work from your blog as to be honest you're not up to a standard to be offering it from what I've seen here.

 

[TheZimm]

okay, so I looked at that set with the yellow and I have to say they look really great. I made a couple like those(not exactly the same) and so here they are:

Also, I'm trying to make it related to iphones in some way, IMO just the square isn't related. Thats why I have the home button or the icons at the top in the designs

Do the g's look better?

Zym

 

[TheZimm]

they're the best you came up with 😕 what happened to all the suggestions we've all put forward?

quick input - my opinion.
top left - best of the bunch in my view but still not really anything more than text with (unnecessary) iphone icons.

top right - the g makes the shadow look wrong and the black o is out of context

bottom left - no just no

bottom right - the emphasis is on the blog not zym, I would do it the other way round, the background blends with the zym too much as well.

You say you left off the one based on the iphone slide - try doing with it with a simple zym blog (look at mine and jasonelise with colour and text combo) it may work if you can do it right.

I'm also going to be quite blunt here (on review of new site) - remove the link offering photoshop work from your blog as to be honest you're not up to a standard to be offering it from what I've seen here.

they're the best from my sketches

good point about the page, thanks-taken away

Zym

 

[LeviG]

the big square Zb one isn't a bad start - tweak the height of the b, its a bit smaller, I would personally change the gradient to a grey rather than a green and how exactly are you doing the grey box as it looks a bit rough around the corners compared with ours.

Now the benefit of that simple square is
1. it can be used on iphone/touch desktops
2. its simple enough to just tweak the colour if you change the site for example.
3. change the b to an f, g (or any other letter) to represent forum or gallery - the b obviously representing blog.

You could if you wanted to use one of the other options (do the same with the b height) as a main title on the page but lose the iphone/touch button and just make it a normal letter as the square from the button is used in the 'main' logo.

And are you really sure you want to go for green?

edit: on the new blog, try making the links at the top centred (depends on logo layout though) as it could make it nicer to look at - visuals are everything these days 🙂