New Beamdog Logo
TrentOster
Administrator, Developer Posts: 433
Hey everyone. We're looking at revising our logo to better reflect our status as a game developer. Along those lines we've started a contest on 99 Designs to try and find a new look which best fits us. Here's a poll to offer your feedback on the concepts: http://99designs.ca/logo-business-card-design/vote-mvph21
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Comments
I'd imagine the likeness of a Beholder is owned by Wizards of the Coasts, and other companies cannot just use it at will. Dragons on the other hand are much more generic.
I voted for the dragon one as well. Most of the others were either quite bland, or looked too modern to me, which I'd associate more with sci-fi games developers.
None of those selections received anything higher than
As brave warrior @Heindrich added, the selections are far too modern or console-like for my tastes, and does not reflect the style of games Beamdog has come to be known to enhance.
Good luck to the entries! I do hope those 7 are not the final selections.
Hrm. Looks like they're in the final stages of selection.
http://99designs.ca/logo-business-card-design/contests/create-logo-beamdog-veteran-rpg-video-game-studio-440508/designers
@TrentOster,
EDIT: Okay, now I understand how they have become the final choices to vote on. Reviewing Beamdog's requirements -
"We'd like a simple clean layout for cards, big on the logo/wordmark or whatever we end up with. We'd like a font that suggests a heritage without sacrificing readability or clarity."
So that would explain some of the fonts used and their changing direction. I only found this after looking around at their details page. Knowing that before going to the direct vote page would have made me examine the logos differently, rather than being so harsh with my star votes.
Personally I can recommend to go through the book of Russian designer http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/ There're lots of good tips there, all of them are easy to understand and they are very compact.
For e.g.:
"The customer doesn’t have to be a design guru or connoisseur, therefore in all likelihood he wants something that he has already seen somewhere: “The N Corporation has a pretty logo, I want you to make something like that for me”. However, to make “something like that”, one needs to know at least why N made it this particular way, what it had in mind in the beginning and what sort of mistakes it had avoided."
“A good logo should be simple enough for anyone to draw from memory.”
The tip I find the most useful is here: http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/137/ it is about the emotion matrix.
The sum of the up and forward vectors points to the right upper corner. This is the most “positive” moving direction in the 2-dimensional space. Its opposite is therefore the most “negative” direction. So, heading towards the left upper corner may be seen as going astray even though it is an upward movement. And the moving towards the right lower corners is thus the way to failure. If an object is put in the center, it is, as a rule, neutral and supports symmetry of the composition.
Basing my view on everything I know I vote for this option:
is the one I like the most but only after fixing the B so the middle line isn't visible through the arrow.
I am not a fan all cap logos, but the name Beamdog makes anything but tricky.
On the linked page #339 with the fireball O is the best of the bunch. It's clean, well spaced and the fireball gives it just a hint of playfulness needed for a gaming logo while still being unique. I believe it should be the winner.
#333 has too much going on in it, especially in the O. The designer should have chosen one break, either the eye or spikes, and gone with it.
#343 reminds me too much of relay gates from Mass Effect
#330 and #348 are probably my second choice. The waves in #348 breaks up the blocking nicely.
#344 is a mess and #352 is ok, but not as well put together as 339.
Also did my voting and these are my favorites. I think they look reliable and modern.
How about a dog balancing on a beam?
They would like to move on from "dogs". As Trent says, the original concept behind the name was "transfer companion", but they've moved on to become a game developer.
They'd like to better reflect the new direction of quality games by seasoned veteran developers.
If the dog is awesome, they'll let it slide, but so far it has been a major distraction from the core business.
http://99designs.com/logo-business-card-design/contests/create-logo-beamdog-veteran-rpg-video-game-studio-440508/announcements
As the new logo.
You can see how others did here
http://99designs.ca/logo-business-card-design/contests/create-logo-beamdog-veteran-rpg-video-game-studio-440508
The design of the winner reminds me of the logo from the famous Russian site about Baldur's Gate - http://aerie.ru/news.php
That site has been the sourse of russian translation for the vanilla games and for the mods. It contains tons of useful information about Baldur's Gate in Russian language. I've used it now and then for nearly 7 years. Now everytime I'll see the new Beamdog logo I will immediately think about that site.
Some inside writer joke is my guess.
Designers can be anal about them. They are the little "feet" and "hats" on letters some fonts have, such as the logo chosen. They have their place as do san serif fonts.
Why Phil wants them banned is beyond anyone's comprehension.
Maybe @AndrewFoley should weigh in too...