First pass.

The chimp goes from blurred to sharp as he/she starts to think with clarity.

This is a mock up and requires more work.

Wilde wrote:No horrible novelty fonts, please. I think a clear, simple, straightforward one would be the best choice for a forum about rational scepticism.

I really like the direction shh is going - maybe something could be done with the question mark and the S in ratSkep? Two mirrored question mark-like shapes in conversation?

Gonna agree here. The "novelty" fonts get dated pretty fast and tend to "smell" of the half-decade they came from. I'm in favor of elegant, timeless, but I've always cordially disliked the Helvetica capital "R." Can't explain why.

the_5th_ape will love that logo!

Bookmarking for now.

Was a graphic design major for a while but haven't opened Photoshop/Illustrator in a number of months. Will give this a go when I have time. Nice entries so far, folks

pawiz wrote:
Can you give us a little more of what you are looking for in terms of the objectives for the new logo?

1) What is the key message? Do you want to keep the current "lifeboat" tag-line theme, or has the forum moved past that? If so, what's the medium/long term tag-line goal?

2) Are you looking for edgy, modern, conservative, traditional, cutting-edge, avant garde, safe... etc. Is anti-theism/religion/woo to be a feature of the design?

I was thinking about restricting the typo of logo I'd want to see but eventually decided against it.
Just let loose. Whatever you can come up with. It should be identifiable with the site, that's the only restriction.
If you feel good with an idea by all means post it here, we can still sort them out afterwards

At this point I'm not sure if we should keep the tag-line, change it or ditch it completely.

I can outline my personal preference if it's any help though: Basically a clean looking logo with a nice twist to it, like the idea with the question mark but executed in a way that it looks less "random". I'm against too fancy, curly etc. fonts as well as overloaded types.

pawiz wrote:
3) You mentioned likely usage, but if the logo is to be printed, then potential printing costs should be a consideration if multiple colors are used. Do you want a single color, 2 colors or more? Obviously, the more colors, the greater the reproduction cost when printing.

I should be able to adjust the logo (e.g. EPS template) afterwards. Anything up to 4 colors is fine but also gradients are welcomed.

Basically I'd like the process to be dynamic. Let's build the logo as we go along as there will be feedback to each contribution. We can then address each logo seperately.

As a rule of thumb I would look about how other well-known logos are designed and go from there.

LIFE wrote:
I should be able to adjust the logo (e.g. EPS template) afterwards. Anything up to 4 colors is fine but also gradients are welcomed.

Depending on the size of print runs you want, and what you're printing on, the colour thing may not affect costs, digital prints will be the same price whether it's 4 or 400 colours, it only when you go to really large print runs you'll need to worry about colours, and even with gradients if it's from one colour to one other, it'll be a two colour job. The bigger difficulty is going to be getting cmyk (print) colours to match rgb(screen) colours, but even that should be manageable.
For anyone interested, some reading on logo design from the master: http://www.paul-rand.com/index.php/site ... iveDevice/
http://www.paul-rand.com/index.php/site ... ogosflags/

shh wrote:

LIFE wrote:
I should be able to adjust the logo (e.g. EPS template) afterwards. Anything up to 4 colors is fine but also gradients are welcomed.

Depending on the size of print runs you want, and what you're printing on, the colour thing may not affect costs, digital prints will be the same price whether it's 4 or 400 colours, it only when you go to really large print runs you'll need to worry about colours, and even with gradients if it's from one colour to one other, it'll be a two colour job. The bigger difficulty is going to be getting cmyk (print) colours to match rgb(screen) colours, but even that should be manageable.
For anyone interested, some reading on logo design from the master: http://www.paul-rand.com/index.php/site ... iveDevice/
http://www.paul-rand.com/index.php/site ... ogosflags/

Cheers but I'll take care of this. Let's not worry too much about colours and stuff and get some ideas worked on

Well if it's any good, I think your latest inputs have improved dramatically, LIFE.

I have a couple ideas. Is there some place I can upload them, so I can show them?

You can upload pictures and get direct URL links to them via ImageShack.

reddix wrote:I have a couple ideas. Is there some place I can upload them, so I can show them?

You should also have an "Upload attachment" function on the posting screen.

I actually like the simplicity of the current header, so i thought i'll play a bit with something similar:



I thought the implied construction lines for the initials could signify "rationality" while the reversed "S" or question-mark respectively obviously indicates skepticism. Too whimsical?

I like it...

Me, too! I love seeing the breadth of creativity we've got on this board. For me, it is the necessary compliment to logical thinking.

Yeah - the designs coming through are really quite good. We'll likely be spoiled for choice.

Hey LP! Hope you did well with your PCR essay! I got lazy and bunked out!

It's both "rational skepticism" and "ratskep" at the same time. The image is supposed to be 3 gradually smaller waves but I not very good at drawing.

natselrox wrote:Hey LP! Hope you did well with your PCR essay! I got lazy and bunked out!

It's fine. It forced me to get non-lazy and read about it properly. I think I got the gist of it. It was just a short essay, anyway. And I'm pretty sure the rest of the exam went well.

Emergence, do the circles actually mean anything?
They are, well... errrr....I'm seeing "things"

lordpasternack wrote:

natselrox wrote:Hey LP! Hope you did well with your PCR essay! I got lazy and bunked out!

It's fine. It forced me to get non-lazy and read about it properly. I think I got the gist of it. It was just a short essay, anyway. And I'm pretty sure the rest of the exam went well.