Our new logo, what do you think?

[blackheart]

We have been working on a new logo for our brewery, Black Heart Brewery. Here is a few versions. You will notice some slight variations between versions. The logo should work well on black or white backgrounds as well as for stickers/buttons/pint glasses and maybe even labels...

1

2

3

This shows the smaller comparison between both variations.

This shows some ideas for coloring based on beer styles possibly.

We are close to finalizing our logo but we could use some feedback from other brewers as to minor tweeks or other adjustments we should make before finishing everything up.

Here is our tap handle based on the basic design...

 

[MetallHed]

I like the second variation better because the angle of the (sorry I don't know the correct sword terminology) "hand guard" on the sword isn't as harsh. I do, however like, how the ball-shaped end separates Black and Heart (eventhough you use it as one word). Maybe you could lengthen the blade on the second design to raise the handle a bit to reflect the first design?

That is a REALLY awesome design and look. I LOVE that tap handle. Did you use a CNC machine to cut it? I'm not familiar with much woodworking equipment.

 

[John Beere]

Looks awesome! who did the custom tap handle?

 

[blackheart]

I believe that is the cross guard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword#Terminology

This is a slightly older version which has the blade longer and the hilt farther from the heart, almost everything else is the same.

And the brewery is Black Heart Brewery so 3 separate words

Some other minor variations are the diamonds vs circles for the word separators...

The tap handle was made by one of our fathers who is a wood worker. He cut it out with a scroll saw on a board then added more wood and shaped it to make it 3D. We are going to use this to cast resin tap handles.

Here is a bit more of a front on picture

 

[MetallHed]

yup... i like that one.

 

[blackheart]

I did a quick overlay between the tap handle and the longer logo... they seem to line up pretty well...

Might have to taper the tops and bottom of the handle more on the logo... and maybe remove some of the taper from the actual tap handle near the pommel which I think gets a bit too narrow.

 

[Thwizzit]

I would like to see a bit of the sword poking through the bottom. If you look at your overlay, you can see there's room to show a little bit if it.

 

[rawlus]

it looks like the handguard on the tap handle is more gently curved, i prefer this aesthetic to the sharper angularity of the logo design... the angled version in the logos looks less refined... it would be interesting to see the logo pick up the handguard shape from the tap handle... thus both being consistent to each other and having the more natural, expected curve to the guard.

 

[rawlus]

the strong black angle of the sword guard makes it a focal point in the logo design and i am not sure that is best design-wise. part of it is because much of the design is curvilinear and the guard stands out as one of the few true angles and bolded in black no less. if the guard were to pick up a less severe angle or optimally, a gentle curve, it would blend with the overall design more and allow focus to be on the heart instead, which presumably is the intent since it has a sword like an arrow going through it. right now i find that hand guard really competing for attention.

also, if the grip on the sword is going to be behived as opposed to spiraled, then i think that needs to be reflected in the logo design as well, because it is such a substantial design element in the logo. i actually prefer the spiraled design and if you could obtain that effect on the tap handle, i think the final product would be better for it, because it is more unique and aesthetically more interesting... but that may not easily be done from a manufacturing point of view.

 

[Thwizzit]

After looking at it some more, I think it would really benefit from using a font with a serif. The Helvetica looks a little plain.

 

[Thwizzit]

Here are a few fonts along the lines of what I was thinking

 

[blackheart]

Nice work with adding the text around the logo. We chose a super simple basic San-Serif font for scalability and ease of printing etc. Yes, its not exciting, but we were going for a more simplified look.

Here are some test fonts we looked at. We went with 13, because of the letters symmetry and consistency, block letter style.

Here is the original logo we are replacing which used the Rapscallion font, but we found it was too hard to print at smaller sizes clearly.

I connected the dots and drew in the tip of the dagger then overlayed the circle text on it to create the logo.

So this should be most of the changes that were mentioned in here... moving the handle up farther, adding a tip to the blade. Regarding the spiral handle, I wanted it to be a spiral that was tapered at both the top and bottom, this is very difficult to do with wood or even 3D. We can either leave the tap handle alone, or cut off the handle and throw in a chunk of clay and work it by hand. So it is possible it will just require more work, as this is the prototype we can hold the whole thing together with glue and clay long enough to make a mold and thats fine.

Any other thoughts on size/placement/colors etc?

What about the angle of the handle stripes vs the hand guard angle? Should the stripes be adjusted to match the angle?

I am thinking this will make some sweet silk screened pint glasses!

 

[blackheart]

And here it is redone so the handle stripes match the same angle of the hand guard.

 

[rawlus]

much better IMHO.

 

[blackheart]

Everyone seems to like this modified version... now for the hard part of making it a perfect vector image......

 

[rawlus]

make sure you convert the fonts to outlines as well.
and it is easier if you save the vectors that might be colorized in future versions to a separate layer.

 

[TheCircuitBox]

This one seems to be the best out of bunch. The lines on the sword are not even and the hilt looks off imo.

Also why did you angle the lines in the hilt when the wooden carving has straight lines? If you were making a 2d image out of the wooden carving I would not angle any lines on the image.

 

[blackheart]

That was a rough drawing. This is the finished photoshopped version. We will be making a vector from this for use on everything.

 

[cblack85]

Very cool, and I love the tap handle

 

[deflagratio]

Do a wire wrap on the hilt of the tap handle. This would add a shine to it making it more of an eye grabber. It can take some time and I don't know how it well it would work with resin but it would look totally awesome.

 

[moxie]

Sort of like those Sapporo samurai sword handles. I really dig the logo and the tap handle. Good work.

 

[celticcolorado]

I really like clean and simple designs. This is really really nice. Whoever made the tap handle is very talented.

 

[cinderbike]

Nice logo. If I could offer a few suggestions:
I'd move the heart up just a tad, and also move the pommel up so it's centered with the outer circle/text. I'd also resize the other two dots to be the same size as the inner white circle of the pommel. Quick chop-job example:

 

[EdK]

I agree with cinderbike, show a little more of the blade at the bottom.

Nice and clean logo otherwise, I like it. The repetition of circles is particularly nice.