Ok, let me preface this with my thanks to all of you who have contributed, your skills are much better than mine by a long shot.
If your submission doesn't appear below, please don't take it personal - I'm singling out the ones that have caught my eye and are in the vein of what I would like to see. A number of you had great work or showed amazing creativity, but didn't mesh with what I'd like to see.
Here's some of the submissions I'd like to comment upon. In the interests of scrolling, I've cut out empty space on a bunch of these, and (in posts with multiple submissions) singled out ones that were better than others, and rearranged some of the posts so that artists are grouped together. I've also resized some of the images, click for large versions.
Don't put any emphasis on the order in which these submissions are quoted, I just did them in the rough order they were found in the thread, but grouped submissions together.
Final note before my comments on individual submissions - Unfortunately we don't own the domains BF.com or BFC.com - if we did, it'd make this a hell of a lot easier. If I could easily buy them I would. Since we don't, BFC can't really be used in a logo since people will see it, go to BFC.com or BF.com and leave. I should have registered these years ago, my stupidity. There have been a bunch of great submissions using BFC or BF in them that fall prey to this issue.
cool contest! here's my first submission.
Curtain Call gave me some inspiration!
here's an update to my first submission:
Edit: to explain the tag line, i shortened it for conciseness. you already know it's a forum so no need to have knife discussion included. it's more direct and a faster read.
From start to finish: I love the text on these submissions. It has the feel of a sports team and really stands out. My wife really loved the 2nd submission - however it reminds me of EA sports for some reason and the gradients need to go. The one thing both of these was missing was a knife!
Fair enough, I didn't say it needed a knife in my OP, and after I made the update requesting artists include one, he put in the third submission which is fantastic. Further feedback - the knife looks like its' perspective is wrong and is coming towards the viewer somewhat. Try another siloheutte, possibly something with cleaner lines.
I really liked both of these. Very clean, very simple. I can't articulate it, but it's missing something though.
How about something like one of these? Credit goes to my wife, who is awesome.
Your wife is very talented, but like I mentioned above, the logo is missing a knife! Of these three, the last one is VERY iconic loking, except the capital A reminds me more of a fountain pen instead of a knife blade. Gorgeous though otherwise!
Next up is the most prolific of contestants thus far. Gene, you've REALLY done a great job here. You've created some very memorable and iconic logos that, in my opinion, are truly stellar. I've only quoted the ones I want to comment on, and linked to the appropriate posts.
Worked up a handful of designs, included
rough ideas for possible color breaks too... all are simple and meet
the requirement for 1 color...
thanks for the chance
regards
Gene Kerley
From start to finish:
1 - Very Iconic! If we owned BFC.com I'd be all over this. Love the two tone color and the different knives. Unfortunately since we don't own BFC.com, I'd be worried that if someone saw this and then went to BFC.com they wouldn't ever come back.
2 - Again, iconic. Maybe put the round next to the BladeForums text?
3 - Love the 3 knives in blocks. This is truly a great submission. For some reason it reminds me of Breaking bad, but I love love love this logo.
4 - the knife as the letter L just doesn't do it for me. I feel like someone skimming across it would be likely to go "Badeforums, what's that?" Maybe if the knife was moved outside the text instead.
5 - see above with #1. Again a wonderful submission
6 - the text not lining up is kinda jarring to me. Perhaps enlarge the image block and justify the text?
1 - neat text, but no knife
2 - GREAT LOOK but same issues with BFC
3 - I like it, probably without the "The Leading Edge" text
4 - amazing job
5 - I like the partially occluded text, but the icon isn't immediately recognizable as a knife blade if pulled out of context
6 - Again beautiful, but BFC
7 - I don't know how to feel about this one. Very arty, very cool, just something seems off.
a few more
thanks
Gene Kerley
Since these aren't separated, I'll address them in order -
First two have nice text, but icons aren't what I'd like.
3rd has great text, but the icon needs work.
4 is VERY NICE, maybe slightly different blades?
5, again great but BFC as mentioned previously.
per Sparks request, utilizing a sykes and i
threw in a v-44 just because i like it and its an iconic profile
Gene Kerley
1 LOVE LOVE LOVE the dagger. This is the sort of thing I'm looking for!
2 V-44 knives are awesome, and this would make a great patch but the "BFC" again. I love crossed knives like the next guy, but maybe put them behind "BladeForums"?
How about something like this sparks? These are all vector artwork created in illustrator. I can do some different color variations if you'd like. These were done quick for an example. If you like one I can clean it up and give it some more detail. Thanks for the chance!
Great job with the dagger, but it needs to be clearly delineated from the text. The first two has no clear division, the 2nd two have the right idea but need work. Of these, the 3rd works the best, but could use a bit of separation between the text and the knife
Here's a few more:
The first one reminds me of a knife being thrown into a target... but I don't like the tilted text. Maybe if the text was horizontal? The 2nd is the same as the first, ditch the oval?
The third reminds me of Bacardi. Interesting, but not the direction I'd like to go in. If you are going to put wings on it, make them SAS style wings and even then, we're not mall ninjas.
Hi all
Maybe something like this...
new refreshed version of current logo - modified to much will not be
associated with that forum....
FANTASTIC JOB reinvigorating the current logo. V4 is clearly my favorite of all of these. This is a GREAT submission and ties the current to the new in a very pleasing way. Great job on this. This would look great on anything we put it on... but it is a bit busy if you know what I mean?
I can see this on the front of a tshirt, or on a nalgene bottle, or even engraved on a knife. Great work.
Thanks
... and vice versa.
and some more my propositions.... I hope SPARK will like it
Again, more great stuff. V5 and V8 are my favorites. I am leaning more towards V8 because the text isn't obscured. You might want to try with another knife and see how it looks. GREAT WORK
Here are a few more samples with a more
peaceful and legal knife
.
Great use of a different, hunting style knife. The 2nd one has the best text placement, keep working on where the knife is in relation, and don't be afraid to try other fonts.
I'll throw my hat in the ring
All vector based art so it will work any size.
Very strong submissions on the first and third. They just need a knife in there, possibly horizontally between the two lines of text.
And surprise, he did just that
We're getting closer...
.
The Concept:
I really wanted to create something clean, conceptually strong, easily memorable, and something that reproduced great when it was really small, and really big. I used the symmetry of 2 blades opposite each other and the "b" and "f" for bladeforums. There is a separate, handled knife within each letter, and I wanted something that you saw more the longer you looked as well. Each letter is also a different style of knife (while keeping the same blade/symmetry) bringing a little more depth to the logo and
showing how bladeforums spans the whole spectrum of knives. ©Zack Baldwin 2012
Let me know your thoughts! The font/colors/etc could obviously be changed...just wanted to give a wide-range of possibilities here.
Standalone logo:
A few variations on how the blades could look and colors:
The logo with type, as well as the 2 knives in the logo separated out:
The logo applied on a t-shirt:
The logo applied to the website:
The logo compared to the same logo in uppercase, as well as a possible
social medica icon/app icon:
This is pretty interesting. If we owned BF.com I'd jump on it, similar to some of the BFC logos. I personally think that the knife blade is facing the wrong way on the B but that's me - it makes it look like the knuckle guard is on the back of the blade. I really like the stripped down simplicity of this logo. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me.
Ok....first attemp.
Intellectually I like the concept of BladeForums being within the siloheutte of a knfie, but it's not working for me on this one. The unevenness of the text doesn't work for me.
The second submission runs into the same problem I pointed out earlier on another entry - the A isn't readily recognizable as such, and doesn't really look like a knife blade either. It's extremely iconic and very 40's Hollywood Glam and I love that, but it needs some work.
Very creative entries. The first looks "hard" and militaristic to me. It'd be great for a gaming site or military oriented one, but it needs a bit more softness. The outline around the text is rubbing me wrong too. Try inverting the dagger?
The second one is amazing. I love the knife blade silohuette seperateing the BF, but backwards letters are a pet peeve. Try putting the B as it should be, and incorporating the knife shape into it. This would be fantastic with these small changes.
Inspiration from bugtronic and Freak Show
Scott's golf ball comment
This illustrates what I mentioned with Bugtronics entry, but it looks like the knife has been cut in half. Put the outline of the knife there where it's shadowed by the B and space the Blade appropriately (or just have it superimposed over that "shadow" outline and see what I mean. Don't have the knife cover up so much of the F.
