Logo

Brah, in my valuable or worthless opinion, the image on the left with the combo of the wave and palm is excellent. Depending on who's doing your art, you may want them to create their own font for the wording rather than using a stock font. Probably need some stroke, drop shadow, beveling or other technique to make the words prominent. It's great though, I really like it.

The other one is good, it's just too close to played out themes like Endless Summer and such. Sampling parts of established branding that the mainstream is already familiar with can be very effective and simple to do with some creativity, but it's good to avoid themes that are played out to avoid a generic feel.

You can have 2-3 different logos that are all related. You'll need a word mark logo for apparel, signage and letterhead, a logo that's web-ready (not too complex but can be rasterized/pixelated) and one that's simple and vectored (composed of lines and curves and can be enlarged or reduced infinitely). Professional graphic design firms may have other standards for their logo suites, but these are what's worked for my experiences.

Good luck with the marketing and project! Looks good! PM me if you'd like to talk further.

 

As a graphic designer, I would say that you are not going to get much quality for $40...

 

Course, bru. You may want to get the thoughts (and professional assistance) of GD's like Gumbya who can get from you an idea of your company's image and what messages you want conveyed to your potential customers. This is the "face" of your company and a picture tells it all so it's worth investing some cash into even if capital is tight to start. There are some great aspects of that initial logo, the main one being the meshed palm with the wave. Hierarchy of features needs to be established to allow the viewer to "read" the image like a reader would go left to right on a page (right to left in Asia?) rather than have all the "words" (image features) jump out at you at once.

Think big, grow step by step, and have a blast.

 

Not sure what your budget and expected revenue is but you definitely want to invest in your marketing from the onset of your launch. A logo speaks to your target market before you have the chance to and especially now before your gallery of satisfied patrons can speak to others via word of mouth. Your logo and photos of your premises close to everything you have going for you to start up. The wording on your website and other marketing materials is important and should be clear and concise, but people are typically visual learners. I talk about the McDonald's picture menu all the time here, and for you guys to launch successfully you want the picture of that burger to let them know everything that's in that bun and make people's mouths water.

Talk to the GD's and be willing to trade up to spend more on your logo/marketing budget and less on a lighting fixture or two. Business is all about delivering the need to have and less of the nice to have. Dealmakers and dealbrakers are your livelihood.

 

I like the one on the right more than the wave/palm tree combo. The wave/palm tree is a cool idea, but I feel like it might be to cartoonish or something like that. I feel like the other one just looks a lot more professional. They are both good though.

 

I agree with all of your statements pcs. The left is cartoonish and that's a style that many logos and companies employ. If this is more a "family" surf shack (which it may not likely be) then the user-friendly logo is a plus. It's also very easy to vector and keep simple cartoon-like images. I do like the one on the right and it's subtlety, coolness, vibe, and consistency between font and graphic image. As I mentioned though, it smacks of Endless Summer and other worn out pop culture refs and to me, differentiation is everything when it comes to getting the attention of potential customers in a competitive marketplace. However, efforts to differentiate for the sake of being different miss the mark; you've still got to be delivering your message but in a unique and clever way that appeals to all strata of intellect much like the Simpsons.

 

The pro GD's can either concur or refute this, but the adding of texture is what I was referring to when speaking of the web-ready/pixelated/rasterized version of the logo. Texture is much tougher with vectors and you can't get too busy with an image when it's in vector format. Not only that, but if you want to ever embroider this on hats, shirts, robes, towels, awnings and any other fabric, you'll have a hell of a time getting a good looking digitized version of a logo that's high in texture and quantity of thread colors. Logo choice is critical to all media that you'll be using it on/with. Hence, a couple different yet related versions of the theme are valuable in a logo suite.

 

Good Graphic designers cost $50 an hour, great ones can fetch $200 an hour. The concept is original, but execution is the key.

These sites where my talent and skills get chopped down to a bid for peanuts just hurt trying to show why you should invest in a seasoned designer. One who could make this an award winning - and most importantly - a memorable design. To the point where I would go to your camp because I get the impression it's better.

On the other hand, the Nike swoosh was submitted to a contest by a collage student who only received $25.

Good luck and I hope you do well.

 

I've got to agree with pretty much everyone here... I am a landscape architect and we do graphic drawings and plans (not to say I am a graphic designer) but we have experience with many graphic programs and generally have a pretty good eye for graphics... While they both are decent thoughts, as people have mentioned the one on the left is certainly too cartoonish. I also have to say that it still needs some work as far as the line work / curves go. I think there needs to be more flow in it... the wave and palm i think need a different angle or curve to it... also, maybe the sun rays could shine through or behind the wave/palm to incorporate it into one cohesive image. Also, the font certainly needs a little work and incorporation as well...

 

In marketing, and in business (this is nothing new) you have to spend money to make money. Something that represents everything you do in the future is worth spending money on. It represents your brand, will set the tone for marketing materials, and speaks to the "seriousness" of your business. When I see a company, that has spent more money on office furniture than on marketing, I laugh.

You might get lucky with a hungry college student looking for experience and a portfolio piece to create something your marketing mind is level with. When you seek a professional, expect to pay for greatness.

and BTW, I wouldn't even answer an email for $40...

 

Without a doubt the more professional one looks better. The other looks like it was done on the "Paint" program that everybody has on their PC. I use to sell / create advertising campaigns for a direct mail magazine, and what I found is simple is better, make your brand stand out, and make the one thing you do most be the point of focus. Less is more....

 

What apps do you use? AutoCad seemed to getting a bit outdated til the great updates and newer versions that came out a couple years ago. I designed floorplans for a facility I built myself on it with the help of an A&D rep and the results were solid. Very user friendly and it resembles the Adobe MC apps which I've been using since '04 and have self-taught along with consulting with many GD friends over the years and also the plethora of YouTubes and tutorials for techniques and plug-ins available free via Lougle.

You read my mind about varied integration of the sun in the left image. I felt it could and should be thrown behind the wave-palm. Then it could be used with a gradient, glow, or drop shadow pretty smoothly.

The flow you mention is key! Hierarchy helps that and focal points followed by subordinate elements in order of pertinence to the mission, intended image, services, products, and values of the company.

 

I'll drink/charge to that, brah. Scared money don't make money. Seems the majority of small biz owners (and sometimes corp!) don't realize the ROI that's out there from increasing your resources.

Further to his points, when I meet someone on the street and they want to do biz with me but give me a business card that's perforated on the edges, flimsy, and has been printed on a bubble jet, it's going straight in the circular file.

To the OP...there are levels of "intimacy" with regard to the contact you'll be able to make with different populations of your target market and non-target market. The "touches" (actual contact of any sort; comes in many forms) are the key to your exposure and rev gen. Your greatest number of touches in the industry you are in as well as most retail markets is what people see/hear first, and right now more than ever it is your marks and branding. If you've got to eat PB&J sammiches and live out of your van down by the river in order to properly and successful market, then that's what you've got to do for the biz to take flight and basically what you need to do for it to survive this critical launch stage.

SUCCESS OCCURS WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY. Your preparation is the quality of the logo/branding/marketing you go with. The opportunity are the touches to your intended market when the brand and message reach them for the first time. Everything in life is a sale. When you see a smoker for the first time, your first 5-10 seconds (when she ultimately decides to "buy" what you're selling, which is you) being a success will earn you the next 30-60 seconds of her time, which will then make her volunteer the next 3-5 minutes of her life to you or not, and then after that your face time is pretty secure and all you need to conquer is her last-minute resistance (EASY!!) in order to close.

What Gumbya is saying is that you get what you pay for, if you're lucky. He's not answering an email for $40 because the time and effort and everything else he sacrificed in order to reach the level of professional quality and status required to give you the email response you need to hear cost him a hell of a lot more than $40. Actually $40 to the umpteenth power. He's not going to short change his investment in himself and his own marketability just because his customers (entrepreneurs like yourself) don't always know the imminent value to investing in his services.

All in all, what Gumbya, pcs, and I are saying is give us a standing timeshare at your carton o' surf cribs and we will enable you to sell your rooms like hotcakes.

 

Remember that crap?!?! Windows Paint!! Haha!!! Bitmap images hahah!!!!!!!!!!

Like Jones "Bones" Jones says..."If you want to stand out, you've got to stand out." (for you SUPpository!!!)

 

Oh yeah...so all you hookers and hoes know how I feel (those claiming me as a forum carcinogen and the west coast swami who says I know nothing about everything), this is an example of me helping a forum member or at least trying to!!!

BTW...if you put your money on my ability to sell an Atari 2600 to Bill Gates and communism to McCarthy, you'd enjoy lucrative dividends. The best part is, I won't sell anything I don't believe in and wouldn't do/use myself. In this thread, I'm telling you what's worked or not worked for me in a fair amount of business opportunities/launches/rebuilds.