Where Things Are Going

[nobbie]

Well, you probably can't use this as LL logo, because it's copyrighted artwork of Swiss artist H.R. Giger ("Alien", "Species", "Dune" and others), but this would be my pick for a LL logo. It fits both the "lurker" and "gothic" theme, and it has a funny touch :)

[bernard shakey]

Although it is somewhat been-there-done-that, here is another concept for a logo.  It would be fairly easy (for someone with talent) to make into a 2 color outline/stylized version suitable for t-shirts/mugs/toilet bowl brushes.  (note: graphics are ©Blizzard and are used for example only)


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i like this idea. Its a kind family crest thing. maybe the shield could have a "lightning B" on it and the double ''L's"could be some sort of sickles criss crossing the shield instead of axes.

[Fragbait]

Hi!

Googled a bit, and this is what I came up with:

Nice, n'est pas?
:D
Greetings, Fragbait

[Artega]

I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry that someone's outfitted a stuffed bear with chainmail.

[Occhidiangela]

i like this idea. Its a kind family crest thing. maybe the shield could have a "lightning B" on it and the double ''L's"could be some sort of sickles criss crossing the shield instead of axes.
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Heraldric Suggestions to the good Shield Idea:

Upper Left quadrant, Bolty's B logo, Upper Right, the LL, Lower Left quadrant a sword, lower left, a hand "casting a spell."

No room for a bow, drat, but space considerations force choices.

Occhi

[Bolty]

Heraldric Suggestions to the good Shield Idea:

Upper Left quadrant, Bolty's B logo, Upper Right, the LL, Lower Left quadrant a sword, lower left, a hand "casting a spell."
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Actually, my avatar "B" image is copyrighted. It belongs to a Japanese company that creates men's hygiene and hair care products. I happen to have a few in my possession, actually, imported from Japan from a Lurker with contacts there who hooked me up.

http://www.hcj.co.jp/biz/web_d/sample/seis...lty/default.htm

I've been using the Bolty handle for close to 15 years now, so it was a funny surprise when I found out about the Japanese Bolty company about 5 years ago.

-Bolty

[Taem]

Heraldric Suggestions to the good Shield Idea:

Upper Left quadrant, Bolty's B logo, Upper Right, the LL, Lower Left quadrant a sword, lower left, a hand "casting a spell."

No room for a bow, drat, but space considerations force choices.

Occhi
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Heraldry is much more than just a picture with some pretty colors splashed on it. It's colors, shapes, and symbols all have meaning pertaining to ones family and heritage:

http://digiserve.com/heraldry/

That site has some freeware clip art of heraldic symbols we can use and lots of information regarding blazoning (decorating the shield with heraldic arms).

[Occhidiangela]

Heraldry is much more than just a picture with some pretty colors splashed on it.  It's colors, shapes, and symbols all have meaning pertaining to ones family and heritage:
http://digiserve.com/heraldry/

That site has some freeware clip art of heraldic symbols we can use and lots of information regarding blazoning (decorating the shield with heraldic arms).
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No kidding. I am well aware of that, and chose the quadrants off the cuff due to time limitations.

However, I just realized that putting a little dingus in each quadrant (see the complex English Royal Coat of Arms for a fine example) may not meet the KISS standard for avatar size mentioned a few posts up.

Crossed swords behing the shield, or, with the LL logo, guls, would probably do the trick. KISS principle is key to a good and recognizeable logo.

See for example:

Dallas Cowboys "Star"
Green Bay Packers "GB"
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp "Flying S"
The "Evil Eye" of CBS
The AT & T "Death Star" look
The new U.S. Air Force logo (stylized eagle, stripes, medal theme)

Clean and easily recognizable, not too busy.
Occhi

[--Pete]

Hi,

Upper Left quadrant . . .
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Hmm. Would a device for the Lounge merit quarterings, or would two divisions (possibly by the bar sinister) be all we'd merit? ;)

--Pete

[DeeBye]

Actually, my avatar "B" image is copyrighted.  It belongs to a Japanese company that creates men's hygiene and hair care products.  I happen to have a few in my possession, actually, imported from Japan from a Lurker with contacts there who hooked me up.

http://www.hcj.co.jp/biz/web_d/sample/seis...lty/default.htm

I've been using the Bolty handle for close to 15 years now, so it was a funny surprise when I found out about the Japanese Bolty company about 5 years ago.

-Bolty
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Holy hell that is one crazy website. I don't understand even 1/10th of it which makes it even more hilarious.

[Xyngynkynyn]

Yes, a new logo.  This site has NO logo, when you think of it.  A few months back I has asked around for a logo and a number of Lurkers came up with some great submissions (thanks, Deebye).  But what is needed is something more than just text or letters - something with an image (that's not copyrighted) that can be incorporated with the Lurker Lounge text in some way.  What would be cool would be:

a) A logo similar to the top of the LL pages now, with the text - but some cool image either behind the text or incorporated into the text
B) A button - something smaller with height and width being equal, with perhaps just "LL" in it
c) All with a "gothic" look that fits the theme of a gaming website
d) The willingness of its creator to donate the work free of charge to the Lounge
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Hmmm.... I must have missed that post where you requested for a logo design a while back. Anyway here are my initial sketches for a logo.



I'm not completely satisfied with any of them but it does give you an idea of where my ideas are going. I'm kind of in a creative block at the moment so feedback is welcomed.

BTW Bolty, what font are you using for your current Lurker Lounge logo?

Here's a quick-and-dirty image showing how the logo would be applied.



Illustrated are the logos for Diablo, Starcraft (I don't play it so it might not be apt :P ), Guild Wars, Warcraft-Human Alliance and Warcraft-Undead Scourge.

That's all I got for now.

[Walkiry]

Here's a quick-and-dirty image showing how the logo would be applied.

You keep using that term, I don't think it means what you think it means...

(Translation: Hell, those are better than anything I could produce in 10 years :lol: ).

[DeeBye]

BTW Bolty, what font are you using for your current Lurker Lounge logo?
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It's "Abaddon", which is a freeware font available on the web. Check your local Google for more details.

Those are pretty nice graphics. I kinda like the eye theme.

[Occhidiangela]

Holy hell that is one crazy website.  I don't understand even 1/10th of it which makes it even more hilarious.
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Can I call you Xyn? :)

Like the Diablo logo. Presented on a shield with crossed swords behind it would be sweet. Nice work. :)

Occhi

[Lord_Olf]

Hail

quick and dirty, I dont' think so... I really like that shield-like logo on the lower left. It is easily recognizable, looks good, and has a certain meaning to me. Like "This is the Lounge, shielded against your everyday moron by our fantastic moderating team - and the regulars."

I'm definitely into the shield idea (classic heraldic device), so I'd be in favour of thinking along this line. Occhi's idea sounds good, too, having those different themes. Kind of makes me think of "Steel in your hand, courage in your heart, magic at your fingertips" or something along those lines.

Keep the good ideas coming, I really like whatt I see so far, even if I shouldn't have a say in the outcome. But my vote is on a nice shield, whatever the final look may be.

Take care,

Lord_Olf

edit: typo

[WarLocke]

You keep using that term, I don't think it means what you think it means...

(Translation: Hell, those are better than anything I could produce in 10 years :lol: ).
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Seconded! :blink:

I really, really like the Guild Wars icon (? second image, top row, far right). I wouldn't mind that (or something similar) as the Lounge's logo in general, not one bit. B)

[Bolty]

Ahh, Xyngynkynyn. The name that's impossible to forget. Good to hear from you again...

That Guild Wars version would be a neato logo for the whole site, I like it a LOT! Running with that, what would a full-text "The Lurker Lounge" look like with those color themes? You can use Abaddon or any font that comes to mind.

And, extra challenge: animate the logo so it spins around in a circle horizontally, whilst still keeping a sane file size. If possible, the thought of a spinning LL logo (that doesn't take 1 minute to load on a modem) makes me squeal like a giddy schoolgirl, and I'm not embarrassed to admit it!

Actually, only downside I can see with that logo is that it would be hard to use against any background that's not black, due to the fade effect of the red dot. That's always challenging to incorporate into a transparent .gif (at least for one of my limited skills).

-Bolty

[Xyngynkynyn]

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. From the feedback I've read, it seems that most concentrated on the second image instead of the first. The second image is merely a proof-of-concept showcase that with a good simple logo, we can pretty much adapt it to whatever style/genre is desired by applying the proper filters and effects one can get from Photoshop to it.

Thus it's more important at this point that we have this basic logo first before we talk about applying it to shields, banners, tattoos, etc. So I was looking for more feedback on the first image. Is the eye a good representation for the Lounge? Would a sword, shield, or some animal be better (Remember; we're going with simple shapes here first)? If the eye is good, which one do you like? As I said previously, I'm not completely satisfied with any of them but maybe I'm “too close”. Is there any particular change in a specific logo you'd like to see changed?

Should something of mine be selected, I plan on giving Bolty the logo in a WMF (Windows Metafile) file. I'm using Illustrator to design the logo in case anyone's wondering. Once imported to Photoshop as a path, he should be able to scale it as necessary and apply whatever effects he wants upon it (as the second image demonstrates) to suit whatever it is he needs. Once, the logo has been settled, the other stuff like colors, texture, effects, and applications should be a snap.

You keep using that term, I don't think it means what you think it means...

(Translation: Hell, those are better than anything I could produce in 10 years :lol: ).
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Heh. Well the truth of the matter is Photoshop does most of the grunt work. Once I've set up the filters/effects and procedures necessary to produce those images, it's simply a matter of plugging in the logo to apply those effects to.

Can I call you Xyn?  :)
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I've always thought of “Xyngyn” (pronounced sinjin; not singin') as this name's nick but sure, go ahead. It'll save you three keystrokes in the middle of a fight. ;)

Here are some more sketches and another showcase:

That Guild Wars version would be a neato logo for the whole site, I like it a LOT!  Running with that, what would a full-text "The Lurker Lounge" look like with those color themes?
...
Actually, only downside I can see with that logo is that it would be hard to use against any background that's not black, due to the fade effect of the red dot.  That's always challenging to incorporate into a transparent .gif (at least for one of my limited skills).
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What you want to use is a .PNG file. It stores info on an image's alpha channels. Here's the logo in PNG format.



Note: If you can't see the image above in your web browser, you're probably using MSIE. If you want to see it your options are to Google for a PNG plug-in for MSIE or switch to a more modern browser (I recommend Firefox).

The downside is the filesize is huge for this 640x480 image. There are some web-sites that distribute programs that try to compress PNG files but the ones I've tried didn't compress this one by much (6% off). Well the dimensions are large so a smaller one would reduce it but by how much I can't tell. It should be a simple matter for you try it out yourself. :)

And, extra challenge: animate the logo so it spins around in a circle horizontally, whilst still keeping a sane file size.
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Ahhh... animation. My technical skills there are severely limited although I have been procrastinating about changing that situation for quite some time now. No promises but before I could even begin to do that, we should settle on what the logo would be first.

[NuurAbSaal]

Hi Xyngyn!
Some pretty neat stuff there! :) I'll try to produce some constructive feedback:
My favorite logo would be from your first post, the second (of three) eye in the second row from the top. It looks "ebil" enough and the "LL" resembles a reflection in the iris or maybe the "soul/core" of the being shining through. It says vigilance, scrutiny, determination and "Don't mess with me, h4xx0r!". Wicked! :) The smaller the "LL", the more "personality" the eye gets imho, if that makes any sense.
Now my dilemma: I actually like the first "proof of concept" images better than the second ones, the horizontally aligned eye with the larger letters just looks, well, better. The same thing I like about the logo, the small "LL" doesn't quite work for me in the images. Maybe you could show us a few other images with the evil (for lack of a better word) eye?

I am actually getting excited about the prospect of a cool Lurker Lounge logo. How pathetic B).

...oh well, keep up the good work Xyngyn!


Greetings

Nuur

[Walkiry]

Now my dilemma: I actually like the first "proof of concept" images better than the second ones, the horizontally aligned eye with the larger letters just looks, well, better. The same thing I like about the logo, the small "LL" doesn't quite work for me in the images. Maybe you could show us a few other images with the evil (for lack of a better word) eye?

I have to agree on this one, the horizontal asymmetrical eye does it better for me than the other two. The only "problem" is that they feel kinda empty on the side, perhaps if the letters would be inside of an oval instead of a circle (one wider than tall)?

The LL as only "contents" does seem quite ok with me, I'd vote for having both letters identical in size with some overlap (that'd be the first one in the second post with samples).

Ahhh... animation. My technical skills there are severely limited although I have been procrastinating about changing that situation for quite some time now. No promises but before I could even begin to do that, we should settle on what the logo would be first.

While we're at it, IMO the most neat way to animate the logo would be to have only the "outer eye" part of the logo spin around the immobile (LL) part, that'd be pretty neat.

Good stuff :)