Logo Critique - Shelter for Battered Women and Children

[AJDesignCo]

Hi everyone,

If we haven't met (and since I'm new, we probably haven't...), it's a pleasure to meet you and connect over the very nice work that I've seen so far in the forum!

I am working with a client to redesign their logo. They are a nonprofit that provides temporary shelter for abused women. The name, Meg's House, comes from an acronym for the three counties that it serves. It is a happy coincidence that a female name Meg results (What if the acronym had been FRED? or DICK? That would be tragic.) Needless to say, there has not been a lot of marketing thought into the branding they have used in the past. As I'm working to redesign their web presence, I suggested we revisit their logo as well.

This is a collection of three draft concepts. I would appreciate any comments or feedback on these options. Do you see any clear advantages or faux pas in any of the designs?

(Please click the image to view a larger version)

Thank you in advance for your comments.

Best regards,
Andy Johnston

[sh0n]

Hello Andy. I'm a new member too. Nice to meet you.

Regarding #1: The lines of the house are nice, especially on the roof. It gives a kind of light feel which is good imo. However, I would suggest making all the walls looking vertical. The way it is now, kind of makes it look like its week or slouching. One other idea comes to mind to help increase the visibility of the shape, is to color the house solid and keep the heart transparent. Hopefully this will make the house more identifiable and frame the heart. Also, the font doesn't seem quite right to me. I think its because the letters are lowercase and that kind of reminds me of things that are not adult in content. I think if used capitalization it might make it look a little more adult.

Regarding #2: I do like the line weight you used on the heart and think that custom line weight on the house would look nice too.

Regarding #3: I think this is the best one so far. I don't have much criticism for this one in particular but I would suggest playing around with the composition. Perhaps you could arrange the house to frame the H's negative shape and put the heart as a negative shape inside the O. I don't know, that might be weird, just a thought. I guess my point is to suggest playing around with the composition.

I hope this critique is of some use to you.

Best regards.

[AJDesignCo]

Hi sh0n, thanks for the feedback! I get what you're saying about the house "slouching" in #1. I didn't even see that.

As you might be able to infer, #3 was the most mature design. I settled on the type (Book Antigua and then modified as paths) and started trying to refine the hands. I'm a very, very modest sketch artist, and I'm even worse at drawing hands. I think the negative space hands in #3 finally gets those shapes to where I can tolerate them and hopefully the average person would see "hands".

I'll try the suggestion to put the house in the negative space of the H (above the x-line, right?) and place the heart as negative space inside the O. Even if the client doesn't go for it, that will at least be a valid variation that might spark another idea.

Thanks again!

[sh0n]

Your welcome

Yeah, I think above the x-line might work best but I'd try both and different scale too. I'd try and come up with as many variations as possible.

[Sammy]

1st one is the best it has a soft caring feeling about it

[Vertaxe]

Yup personally I prefer the first one too.

[AJDesignCo]

Thanks all! I just learned the client's board of directors does not want to invest in "changing" the logo (not that they really have one...it's very sad). I suggested logo work along with a web design project they asked me to do. I suppose that is the risk taken when I suggested a course of action they didn't request. At least I don't have hours and hours invested in the design process.

If you're curious, their current "non-logo" is this piece of clip art:
http://www.megshouse.com/Images/LogoPicture1.jpg

Thanks again. Have a super day!

[Tezzer]

That's a shame and their current one is pretty poor