Pate Properties
JonAtkinson | Wed, 03/05/2014 - 21:05
Brief from client
Use black and gold. Clean and professional, yadda yadda cliche "I want a logo" terms. Avoid looking like Century 21.
I haven't done much in the way of Real Estate so I did some digging through Google a while. It's definitely challenging to get away from crowd so I just started looking at houses that seemed comparable to the ones in the area and sketched out some ideas until I got this roof shape. The client has seen the first set of logos and this is the one he liked, with his name in one word defined by the font weight. He has asked for alternate font samples, with which I agree. I'll post some of the alternates for comparison. I could definitely use some cold hard advice on this.
11 Comments
Some other font variables. I just got a new job this year and inherited a computer FULL of DaFont so I had to do some cruising on Font Squirrel for a while. There's a couple here I like.
This was from the first round. Experimenting with two different golds.
not bad at all although like you said its a bit generic for a property company.
i personally perfer your layouts where you have PATE in big above properties (your second post 4 down on the right) thats my favourite and the reason being is that i think this layout works best because the text looks like its the main part of the house with the roof on top.
Going back to the one you have posted, i agree about the font and kinda like the stylized font in the bottom left of your first post. The roof symbol is a bit too big and overpowering with the text all in one line like you have it.
Id try to convince him to go the one i said above (second post 4 down on the right) its simple bold and effective and also layouts out the best :)
The house structure is definitely what I was going for on the stacked versions and I felt it gave his name more prominence, which works since you can already tell what he does by the gold roof to the north. I have some more revisions to do so well see.
It looks neat, but a bit stale for my taste. Nothing much is happening here.
It feels like you weren't given a lot of information about the brand, its values, its vision, etc... These are generally the key elements which a good logo is based on.
But according to you, you just got lousy and impromptu brief. Saying "i want these colors and i don't want the logo to look like this logo" is much more of a deterrent than an actual brief. Am I wrong to think the client is a friend, or a friend of a friend, who just needs a logo quickly done for a few bucks? =)
Don't let the client dictate too items which are too specific, such as colors, shapes, symbols, etc. You're the pro, they're not. They should give you directions, not destinations (damn, this sounds pretty good, I just came up with it =)
Here's an article about the questions you should ask the clients beforehand: http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/2009/07/20-questions-to-ask-clients-prio...
To be honest, I prefer the first logos from the first round, with the A as a keyhole. It's been done probably a gazillion times, but at least there's an idea.
Have fun, bro!
HAHAHA! The "A" hole? You're pretty spot on. He's not quite a friend of a friend but it's a smaller town so without personal consultation it is quite the uphill battle since I didn't get to set any precedent. I liked the keyhole and stacked versions better as well. Luckily, this is under the banner of the company I work for so I'm getting paid by the hour either way but I still want to produce a solid logo. The client has given me some more criteria so I'll see what I end up with and post some more.
The client picked the wrong logo. The keyhole is way more interesting.
However, the client wants what they want, so I reckon the best versions use Rockwell Bold and Arial Bold (I think). The addition to the 'R' is quite interesting, but is slightly at odds with the squareness of the rest of the logo.
I think the colours need a bit of work too. I would change t he black to something like 90%, just to make it less harsh. Then use a richer yellow.
Something like this. This was for an estate agent.
The client definitely wants black but I'll see if I can can soften it up a touch and get his attention. Thanks!
I'm with Matt. I like 4th down on the left of your 'first round' page of ideas.
What a nightmare with these real estate logos. Hard to steer clear of cliches, and doing that whilst keeping it simple is the key - no pun intended. Kinda liked the keyhole logo, but it was too obvious in my opinion. ;)
I browsed through a couple of hundred logos on Google just to see what has been done and it's littered with the same ideas. I think real estate is very tough unless you have a client who has a good idea about themselves and their market. No excuses though. Still have to deliver. ;)
Why don't you try to make the letter A in the first (= last) draft look like a door? Then you could use the keyhole as well.