well, did the owner say what s/he liked about the clearface and officina designs?

I'm going to make a crazy guess: is the client a woman?

Clearface Gothic seems a little out of date for a creative firm. I suppose it depends on what sort of interior design they want to be known for. Officina is not too bad, more modern, but overused. I'd consider one of these, gentle and friendly like Clearface and Officina, but less common and more up-to-date:

Cronos
Bryant
FF Strada
FF Unit

I’m going to make a crazy guess: is the client a woman?

Correct you are. As a male, I was rooting for the more contemporary geometric fonts. Thanks for your suggestions, Stephen, I'll be sure to look into them.

Clearface Gothic seems a little out of date for a creative firm.

While we're on this subject, what (semi-unique, not oft-used) typefaces would all of you consider "in date" for a creative firm? Would you have chosen some of the same fonts I have written down above?

The disatvantage of using a well know typeface in a logotype, could be that the unique feeling get lost a bit. Even if the letters themselves are edited, the typeface itself is soemtimes so familiar that the overall result is too "common" or "flat".

My advise would be to find slightly less familiar typefaces to start with for the logotype.

You might something apealing at http://www.macrhino.com

Good luck

I agree with Stefan -- you'd be better served using a lesser known typeface for the logo if you want the logo to stand out.

For some gorgeous sans serif faces check the Psy/Ops catalogue. Alternatives for ITC Officina Sans could be Reykjavik which comes in a masculine (Herra) and a feminine (Ungfru) flavour, Default Gothic which has a little more contrast and some very nice character shapes, and the very elegant and subtly feminine Eidetic Modern,

Here's Simon Schmidt's Hybrid -- I'm specifically looking for relatively unknown, slightly condensed simple sans serifs with a subtle twist (alliteration allert! :^D)

One of my current favourites is Tomas Brousil's Katarine which subtly refers to license plate lettering and sports stunning italics. Botanika is somewhat more plain but features numerous variations.

And what about Peter Verheul's Versa Sans, available through OurType?

Or Jean François Porchez's sensuous (and fully featured OpenType!) Costa PTF?

ok, i'll jump on the bandwagon:
Sebastian
John Sans
Metron
Amor Sans

Metron

How looking at something like that can make my heart pound is something I can't explain, but it makes me feel strange. (wondering if perhaps I should seek counseling...)
: )

wondering if perhaps I should seek counseling…

probably wouldn't hurt. >^P

Is there a specialist who understands this obsession?

It's ok to love fonts. Just don't LOVE fonts.

Great suggestions, Paul. I really like the look of Sebastian and John Sans.

i found another teriffic one today

Dederon Sans

Haha, you're a "Bezier Wrangler?" (I just looked through your profile). Funny way of putting it, got a good chuckle out of me.

well, i can't claim to be a full-fledged type designer yet, as i haven't put out anything truly original... but i'm workin on it. >^D

Paul, I hate to break it to you, but I would count what you did with Zaner as type designing.