I like it, but 4th-order rotational symmetry always has some people shouting "swastika".

- Lex

Ahhh... good to take into consideration, thank you!

What do you think of this? (Thanks to Stephan H for Tarocco)

Do you really want ST to stand out that much? Also, now that the logo is 6 around, maybe the base should have an incurve to match the out curve of the next one. It looks a bit awkward to me.

The Swastika was based on a Mian Sun Symbol. As for the look its boring. I've seen it done a dozen times and better. First work on the letter spacing its pretty bad. And the symbol needs explaination or you could be a flower company

I agree partially with the above comment. How does the symbol in the logo represent the company?

Okay, one thing at a time... Back to the logo. This company provides services to banks (processing) so it's the "bank behind the bank" that makes everything run smoothly. So our initial thought was to have a mark that had the wheel within a wheel idea to it, or even a woven look to it. I have put together a couple more iterations for the chopping block. Take a look and let me know. Thanks again!

A. Where we were
B: Where we went (didn't like it)
C: Where we are now

Thoughts?

I like C. (B looks like a sickly pointsetta)
: )

and for the type...

the 21 seems to be pretty lonely, center the "Financial Services"?? or go back to wide spacing?

Chop away!

Thanks to all for the online and offline assistance. Here's the current iteration with and without the layout grid. Let me know your thoughts.

Beau

IMHO

- You are calling unnecessary attention to "st".
- Reconsider the letter-spacing of "21" and the word-spacing of "financial services".
- Reconsider the overall vertical spacing.
- You might consider flipping it horizantally so it is moving forward.

Maybe the "flower" is too organic for the font. Any suggestions for a little more organic font, maybe back where I started... something semi or sans serif

Hi BeauSim>

When I look at this logo... my brain immediately says "credit union or real estate". The brick red and slate gray used together are a soothing combination. The flower imparts warmth as well. While this is a good thing, in this context- I think not. The logo is very friendly and connotes maybe personalized service. But I think you are going in the wrong direction.

The organic 'look' is not about strength and reliability. Its about warmth and the human aspect of things.

So where should you go?

There are fonts with a clinical feel, such as Univers- emotionless and used rampantly in corporate identities. Then there are fonts such as Manuscript- very rough and organic- not powerful. You need something in between... a humanist sanserif.

Your initial idea of Scala is pretty good to me. But I wouldn't use that particular font. Its getting too much play these days and you want your logo to be unique for a very long time. I think the font for you is FF Absara Sans. Its powerful yet its forms are not so clinical that you can't convey 'the human' aspect.

Scala, Kievit, Charter, Dederon, Caspari, and Richmond are also nice choices. And genreally speaking FontFont has excellent fonts. Stay away from Dax, Meta, and Helvetica.

I would also change the colors to be stronger... maybe blues or cardinal reds. More saturated. Something that gets your attention with out slapping you in the face.

Hope I'm helping you,

Mikey

As mentioned make it more mechanical. Its a process to be the bank behind the bank and make it seemless. If I am a bank, I don't what my partner bank to be organic, I want them to have a defined plan and execute it. Presission and delivery

Dan Weaver... you hit the nail on the head! And you would be the one to know- you have done work for banks.

Mikey

Your comments are great, thank you so much for jumping in. Hopefully I have taken your comments into consideration in these next 2 samples. I would love your opinions on these as well.

Great thanks to Stefan Hattenbach for his excellent work on these.

Beau

Getting swastika-like again unfortunately, altho I like the shapes better than the 'flower'. I don't like the second font at all, that R looks like it got hit by a car. I think a serif/sans combo like the first sample is a good way to go. It also gives you more options for the full identity.

I think this is much better than the first. I do think the centering of it all is too safe. I think it reminds me more of a flower than a swastika. Also, now that the swastika was mentioned earlier in regards to the first mark we are all a little bit conditioned to see it. Is this a medium or regular weight of this sans for the smaller type? The R is filling in at that size.

Actually it's a pinwheel, not a flower or a swastika.

:^) Even better.

Patricia,

I could bewrong, but to me as a European (Swedish) I get the feeling that the Swastika is a more delicate issue in US than Europe? I don't get the Swastika feeling with this symbol, but it also depend very much with peoples life experinces etc. Anyway I made those proposals for Beau in like one hour, just to be able to test something different but yet similar to the initial idea. Letters etc has to be perfected and adjusted in a final stage.

Btw. I had a look at your site. It's an impressive collection of books you have there ;-)

One more thing, I have a deasent grip of the bigger brands in US. But not the semi big ones. My concern is that the symbol might be too close to something excisting?!

Interesting about the swastika, you might be right. It's too bad because it is an ancient and beautiful symbol but impossible to divorce from it's 20th Century context. There was a whole thread about this subject once.

http://typophile.com/node/17629

thanks btw! I'm a fan of yours as well - bought Oxtail not long ago.

I guess for a name like "21st Century{ I expect something far more modern. It looks more 1950s to me.

ChrisL

Patricia,

Hope you have great use of Oxtail? It's been popular from the start and seem to attract
people from different areas.

Before you go to far downstream you better check that your symbol isn't a copyrighted symbol already. I've seen a lot of symbols like yours. The new type isn't accessible, it doesn't feel approachable. Keep the symbol more mechanical but the type more approachable

Is there any easy way to check copyrights?

Go to Thomson Compumark's web site and select "design" from their services.

http://www.thomsoncompumark.com

They do searches for a fee it ranges from about $500 to a $1000 depending on the search criteria.

ChrisL

Even if you clear the copyright check, your mark looks like one of the many typical fleurons as well and is not clear enough as a brand toaccomplish identity

.ChrisL