Nice, but they seem too "reserved" for any company named "accent". You did use the descriptive word "nice" so I suppose if they don't want to seem like an aggressive firm (i.e. intimidating), then your solutions might be on the right track. Either that, or they should change their name to "nice".

Attractive direction, I just wonder if it is hitting the mark.

Aloha!
Scott

I have to write back to the client with my proposals. These are almost final, as he once participated in the process (now don't harass me for that - he was just messing up with colors and those greenish ones are his choice).
Anyway, he likes it, the variant 1a, I mean. My favs are 2. I'm sending this to him tonight. Might work on it a bit more, I just need to know the weak points.

plus, "nice" doesn't mean "weak" or "un-agressive". one can be nicely aggresive, you know ^_^

Right you are. Please don't quote me as defining "nice" as "weak", as this was not my implication.

To be honest, I think the first concept set is a more appropriate solution for your defined problem. It encompasses corporate (HR clientel), reserved, and "nice". Don't feel disappointed if that is what the client goes with.

Good work!
Scott

Scott, I didn't mean to offend you or something - was just kidding.

There is another designer sitting next to me and when I asked her, she told me that the first variant was actually not bad and even funny in a way, because the word "accent" doesn't have an accent, even in French. So, it's like a pun.

But the second variant still makes me think it is better - I cannot really tell why.

The email was sent. Waiting for reply from the client. And more remarks from this board.

What about the type?

Hope you hear soon. Just got enough time to try to catch up on my reading here. Alexey, I like your 2s too. Though I wouldn't be suprised if the client goes for the 1s. I think that the type is appropriate it looks solid but friendly. It looks stable and the colours give it an approachable and nice feel.

The accent in accent is funny. I like the 2 series because I like the idea of some kind of comet-meteor- progress- forwardThinking-risingStars idea that occurs to me when I see it. It's so long though will it cause heartache in layouts?

Good luck. Let us know when the client chooses!

Jon

i like the 1s... did u try just scaling up the accent mark, instead of drawing a long line in the 2s. and i kind of like it without the horizontal line, as in the 2s.

nice work.
(and i don't mean weak work)

No worries, Alexey. I wasn't offended in the least, just misunderstood.

I'm with Loren on the horizontal line (rule). I don't know why I didn't say it earlier. I remember thinking it. I assumed the rule is for layout purposes and exists as a flexible design element, in that it can be horizontally extended in accordance to specific applications/layouts. I still don't think that it needs to be part of the core logo.

Aloha!
Scott

i like 1, with the first colour combo, but try getting rid of the line and resolving it some other way.

thanks everyone.
I haven't heard anything from the client yet. I guess, if anything is coming from him today, than not that early anyway.
Last night I was looking at it again, and I was not really sure (and now am not sure at all), that the line "hr solutions" should stay in the same face. So I've changed it to the ITC Legacy. I also dropped the 2 variant and stayed with the first one - it is a really helpfull line there, such a nice stationery can come out...
Here is an update.

You know, ususally I would like the change of face, but this time I like the same face for both parts better. Is it the degree of contrast not being as high as it might be? Maybe. I just think the single face really makes the logo a single unit.

I still like the 2s best, but you're probably right about the 1s as a practical matter.

Truthfully this most recent version is excellent, and does its task in a most sincere and business-like manner.

Jon

double post...

what's up with accenture logo? why accenture? they don't seem similar to me. even close to.

but the funny thing is, that the company's initial name was "accent hr" and if you say this quick, you will hear "accenture". and accenture is their partner (or something). so it was decided to add "solutions", so that it doesn't sound *that* similar. accenture was the first thing to avoid in my designs. you find it somehow close? It's Rotis Sans or something.... I find accenture logo to be dull actually. As well as their whole CI. :/

didn't know they where partners. There are some similarities but not many (all lower caps in the logo and the slanted 't').

yeah.. and I did cut off the -ure in the logo I posted. If anyone was wondering.

Well, but the faces are pretty different, I would say. And color treatment as well. Or are they still really similar? Not?

What about something like this

Sounds Greek.

hhp

how is that, Hrant?

I meant Scott's thing - "acceni". :-)
Scott, maybe put the acute accent inside the dotless-"i", like a tilted bar of a "t".

hhp

Perhaps use an italic e (with an accent) for a little variety. Just for example, I've used Myriad with a bold and italicized e for emphasis. The italics and/or bold should help in those occasions where color and screens cannot be used.



It may be a little much...just a thought.

-Addison

I like the wording of the "accent", that is in the last example of mine - but seems like people don't (it's hard to get rid off this feeling since everyone is trying to suggest yet another variant). So what's wrong with mine? :D Just tell me straight. Is it too plain and simple? Not really expressive? Dull?...

What bothers me is the type treatment of the "accent" - thus a bigger rendering. Also, I would like to hear more about the usage of secondary typeface (ITC Legacy Sans, as already mentioned) for the "hr solutions" phrase. I normally try to stay with one typeface throughout a logotype, but in this case I find using the same typeface for the smaller lettering a bit weak - it looks poor, I would even say badly legible. (Seems, like I am critisizing myself even more, than the others :D ).

Anyway, these two points bother me. And as this seems to be a really quick job (that is - next week the client has to have stationery and a bilingual website running), I think it's a high time deciding on a logo.

Not that I am in a hurry, but... you know...

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest a new typeface -- I only intended to suggest separating the "e" with something other than color (Myriad just happen to be accessible at the moment). I'm not sure what the italic "e" looks like in your chosen typeface.

I honestly like your last example, even the type combinations. The serif and sans serif complement each other nicely. I also think the colored rule presents some nice layout possibilities (the diagonal line from your first post may have been more dramatic).

I hope things go well with your client.

-Addison

Addison, no offense taken! No way. It just that I try to get someone either defending his suggestion or hitting mine. You seem to like it - alright!

Here is what it looks like, the

i like the space between HR and SOLUTIONS.


HR SOLUTIONS

Hi Alex,

Don't know where you are with this job right now. Too late for feedback?

Why did you choose the e for the accent? Just curious. Kinda makes me want to put the emphAsis on the wrong sylAble. What if it was on the a? I prefer #2 of your examples. It is more visually dynamic.

Also, I'm not crazy about Melior. It's a fine typeface, but in this case seems to lack personality. Try this (it might help with your design slump too :-) Print it out the word set in Melior nice and big. Get out some translucent paper (tracing etc) and work over the letters with a pencil. Alter the letterforms a bit, make it more like a bodoni, make it more like a slab serif, try a more even weight, try a sans serif Melior. Move quick and use lots of paper.

Oh, can it just be Accent HR? That rolls so much better. Words like solutions in a logo don't really add much IMHO. But clients will be clients.

Randy's suggestion to accent the "a" is a great one. This really balances the word (w/out being totally symmetrical), to make it a freestanding icon. I'm not sure if that secondary color would work anymore

Randy, I was just about to say the same thing before I ready your post. I keep reading it as "accENT" instead of "ACCent", and it sounds quite silly in my head.

Good night,

here is the feedback from the client and some more explanations, but I have to have it till tomorrow evening. :/ (and I am almost falling from my feet)

Why

> "accent" is a very popular word

You just reminded me: before I settled on The MicroFoundry
I was considering Accent for my foundry... I'm glad I came
to my senses.

hhp

hello everybody,
just talked to the client again.

okay, here we go. I am not sure that I am talking to anyone right now (saturday night is a sacred one), but even if not, maybe someone will look at this later. Would be great.

After another kurz-briefing with client, he told me the following: the logo looks surprisingly close to the accenture's. the type and lc.(am I blind?) he definitely wants this to be changed. :////

Here are some variants - really different, I think. I still have one in lc Stone, though. Just for that asterisk. Helvetica - to try that '90s look. And beloved Legacy with meteor instead of an accent.

I desperately need your advice. [please, let there be someone here, please]

The bottom solution seems too problematic to acutally
use a lot.

the middle one is too plain.

the top one is the best of the three, imo, but the
accent is odd and it's not highly distinctive.

What if you started Accent with an uppercase
A with the same height as the lower case letters.

I would suggest spending at least 10 minutes
(more if you have it) in sketch/idea
mode, thinking about some more custom solutions ...

Caslon italic 540? an FF sans face? something from Thirstype?
Do you have a budget to purchase a font?

A recent direction I tried, just to try it, was Georgia Bold Italic with a
Shear in Illustrator of ~ -13.

bj

Alexey, I haven't been able to check in until now. Wow I am suprised that there was such a strong negative reaction to the Melior, but then some people just don't get it.

Of the examples that you show in the last instance I like the first and last best. The middle Helvetica one is just too boring.

I like the look if the accent mark in the last, kind of like a streaking meteor and it looks good with that slight triangle shape.

I just can't help but think that if the client thinks that Melior=Rotis (huh?), that even what you have shown here will be seen the same way.

Other directions for the type (to move it away from the client seeing the "same kind of thing" might be: Paralucent? Nick Shinn's Alphaville. FF faces - BJ is right.

The thing about your design is because it's so typographic when the client says change the type your project almost starts over.

I like the accent on the first one in the last example.

Also maybe an accent that intrudes into the letterform?

Hang in there.

Jon

I am unadequate lately and I might have misunderstood some comments here, so I'll keep that to me. Thanks for input in any case.
Here is the next portion (portion? I hope this one IS the last one) - and I accidently found something new. How do you like it? It's a human resources company, if you remember.



As you see, I also tried the accent intrusion - doesn't really work very well. "Comet" thing is better, slicker, I would say. And then a human comes. How "bad" is that?
To the typefaces. I have access to Adobe FontFolio, the pre-latest version, I think. I miss some fonts, but that's ok. My choice is basically limited to the Adobe type. If the type is chosen and approved, I go to myfonts.com and buy it. Yes, FontFolio cost me $3 for a cd in my motherland, but I do buy typefaces and tell the client, that he *needs* to buy one (normally, a family), if he doesn't want any problems. Nobody - nobody - wants. Just interested - how would you try a FF font or Linotpye font (I miss those so much), if you don't have one on your harddrive? Just curious.
Also, why do I keep using Legacy throughout the designs? I do not know, how good or bad it is to use the same face in the logo and stationery and everywhere. Normally, a logo would be one font and corporate work horse would be something different. This time Legacy caught my heart, when I saw it in a letter. I do not know why I am trying to apply it for a logotype. Maybe I am wrong at this point.
So, that's why so many different faces. The client will definitely see less.
Now you turn. I hope, the last round for this job.

Best regards to this board,
Alex

ps. upper row: Legacy Sans; middle row: Delta and Stone Sans; lower row: Legacy and Stone

sorry but the bottom row has been done before, ie dot over a T, stay with the swoosh.

:/ have never seen that before. which one is that?

alexey,
i am not familiar with a "dot" over the T, either. i think is working better than swoosh. and seems appropriate for an HR company.

I don't know...the whole thing still seems very much like it was lifted from Accenture. A name based on the word "Accent", with some kind of accent mark on it. It's going to be very hard to make that seem original, I think.

Alexey, on the www.fontfont.com website there's an entry box on the page when you're looking at a font that you can enter your own text into and then it will display your text in that typeface.

You're right about the intrusion idea. That didn't work.

I like the Human T direction. The thing about that is that it looks somehow too small. The dot, the t, maybe both look too small. I don't know. I like the idea.

Keep at it. The comet thing does really work if you have to go with it. I would (if time permits) try some different sizes and combos of color in the Human T series to see if it can balance out. Of the Human T series presented here I like the first example the best.

Daniel, did you mean that the Human T idea resembles too much sign figures, or is there a particular logo that springs to mind? I can only think of stick people holding hands in a circle to create a starburst. :-P

I designed a human-T for a T-elemarketing company. It was a red "T" (w/dot4head) with a gray hard edged drop shadow "T"

here's a logo i did for my mom's human resources company called Transition Matters. i was reminded of it when i saw the T with a dot over it. you like?

loren klein, that's a nice logo. but frankly, I see it more as Human M, than Human T. Humans are driving me nuts...

Scott, do you still have the copy of that logo you did? Could you show it - just outta curiousity. Or, if you don't want the public see it (whatever the reasons are), you could email it me. I am just interested.

Another guy showed me his Human J and Human I logo, but again, it's not really exactly the T, you know. Till now, I am still feeling secure about my variant not being a rip or a copy or a "idea done before". Well, I mean, the letter T exists in every typeface as well - and it is not a rip. (okay, this is completely different subject).

James, how does this feel so much "lifted" from the Accenture? The more I think, the more I move, the farther accenture is. Not?

I am talking to the client in couple of minutes. We'll see what happens...

Alexey:

I apologize for making a reference to art that I can't produce. I lost an old HD (which contained the Target Teleservices logo concept) which will cost me $2K to retrieve data from (which I haven't prioritized flipping the bill for yet). Anyway, this sketch is more or less what the design looked like (except the "T"s crossbar wasn't so thin). It was rejected for possible sexual connotations

>his Human J and Human I logo, but again, it's not really exactly the T

Sounds like the makings for a new face: The Human Face with every letter having a head of some sort. silly me.

Let us know how it goes Alexey.

Jon

I like the comet.

f*cking unbelievable - while I was posting this message the ligts went down in the whole office, server started beeping and something fell on the floor. scary!

now everything is on again.

okay, so before the lights performance here, I was going to send an email to the client, so he looks at T and comet thing and decides which one appeals to him most. Not to polute this board with my subtle changes in the designs, I won't post anything for now. He should reply me within an hour. We'll see.

About the human type. The guy I was talking about it last night (http://daveraspin.com) was refering to his "olympic games" pitch and i's and j's in a human form. If we take existing M and T humans - we already have a good start for a new face! ^_^

Oh, Scott, your pal is a pervert if he thinks about sexuality when seeing that human T, word. ^_^

cheers!

"i don't like the comet smashing our company", says the client. the Human T idea appeals to him a lot, probably even more than I awaited. Now is the question - Stone or Delta, orange or blue....

I am smoking a cig.

Scott, <groan>was he talking about Human Sexual i T?</groan>

Alexey, I am liking 1 and three and I like the orange the best. yes definitely the orange and the way the c and e terminate and the join in the n's shoulder adds character. So Delta is the one I prefer. I think 3 is the best.

New typeface: HumaniT

Jon

i like the very first one in the top left corner of this board...but in orange.

in these latest designs, the T doesn't say "accent" to me... and i dont like how it's a capital letter next to all lowercase letters.

in my eye you have been coming up with solutions that tell you what you don't want. sometimes your first try is the right direction. that's my opinion.