1. Have I chosen a good base font to play with?
If its for a logo, it really doesn't matter what font you have chosen cause anyway you gonna modify it. Until unless you are using that typeface itself as a logo.

2. Are the two s’s legible????
Not at all. They looks oo to me.
Also these two oo's looking smaller than the m.

satya,

Thanks for your quick reply. I agree, they look like oo, actually they are based on the letter o, and then adjusted to look like ss, but something is missing, can you help?

I tried to put a little peak on top of the o shape to imply an s, but it loses its simplicity. Also I have noticed that if you get the shape wrong you can easily imply a rude picture... ie. a woman's chest area! not good.

Try working your ess's to look like this shape:

Thanks to both of you for your comments.

Asvetic, I like your idea of the slanted ess's, I have slapped together a sample using your recommendation, please let me know what you think. I'm not sure it still has it's simple elegance, but maybe you could give me pointers on how to refine it back to being elegant again, but legible this time!

Thanks guys

p.s. Just a thought, anyone, do I even need the & symbol in there? I put it in because of the visual attactiveness of it, but I'd prefer people to call it "MSS", not "M and SS", so could the logo be made even smoother without it? or is it quite sexy?

I'm afraid I can't offer a lot in the way of typographic critique, but when I read your question about the ampersand, I suddenly read the current logo as "mess." Oh my! If you need another reason not to include it, that may be it.

(If you decide to keep it, maybe play with color to help kick it away from the "mess" message?)

I don't think you need the &. Try some variations without it.

Your second version has the right idea, but needs some clean up. Try the upward stroke on the left of the s as a straight diagonal line as opposed to the bit of curvature it has now. Then, I'd have the right, downward stroke curve outward right away, instead of the little hook.

Also, try an 'm' without the top left vertical section, just a straight curve. It might match the sensibility of the 's's better.

And not that we're focused on the other parts of the logo yet, but you should play around with other typefaces for the formal name, as well as lockups. The two styles aren't meshing well.

Try using the bottom bowl of the ampersand from a lighter weight, scaled up to match the weight of the 'm' as your 's'.

- Lex

I think you should put 100 more variations on paper before you decide for sure you like what you have.

Seriously.

Something beautiful and something ugly almost always works.

The new version is definitely going in the right direction, but also definitely not far enough to reach actual readability.

Hey, I think you should doodle some more ideas in your notebook and then move further. You have nice initials to play with.

This was the first visual came in my mind when i imagined these letters together. But am sure you can do much better than what i and you did in our first attempts.

Keep exploring...

Satya
This is really a GREAT idea. I hope paul will try to do something with it. It's very distinct, clever and readable. I like it a lot. So paul. Try some tweaking with it in the end the end result is yours anyway.

I'd definitely go for it.

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for all your comments, I've had a busy week, but tomorrow I'm going to get it out again and do some tweaking and more brain storming with pencil and pad, then I'll show you what I've come up with again.

Thanks again, you guys are all very helpful

Hi Litera,

Thanks for the comment. I am still brain storming but in the mean time here's just another version or the original concept. I am trying to maintain the simplicity that is clear in version that I attached in my very first post up top, but I'm trying to work the s's so they don't get confused with o's or backward c's.

I've also tried to take on board some of the suggestions found in the comments by others.

Thanks everyone for your tips, I'm still working hard on this so please keep the comments coming.