One of the major clients lately "captured" is a big retail chain selling over 15000 items ranging from furniture to pipes, from cement to steel and glass, basicly everything that has to do with constructions and space refurbishing, both for home and for office.
Their existing identity -that's been in use for10 years now- is designed by the company's president and has something of an emotional appeal to him, still he was the one coming forward in search of a new visual expresion for the brand, following contacts with identity systems and corporate identity manuals from western partners. The identity consists of the name typeset in a heavy version of Helvetica, but there is no rule whatsoever, so it sometimes ends up typeset in Tahoma or Arial.

They wanted only a slight finetuning to the identity and a comprehensive set of brand usage standards. So we decided to preserve the equity by keeping the all-caps logotype. So I drew the two versions of the custom lettering and they chose to go with the second one put it in the previous soft corners triangle. I am not sure, however, if the overall lettering looks decent, to say the least... I am particullary worried about M and E... also, does this look similar to any font you know?

thank you a lot,
george // cellsius design

That tilted, soft-corner triangle is wonderful.
Just make the slant angle of the type match the righthand edge.

hhp

Thanks, Hrant, for your point. I had it in mind but the fact that you brought it up shows I didn't succeed in it. But I was hoping you'd point some details about type..is it so awful altogether so that trying to criticise details has no chance? :-(

george // cellsius design

It's just not very well balanced, like the "M" is maybe too wide, and the "A" is too dark.

hhp

That's the kind of advice that makes this forum great...thanks, Hrant...

anybody else?

george // cellsius design

Which one is the most readable? The white text behind the orange background, or the blue text behind the orange background?

+ep+

I prefer the white text on orange, personally.

Yes, agreed Jared. That orange and that particular blue
is an unfortunate combination.

I do like that you're keeping the triangle and losing
the double D mark.

I just remembered: the mark has one pitfall (hopefully not fatal with appropriate advice):
it is going to be used on huge storefronts and has to be clear from quite a distance and the bigger the sign, the bigger the unused space in the triangle under the logotype...hmmm, how am I going to solve that problem? The initial solution (with the logotype used twice at different sizes) seems highly unfortunate ... besides, it is not a good choice ( from the distinctiveness point of view...), as all corporate identity manuals point out...

george // cellsius design

To me, there is no problem there.

BTW, I just realized: it would be great if Dedeman started making billiard tables.

hhp

hehe, nice idea Hrant!

George,

If sign size is going to be a problem, see how other stores handle it.

Here in Canada, we have the ubiquitious home and autowares department store Canadian Tire. Their name is set in distinctive white type inside a red triangle. On store fronts, however, they sometimes have the triangle sans the name, and then the logotype in much larger letters beside it. See here: Oakville Canadian Tire website

Paul

Have you thought of having the orange shape point the other way? It reads a little like rewind...play would be better or forward.

Right, at first I don't mind the triangle pointed the way George made. But then I think again...maybe it would be fun. Hey Carl can you send us an image of your idea?

+ep+

actaully, to me the direction the triangle points is given by the fact that you are supposed to read the name "DEDEMAN" going from left to right, so the natural follow-up is to the corner pointing upwards and right, thus this becoming the suggested direction...or am I wrong???

george // cellsius design

ohh you are right... good point. No, that's right. End of discussion.

+ep+

george the directional orienation of the triangle is very important! You are correct in pointing it to the right. I would also agree with earlier comments about the wide m and heavy a, but would add that the e's look a bit thin on the arms. Overall it looks real clean.

I am new to this site, but am slowly becoming acquainted with it. I've been reading it everyday and had to comment that this was a fabulous discussion.Thank you,
kate