Andy you have the same problem your classmates have. Ask your self: Why would anyone know this word/place is a restaurant? The name looks like it could be a night club, plus you gave no explaination of the type of restaurant it is. Is it McDonalds or Le Cirque, is it French or Asian. The logo means nothing without brand idenity. So make it painfully clear its about food and the kind of place it is.

I concur with Daniel. in addition I think your instructor must lack some passion, if everyone seems to be going in the wrong direction I suspect this instructor could not make a living in the real world and decided to teach instead. Unfortunate for his/her students, but regardless, the students can still do the quality work for themselves regardless of how low the standards the teacher places on passing or even good grades.


Here is am example of some work I did a few years ago. that I think is nice and well though out. Exterior circular logo was not designed by me . My task was to improve and build upon what was existing-at the lowest cost possible.

I would expect you can tell a lot about this place (price point, atmosphere, services/products, etc...) without any written explanation.

It is a hip coffeebar, they show art, they serve great coffee,
they offer crepes and waffles for breakfast. Neighbor hood is
Belltown, just north of Seattles' downtown business district, urban, somewhat stylish clients. Simple.



boxed "X" is closed sign, Lux logo was re-created as interior identity/art with flourescent lights-simple, cheap post modern.
Food icons were placed on windows in vinyl by entrance.Top image was postcard. (mechanical shark may look familiar it was
on MTV for a while after someone from thee saw it at the cafe and licensed artist for use on MTV)

I'll also agree with Daniel; to me, a restaurant's identity is one location where the average customer should not notice flashy design or excellent typography. Of course the identity package you create must match the style and intended use of the restaurant, but 'overdesigning' risks appearing contrived.

i'm sorry, but I think that s�rensen's attempts look contrived. not only does it look like generic modern place, it say nothing to me about what the business, food or prices would be like.

you state that you establish 'what the place is about' without any written explaination - but the only thing I could tell about this place by looking at it was that it sells espresso (cos its written on the wall in size 800 type).

and i'm afraid that the sterile, lab-like coffebar imagery does not inspire me to eat at this place. also, such highly dirivative imagery is simply overlooked by people because they think its for a blood bank or something. not simple, not good

"jive89 is a modern,
fresh and young
restaurant..."

-You said it already. Say it in
your graphic design also?

You might want to think about
the customers. How do you com-
municate these values through
your design. You've got a good
start, only by knowing the fact
what's the restaurant all about.

Good luck and look around for
inspiration.

*Double post. Server keeps giving me errors. Sorry.*

Hi Roh. I read your critique.My reply- The Lux work is supposed to look minimalist (or generic as you described it). Lux is located between upscale independent clothing stores and restaurants. It is not supposed to look expensive (nor inexpensive). The prices are a bit higher than most cafes ( as well as quality), but it was not owners desire to specifically express the aspect. This is Seattle and most people do not care if it costs a bit more. People wanting Starbucks or Tullys can walk a block in any direction and find either (again this is Seattle). Lux is different from both of these large Espresso mega chains. Lux venue is sometimes host to a variety of events from Dj music nights, poetry, art openings, etc. But none of these events are on regular schedules, nor part of Lux's core business.
The identity has served the client well for the last few years. Besides, it's businesscard (which features logo) was recently published in a graphic design book " Best of Businesscards 6" from Rockport Publishing, so I guess at least some industry folks find it is attractive and functional sincve it was picked over 1000's of other entries. Their older logo is shown below. At the time this logo was used, furniture was mostly handmade wrought iron, and place had more of a casual "artsy" feeling. This was partially changed because people would hang out all day and buy less. New identity and interior changes improved sales and brought profits up to help owner sell business which was her desire with the changes.

hey andy... hows it going... i reckon u should make the logo look more colourful as it is a modern lookin restarants for young... im thinking of energetic colours .. as it is young ... i see u did that with ur type but would be cool to see it in colour... and ya... its hard to read "EIGHTY NINE" and looking closely at the " eighty nine" i see that "HTY" seems to be bigger than the rest of the text... is that intentional or ... ?.... anyways .... good luck..


Hey Ole it would be nice to see you giving some positive feedback to Andy's work.... and give him suggestions to improve his logo.... laters!

Although im only a newbie to this forum, isnt it bad form to hijack someone else' s thread? and yet it has so far been a bit me me me with this lux business....

Im from seatle myself -- Starbucks and Tullys arn't the only coffee shops in town, it would be a mistake to compare oneself to them, much like it would be to compare a restaurant to mcdonalds in a design sence.

In the industry you see a lot of varying design work and i happen to agree with what Roh was saying about how the lux design style is very generic and to me does not speak what the cafe is all about but presents a sterile view of a design style that is used everywhere.
Does the coffee get served in a sealed plastic cup and rubber gloves?

* * * * *

Getting back to what we should all be here for....Andy Campbells logo...

Very nice andy, the typography is stylish and unified, and straight away it says new and up beat.
Perhaps a little color would pick it up a beat .

I would say that the restaurant side of things would come out in its surrounding elements, and no more is needed in the primary logo to say this.
It is nice, simple and memerable too, everything a logo should be.

My apologies with the Lux post. I wanted to show something simple, and should have done something with subject at hand instead of dragging up my old work to illustrate my point.

back on track...
With regard to Jive 89. Perhaps looking into to roots of the word Jive and the culture in started in may be a good direction to take. I looked up the word in dictionary and came up with

1. Jazz or swing music.

2.The jargon of jazz musicians and enthusiasts.

3.Slang. Deceptive, nonsensical, or glib talk: �the sexist, locker-room jive of men boasting and bonding� (Trip Gabriel).

As for the work you have shown, it is a bit cryptic for most, although I am personally a sucker for numeric looking type design. The numeric thing has been done a lot, especially in magazine design (David Carson/Raygun for example), but is it dead ?-not sure. On it's way out-properly. Maybe to be on the safe side try to stick with just the inverted 3, and drop the rest of the numeric characters. The inverted 3 is properly the least cryptic of the batch. You can style it a several ways to make it more or less "3" like. example.

Hello Andy. Didn't someone do the old
number/letter thing last term, or maybe
one before that? Why would you write
'jive89' when the logotype spells out
more or less 318HTY9183? It looks like
a hip accountancy firm, at this stage,
more than a restaurant. I think that it
would be wide to listen to all forms of
critique, even if negative. Work with
the word jive. It has such potential.
More than just flipping numbers around.
Good Luck.

kris.

folks...
cheers for the feedback,
i have taken much of it onboard...
below is a further development of the jive logotype...
as you can see the name is now jive lounge bar
not the previous jive89.
feed back please (on the logotype)
ta
{&e}

Andy, much better on the idenity front. The logo would look neat in neon against a brick wall.

The neon is a nice idea.

What chaps me here is that 1. I'd replace it with a UC I, and pull the J in, pulling the top even with the cap height.

I think I like "lounge bar" bolder. I'm not sure.

Andrew

heya

below is the resolved version of my jive logo
(if anyone actually cares!)

chairs for your input peoples...
i have enjoyed the process imensely!

peace
{&e}
><>



[moderator: All apologies. Accidentally deleted the wrong post. See image below.]

just a wee point here - if this were a real world project you wouldn't be able to just change the name of the restaurant because it pleases you and helps clarify the logo design.

Don't know if your teacher has any stipulations - you may lose marks by changing the name?

Tanya, based on the posts from these students the teacher didn't do a good job of setting the parameters. The students were all over the place.

I have to ask again...are you not having in-class peer reviews/critiques? If not, I think your professor is doing a disservice to you and your education.

Darrel - yes, they do. I imagine that this is
used as a form of second opinion, an extension
on in-class peer critique. Because we all know
how frustrating an in-class crit can be, everyone
with an opinion and very few with a foundation
to base that opinion on.

kris.

" Because we all know
how frustrating an in-class crit can be, everyone
with an opinion and very few with a foundation
to base that opinion on. "

Not to hijack the thread, but I find nothing can replace peer review. Even at the student level. Granted, a lot of this depends on the quality of the particular professor. When I was in school, I was fortunate enough to have professors that spent as much time teaching us the art of critique as they did teaching us the art of design...not to mention the art of presenting our own work.

A lot of the restaurant logo posts in here have been 'this is a logo I made for a restaurant. What do you think?' which is WAY to vague to be of any use to anyone giving a critique. As such, it seemes as if critiques were not being done in-class.

Again...this in no way is meant as a critique of these students...I just found it a bit odd that it was happening.

I care, otherwise I wouldn't have initially posted.

Andy, it's a much stronger logo now. I can actually read it.

The blade on the J could be introduced to other letters(mainly the V). dont forget that neon application.

Andrew

<img>

i just wanted to point this out.. using the numbers as letters, unless you're using letterpress or something, and lacking needed letters, looks very passe