loose the artwork and stay with the name if its not copywrited, research

The colors I do not like. Past that I feel the concept can read so many ways it makes you work too hard to derive meaning. So I would stay well clear of the literal pen and ink graphic references.

I am confused as to why it is symmetrical? Is it because the shape as whole represents an ampersand? I see the ’P’ and the ’i’ but after that I feel the rest is erroneous.

well, my initials are plg. Thats where the left side and the white or lighter grey part comes from. so blue: P / white - light grey: L / dark grey: g / yellow-green: i (ink)

I don’t necessarily need every part of the logo to be understood right away. I sort of like the idea of it being a puzzle to figure out . . . obviously I don’t want it to be SO ambiguous as to be convoluted though.

not all people like to solve puzzles like you do!

I agree w/ dan research the name it is quite nice.

I dislike that you’re making the letters into a person, and the different versions with the pencil and brush forms evoke a sense of lumpy, malformed tails or oddly shaped bowel movements. The circle seems forced and tacked on. I don’t mean to be mean-spirited or disgusting; this is just what I see.

As for your contention regarding design puzzles: some reveal themselves as “a-ha!”, others obfuscate with “huh?”, and still others repulse with “what the hell?” If you’re insistent that your designs are puzzles, then I’m in between “huh?” and “what the hell?”

I agree with the other posts, however, that your concepts (“penn & ink” and “plg”) are brimming with expressive potential, and I am curious and excited to see what directions you develop as your research progresses.

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Nick Hladek

With the Pen and Ink written below, you are implying that the graphic above represents this. So I was looking for a ’P’ and an ’I’ but I found so much more. Now, when you said about your initials being PLG that made way more sense. But it is still confusing because people will not draw that meaning unless you spell it out for them.

I thank each of you for your honest opinions. They’ve helped me gain a better perspective on this. My favorite part was also the name; my name being Penn, it seemed to be the perfect name for my design company. Sadly, however, after doing a little research on the name, I came up with a few other conflicting organizations / companies.

1. William Penn University’s literary magazine is called Penn & Ink http://www.wmpenn.edu/Academics/DivisionsAreasofStudy/Humanities/English...
2. There is a publishing company called Penn & Ink publishing http://pennandinkpublishing.com/
3. Pennandink.com is registered to Penn & Ink communications http://pennandink.com/
4. Similarly, if you search on google penn and inc (note the inc not ink), there is another design site coming soon under that title. (Even if it is crappy design, it’s still got a similar title and similar vocation as an organization) http://pnidesign.com/

It seems my title is dead in the water. If you guys don’t think that these companies are reason enough to give up the name, I have a question about domain names. I checked the domain: www.penn&ink.com and nothing came up, but I’m wondering if having an ampersand in a web address is possible. Is it?

Once again, thanks guys for all your help.

Wow. pnidesign.com. What a train wreck. It might be worth reworking your name in order not to be associated with that ... creative venture.

Let us know what you decide / develop.

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Nick Hladek

okay, so no it’s not possible to have an ampersand in a domain name. But I did find that pennandink.net and pennandink.org are not registered names . . . so maybe a possibility. I’ll continue to mull over the name and see if anything else hits me.

@nvhladek Haha, yes . . . a creative venture indeed.