How about Edward Johnstons beauty for the London Underground, the face Gill was inspired by: P22 London Underground?

The designer in me wants to skew that arrowhead, or at least do some optical corrections.

Hmm--I think that font is too choppy. Like Kabel it doesn't seem formal enough.

I surely see the mark has a bit of a problem with that arrowhead, although it's never bothered me enough to change it any further, nor have I figured out how I would. But in any case as long as you mention it I'm curious how you might do so.

I'm pretty happy with it so if I can fix it I shall, but for those others reading this, right now a font to complement is my greatest need.

The left diagonal of the arrowhead is optically longer. This gets more obvious as the mark gets smaller.

See http://typophile.com/node/63267 and http://typophile.com/node/36062

I'm not really sure what you mean by formal. Perhaps if you elaborate, I can offer some better suggestions.

Formal might not have the exact connotation.

Try, authoritative. Clean and professional. Nothing too fancy or too fun.

Something that's I've also been looking for is the intersection of stems on letters like V & A coming together to form a point(to match the pointyness of my mark).

I'll get back on this mark later this week--I've found my vector version differs from my jpgs...which may harken back to an unfortunate loss of data. The vector DEFINITELY has a left angle longer than the right. I corrected for it and produced the one we see here--which as you can see, the left angle is actually shorter than the right...What I'm thinking is, is that my typophile avatar was done before I corrected for it.

Try shrinking down the original image I attached and tell me if you still see the problem.

Frode sorry for the double post here, scratch what I told ya to do there. The word list for the font still goes, but tell me what ya think of this (and I'll change the avatar later!):

@frode - where are you with this project of yours? Looks very nice.

Alex: Is it worth pursuing?
Evan: i still think it would look better skewed but if you want to preserve the upright form try moving the whole arrowhead to the right ever so slightly. You could look at Nobel or Neutraface for pointed triangles.

Evan: I believe that Frode thinks about this: (or even the second one below)

I thank that’s too much, Tomi, but that’s just my opinion.

Ok I really, really slightly shifted that arrow right. To my eyes, it almost looks a little right on the large scale and a little left at smaller scales--so it must be optically center! I think it does look better than it did before.

Thanks for your astuteness, Frode. It's all in the details, of course.

Neutraface No 2 is on my wishlist, and something I definitely thought of. Little expensive at this point. When I can, I probably will go that route. Maybe in the meantime I'll pick up a few weights of Contax Pro.

At some point I'll begin posting my next problem--how to typeset my name next to this square. I love it as a mark, but it's killing me on designing the whole logotype.

Here's the latest with the mark:

Maybe in the meantime I'll pick up a few weights of Contax Pro.

A few weights of Contax Pro would be $80 (2 weights) - $120 (3 weights) whereas Neutra No. 2 is $150 for display (6 fonts) or $175 for text (8 fonts). I wouldn't waste my money on a font I didn't love, especially when the cost difference is that little.

I could see http://Verlag working with your mark. Maybe a little too quirky, though.

I absolutely could see it with Verlag...there are some very nice angled cuts on a few letterforms (the top of the t, the left arm of the f).

This is surely moving in the right direction.

I second what Frode says about your mark. It catches my eye every time I saw your avatar (in the sense that there’s something wrong with it)

I think you chose a very tricky form and despite the ‘plain’ look of your mark it is full of optical pitfalls.

For example, besides the vertical arrow on the slanted stem, which gives the whole shape a broken look, the thickness of your horizontal stem is (optically) far thicker than the diagonals.
Also, the horizontal line seems to sit way too low, since the head of your arrow optically reduces the lower part. This bottom-heaviness reduces your logo’s dynamics and doesn’t correspondent well with the ‘propulsive’ shape of a slanted lightning, IMHO

The mark in itself is neither strong in concept nor execution IMO, and deciding on a typeface at such a late stage is bound to cause trouble with the composition.

Well yes the horizontal is a tad bit thicker because the arrow is going to be so weighted. The zig-zag looks way too fragile otherwise, and this looks better than that from my explorations. I might try narrowing the horizontal slightly, but the previous explanation still applies. A slanted arrow is simply not what I'm looking for, either.

I wouldn't say anything is "at such a late stage;" the mark has been needing a suitable typeface for a while, and had been in the process of designing for quite a long time. My issue was whether to keep the thing in a box or simply to reverse colors from what you see here (which would make typesetting a bit easier).

Because this is more of a feeling for me than anything I can state concretely, I'll graciously accept the input, but that goes in a direction I'm just not happy with. The logo grew out of how I sign the E in my name (one reason that slanted arrow would never work for me, and another reason why the whole thing sitting low is just fine with me). Whether or not one ever made that connection is of little importance--I don't really expect one would. The important thing to me is that I can see myself in it. What more can one ask for in a personal mark?

By "at such a late stage" I'm trying to say that font choice shouldn't be an afterthought.

Ah, my apologies. I misunderstood that part.

I couldn't agree more. It's never been overlooked, just that I never could afford the ones I wanted. Now that I see myself in a position soon to get one--I'm trying to see what else is out there that I didn't know about.

I'll graciously accept the input, but that goes in a direction I'm just not happy with.

Creating one’s own logo is often a tough challenge, to meet with critique afterwards is even harder. By asking for a suitable typeface you kinda opened Pandora’s box here. The fact that people come up with constructive criticism (instead of, say, suggesting a typeface without optical corrections) goes in the RIGHT direction IMO.

> Alex: Is it worth pursuing?
@frode - What you have there looks very nice, a sort of typeface that I would consider purchasing and actively using.

You either do one of these:

1. Finilize your symbol/mark and then start choosing fonts. This mark is by my opinion nowhere near being completed. It looks very amateurish. Matching it to some very well designed font is maybe a disgrace for the font designer.
2. Choose your font first and stick with it. Then create a mark that will match font's style.

But please don't do both at once. Choosing a font with an unfinished mark is a design suicide.