Hi, I'm new to these forums and I have to say, the people in this community are the most intelligent, creative and supportive individuals that I have ever come across on the web. This place you have developed here is definately the most relevant and all emcompassing database for assistance, tips, etc. for type and identity that I have ever come across. It's a shame that it took me years to find it, mainly because I had been searching for identity, logos, etc. and not typography. I've read hundreds of threads on these forums in the last 2 days and I have to say, I will never think about type the same again. Thank you so much for your involvement in developing such a comprehensive site. This is amazing.

I run an enterprise software development company in Canada called Upfactor. While I've already comitted to a marketing campaign, I was wondering what some of you thought about the logo and typeface. You can see the finished result at www.upfactor.com and when I get back to work tomorrow, I'll put up a larger version of the logo, business cards and letterhead.

When I did this logo, I had a pretty hard time with it. I must have messed around with 50 or 60 concepts but nothing was working. I've tried to keep things simple but didn't succeed and I tried out some pretty complex designs as well. Then, as a joke, I did the two white squares in the larger red square and sort of liked what it had going for it. The more I tried to justify it logically, the more it fit, and the more I learned and read about good identities, the more confident I felt in my choice. Strangely, after reading a lot of the content here, I still feel really good about the logo, but I'd like to hear your thoughts anyway. Please be very critical. Afterall, this was an accident and I'm not really a designer and I will never claim to be; I'm a software architect :P

I wanted to to give the established and credible representation that conveyed that we develop robust and timely software solutions for enterprises. I think the edgey font and straight lines help convey this, at least not the opposite I hope ;)

The two white squares form an abstract arrow and it's placed in the upper right hand corner to synergize with the name.

These Squares also work because "factor" can be interpreted as a mathematical term and squares fit this concept very well, especially in cases where 2 is a factor of 4, 4 is a factor of 16, which are perfect squares. The reason this is relavent is because software development is a lot like mathematics, but even further to the non-software people out there, we make heavy use (as in fanatical usage) of a process called "refactoring", which is basically breaking the software system down into the right abstractions and removing duplication throughout the system. This is a lot like factoring out mathemtical equations. This keeps the system clear, robust and clearly sets to define the boundaries of every component in the software system. Again, squares work wondefully with these concepts I think.

Secondly, a software system is built of many components and you can essentially break them down into finer-grained components. Software components are often represented by squares and rectangles when illustrating the architecture of the software system. Embedded squares also visualize this tangible representation.

More importantly, however, if you read the content on our website, we advocate an agile approach to software development where we build software in a series of increments. The fact that only part of the square is complete with white squares denotes this agile, lighter-weight approach. You see, in many cases it is not desirable to build the entire software system up front because the requirements are unknown or they make change during the construction of the system. If you only build high-value components and features first and deploy every 2 weeks (approx.), you can deliver a partial, fully-tested system that is deployable today and not 2 years from now where it may no longer be relevant.

Please let me know what you think I've successfully communicated this brand. I look very forward to hearing your responses. If you know a more directed forum that I can post this message, as well as an enlarged logo and so on, please let me know.

Best Regards,
Ken