I would not include the domain extension in the masthead. Just keep it glasgowguardian.

~ A

Yes it would be tidier, but we're quite unknown on campus and I want to embellish the URL on the brains of visitors!

Thanks, might end up doing it... hmm.

I also think that putting the domain in the name is unnecessary. Students are internet-saavy and will bookmark (or remember or Google) if they want to return to the site.

Your design resembles that of The Guardian newspaper – two colors, all lowercase, no spaces, similar typefaces (by the same co-designer). First-time visitors may have to stop and rescan, involving more context, to understand that this is an entirely different, independent product. While this would all happen very quickly, it's certainly not desirable.

Since The Guardian's brand awareness is not something you can do anything about, an all new, radically different sketch for your masthead might be worth a try.

OK, that's an important point I should be keeping in mind for the whole year. We are called guardian, so we should look nothing like the Manchester Guardian despite their lovely, lovely design.

Our logo, both in print and on social media, is this:

So how about this as a masthead?

http://moniker42.com/guardiantest/

Hmm... or

Sorry that I'm just barfing ideas up on the forum here :)

I prefer the red and the boldness of the print logo than the pink and lightness of the last iteration of the nameplate.

A bit of a side point (I'll have another draft up tomorrow for the community's acute verdict) but... Here's the thing: I don't actually like futura. It's just a good G for the purpose. I've tried many ways the last few weeks of using futura to match our new logo, but even for headlines and display text it just doesn't work.

As soon as you have more than one character of futura it starts getting muddled. Too full of lines, no prose. Upper case words occasionally have so much symmetry that you have to accept and admire the ostentatious clarity, but try doing a lowercase URL or a block of text.

Right, so in conclusion **** futura. i'll post something else as unfutura as it gets tomorrow. End of rant :)

> So how about this as a masthead?

The name is too long to do in all caps in one color; it's more readable in the black/red versions.

I like that you've dropped "co.uk" in some versions.

What would it look like if you did "glasgowguardian.co.uk" all in the same font, then just had the "guardian" part stand out in red? In all honesty, I'm terribly fond of the first masthead, I think it looks nice. I think I would play with the kerning a little bit, it seems like "guardian" is much tighter than the other parts, probably due to the fonts, but it kind of messes with the flow. Definitely tighten up the ".co.uk" part, if anything. Maybe you could play with the black, maybe a gray might look nice? I dunno, I'm just throwing out some ideas.

In general, my feeling about it is that I prefer the lowercase and sans-serif font. It just looks more modern--your other designs look good to me, but just not really for a student newspaper.

A'ight, here's the latest:

It's the only way I can figure out how to integrate the big G into a horizontal masthead and also have the full URL in there.

Just from a pure first reaction when seeing your final one... love it. At least love what you've done with the "G" and the white-space, knock out(?) effect that it creates. My eye is keeps getting drawn to the G and completes the shape.

The rest of the font is still probably a bit too close the Guardian website.

Disclaimer - logo design isn't really my speciality but thought you might appreciate some feedback.

My eye is drawn to the | shape on the far left. Almost reads as IG. What if the G icon could have a variation with a horizontal rectangle behind it, and here the horizontal bar would mimic the horizontal banner.

@matsaukeo thanks, I see what you're saying about the similarity to the Manchester Guardian and I don't know why I was fiddling with thin regular weights of Utopia (our print typeface family) when there is this really lovely "headline" weight:

@Luma the "I" problem is a bit concerning, but the white G has to be cropped in on the left and right, not the top and bottom. That's our logo.

Does anyone else see an "I" there at the left? If you all do, maybe it's time for a new idea...

Oh sorry, it looks different that the one above, so I thought you were able to change it. Why have that rectangle on the left anyway - what is it trying to achieve?

It's a *web site* masthead. I'm already on the website. I already know the URL. It's right there in the address bar. Just another vote to not include the domain name. It feels very 1999.

]G[

Now that its been pointed out, It does look a little like "I G" (the red rectangle forming the I).

Utopia, eh? If I remember correctly, ADF (Arkandis Digital Foundry) dinked a bit about with the giveaway cut of this... think it's Venturis ADF. Maybe something usable there for your webmasthead.