What kind of guitars is he making (acoustic/electric) and what kind of music would he like the guitars to be associated with?

I like the first one most, even if it looks like something else that I have seen before on some guitars (can't remember which brand)

Left/bottom has a certain quirkiness (caused by the 'y') that I like, but it has to be worked on more. How about an 'E' drawn with a single stroke?

Right/top is the one I find weakest.

Yah, I agree�right top and middle left are weakest. They seem to say lasso, which is too narrow of a market�unless country western artists are the only folks your client wants to sell to.

So that narrows it down to the other three, all of which are strong enough foundations for a refined logo design. I like Jan's suggestion for the single stroke "E" in the bottom left concept.

Aloha!
Scott

You may want to consider the shape of the peghead and its interaction with the design of the logo (mind the washers that hold the tuning keys in place).

Also, see if the maker uses the same color tuning keys all the time (gold, chrome, ivory finish etc.). I've found guitarists are sometimes sensitive to everything matching, or at least coordinating on their instruments.

I asked a few questions, and he (Henry) doesn't ever plan on making electric guitars. I haven't asked about tuning key colors but I will soon.
He and his friends basically just play classical guitar music, like maybe something you'd hear from eric clapton. Some fingerpicking, but also using a pick, or strumming by hand. Nothing heavy, and nothing country. I do think the middle two are off because of this, but I'll try a few more revisions on just the middle-left one.
I think the bottom left may end up being the best so I'm saving it for last - I think the single-stroke E would mirror the R really well.

In the meantime, here's an update on the first one. Thanks again for all the thoughtful comments!

"classical guitar music, like maybe something you'd hear from eric clapton"

The blues?

The last concept feels very 'Fender' -- I know that technically it's not very much like the Fender logo at all, but it does have that feeling about it.

If it's blues they're playing, maybe you could go back to some classic blue-style inspiration. Think dirty, rough, customised, worn; the blues to me (I'm a big fan) is all about feeling, emotion, empathy; try and get some blood, sweat and tears into the logo. I know that's all a bit clich�d and abstract, sorry

On the other hand, as Tiffany says, you should probably not try and put too much character (of the music) into the logo, as it'll pigeonhole it too much.

I do actually like the scripty logo -- maybe you could echo a fretboard somewhere in all the vertical strokes (particularly the 'H'). Just watch you don't go too 'Rock Caf�' ;)

I almost didn't mention any names because I don't want to have too specific of a feel. The main thing is that it will go on acoustic guitars that don't need amplification. Some other ideas I'm trying to go for are: natural, man-made, and quality.

This version is an angled script like D'Aquisto, Fender, and Gibson. I think the logo should look like a guitar logo, but hopefully it can still be unique.

I'm also concerned about the loop in the H and the loop in the y balancing. Also the n is not at exactly the same slant as everything else (it's baroque! -er, not really) so that the left stem of the n didn't get too clogged up where it meets the e and the stroke at the top of the n. I took out a small wedge at the top of the n to help. I'm not sure how much this will come into play if we need to screen it. But maybe this non-perfect angle makes it seem less mechanical.

I do still want the final logo to feel personal and have some character even though I might not be going directly for 'blues'. So I just might end up giving it some texture, as long as it doesn't take too much away from any quality aspect.

I think all of the slightly irregular things in the logo (the loops' balance, the n slant) actually contribute to it's 'authenticity', it'd look too mechanical if everything slotted together too well IMO.

That said, I would maybe bring the H loop down a little, so that the left stem of the H has a bit more length to it -- this may help the balance a little too without looking deliberate!

Jordan

Here's an update on the bottom right logo.

All right, I think I owe another update. As you can see by the posting dates, this isn't a rush project!

I gave Henry four different "directions":


He chose the third idea. I'm pretty sure at this point that we'll be using a gold decal. The area for the logo on the guitar is fairly small - roughly 8p x 3p. The pegs & hardware will be metallic gold, and the wood is a fairly dark brown. After many adjustments, including redrawing the grid, here's what I came up with.

Since the gold lettering will show up lighter than the brown wood, the reversed logo is probably more accurate. But there's both.

What do you think?

Thanks
Brian

I like it. Have you thought about using a capital "H" for the last design? I think the "h" in the small white on black version could be mistaken for "fi". Just a thought.

I think it lost some of its personality in the final revision.

My next revision is below (f). While looking at the fi (good catch!), I also noticed that the 'ry' ligature is too tight, creating an optical illusion almost (The further back you are when you look at it, the more you can't tell where the r ends and the y starts). In (b), I tried making the r-y joint rounded, but pulling the pen back inside helped define the r, especially at small sizes, so in the last version (f) I redrew the joint so that it was the same style but spread apart more.

(a) is the version from the last post. (c) and (d) show two versions of the h, to get rid of the appearance of "fi".

I also spaced the letters out more. This helped them match up with the new 'ry' spacing and also made them easier to identify.

The letters involve a few sharper angles where previously there were curves. Also, the first downstroke on the h, n, and r have a bit of a flair, and this also happens on the upstroke of the y. I know this still doesn't have the personality of some of the previous logo versions, but hopefully that at least gives it something.

Lastly, I leveled out the bottoms (e) where before I was keeping the 45� pen angles. It takes it a step away from calligraphy but I like the cleaner line.

Also I did want to try a cap H. I sketched & scanned - do you think it is worth pursuing? Is it too feminine? If not, I'll work with it. I do like the way it looks initially. (har) I expected the H to throw off the balance more, but I don't think it is. .. ?

Thanks again for any comments about the revisions, or future suggestions.

I like the balance that the lowercase h shares with the y and the ry ligature in version b, especially the reversed out version b2. I believe that it is the vertical stem of the h and y that is leading to the fi confusion if it ended a bit higher (in the case of the h) to compensate for the angle of the baseline might be a solution.
Tim

I like the cap H. Not too feminine in my opinion. More workman. It's nice how the top right of the H echos the y tail. For a more ornate instrument, it might be nice to really swash out the tail of the y and the top right of the H, either creating some kind of wave into a little swirl or stacked ribbon top and bottom or possibly a double wave rule top and bottom. This would look great on acoustic instruments from mandolin to dreadnaught.

Bottom line: I'd be proud to see this on my headstock. Bravo for drawing the letters. Type ID section will soon get requests for the Henry guitar logo font. And we will proudly say: sorry it's custom.

Randy

This is looking really nice. These logos would work on any kind of guitar, and if Henry ever changes his mind about electrics in the future, you won't need to do a redesign.

I really like the symmetry in a/a2 and b/b2. I also agree with Tim that the ry lig looks great in b/b2.

Just a thought: what if you took the 'h' from c/c2 and rotated it 180 degrees to make the y?

- Lex

Your logo almost looks like a rotational ambigram. Designer John Langdon has some terrific examples and defintions of ambigrams on his site: www.johnlangdon.net