Typophile

Design house logo

refusenik

Hi,

I'm working on a logo for a design house in Hamburg, Germany. The name of the company is "Funkbüro", which roughly translates as "Broadcast Bureau" and is both a reference to their location in the vicinity of a major radio station as well as a hint about the nature of design as something you send out into the world.

The company wants to position itself in the "quality sector" of this, highly competitive market. Thus, the subtitle is "Manufaktur für Gestaltung", which translates as "Manufacture of Formgiving" (well, in fact it doesn't, because Gestaltung is one of those wonderful German words, that just don't translate into English without loss. Suffice it to say that it sounds better in German...). Anyway, here it is:

Logo

The logo is a simple custom "fb" ligature loosely based on Futura lower-case, combined with a series of quarter-circles to represent radiowaves and the name of the company in upper-case Futura. The subtitle is FF Seria Sans Italic.

The color (dark red) is loosely in the right ballpark, but at this stage I'm not too concerned about that, as I believe that a logo must work in its most simple 2-color state.

Anyway, I'd be grateful for some feedback and especially whether you perceive the fb ligature as letters or as part of some weird abstract shape.

Thanks.

Chris Rugen

I like it!

There are 3 things that bug me/may need tweaking, in my opinion. They are all pretty minor.

1. I realize that it's because of the interaction of the box, the type, and the 'waves', but the waves and the 'K' in 'FUNK' seem a bit close to the edge, but this is also because my eyes keep seeing the box, and ignoring the 'BüRO'. Is there a plan to use just the square part? This isn't such a big deal, really.

2. The terminal on the 'f' looks too much like a 'j' to me. I see the 'fb', but perhaps you should cleave off half of the bowl, or break the curve between the 'f' and the 'b' to strengthen the letters?

3. The tagline feels odd to me. I don't know if it's the typeface, or the placement, or both. It just feels like the odd man out. It may be the 'close but not quite' feeling of the Futura and the Seria Sans (though I like both faces individually). However, I don't think I have a better solution for you.

Again, I really like it, but somthing feels 'not quite right' about it. Like it's just a bit too busy/complex/sectioned for the bold, simple concept and aesthetic. However, it's still a strong solution in its current form.

dan

I have only one thought to keep it from being static why don't you have the radio/tv rays break out of the box. (Break out of the box

refusenik

>>1. I realize that it's because of the
>>interaction of the box, the type, and the
>>'waves', but the waves and the 'K' in 'FUNK'
>>seem a bit close to the edge, but this is also
>>because my eyes keep seeing the box, and
>>ignoring the 'BüRO'. Is there a plan to use just
>>the square part?

You've spotted an obvious inconsistency. Because there is a need for the FUNKB

timd

I think the radio waves would benefit from being different weights as they expand from the b, I can't quite work out whether the weight should get heavier the further it goes out or lighter, but this would give some movement to them.

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