Typophile

Kitestring

Hugh Firebaugh

Attached are logo comps that I will be showing this week. Mainly want feedback - I have a clear favorite, but I want to see what others get out of it. All four are very similar because there is a pretty clear brand image and visual style we will be utilizing based on all of our work up until this point. What sort of feel/energy does each give, what kind of company (personality/values) does it relate?

The old company was called On-line Services, their old logo featured a globe with a satellite. Their old tagline was "Meeting the needs of today and tomorrow". They have nothing to do with the internet or telecommunications (beats me). Their services are varied and many but the main offerings are Staffing, Engineering Support, and Document Scanning/Records Management. (Yes I know - try to wrap your arms around all that and more). However - the owner is very entreprenural and every year seems to add new services. Generally he is quick to market and somehow grabs niche clients that have made his business very successful. But they need a change. Their current identity says nothing about who they are or what they do - in fact it says all the wrong things.

The company is in a high growth mode right now expanding into seemingly unrelated venues and this new logo will not only be unveiling a new image, but a new name as well. The idea was that with such a broad service offering the company name had to be broad and non-descriptive. Yet it needed to encompass the feeling and personality of the company and be memorable. It was decided a metaphor name with a descriptor (at least at first) would be the best way to go - also helping it to stand away from the pack of ScanTecs and other similarly named companies. They wanted something that had its own wings. The name kitestring was born out of a sense of support (one unifying theme), friendliness, and ease of use (yeah flying a kite isn't always easy, but once its going it seems that way, you know - its a "breeze")

As we roll out the logo there will probably be subheads for each division which will disappear further down the road as the brand becomes more established in our market. (Ie. kitestring Techhnical Staffing, or kitestring Medical Records Management) I will most likely indicate this in a smaller maybe italic type beneath, somewhat separatd.

The tagline we are using for them is "Support for companies that soar" Still somewhat generic, enough to encompass what they do - yet it gives a feeling and it positions them as being business to business.

The new look will be very clean - with tons of whitespace - the idea is to elevate the brand from its current identity.

To see the old and ugly click on www.On-LineServices.com

here is the new and hopefully less-ugly
kitestring

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Jon Whipple

Hugh,

Well compared to where they were before,these are all a huge improvement.

From my standpoint I think 2 and 3 are the contenders. 2 is good, not because of the swoop (which isn't stringy enough for me) but because it seems to match best the range of services these guys offer.

I like 3, especially if the kite was larger and somehow indicated the string part...I like orange and blue. It would be nice to see something in the technical arena with some serifed type.

If pressed I would choose 3 because it is just beyond the conventional in that sector. If 2 was chosen I would be less excited though confident that the mark would work well.

1 isn't asertive enough. It seems too whimsical, and 4 far too sedate and doesn't feel like the kite is flying. It really just looks like a word with a diamond.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Jon

dan

Hugh #3 looks somewhat like the travelers umbrella. I like the simplisity of #4. Kitestring is what it is one word and the diamond shape reminds me of the kind of kite I used to fly as a kid.

jeffwhite

I'm partial to number 3, but I would like to see a similar type treatment as number 2. The main reason for this (and you took care of it in the colour variant of #3) is that on first glance I didn't know the word, and read kit-estring. I feel that the word is obtuse enough that defining the base words will make it more readable and enhance the name.

Great name, btw. Nice work.

loren klein

i like the colors and symbol in #1, however i do not like the look of the type.

i do not like #2 because of the helvetica over-usage in the world, and the arching line is reminiscent of the swooping logo era.

my favorite is #3 because the symbol is geometric but not symmetical on a vertical axis, and quite beautiful. the asymmetric position of the symbol is good. the type is refreshing for the word kitestring and fits well. only thing i'd say is that the orange and blue Kix colors are way to generic and trite.

#4 is good, but too simple of a symbol i think. and it's just slightly off centered, making me want to shift it to the center or further to the right. i just can't see th

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