Logo Critique for a Friend of a Friend

[grafixemporium]

Well, I'm stuck in another quandary. No good deed goes unpunished. A good friend of my shop assistant is starting an aquarium business -- custom builds, cleaning, maintenance, fish & coral breeding, etc. He asked for our help to put some ideas together for a logo, biz cards, van wrap, etc. Out of the kindness of my heart, I agreed to help and gave him a smoking price to wrap his van.

Before we I even had a chance to get started on his stuff, he sent me the logo they came up with. I'm told he and his wife spent a year refining this thing. I pretty much told him flat out it's horrible. It's not a clean, commericial graphic. It doesn't look professional and will not draw the attention of the high end customers he needs to be going after. The fish they chose is not great for reproduction in various formats... and well... it doesn't even look like a fish really. At least not to the average non-fish monger.

I have yet to wrap a vehicle where I completely 100% hated the design. If it's something I dislike -- even if from another designer -- I'm usually able to tweak things enough to make it pass muster and make the customer even more happy. This one is already headed in the wrong direction and the "customer" is quite stubborn. I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. The only reason I agreed to wrap his van so cheap was because he's such a good friend to my right hand man at the shop. It also can't hurt to have one more head-turner on the road. I was hoping to have creative freedom on it.

So, I'm posting it here so you guys can critique it. Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is the greatest logo ever designed. What do I know? I just do this for a living. Let's hear what you think... what you really think.

 

[Fitch]

"Out of the kindness of my heart, I agreed to help and gave him a SMOKING price to wrap his van.'

Rule number one "there are no friends in business"

Do it full price, be rewarded for your talents or don't do it at all.

If the guy goes broke in 6 months the only one that misses out is YOU!!!

 

[Dave Drane]

Looks nice but the copy is a bit hard to read,

 

[GAC05]

Could still be a head-turner, but the heads may turn away.
What kind of fish is that? (looks like someone stuck an eyeball on a condom)
Good luck with this, I don't see an easy out for you.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Todd-sta]

looks like someone stuck an eyeball on a condom

Hahahaha...... that was great, and I doubt anyone could offer up a more fitting critique.

Since you're asking for opinions on the logo, I'd agree this is horrible; well, maybe one click better than Nephew Napkin Art.

Good luck making this stinker shine. ;-)

 

[neato]

While I agree that the logo is pretty bad as is, I do think that it could be 'tweaked' enough to become acceptable and at the same time save the guy's pride.

But the fish has to go. lol.

 

[RebeckaR]

With all the different beautiful and dazzling kinds of tropical fish to choose from, they picked this thing? (I'm not a fish person, so I don't even know what it is.)

 

[grafixemporium]

By the way, here's the first rough draft idea I sent to him after I saw his logo idea. He absolutely hates this. It's too animated. His words were, "frankly, it is too cartoonish". Sheesh... try and do a guy a favor.

Anyway, back to critiquing his logo. This is great stuff! Love the condom with an eye comment!

 

[artbot]

both are not too good. the first one has shadows and bevels and intersections color issues gradients, it's like corel on crack.

the other one doesn't work for me either. the text is very architectural with this organic vector. he doesn't seem to be swimming, he look "beached" or like he jumped out of the tank. plus it doesn't brand the business. if it's high end, it should look high end. think high end retailers. the fish should be reduced to an outline, aquatopia should be all small case spread out clean and level.

 

[signmeup]

The fish is cool. You're not a customer of this stuff so you don't know what it is. I would suggest changing the font to something more exotic and give it some contrast so you can read it. Great name too.

 

[Rustyrussell]

The fish is cool. You're not a customer of this stuff so you don't know what it is. I would suggest changing the font to something more exotic and give it some contrast so you can read it. Great name too.

The lettering looks better...Now just change the rest of the logo!

 

[grafixemporium]

Signmeup - Cool font choice (what is it?) and great point on the "upscale" look. I agree my first draft is a little too fun... looks like a them park logo

 

[SignManiac]

I really like your friends logo. You should encourage them to go into the sign business instead of the fish biz!

 

[artbot]

i'd do something like this. picture yourself driving through one of those swanky yuppie outdoor shopping center areas, and you look up at a sign and say.... ?

 

[artbot]

(didn't press upload).... and say.....?

 

[signmeup]

You need to appeal to the type of person that buys tropical fish. They like bright colours.

 

[JasperST]

It all sounds too confusing for me. You say that he wanted a logo and ideas, then he gave you a logo and is quite stubborn about it. I'm not quite sure what a shop assistant is either. Do you mean an employee? Friend? Lover? Why the great deal?

If you did it for publicity and you hate the design I guess you sorta painted yourself in a corner. I hope you can iron it out, at this point I would drop back 5 and punt, tell him you can't spend unlimited resources on the project and get a clear direction and understanding between all parties.

 

[signmeup]

Signmeup - Cool font choice (what is it?) and great point on the "upscale" look. I agree my first draft is a little too fun... looks like a them park logo

The font is Pirulin. It's a freebie.
I would work the thing into a pyramid shape. You can see that shape in the thumbnail I posted. I couldn't do much more because I didn't have a vector file. Your client is on the right track....their customers are a very narrow section of the population and you're at a disadvantage if you're not in the hobby.

 

[grafixemporium]

LMAO... way to make a simple situation overly complicated there jasper. I own a print shop. At this print shop, I have an assistant. That assistant has a good friend he was hoping to help out. But really... you needn't worry yourself with the particulars. I'm only interested in a critique of the guy's logo so I can forward the feedback to him.

For the record, I've already punted. I have no ties or formal agreements with the customer. It's simply a case of a small favor becoming more of a problem than it's worth. Don't lose sleep worrying about me. This is not a big deal. Really just hoping the S101 crew will do what you do best... tear apart the guy's logo.

 

[signmeup]

With all the different beautiful and dazzling kinds of tropical fish to choose from, they picked this thing? (I'm not a fish person, so I don't even know what it is.)

Not meaning to pick on you but your statement says a lot. The target audience knows all about these weird fish. They arn't targeting sign people.