Here's one more version. It's quite a bit different than the first.
I like the last one the best.
I'm liking your latest direction the best of all you've done... I saw the first one last night but was too tired to post... I think it has potential, and would be all yours... (although there sure are outstanding examples of how others might handle this)
try the squint test... just looking at your thumbnails, the medium toned shield color robs all your contrast so try a lighter one.... you like the red one but I think it's the worst right now.
Last night there was no gradient. Without the gradient, I'm sure you noticed black on red was challenging, which drove you to the gradient... but unless you want to go pink... back away from the red...
try a pastel blue, peach, lime, yellow, silver... try silver for the shield... or yellow... I think you can make that layout pop a lot better simply making that change..
I like the thin font, and then the thick one. The large A and R look good, but how are you at node editing? If you can tweak the line weight on the two large characters, you can make them fit with the rest of the word better... being taller & wider looks ok, but I think the proportionate enlargement makes the stroke fatter & that should be altered to better flow with the word...
last this, I think having the bottom of the traditional shield shape missing is bugging me... I have an idea, so I'll try it for you...
