I designed some logos and I wondered what you guys thought. I wanted two logos — one with just initials, and a logo with the site name spelled out. So I came up with this design set:
This would be in the header, probably shrunk up so it isn’t so tall.
This goes in the sidebar.
Please note: these images have no borders. WordPress helpfully (or unhelpfully) puts a border around all my images, and I’ve never bothered to figure out how to get it to stop.
The intertwined D & R gave me a lot of trouble because I couldn’t get over the fact that it looked like the abbreviation for Doctor. I tried to get around that by including the ampersand.
Right away, I can tell that I need to outline the gold letters in slightly darker pixels, because they look blurry. I picked these colors because I thought they’d go well with book covers.
Any other suggestions?
Tia Nevitt 
That’s an interesting design. I think you’re right that it needs the & to keep it from looking like Dr. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
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Thanks! Should I tuck in the ampersand? Everything’s movable.
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Maybe you could tuck in the ampersand a little. Just make sure it’s still distinct from the rest. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
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I think it looks great as is–speaking as a former art director.
Great font, good weight. Good color choice.
In the small logo, try pushing the ampersand closer to the letters and see if you like it. It might make it too much of a graphic image and no longer easily readable. But that can be useful too, as long as you keep the extended logo nearby.
The important thing, and this is true of ALL branding is consistency and frequency.
Great job, Tia!
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I love these! They look great! Now I know who to go to when I need logo-designing help. 🙂
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Thanks! I was very pleased with it.
I might try to make the ampersand in the smaller logo a smidge smaller and tuck it in a hair. I was thinking about tucking in the ampersand in the larger logo as well, to attempt to square it off.
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I wouldn’t have seen Dr. until you mentioned it, mostly because the “d” is lowercase and because the alignment is so different.
The only suggestion I’d have for the smaller version is to place the ampersand “on top,” more to the center of the image where the d and R meet. Or maybe just move it closer so it’s integrated… it kind of looks orphaned out where it is.
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Good, because that’s what I intended. My original design looked like Dr. and I do think I need to scooch in both ampersands.
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I like it! I do wonder how it would look if the R were gold/orange, though. Having said that, I like the connected D and R, and they probably need to be the same color if they’re connected, so maybe, alternately, what if “ebuts” were a different color than the D? There’s something about the single-color “debuts” and two-color “reviews” that’s bothering me.
Just throwing out my first impressions, and I don’t have a design background, so I wouldn’t necessarily suggest listening to them!
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The R cannot be another color because I erased the serifs off the bottom of the d and the top of the R so they will blend together. What I did do is make the ampersand in the spelled-out version the same gold as the “eviews”, and I was able to scoot it in more once it was a different color.
I’m still fiddling with it. I had to start over because I realized I need to make the “master” as huge as I could. So that means using like 255 sized font. That way it sizes down nicely.
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I think they look great, Tina, and I didn’t notice the Dr. until you mentioned it. I like the colors, the fonts, and the design.
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I like the first one the most – nice work
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