From my point of view Nick was telling you it sucks, only in a round about way as so to not let you down too hard. But that’s just the way I saw it, maybe I’m wrong.
PS. Do yourself a favor & get rid of the strange looking circle, it’ll bug the s hit out of people. 
Gerald my comment on the colors was to explain why some seem drab.
The actual design of the “Coastal” logo is fantastic.
Subliminaly hits us with the Coast soap logo and also obeys the “golden rectangle rule” look that up.
The idea of a roof shape over text is common…nothing wrong with that however but not sure why you would ask us how something looks if it is not what will be seen.
Perhaps get rid of the bad spelling,watermark,change the monocle and come back here again.
Otherwise are we going to rave about a inverted “V” ?
Go ahead and say mine sucks as well if you like as I have no personal attachment and can change it anytime since most people looking for an inspector do not really care.
Kevin,I figured Nick didnt want to say “it sucks” ,but thats what I wanted,no sugar coating or beatin around tha bush,LOL. See post # 17, as it explains the “strange looking circle”.
Two thumbs down. First impression… Does not pop… Washed out… “O” is confusing .
I like it… Two thumbs up!
Your “Before You Buy” logo should suck. Designing logos is not our profession. If you asked Levi to write a home inspection report, it would suck too. Inspecting homes isn’t his profession.
Now look at Levi’s Coastal Home Inspections logo example which I used to explain the concept of cohesion, and be honest…
Would we have been able to create his beautiful beach graphic above the word Coastal? It’s a logo in itself. Would we have underlined the word Coastal with blue ocean waves? Would we have ever thought to do either? How about the weight of each component of the logo? Do we know how to determine them so that it doesn’t look amateurish? How about his spacing between all the words and graphics? His spacing is freakin’ perfect. Could you and I have figured out that spacing? Not in a million years.
Nick,part of that makes no sense to me beacause my wife,who IS a GRAPHIC DESIGNER, created the logo,so NO, it shouldnt suck in that sense. I understand not everyone is going to LOVE it and that is fine. The coastal logo is ok, in MY opinion,but that means nothing. Just like im not going to ****can MY logo simply beacause you think it sucks. So if you think my LOGO looks “amatuerish” thats fine. I chose to go with something crisp,clean,not cluttered,busy,or look like someone used crayons.
Well, what are you waiting for? Show us that one! :twisted:
From Wikipedia:
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition.
While I agree with others that the design of the logo is a little amateurish—the arcs of the smoke could align better, the proportions of the chimney could be adjusted, the monocle could be redone or removed, the size and position of the roof could be better in relation to the text below, and the kerning of that text could be tweaked—I think that the bigger issue stems from the emphasized portion of the quote above.
The goal of a logo is to promote brand recognition. How many times have you seen this logo before?
Notice any similarities? The brand of “roof over company name” is so diluted that it has pretty much no value.
On the other hand, let’s compare:
Whether you like the style of any particular logo, you can’t deny that they establish a brand. Let’s look at it one more way:
One of these things is not like the others…
And this isn’t just to promote logos designed by InterNACHI (for free, by the way). There are certainly logos out there, not designed by Levi, that look great. But many of them fall into the same roof over text or name next to magnifying glass visual tropes that make them blend into the sea of other inspection logos.
It’s also not to put down your wife’s work, Gerald. She made you a logo that’s better than many, and it’s clear that she made you a logo that you like—which is her job. I would just urge you to revisit the concept and think about a way to establish your own identity, rather than blending in with all of your competitors.
I’m sorry but you will thank me later. You need to redesign. I’ll leave it at that.
Its to basic, looks blurry, the magnefying glass is missing its handle and there are lots of graphics out there with a roof and smoke with chimney’s. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. Remember that. I wish I could show you my first site compared to now. Its like trying to compare an orange to an apple. You would then see what I’m talking about. Look at major brands and compare their logo to yours.
Also, the reason I asked my question back in post #8 is that you (in particular) can’t afford to have your logo fail at promoting recognition. Why? Because unlike a company name that is a noun with an adjective that can be more easily reinforced by the logo (like the Blue Lizard one Chris noted) to promote recognition… the name of your company is a conjunctive clause, and a very common, bland one at that.
Bill, your schedule an inspection link is down:
Nice site, though.
Gerald, you could file a DBA with your state and get out from under that conjunctive clause company name.
Thank you sir. Yea you must of been on it right when I switched the link to http://www.stlhomeinspector.com/book.php
Two thumbs down.
That is all!!
NICK,what makes you think I am trying to “get out from under” the name?? DID I INDICATE THAT TO YOU SOMEHOW??
Yes. You said you wanted it to “pop.” One of the ways to achieve this is to have your logo reinforce of your company name (that’s actually the one of the main purposes of logos and taglines). The Coastal logo does this to some extent with the beach above the name and the waves below the name. Beaches and waves reinforce the Coastal Home Inspection company name and brand. A more extreme example would be Blue Lizard, where the logo reinforces the company name so strongly that you almost don’t need text. How do you graphically represent a company name when it is a conjunctive clause? Almost impossible. I did a little experiment this morning. I tried to remember the names of all the inspection companies that Chris used as examples in his previous post on this thread. I could only remember one. Yep… Blue Lizard. It “popped” right into my brain this morning. That’s because it is much easier for a human being to remember a company name that is an adjective followed by a noun than it is to remember a conjunctive clause. That’s also why it is difficult to create a logo that “pops” for a company name like Before You Buy… which is why (if you want a logo that pops), you might consider filing a DBA with your state.
You seem to like that monocle theme. Here is a wild idea: File a DBA for Monocle Inspections, use your monocle logo concept, add a tagline such as “We look closely” under your logo, buy a bunch of cheap monocles and include them with every report. Fairly quickly, you could have every agent in town commit your inspection company to memory. The cohesiveness of your company name, company logo, company tagline, and company marketing would cause your inspection company to be burned into their brains.
Dang. I bet we see some Monocle Inspection companies this week.
Amazingly
…creative idea.
You should
…learn marketing
Nick as you might…
…go somewhere
in a business that way
…perhaps someday
by learning to
STANDOUT
NICK, NOW YOU’RE TALKING!! So IF I wanted to ,(if I wanted to), change the name to Monocle Inspections…would that mean I would OWE YOU, royalties or something?? I LIKE that name…hmmm. Wait ,I already filed a dba under b4ubuy…what now??
