Feedback on new logo design for Confluence

[Chad Myers]

We are in the process of re-branding Confluence - the networking organization that focuses on medium to large sized business and specializes in offering educational sessions in addition to business networking.

We have worked through the brand evaluation and stakeholder surveying and are through the first round of logo designs. I am looking for some feedback on the logo design we've narrowed it down to.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Chad Myers - 3 Hats Marketing

[Mark R Platt]

I like 4

[Christine Green]

The colors are wrong for the type of business, especially the blue. Look up color symbolism meanings (business, groups, etc.) and tweak the palette a bit. Also, the arrows are too close to the tag text. It makes it hard to read. Your eye goes to the middle of the arrows and not to 'where strong'... Like to Confluence font.

[Kyle Lacy]

I am with Christine on that. Actually, I completely agree with everything Christine is saying. The arrows are a little bold and seem to take away from the Confluence font. The icon and the font feel like two different logos.

[Chad Myers]

good points!

- with the color pshychology we intentionally used the light blue as it typically represents unity, harmony and loyalty.

- with the "two different logos" point I agree and have struggled with it. We felt it was necessary to use multiple colors to represent the bringing together of multiple groups. However, the way it is currently designed provided too much contrast to the simplicity of the name and tag line sections. Any ideas on how to create an iconic symbolism that ties into the simplicity of the name/tag line?

Thanks again!

[Kristie Bradford]

I know but I am torn as to which one to choose! First, I keep going back to the first one but I think the arrows need to be different colors instead of all brown. Then I move to the last one and I am not really sure why. I think I go away from that one because the Confluence should stand out more than the wording. I guess my choice is #2 . . . or maybe #3. Do you now know why I did not give you my choice? If I really need to choose then I guess I go with #2.

[Kristie Bradford]

Chad - Just a couple of thoughts. Will Confluence ever want this logo embroidered? If so, there are some things to think about. The first thing to look at is the shading in the arrows. Shading is very hard to accomplish with embroidery. I would make the arrows a solid color instead of having the shading or make sure it will be OK to make adjustments to the logo if embroidery will ever be an option.

The other thing to think about is the small font in "where strong relationships and big business converge". This will be difficult to reproduce with the stitches of embroidery. If you need more information on small fonts and embroidery I have discussed this some on my blog. At the size this logo would need to be for left chest embroidery, this wording is pushing the 'too small' limit of embroidery. I hope this helps in the decision making!

[Chad Myers]

Thanks for raising this issue and all good points to consider when ever working with identity pieces. We commonly approach this situation by creating slight variations to the logo to be used in different circumstances. Rules to operate by if you will. Some variations screen, print, small-sized, etc.

To your point about embroidery, we would most likely reduce the coloring of the arrows down to 1 color and drop the tag line.

Thanks for the input!

...by the way you never commented on if you liked any of the color concepts

[John R.(Dick) Troll]

Chad:
In my experience rendering legal advice on logos I have concluded that
99% of all logos are inocuous and entirely forgettable. If you conducted a design search I'm guessing you would find that many, many other companies are using arrow designs in a manner indentical to yours. Agonizing over the minor differences in each of these 4 concepts is not time well spent. By contrast, the logo of your design company is eye catching and distinctive. A permutation on the Red Hat Unix software company theme.
From the admittedly more narrow perspective of legal protection- try to use the logo in a consistent manner. That said, you might want to consider using the arrow design by itself as the non verbal equivalent of the term CONFLUENCE. Your swoosh design.
Finally, you might want to consider putting the letters SM on the shoulder or foot of the where strong... phrase. This tells the world that you are making a claim to this term. Consider doing the same thing under the term CONFLUENCE- I realize that there are aesthetic concerns here.

[Phillip Archer]

Although I agree with most of these points, I must return to your original concept of this request. You already have narrowed these down to this point. Going on the process of elimination first, I would immediately toss concept 2 out the window. If you will, scroll up there and take a glance at 2, and return quickly. What do you remember seeing first? The bottom RED arrow. Red will always attract the eye first, well second to a bright yellow/white contrasted on a black. The arrows are not your focal point, am I wrong?

Next, I am taking an overall look at these logos, and would suggest eliminating #4. Yes, you want Confluence to stand out over the rest, but not contrasting so much to bury the subtext? You kept the subtext, so you had reason to leave it there. Let your viewers read it. The business does not seem to be the type to stand behind such brightness anyhow.

Lastly, we set the final two on a scale, and pick away at each until the witch is ready to be burned. Looking at Concept 3, the four colors seem to work well with the variance of clientelle, but again attracts the eye a bit much. With concept 1, providing even amounts of RG and B is going to create a variety of those ugly browns with any such mixture. This may not be the best choice of color use, but it does keep the area there and not THERE like #3, if you catch my drift. The Confluence in #1 is a bit bolder than that of #3, and gives a firm portrayel. Between a mighty network and a weak, almost childlike network, I believe you would prefer to offer the education on building strong network's. Therefore, what also floats in water?

A WITCH!

**burn her

Sorry, a bit carried away there. All in all, I will sum it up by suggesting Concept 1 if you must choose from the four. Although, I do agree with a lot of Dick's points. Strong thoughts, Dick.

[Chad Myers]

Great feedback Phillip -
Your assessment of previously narrowing down the design concepts to those presented above is correct. In hindsight - had I know this discussion would have generate as much feedback (which is awesome by the way!!!) I would have provided previous concepts or more direction as to why those presented were selected.

Along with your point, the biggest critique I've taken away from this discussion is that the arrows are if nothing else - too large. As they are not the primary message, they should be reduced in size.

By the way...nice witch rant! Don't see enough of those on SI :)
Thanks again for the feedback.

[Stephen James]

I guess I'll throw my hat in the ring (or three). :-)

1. They are all the same concept.
2. There are four colors in some of them--could get expensive with signage.
2. Isn't confluence having to do with water. Where's the watery, bubbly, rounded serif version of the typeface? All I see are angles.

[Kyle Lacy]

Agree on the angles.