![Cover image for 👋 Introducing ourselves [plus we want YOUR opinion on our logo...😍 or 🤮]](https://media.dev.to/cdn-cgi/image/width=1000,height=420,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F0oqgaehxl7yk2ibyn2ua.gif)
Hi everyone, great to be here!
We are Wordsmith, we are building tools to make your content creation faster, rank higher, convert better and follow best practices for inclusivity and accessibility.
We know that getting your message out (and not just "shouting into the void") is becoming more and more difficult.
You need to make sure your content is search engine friendly, easy to read and above all, engages all of your readers!
That is where we come in!
We are building the tools you need to turn your writing from "meh" to "my gosh it is beautiful".
Tools to turn you into a wordsmith!
WORDSMITH
defn: a skilful writer
Now, it will be a few weeks before we have a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to show you...and we have no fixed milestone dates yet, so all we can say is we will launch "soonish™".
So in the meantime we thought we would write a quick post to say hello and share our draft logo with you, to see if we can get some valuable feedback from you all! 🙏
Our Logo Draft
Now it still needs a little caressing, a gentle polish and some love from a professional graphic designer, but overall I think it works!
But what I think is not important, I want to know what you think!
So do you:
- 😍 think it is beautifully aligned, designed and refined?
- 🤮 hate it and really don't rate it!
We want to know either way!
It is lovely to meet you all!
We look forward to interacting with you all over the next few weeks, months and years!
If you create content (on DEV or anywhere else!) or are trying to promote your own product through content creation, then it might be worth giving us a follow!
We promise it will be interesting as we share all the trials and tribulations of creating a SAAS product designed for writers!
We will share the whole process "warts and all" with you so you can learn from our mistakes too!
👇 We look forward to connecting 👇
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for reading!
Top comments (30)
Hi I'm going to be totally honest, I'm thinking the logo is too busy, tries to do too much maybe is the better way of saying it.
Less is more logos also need to display well in tiny spaces.
Try a logo generator AI for inspiration
You seem super nice by the way
Oh don't be fooled, I am certainly not nice lol!
I have another account here that always lands me in trouble 🤣 and we have interacted there a few times (always positive FYI!).
At some point I will no doubt accidentally reveal (or purposefully) my other account but for now I want to see how hard it is to build this up without using that account as a launching ground!
Probably said too much now and tainted the results, but it is hard to not say hi to people I enjoy reacting with!
InHuOfficial?
Hmm consider Doug Demuro of YouTube, Wildly popular car youtuber with millions of followers, launched a business off the back of his success Cars'n'Bids and the platform AFAIK is benefiting from constant free advertising from Doug's main channel. People buy into people not brands which is why it's so hard to get this sort of thing off the ground. Your main account is your greatest asset. Your posts should be about the problem that wordsmith is solving
Take this advice from a failed business owner, it's about you the person
I can imagine what's that other account ^^
Quick...we have been made...run!
Obviously this is public, so people can work it all out now I have let the cat out of the bag, but I am trying something here to prove a point and to run some experiments, so I guess I am going to have to play dumb when I see people I know commenting or the experiment will fail! (Please play along if you comment on future articles on this account!)
Great advice though on Doug, I have watched a few interviews he has done where he isn't "Doug Demuro" the personality but is himself and I enjoy seeing the more calculating and calm (real) version of him!
I agree with Adam here, there's "too much going on" in the logo. Simplify it :)
My rule of thumb is; "If it doesn't work as a favicon, it doesn't work" ...
A great rule to live by! 🔥
Already trying to remove some visual clutter so hopefully it will work as a favicon!
We chose to use simply our name as our logo in the end, see it at Aista in the top left corner. Then for favicon we chose to only use the "A". This is a compromise I guess.
Thanks for sharing!
I like that design and although it is "only" your name, the font stylisation is great!
As for favicons, as long as they are easy to spot in a sea of tabs I am less of a stickler for them, they are a great user aid, not a massive branding opportunity.
My opinion is as long as a logo works as a "profile pic in comments" size (48px square roughly) I think that is good enough!
As many pointed out version 1 of mine didn't, but version 2 based on feedback seems to work fine!
That is valuable feedback, mirrored by the feedback received from pjos.xyz.
A rethink is in order it seems! But that was why we asked for feedback in the first place!
Thanks a lot Adam! 🙏
But be disheartened, it's easier to simplify, don't overthink it 🙃
You want me to be disheartened? That is mean! 😋🤣
I do 😂 because I had a bad day 🥁
This is one of my defunct projects, I always liked the logo it stuck with me.
Simple but personality comes from the font which wasn't afraid to be a little fun
Yeah simple works!
But I need to have a think as "WS" would be boring as a logo no matter how stylised and the anvil for "smith" doesn't hold up on its own!
Might just go for something pen related! 🤣
I always enjoy this part anyway so we will see what the logo becomes (or if we just run with the complicated one for a while if we have no better ideas, the beauty of being digital and new, costs nothing to swap it out when launch day comes!)
Way too complicated. The details won't be legible at smaller sizes ie icons or in navigation/footer.
The pen heads make me think of a penis. The penis mightier than the sword.
If you're going for a W effect then this isn't working either. There's also an attempt at an S in there.
Too many ideas competing for attention. Choose one and execute well rather than shoehorn multiple ideas and execute all weakly.
Typography for the wording is also weak. Choose a typeface based on the personality you're going for. Consumer and friendly? Try F37 Ginger or a similar geometric sans-serif, characterised by low x-heights and geometric letter forms. Or are you trying to communicate to a more corporate serious market? Then try GT America or Neue Haas Unica, grotesk sans-serifs that are much more formal. Or maybe you'd like to reference the printed, type-written word in which case a serif font might be more appropriate. Klim Type Foundry has nice serif fonts a-plenty. Take care with the letter spacing, google "kerning" to get plenty of information on how to work with letter spacing in design programs.
Good news is you clearly have ideas so a rework won't have to go through any conceptual stages again. Beware: when working with letters there's a good chance your idea has also been arrived at by many others, so take the time to look at competitors and tangential industry players before rolling out version 2.
I'd give this a read logodesignlove.com/book and start over.
Thanks for the valuable feedback!
Thanks for the book recommendation also, I will try and source it as the page linked doesn't seem to have any buying options!
One question though, why are you mentioning kerning? That kerning looks perfect to me, was there something that made you think it wasn't (even if we swap the font out I am not sure what we missed on that font spacing?)
Back to the drawing board! 🤣
The W - O - R might be a bit loose. I say might because kerning is... It's a feeling maaan. When you change typeface the kerning values will change and have to be readdressed anyway.
Yeah that's a good book, very practical. 'Universal Principles of Design' is a good one too, goes over a bit of gestalt theory which is super useful when designing logos. You figure that stuff out and you've got the edge on most designers!
amazon.com/Universal-Principles-De...
I took some of what you said and had another go at it, I think I love it now so thanks for the feedback. (I kept the W and S combo as although you said it didn't work for you, you did at least see them so I am happy enough with that!)
Also picked a font (for now) and played with it a little to resize the W (had to move the damned "barbs" that stick out the side downwards so they lined up with the rest of the font...which was a lot more time consuming that I thought 🤣)
See what you think now and thanks once again for the feedback!
Looking a lot cleaner! Make sure to try it out at smaller sizes, no harm experimenting further to simplify details or even different "lock-ups" (text to the left, text to the right, at different sizes etc lock up example: raocreative.com/wp-content/uploads...).
Seeing the logo "in-situ" can help as well, use PSD mock ups to see how it's going to look on a phone screen, social headers and profile pics, as an icon, a desktop browser, email newsletter and anywhere you think the logo is going to be used.
And most importantly... Take a break from it for a day or two. Then come back with "fresh eyes" and re-appraise your work. Maybe it'll look stronger or maybe you'll see more areas for improvement. Who knows, you might have a "happy accident" while experimenting ie you use a wrong command or add something by mistake and it actually improves the design. This happens ALL THE TIME for designers, more often than some would like to admit!
Works at small(ish) sizes.
Actually, to be fair it works at any size, but at favicon size it does look a little like the batman logo 😂
Disclaimer:
Some years ago I did some design subjects in the college just for fun, by that means I'm absolutely NOT a professional on that so you may ignore my opinion 99% and contrast it with current information in the shape and composition subject of study or with an actual professional designer.
Personal review:
You tried to create an ANVIL shape using a W, which is OK as concept but then there's this horizontal straight line at the top that makes it overloaded plus both pen and pencil peaks that are looking at different directions, if you think how to use this shape to write with both pen and pencil it causes stress 😆
Imgur
I reshaped it a bit using photopea , a Photoshop knock-off that you can use through your browser. Again is not perfect, I would simplify some shapes and maybe I would need to add meaning using others but well, now it's a bit more squared so it would fit better as icon logo and has less cognitive load so it's more pleasant (or that's what the theory say AFAIK).
As idea, it can have a negative pencil shape -or similar- using the right space in the W following the background (just one of those shapes).
Hope it helps somehow.
Both together for comparison:
Sorry for the low quality 😅
That is a high effort comment right there! Thanks for taking the time to help simplify the design!
The pencil and pen were actually the last thing added, originally they were just feet on the anvil and I think that is where the overkill came from!
In fact I just looked at what the design looked like as my avatar on my comments on DEV and realised that the shape is not lost at a small size so just the anvil w and s is enough (same idea as you!).
Thanks for taking the time to help, massively appreciated and as I said, very close to the design we had in mind after feedback! 💪
So we want to hear all about you!
What do you do for a living, what do you do for fun and do you happen to create content at all?
Let us know in the comments so we can get to know you better! 🥰
For income and profession I am a software developer; writing Ruby code and SQL with the occasional forays into Javascript.
I'm also the partner to the owner of Soapy Gnome.
Cozy Buttermilk Soaps– Soapy Gnome
Handcrafted buttermilk soap and body care products from Goshen, Indiana. Brick and Mortar shop called Soapy Gnome Homebody Mercantile. Sells soaps, bath fizzies (bath bombs), lip balm, lotion, candles, towels, home goods, gifts, corporate gifts, party favors, gift boxes, subscriptions, stationery, cards
For fun I play table-top RPGs, throw frisbee with my dogs, read books, and write.
I've been blogging for 11 years at my personal blog.
Home // Take on Rules
Jeremy Friesen's personal blog, with a focus on table-top role-playing games.
Hi Jeremy, great to meet you (again...I have another account here 😁)!
However I have never really looked at your profile or website before so thanks for sharing those!
First of all, buttermilk soap, how did you get into that?!
Also having read the "about us" page are you originally from Norway?
As you work at Forem it is especially nice that you were the first to reach out and say hi, shows what a great community spirit the team all have!
Oh boy, the soap origin story.
8+ years ago, my partner (Jenny) wanted to try making soap. So she bought a small vial of lavender essential oil and the other ingredients. She spent an afternoon making the soap. It turn out functional but ugly.
She had a great time and wanted to try again. The next batch was much nicer. Then she was like "I don't really want lavender" and tried another blend.
In under a week, we had about 40 bars of soap. And Jenny was like "But I want to try another scent and colors." At which point she also realized we had about 3 years worth of soap for our house, so she decided to start selling at the farmer's market and craft shows.
Since then, she quit her other job later that year and focused on soap making, then retail and wholesaling; and we keep growing.
We're not from Norway; the color palette and artistic style is what drew my partner in. Jenny spent considerable time researching a memorable and unique brand name, and felt the gnome affinity to nature was a good fit for her background.
And thank you for the kind words. My role is Lead of Content Experience, and one of the best way to understand that is to use and engage in the "content experience". But come for the work, and stay for the conversation and growing sense of community.
PS: Check the URL of your profile.
That is super interesting!
Thanks for the heads up on URL (fixed), it doesn't actually matter as we haven't even set up the DNS, but glad you spotted the typo (saves me pulling my hair out trying to work out why it won't work on DEV when we do set it up 🤣)
I have to say the soaps look awesome...shame it would cost a fortune to ship to the UK! If you ever (or have already) tackle this side of the pond let me know!
Also great to know you are Lead of Content Experience, that explains why I see you pop up all the time!
Someday we have a travel goal of visiting England and Scotland. If I do, I'll do my best to remember to pack some gifts and drop them in the post.