I have been playing around with the re-branding of my digital namesake of textureweb – originally a company I ran from 95 til 08. I want to keep some of the moniker of the original iconography, but have been playing around with an update.
Here is one of my favourite versions from 10 years ago [screen grab below]. I love how the width is 800 px which speaks to the time. Dang. Only 4 years before that we designed to 640 px. Then in the late naughts, it was 1040. Now it must be scalable and responsive with smartphones, tablets and retina displays. BTW the link is in Flash, for those on mobile.
Other earlier versions on Archive.org are also not readily accessed, as the site/service did and does not always grab flash from sites in the early naughts. In any case, this is the main way it looked. Note the icon to the left of the word text of textureweb.
This is not a photo. It is comprised of over 64 layers in PS4. Each element, including each egg is a digital layer. This montage comprised the bottom back drop for the interactive squares which you can play with at the archived site, linked above. The idea was to highlight my penchant for old media tools, a good breakfast, and my recent advent into animation at that time. Ahh the naughts.
Originally developed in 1999, my thought was to show earth and sun and show how we have a planet of connectivity. In my new version of this, I had some real challenges as every thing I tried to do to modify became something akin to the 08 Obama logo which is as follows:
In any case this is my first draft. I want you to comment and let me know what you think. I would like to have you access my older work, but that is mostly design and besides being very much a pain to access, is not what I am doing these days, though design is still very much a part of how I view and digest every aspect of digital media.
So here is my Beta for Review:
Preliminary logo for textureweb in 2014
Please comment below. Much appreciated. If one wants to do marketing in the digital sphere, then why not get feedback on it through that medium.
January 30th: Here is my latest update. Thought it might be better to update this rather than start a new thread. Thought a lot about what Grant had to say and took that into a new direction, but still like the word mark I had chosen which was a long process.
Grant (below) sent me this version which I was also entertaining, though I told him I am not hip on the red now.
It reminds me of a barking dog. Just missing some teeth. I don’t see a need for the hard drop shadow. Why two dark colours? Black and sepia. I also find the graphic too large in relation to the text. In fact, the position emphasizes ‘text’ more than ‘texture’.And to be honest Todd, I never quite understood the name ‘textureweb’. Texture? Every time I see it, I think of fabric. Is it weaving digital marketing into all mediums? Sort of? It may be helpful to know and have it relate visually to the graphic.
Now that I trashed your brand, you can trash mine…wait, I don’t have one.
But seriously, use a a bold contrasting colour, so it does not look like a sepia tone print. I’m not feeling the design bro. s o r r r r r y
Are you still my friend? ;D
Grant I was playing around a bit with shadow and then thought to try this approach, so the grey is not so much a shadow but an underneath element.
The dimensions of the logo I am trying to work with are square as they work better in thumbnails.
The brown is related to the colour tone I have on my blog and other channels.
The name comes from when I was starting out in ’94 and thinking of how the web might work as a multitude of information. A fabric of information if you will. So the name stuck and have it placed in a lot of places.
Thanks for the feedback. Just a first kick in any case.
Grant emailed me this:
My first response to your new design was … much better. I don’t know what the spots represent and the line though.
I do feel they are a little overwhelming and sit too tight to the descenders.