What makes a good logo? On this page there's some info about the qualities of a good logo. It's about simplicity, size, text, colors, and effects.
Simplicity
A good logo works in the simplest form. On the internet it's common to see logos which contain gradients, 3D effects, animation, and other visual effects. But a good logo is not dependent on such effects. If the logo can not also be reduced to a simple one color flat version (for example for use as a watermark in images), and *still* look great, original and catching, it is functionally useless. Therefore the black and white versions are requred when submitting a logo in the POV-Ray Logo Contest.Size
Size is a critical issue when having a logo designed. A good rule of thumb is that if the logo works well as a small 32x32 pixels icon, it will scale up nicely to other sizes. Always make sure your logo looks pleasing in a wide range of sizes before committing to it.NOTE: It is not so good to use a pixel-based paint program to create the logo - if you choose to do so anyway, be sure to create the logo at a very high resolution. It always works better to downscale a large image than to scale up a small image!
Text
If a logo looks nice without having any text in it, it is great - but using text as a part of the logo is also fine. By experimenting with fonts, size, and shapes an interesting way to represent POV-Ray may be found. Simplicity is extremely important - this is not the time to use fancy decorative fonts. Whether alone or combined with graphic elements, the text in a logo must be easily readable at small sizes.Color definitions
When making a logo for POV-Ray, making a color definition is an option. It has both advantages and disadvantages.The advantage is that a color logo can be easier to recognice. It can also add more personality to a logo when it has some certain colors. There are many examples of logos with color definitions. The Windows logo - it is alsways shown in the same four colors plus black. The Machintosh logo - the rainbow colors are indeed a part of the logo. The IBM logo - it is always blue.
The disadvantage is that a logo with a color definition is limiting and constricting. Making a color definition for the logo means that the people who use the logo, for example in their images or on their webpages, have to use those colors, because they are a part of the logo. They can also use the black and white version, but that is sometimes boring - they cannot give the logo their own colors as they wish.
Although I have made color definitions optional, I personally advise people not to use them. They may be good for other companies' logos, but in the POV-Ray society, where the logo is to be used by so many creative people, a preset color definition is too constricting.
Effects
Once a simple black and white logo has successfully been designed it can be jazzed up with all kinds of interesting effects! That's what the custom versions are for. The custom versions are meant to show if a logo has the potential of being made interesting. A good logo is flexible, and can be presented in many different ways. See the Submitted Logos for examples.Links
www.goodlogo.comLots of good logos to look at! Great for inspiration. And it can be easily seen that they all comply with the guidelines described on this page.