Site Logo

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Feb 25, 2009

Filed under: Projects 17 comments

Good: I’m joining Themis Ad Network
Okay: I need to put together promotional materials for this site so that advertisers will know what they’re getting into.
Bad: I need the logo of the site in vector format, and I saved the original as a not-particularly-high-res PNG.
Worse: I no longer own or even remember the font used in the logo.
Worst: Looks like I’ll need to re-make the logo, more or less from nothing. Using vectors. Which I’ve never done before and I’m not even sure if Paintshop Pro 8 supports.

I know my current “Web 2.0” is horribly dorky, and doesn’t really match the whole “Roleplaying Games” theme. I knew it when I put it up. It’s much too corporate and plastic, but dangit, I like(d) that shiny white iPod plastic look. Right now I’m a fan of the whole “Sideways logo” like I have going on my Twitter Page, although I’m not convinced that would be a good idea for a blog. (Simply because it’s so unconventional.)

So now I’m mulling over what to do. If anyone has any suggestions or pointers on logo design that don’t involve spending money, I’d love to hear them. If any of you web design Jedis can I.D. that font, even better.

And just to be clear: I’m not planning on overhauling the site or anything. Everything else should stay pretty much the same.

EDIT: chabuhi identified the font in the comments below. Apparently I used Bank Gothic Medium. Thanks chabuhi!

 


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17 thoughts on “Site Logo

  1. Abnaxis says:

    You can make vector-based graphics in Sodipodi. It’s free to download and I have found it easy to use. It probably wouldn’t be all that difficult to remake your old logo, if you wanted

    Now I just need to refind the site I used to download it…

  2. Yes, PSP8 does do vectors. And you can store the result as a .PSD file, which is “PhotoShop Drawing”.

  3. LexIcon says:

    Logo design is much like professional web design. Steal someone else’s ideas, and tweak them so you don’t get sued.

    I call it the Milli Vanilli Approach.

  4. Shamus –

    According to Identifont the font used for the larger letters of the logo is AG Old Face BQ. Obviously, that’s not an exact match, but it’s a good start.

    If it was me, I would create a logo that somehow incorporated the number 20, the shape of the dice, or some combination thereof. I think there’s a way to do it that would maintain the “Web 2.0” look that you like, but would also be more identifiable with your role-playing content.

    And that’s my 2 cents…

    Leslee

  5. Shinjin says:

    I’ve never used it, but I understand that Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor.

  6. Zel says:

    The only vector graphics editor I ever used is Xfig (on Linux). I use it regularly to make timing charts for digital device designs. It’s free and very simple, but I never tried drawing a logo with it. It can write texts, make boxes of color and pretty lines but it’s no Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

    As for Sodipodi, it’s on a sourceforge page located here :
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/sodipodi/

  7. John says:

    Inkscape! Inkscape! Rah rah rah!

    It’s free, it works REALLY well, and it works on every platform that is important.

    Import the high-res png, outline in Inkscape, and save as an SVG. That simple.

    And heck, if it’s too hard, drop me an email and I’ll do it – I’ve got nothing better to do at the moment :)

  8. wererogue says:

    I like Inkscape too ;)

  9. chabuhi says:

    Bank Gothic

    Buy the font and I can try to do it for you.

  10. chabuhi says:

    Played the sample font against your existing logo and I’m thinking it’s probably Bank Gothic Medium rather than lite. Hard to tell for certain.

    1. Shamus says:

      Yes! Bank Gothic Medium. Thank you thank you.

      I’ve got it again. Tonight I’ll have to figure out how in the name of Boldface Comic Sans I’m supposed to make a vector thing that is colored in, reflective, with fuzzy blob shadows underneath. Assuming that’s even possible.

      I downloaded Inkscape. We’ll see if I can figure it out once I knock off work.

  11. LazerFX says:

    Inkscape get’s my vote too – I love the thing, it’s brilliant. Had to use it for work recently, that and Scribus for DTP really, really rock.

    So, let’s see – Inkscape, Gimp, Scribus, Open Office… remind me why any non-corporate user uses expensive office packages? :P

  12. Dustin says:

    You probably don’t have a Mac, but if you did this would be pretty easy to do using a program called VectorDesigner. You can use it to import any raster graphic (aside to the lay-person those are: PNGs, JPEGs, GIFs etc) and then convert it to a vector graphic (aside again to the lay person: something that is infinitely scaleable). Obviously the simpler the raster graphic is to begin with, the easier the conversion is and won’t require much ‘tweaking’ to get it to look right. There are some great tutorials the company has hosted as podcasts, episode 7 I believe will tell you how to import a graphic and convert it to vector.

    Course this app is not free, but the trial would be sufficient to get done what you need done. Yet if PCs are the only computers you are working with, then no dice, sorry.

  13. Benjamin O says:

    Inkscape again…in fact I just finished remaking a logo the same way. By the way, for anyone suggesting sodipodi (and not inkscape), they are based on the same codebase, and inkscape is in more active development. As far as I know, sodipodi has gone the way of the dodo.

    Inkscape has several minor niggles to it, but I see no reason it can’t completely replicate your logo perfectly. If you can’t do it, I’ll give it a go. In fact, I may anyway just for fun. If I can ever get my own wordpress woes sorted out. Ugh.

  14. Tesh says:

    Inkscape is good, so is DrawPlus. Version 4.0 is still free for download, I think. I’ve had more success with DrawPlus, and even upgraded to the X2 version during a $20 sale, but both are good programs. I see no need for Illustrator these days.

    I’ll still swear by my Photoshop and Painter over GIMP, though. It’s not even close.

  15. Matt` says:

    There are even online tools to take raster graphics and vectorise them (again, mostly on a “limited trial before you have to start paying” basis, so you could get it done within the trial), just search for “vectoriser”.

  16. Steve C says:

    Have you considered asking an admin at Themis Ad Network how best to translate/recreate your .png into their desired graphics format?

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