Studio Brief 2 - Initial Ideas

My initial ideas consisted of a number of different roots that I could possibly use to represent the company. The number of directions i tried to go down was either National park look, Gaming community or a technology root.

Below are my ideas with analysis.

Taking inspiration from the national park research, i decided to use a circular shape to contain the logo. This allowed me to design a more detailed scene within the circle. Inside the circle would be a the habitat that the desert tortoise lives in. Therefore given an instant recognition of what the company is representing. Type would mould in the shape of the circle to give the overall logo a flawless, visual appeal. However the only issue would be readability. How would this logo look on a poster compared to a business card?

One of my favourites. Hardshell logo in a bold San-serif type face. This will bring attention to the logo straight away. Then on the top will be a scene of again the habitat of the desert tortoise but this time it won't be constricted within a circle. This adds depth with a visual appeal. It also balanced well with the 'labs' at the bottom, avoiding the logo becoming top heavy. The 'Hardshell' part of the logo could also have a chisel effect making it seem that it's hand crafted giving a stronger link to the habitat with a wildlife feel.

This idea is a response from the changes the company wanted to make. Tim Shields, CEO of Hardshell express his interest in making the tortoise look more powerful, which could be achieve by the stance of the tortoise looking more predominant. Taking this on board the idea here was to have the front leg raised and the long neck of the tortoise extending out. These are all aspects that relate to a more powerful look and feel of a tortoise.

This idea is meant to be more on the lines of quirky take on the tortoise shape. When you look at Hardshell Labs and figure of what they are, you come across two main features that pretty much sum up what the company is doing. That is protecting tortoises with remote control cars. So simply enough i combined the two together. However, this shape looks a bit silly and is not holding a professional feel.

Looking at the gaming side of the company, I wanted to come up with a design that took a cleaver angle of incorporating a gaming design with a tortoise. The reasoning behind this idea is based around space raiders. The concept behind the game was a big object defending it's self from incoming danger. So to me the game related a lot to the company of Hardshell Labs. The tortoise being the big object and the ravens who are making the tortoise become extinct are the incoming danger.

Overall i feel like the logo is a cleaver take on the company and representing the gaming side of things.

This idea is as simple as it comes. Looking at the current logo, this idea is just a simplification of it. Taking the outdated, complicated look away and have a design that sums up the company within an instance without over complicating the whole aesthetics. Simplifying the tortoise and having the world as his shell. Effectively simple.

Representing the gaming aspects of Hardshell Labs in this idea. Moulding two features into one. Using a console controller and a tortoise to somehow create a mash up of the two. Not sure if this is clear enough to see.