New logo for the new name?

So we are looking at changing from “Austin Texas Hackerspace” (ATXHS), to “Asmbly Makerspace” its still in progress will be a month or more before anything is actually official.

During this move I’m wondering if we wanna look at our logo and find something new to use instead of the Techno Bat. I’m not an artist so I don’t have anything to suggest as a replacement. But wanted to open up this as a discussion.

Asmbly has their own logo, but it’s pretty simple. I like the logo, but I’d think someone more skilled than I could make something new.

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Personally, I’d love to see the asmbly logo/wordmark (current or updated) combined with the robo-bat.

A lot of our online content template things have a spot for a square-ish logo, where I think an asmbly-bat would go nicely.

That said, this falls somewhere in the we-know-people / we-know-people-who-know-people bucket. One of the aesthetic problems with ATXHS external marketing materials (logo, wiki, etc…) is that they looked like graphics made by engineers :slight_smile: We’ll be better off in the long term engaging the services of a design professional. I expect we’ll find more options as a c(3) than as a nominally for-profit company asking for a deal.

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I think that the current font/ graphic for asmbly works. Graphically, it is more than just some letters, with the font that it uses. I wouldn’t change it. Integrating it with the machine bat is fine. It’s common for brands to define several usage cases for their logo. White on black, black on white, with additional elements (machine bats), etc…

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Just for fun, I tried to mockup a few combinations of the bat and the asmbly logo. They are admittedly rough – I’m an illustrator beginner :slight_smile: but just some ideas to look at. Not sure the two logos work together super well, but I think there’s something to the idea.

Yup, we are already engaging with design and brand professionals to do a logo/brand package for us for super cheap (possibly even pro bono :crossed_fingers:). We want to be sure we end up with something that is well adapted for all the common places/sizes needed (which our current one is not) and conveys info clearly and cleanly (which again our current one does not in typical sizes/formats online). When we’ve got drafts to share, we’ll post them here!

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I’m confused. There already is an “Asmbly” that’s been trying to make a new hackerspace for a couple years now (at least, according to their web site asmbly.org). Why are we changing our name to be the same as theirs?

Frankly, I think changing the name is a terrible idea, and “Asmbly” is a stupid name to choose. There’s nothing wrong with ATXHS or the bat logo.

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Asmbly has thrown in the towel, they’ve already done all the legal leg work of becoming a 501©3 tax exempt non profit.

So it takes less legal gymnastics to use their legal entity to reincorporate ourselves. Than for us to reclassify on our own.

If there’s nothing wrong with ATXHS then what’s wrong with ASMBLY.

There is an issue with the current logo though, like valerie said, the bat logo doesn’t fit most web forms expected shape. There are standards for logos, the bat doesn’t follow them. So if we are going to want to do a big advertising push in the coming year, we’ll want to make sure that our logo is of propper form.

There is a separate topic for discussing our changing our name and we should try to keep the discussion of name changes there.

Back in 2011 when I cofounded Nova-Labs in Virginia, we used a 99 Designs competition to come up with our logo. It was a very effective process. We provided guideline criteria to 99 Designs and the designer community got to work. A couple dozen submissions came in over different stages of the selection process and in the end we chose the logo below, all for less than $200.

image

It was money well spent and could be considered for ATXHS rebranding.

ATXHS tells you exactly what it is: a hacker space in Austin, TX.

Asmbly tells you nothing.

[Please move discussion of the name to the thread for the name discussion.

This thread is limited to discussion about a new logo.]

What’s the 99 designs challenge? An organization or just a community where people ask for and send in designs for stuff?

The board says they are working with some professionals to make a pro design, so I am curious what they will come up with.

Never much of an artist myself. Lol so I’m sure itll be better than what I can come up with.

Discussion of why ATXHS might not be the best choice of name:

There is no requirement to change the name during the 501(c)3 transition. It could be changed to Asmbly or any other name.

I know this might be late, but my wife is a graphic designer. If you guys are interested, let me know. She usually makes 3, 4 designs to choose from and charges 200 for them.

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