While sone of us have grown to love the AMYBO NEEDS A LOGO logo (which demonstrates that we’re seeking input from all walks of life), as we register with umbrella organisations, and present at events, etc. it’s probably causing more confusion than it’s worth.
Do you think you (or anyone you know) could produce a logo, ideas for a logo?
We’ve been asked to exhibit at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein Scientific Kick-off at Imperial College, London on 20-21 Jan (if anyone would like to join me, please shout) and I’m thinking of getting a pop-up printed for it. It would make a lot of sense to make this as generic as possible, so we can reuse it at future events - so it would be great to get a new logo ASAP.
In other news, we now have AMY.BO and a bunch of new short links like AMY.BO/forum. AMY.BO makes for quite a punchy QR code, so I’m wondering if we could incorporate AMY.BO and the QR code into the logo. I’ve been using this in recent presentations:
But it’s too fussy to be used as a small logo. IMHO a good logo should work in monochrome, I’m quite fond of squares too, or multiple versions to fit different aspect ratios.
I’ve been thinking possibly a squarish font with the QR code in the O…? But we’d love to get your input.
My phone wouldn’t recognise it with circular or rounded versions of the three squares. It can recognise this at a distance (where it thinks the circles are squares) but if I get too close to filling the frame it no longer thinks it’s a QR code.
It has no problems with this conventional version at any scale:
These look great, thanks @Laura ! Isn’t the link amy.bo short enough that it will take longer to open your phone camera and scan the QR code than just type it into the browser? I imagine the QR code version will run into problems if we try to make it too small.
I definitely agree that amy.bo is easier to type than scan, but how do we let people know that amy.bo is our website address without adding something ugly like https:// or www.?
I find the QR code difficult to scan at times, but I think I like it as a visual element. Is it a pizza, is it a petri dish?
Isn’t the dot enough? I mean, if you type amy.bo into your browser address bar it will take you to the right website, and if you google amy.bo or amybo the first result is the correct one.
I like a clean and simple logo - the QR code makes it look “noisy”?
Very true. I’m now a little conflicted as I’ve just come off a call with a Spanish architect about it. She said she preffered the first one - which I assumed was the one you preferred too, but it transpired that she actually preferred the pizza option. That said she hadn’t actually realised that it was a QR code. Even once she knew that she explained that she preferred the pizza because it looked different to anything she had seen, whereas the coloured dot version reminded her of another logo.
She did however give a bunch of other suggestions - particularly right aligning the .BO - Laura also worked up this banner just before the call:
The architect suggested we increase the size of the world and have it intersect the bottom corner. We’ll try to implement all those changes shortly. Then if I find someone willing to check the pop-up in London on Thursday, we’ll send it to print tonight, otherwise we have a day for further discussion/finessing.
I think, combining your comments with hers, the logo may work well short term, while it’s new and some people don’t realise it’s a QR while others just think it’s a petri dish, pizza or noise.
But if we start seeing other logos using similar QRs, we drop it and go for something simpler.
I’d probably like more input on simple versions, as one thing I (slightly) like about the AMYBO NEEDS A LOGO is that it works in different colours. That wouldn’t work so well if the key differentiator was a green dot. And wouldn’t work at all if embossing (not that the QR code is even close to 3D printable).
There’s a problem with the logo you used in the banner - it’s not clear that it’s an O, so some people may read it as AMY.B, followed by a strange pizza sign.
If you’re really set on using a QR code in the logo, rather go with the
as it’s at least clear that there’s an O.
Although given that the architect didn’t even realise that it’s a QR code, I’m not clear on why it would be the preferred option. Just because nobody else has done it before? Maybe there’s a reason for that.
Ah, annoyingly I didn’t put that one to the architect at all, as nobody had suggested it was their favourite. We now have Gerrit, Jewel & Grace for the green dot, Architect, Laura & Myself for the pizza.
If there’s a risk people read it as AMY.B, we may be best going with the green dot. I’m thinking a darker green to match the banner though, as the Architect did suggest that we don’t go any lighter than the colours in the banner.
