Logo experimentation

Sketch

Original

Traced

Blackletter/ serif things

Added texture, kind of stamp like?

Traced smiley face + original text

Simple Blackletter marks

I wanted to see if I could experiment with the logo a bit more to see if I could develop it. Ideally, I would like to explore something completely new for the logo but for now I'm a bit stuck for ideas. I want to block in some time dedicated to sketching out rough things/ ideas to come up with some other options. 

I don't hate the initial logo that I've come up, it makes use of a casual blackletter style typeface that I rounded out slightly and has a simple smiley to visual convey the aims of the project. I just know that I should probably explore some other options to see if anything better crops up. Also, for some unknown reason it reminds me of the Instagram logo, I think it's the similarities between the L and the G? No one else has pointed this out to me so it might just be me. 

In an attempt to develop this logo slightly, I printed it off and traced it. I saw that Harriet Richardson does this technique with her posters so I wanted to try it. I also liked the idea because my aim is to get people off negative news for a short time, which we often see on social media, so the hand-rendered thing works in that sense. 

All of these alterations are quite similar as when I scanned in my hand-traced version it didn't have much of an impactful difference. I experimented some more to try and create something with more of a noticeable - adding texture and little Blackletter inspired marks. My favourite is definitely the simplest version where I kept the original text but used the traced smiley as the bumpy edges are more noticeable. It's a subtle change but I really like the extra character and uniqueness it adds. I also like the one with added texture as it does look stamped but I would have to see how this looks in context.