[hammered]

Been messing with a permanent name ideas and finally settled on SpikeGear.
So the logo had to follow close behind so I picked something I found in a photo Ive had for years. Being an Ironworker/welder Ive always dug this picture of a giant twisted railroad spike. Well enough background and on to the question and the logo. Where should I go with this? What more or less should I be looking to do. Ive done this dozens of times for others but when its for me, well you know the barefoot cobbler tale.

[/U]
The image is already been set-up as a cut ready file for my plotter, just looking to see what some of you think. Thanks in advance.

 

[lawaughn]

To me that looks more like a nail than a spike. To me spikes are pointy at one end.

 

[identityburn]

I would vectorize it. Give it some hard shadows/highlights. Either give it a point at the bottom or make it appear to be sticking into something rather than just a flat bottom.

 

[darwyn]

That's a pretty cool image. I think it would be even cooler, however, if it was spikey at one end as lawaughn suggested.

At any rate, it's a solid image to start with. I would proceed to vectorize it, making sure a pointed end is included. After all, the name is "SpikeGear".

Then I'd play around with the image and the words SpikeGear in some sort of design program like Illustrator. Just off the top of my head, you could substitute the "i" in Spike with the new vectorized image as your logo. Or maybe even put it inbetween the two words as a separator. Either way, by vectorizing it and manipulating it, you're bound to come up with something that's appealing.

It's a great start though.

 

[darwyn]

Oooh, ooooh...even better! Spike Gear. Maybe the spike is stuck into a gear?

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

Agreed. Pointed at the bottom or sticking in something, preferrably apparel related, maybe a t-shirt or something.

A gear itself would be nice, too.

Great name choice, though!

I like it!

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

Have you done any trademark searches, yet?

 

[Fluid]

agree with the others. Need the pointed end or having it stuck into part of the text/copy of your logo/name

 

[hammered]

Thanks for the help and ideas. I had been thinking I need to rework the spike to be...well a spike. The original image is of that planted in a small white gravel bed in a round-a-bout somewhere in the midwest. I really like using the spike as the "I" in the word spike. Only thing is I need the final to be easy to cut with my plotter and easy to recognize on a jersey or small if I use the logo on say the sleeve of a T-shirt. Oktime to fire corel back up and do something with the ideas so far

 

[TeeShirtSamurai]

If you are 100% certain that is the name you are going with I would go ahead and register the domain name. I just checked godaddy.com and spikegear.com is available. Just my opinion.

 

[Fluid]

her's a quick vectorize of the spike

 

[hammered]

Yeah I was in a holding pattern about the name til I could talk to my partner but I figured at 3 bucks a pop for 12 months what the hell. And Richard, may I say you make me sad. You quick job on the logo makes my thought out work look, well not so thought out. Ive recieved some very insightful input from this forum and may I say, Ive enjoyed reading, responding and posting here without a single exception. Its been my experience that anywhere a group gathers, atleast one has to be the bung of the hole. Not the case here. I stumbled here from signs101.com and I have to say, its a wonderful trade off. Ok enough of my kissing forum mates butts and back to work on my logo for me.