The Drunken Lizard Pub

We've been tossing around a few ideas for an updated logo for Basilisk Games. The current logo can been seen at the top of the page. The proposed new logo is below. The new logo has a crisp, more refined look and might represent us better if we decide to produce other types of RPGs after Eschalon, for example a sci-fi themed game.

That's pretty sexy. The "A" kind of bugs me, but overall I like it.

By the way, I didn't see the logo up top until I changed the board look from the default phpBB skin to the Basilisk skin. Dunno if anyone else would have that problem.

I dunno, I like the overall "crispy" look, and the outline around the basilisk, but I think the letters are better designed in the original logo. Namely, the bit around the i's is nifty, while the A in the new logo... just isn't that interesting. So, I'd say a combination of the crispy letters and outlined logo, with the old letter layout, would be the best.

But then again, what do I know!

I do like the old logo, but I agree that the new one is a little more generally applicable, and it's also cool.

I'd agree with the others' comments about the A's, and personally I find the flare a little bit distracting. With such a clean look, I think perhaps less is more, and just the crisp outlines work better than the shines.

Here's an example where I've made a couple of minor edits for comparison:
Probably looks a bit odd, because my Gimp skillz are somewhat lacking, but hopefully enough for people to compare. Hope you don't mind me taking the liberty... You can always delete this post if you do.

Getharn wrote: Here's an example where I've made a couple of minor edits for comparison:

2009_BG_logo_edited.png

Probably looks a bit odd, because my Gimp skillz are somewhat lacking, but hopefully enough for people to compare. Hope you don't mind me taking the liberty... You can always delete this post if you do.

I like the old one for Escalon/fantasy games and Getharns better than the 'new' on. I, too, am bothered by that 'A'.


edit: humm, Getharn's logo didn't show up. Also thought I'd add, if the 'A' stays with the crossbar on top, then the 'i' and 'K' should have some too. I think that is why it is so jarring to the eyes. Shrugs.

I like the proposed logo. The A makes for an interesting look.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Getharn.

The sparkle lighting over the letters detracts. But on that note, I still like the halo effect on the old logo.
Do love the lettering!

(I.m a poor writer so I always print in uppercase, otherwise I can't read my own writing.)

PS: Excellent strategy move.....

Dragonlady wrote:edit: humm, Getharn's logo didn't show up.

I assume because I attached the image to my post, so when you quoted it, it attempted to reference the same image in your post which didn't exist, because you didn't also attach it. That's just a guess.

Dragonlady wrote:Also thought I'd add, if the 'A' stays with the crossbar on top, then the 'i' and 'K' should have some too. I think that is why it is so jarring to the eyes. Shrugs.

My assumption was that the 'A' had a cross bar to avoid leaving dead space, which would make the logo look unbalanced, since the rest of the letters fill their "bounding box" fully. I think the crux of the issue is whether the seeming inconsistency of the typeface between the 'A' and the other letters is more or less noticeable than the increased space around that letter. Personally, I think the version without the bar seems more natural, because the eye is used to seeing words in the Latin character set which aren't visually balanced, but it's a highly subjective issue.

I should point out that people should take my opinions with a pinch of salt - I'm a bit of a pedant, and I'm needlessly fussy about my typefaces - I think font design is a lot harder than a lot of people believe it to be. I scored 9/10 on the Arial vs. Helvetica quiz - I regard this as quite embarassing.

EDIT: As an aside, I've no idea if this is even a consideration in this day and age of affordable colour laser printing, but it translates pretty well to a monochrome format too:

Getharn wrote:My assumption was that the 'A' had a cross bar to avoid leaving dead space, which would make the logo look unbalanced, since the rest of the letters fill their "bounding box" fully.

Perhaps. The font is "Celtic Hand"... I really liked the bar over the A; but it appears to be the one thing that many of you are unsure about.

I am experimenting with a few more fonts to see if I like anything as much as Celtic Hand, but so far nothing has struck me. There is just something about the flow of the Celtic Hand typeface that appeals to me. Celtic Garamond is pretty cool (great M, N, R, P, and O) but "Basilisk Games" doesn't use many of its better letters- except the M.

To bad Fleisch hasn't been by for a while. She is a typeface guru.

BasiliskWrangler wrote:The font is "Celtic Hand"...

I think the 'A' looks perhaps a little more in keeping with some of the other letters present, but unfortunately "BASILISK" has a fairly limited selection of letters, which is what leads to it standing out, I think. Even with the other letters there, though, I'm slightly surprised that the font designer put a bar over only the 'A' - usually with features like that, it's echoed by similar decorations on some of the other letters, but that seems quite unique among the typeface.

But that's just my opinion, of course, and generally I think it works well as a logo font.

BasiliskWrangler wrote:I really liked the bar over the A; but it appears to be the one thing that many of you are unsure about.

Yes, it's annoying when that happens, isn't it?

The number of respondents so far is a pretty small sample size, so it could just be random chance. Also in a perfect world people would post their comment without reading anybody else's, because it's easy to have your opinion subtly influenced without even realising it sometimes.

BasiliskWrangler wrote:I am experimenting with a few more fonts to see if I like anything as much as Celtic Hand, but so far nothing has struck me. There is just something about the flow of the Celtic Hand typeface that appeals to me. Celtic Garamond is pretty cool (great M, N, R, P, and O) but "Basilisk Games" doesn't use many of its better letters- except the M.

Yes, I've been playing around trying to find a font that I think works any better, to absolutely no avail. As usual, lots of fonts look all very fancy when you see a sample, but when you come to use them yourself they never seem to be very well balanced.

Perhaps the bar over the 'A' isn't so hard to live with after all...

For reference, I made an attempt at a similar logo with Celtic Garamond:
Grotty quality (as I said earlier, lack of Gimp-fu) but you get the idea. I don't think it looks too bad, but I see what you mean about not using any of the interesting letters - it does look a little plain.

I actually like the new logo....the modifiued new logo is cool too.

I really dig the bar over the A. Makes it stand out, IMHO, and gives it a refined, metal-forged feel.

I like the new logo (the one in the OP). Merges fantasy-ness with scifi wankery well. THe modified logo is.. meh.