But wouldn't a more expressive font also have too much incompatible flavor for different genres? That's not such a problem for TSoY, but I've been kinda thinking of a cryptological psionic game using Solar System, and having too much flavour in the brand logo could clash with that. Or not, it's not like this'd need to be featured too prominently.

Regardless, any suggestions for an alternative font, then? This one has thick beams which work with the thick letter outlines - an artier font might require a frame of some sort as well to preserve background contrast.

Yeah, I have to say the way the letters are shaped is just weird, with the L and T seeming much larger than the letters that come before them. If I just glance at it, it reads sort of like So Lar Sys Tem, in kind of an unpleasant way.

I agree with amnesiac--the L and T are borked. It's even more obvious on a dark background. If you're not married to that font, find a font that's more consistent with stroke weights and scale it to "fit" using image adjustment controls (i.e. not just by font size setting). You can get the alignment much easier without losing the relative balance of the strokes.

Thicken your white outline around the sun to the same thickness as the black outline around the letters.

Rotate the sun a few degrees counterclockwise, so that two rays form a V at the top. This will allow you to increase the text height a bit, so that the top of SOLAR is aligned with the (imagined) circle of the sun from which the rays radiate. If you don't rotate the sun but do increase the text height, the visible upper-right ray will seem to be floating or disconnected from the sun circle. Likewise, widen the SYSTEM (and SOLAR, to keep alignment) to the left edge of the imagined sun circle.
--OR--
Go a bit further down and rightward, to make the "rising" effect of the sun more explicit. Basically, as it is, it looks unintentional or like a mistake; aligning or emphasizing the "rising" movement to the upper left will tighten its appearance considerably.

All-in-all... not bad. Not eye-popping, but better than many "big name" logos out there. (GlaxoSmithKline is, IMNSHO, a lesson in great logo design mistakes: never do a two-color gradient because it doubles printing cost, not like they can't afford it; and never use thin serifed font reversed.)

---

If you wanted to go totally further afield, use some very flat elliptical rings around a simpler sun, each with its own circle (i.e. planet) at various 'balanced' points on the rings. SOLAR SYSTEM curved between two rings (overlapping and, thus, obscuring some of the intermediary rings). Basically, your current logo says "solar" but says nothing about "system".

That type is really bad. Really really.

Sorry to be so negative. I'll try to come up with an alternative.

Posted By: John HarperThat type is really bad. Really really.

Sorry to be so negative. I'll try to come up with an alternative.

I agree. Maybe Eurostile? It has a bit of generic futurism.

I'd stay away from any Helveticas or variants unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Variants include anything called Swiss, Helve, Arial (for God's sake, please never use Arial for anything), and my beloved Univers.

Unless you're a professional type designer, please leave the individual glyphs alone. It may not seem like a big deal if you aren't a design snob, but it is.

Posted By: DInDenverIts much better than a Gothic font os some other eye strain

Funny, but believe it or not, the typeface classification of that font is Gothic. You probably mean Blackletter.

Posted By: Eero TuovinenBut wouldn't a more expressive font also have too much incompatible flavor for different genres?

If you go generic, you'll end up being boring.

Edit: I just woke up from a nap. Sorry if I come across as a crotchety old man. Yawn.

For what it's worth, I personally like the logo - it's solid and does not press the point on the foolish pun any more than necessary. The text could be fiddled with, perhaps. But that's just my own opinion.

Regardless, I'll transmit all the feedback to the laboratory. How about my second question? Anybody have an opinion on how the logo should be licenced, or should it be licenced at all? Should I just make it known that anybody's free to use the rules-set and to query about the brand logo if they want to use it?

I know that. What I'm asking is, does anybody have a notion of what they'd like in this case? I'm mostly thinking of people who like the Solar System and might feel that they have a stake in how it's developed - I don't own the system and certainly don't want any kind of total leadership role in developing it. Of course, if nobody cares either way, then I'll figure out something that works for me, personally.

Here's my 20-minute draft, which would really look better in Futura, but I don't have it on this computer, so I used Twen Cen, which is closely related:

Nice, Johnathan--try out stretching the "SYSTEM" to be the same width as the box (and, as a result, probably taller and a bit bolder). It would square it up a bit, which I (personally) like for game logos: makes them look better on the spine, if the book is thick enough for them to be legible at such a scale.

...Which, Euro, makes me think that you might want to do by a logotype AND a standalone logo from that logotype. Viz HERO System:
Hero Games
They often use the HexMan logo standalone, or with the type (as on the home page linked above). Worth a thought at least....

Dave's hitting the nail in the head, more or less. I'm mostly asking whether anybody happens to know of any less-known solutions for openly licencing a brand logo. Putting it under CC licence works well enough if I don't care about having the logo used inappropriately, and there doesn't seem to be any way around that. Not that I think anybody'd have lots of motivation for putting the Solar System logo on a completely system free product or something like that, but in principle a brand logo with no brand oversight doesn't have much significance. Would it make any sense to require folks to ask for permission to use the brand logo, to ensure that their usage is in line with the brand? Who'd give permission, then? Strange stuff, this.

Heh, Jose's version is pretty nice. I wouldn't belabor the pun that much, though; it's a funny play on words, but not so much that I'd make it the main point of the visual depiction. As for the "derivative works" clause, that'd only work to make sure nobody changes the logo.

(To clarify, I'm not looking for a licence for the rules set, I'm wondering about the best licence for the brand logo. It probably doesn't matter in practice in this kind of cottage industry, but it's an interesting theoretical question whether a meaningful brand graphic can be maintained on an open licence.)

Not a bad idea, that. I'm not scared of the law or anything. "Feel free to use this logo for branding products, websites etc. that are somehow associated with the Solar System. Don't hurt the imprint by being tasteless, though." would cover it, I guess.

You could make Jose's logo even more twee by making the sun and planets into dice.

Posted By: misuba(raising with my trait "2d4 I used to read Emigre in high school")

Cool!

Posted By: misuba
Walton wins. The only thing I'd try is, yes, taking 'System' out to the width of 'Solar,' but by enlarging 'System' across the board, not doing letter-spacing or anything. That'll do better at small, stamp-ish sizes alongside other logos.

Yes. That and get rid of the box altogether.

Perhaps reverse the sun out of the "O."

In a past life, when I was a professional graphic designer, I'd sketch up about 12 different logos. I'd then do about 5 variations each of the best three.

/rant

And then the client would pretend that my beautiful logos were made from Legos. They'd take bits and pieces of each of them and put together one of their own. It would look like shit, and I'd get in trouble for telling them that I was a designer, not a software operator. They'd get their shitty logo. I started teaching guitar for a living.

/end rant.

Ooooooooh. Harper's got some sauce too.

Typeface might be a bit too Obama tho.

Yeah, I think the extra width pays off. Tough to choose here.