Drop Shadows?

[smartipants]

I recently entered a logo contest with a design containing a drop shadow. Some other designers (not at the contest location) critiqued it as looking amateurish because of the drop shadow. I see major corporations with drop shadows on their logos. Can I get some opinions on the subject? Thanx...

[LogoManiac]

Something you must remember about critics, or anyanyone for that matter. They all have opinions. That does not however make them right or wrong. It's just an opinion.

I looked at your design and overall it's not bad...but it's very "light". IMHO(In My Humble Opinion) it needs to be darker. With regard to the drop shadows, I personally see nothing wrong except maybe getting rid of the inner drop shadow in the "SGA". The rest of it I have no problem with other than it needs to be darker.


just my .02

[KD-did]

Very nice clean design and well balanced it is just too light making it hard to read.

[smartipants]

I apologize for the poor upload. The actual logo is not that light. The colors are bright and clear. Here's a URL:
http://www.megalink.net/~robin/stuff/SGA-Logo-circle2-NoGavel.jpg (http://www.megalink.net/%7Erobin/stuff/SGA-Logo-circle2-NoGavel.jpg)
Go there for a better look at the logo.
Thanks for the quick input. :o

[LogoManiac]

....much better now that I see as intended. :rolleyes: Not sure I would go with the grey outline on "SGA". I would play around with that some...the "SGA". The rest of it looks really nice.

[smartipants]

Are you referring to the inner shadow when you say the "grey outline"? I tied the colors and general carved look to the university's main logo (this is for the student government association). Do you think the inner shadow is distracting? Thanks for your opinion.

[LogoManiac]

the inner shadow of the "SGA" is not as distracting in the darker version which you provided a link to. The grey outline though does not seem to work with me for some reason. It could be just me :P

[KD-did]

I find that there are 2 letters that can be problems when choosing a font and they are "C" and "G"....and especially when using initials it is imparative that it be clear what letter it is.

[Borpean]

smartipants,
I agree with LogoManiac. Opinions run amok with critics. And yes, there are drop shadows on some logos out in the professional world. But you have to use them wisely and not use it just becuase it looks cool on another logo. It has to fit with your logo and most important, it has to look good depending where it will be seen. The NIKE swoosh, does not have a drop shadow, cuz it's used everywhere. Depending on the media, a drop shadow can look muddy and very distracting. Mainly on clothing or even low res print or web. A logo needs to stand out from a distance, and not be blured by a shadow. Take a look at some well known popular logos. Some do have shadows but the obvious ones don't...
http://www.coolhomepages.com/cool-pages/web-design-pages/Logos/37.html

As for your logo, I like it. Nice icon on the bottom, nice use of fonts and text and the SGA stands out. AAANNNDDD I personally like the inner drop shadow in SGA. It makes it stand out from the other text. Maybe tone it down a bit and not so fuzzy. and finaly, try and "drop" the drop shadow on the rest of the text. Very cool tho!
Hope this helps.

[smartipants]

Thanks for the crit. It's all really helpful! :o

[abexp]

The next time somebody tells you drop shadows are amateurish, tell them to call google and yahoo and let them know they'll never make it with logos like theirs. :P

[KD-did]

A great way to see if dropshadows can be a problem is to look at the image grey scaled like you can do with IrfanView.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967