Cleave(r) Design: Round 2
September 4, 2007
Here is a second try at a design incorporating the “clever cleaver.” Is it still too much? What do you all think? Just cute and clever, or would you actually hire me to do design work for you? I really like the typography on the “Cleave Design” portion and the color scheme is pretty good too. Thoughts anyone?
Tags: Brand-Identity, Logos, Typography, Web-2.0
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: I am a 28 yr old 
September 4th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
The cleaver always makes me think of a psychotic murderer for some reason. :) For me it’s too bold of an image, I barely notice the tag line because I’m staring in fear at the cleaver.
September 4th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
A real “cutting edge” design ;-)
I do like the colors and the typography- wondering if the cleaver needs to be on less of an angle or smaller so it doesn’t take up as much vertical space?
September 4th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
i think it’s pretty.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I kind of like it, but I do understand the concerns raised above. I would hire you, but it probably wouldn’t be based on the logo.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I think I’d be a little scared of you.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Reminds me of the Amazon.com logo. Also the cleaver is much too large. Less is more.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I gotta’ say that I hate the cleaver. It makes you (or your company) look very unapproachable.
If it were up to me I would head in a different direction.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I’m with Dave. It makes me wonder if you’re an ax murderer rather than a designer. I do like the colors and the typeface though. A logo for a design company should say, “Tah Dah!” rather than “Ugh!”
September 4th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Let me add my random voice to the chorus who find the cleaver…well…a bit much. It might work as the logo for Bates Plumbing and Shower Repair, but it’s too menacing an image for a design firm.
What about integrating design elements that invoke a blade in a less Janette Leigh shower scene sort of way?
September 4th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I think I would head in a different direction from the cleaver. It says you will butcher your work or something/one else.
September 4th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
hey adam. kudos for taking another whack at it, ha. i stand by my previous comment, and thought i’d also pass on this guide:
http://www.elogodesign.com/logo-design-guide/
i noticed it awhile ago via one of my favorite designer bloggers, tina roth eisenberg. her blog’s name is swissmiss and can be found here: http://swissmiss.typepad.com/
good luck with round three!!
September 4th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
/me is scared
September 4th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
The text part looks good and so do the colors. I’m not sure of the value of the cleaver.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
What’s with the “gn” in design?
September 4th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Hmm, if you were adverstising meat packing, I think the cleaver would be fine. Have you tried playing around with any of the other meanings of “cleave”?
September 4th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Typography cool but the cleaver is cheesey and i would not hire you with this logo. It makes no sense with design but if you were a butcher maybe.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I gotta be honest, I like it. The logo brings attention to itself, which ultimately is what you want it to do. If I saw it somewhere, I’d click on it to see what was behind it. I do agree with others that the cleaver needs to be smaller, also, the weight of “Design” could be a touch less in my opinion, though I love the typography.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
IN the early 90s I had contact with a now-defunct ad company called “Progressive Image Group” or PIG. Because of the Acronym, their logo was a dagger - with blood on it. Although you never heard it said in public, “bleeding like a stuck pig” was what most advertisers want out of the competition.
That’s what the cleaver makes me think of…
Having said that, I’d go further: put the word “Cleave” on the blade (at a diagonal to the horizon) and Slice into (or real close to) “Design” so that your visual pun is the name “Cleave Design”. Maybe even have the blade come from the front as if thrown at the word “Design”?
September 4th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Seems like the cleaver is too prominent. Perhaps more stylized and muted.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
sorry dude. not a big fan of the cleaver - at all. if i’m surfing looking for someone, i’d pass you up, thinking you did juvenile work. sorry, just my honest opinion… and, i know you don’t so thats the part that stinks… i’d get rid of the cleaver altogether - i DO REALLY LIKE the fonts and wording/spacing/etc.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I think I would like it more if the cleaver were less of an immediate in your face image - - smaller, a lighter color that is different at least in shade from the name…something. Maybe you could put the cleaver so that it cuts into the word cleave and is only above that word and at a slight less vertical angle
it’s a HUGE improvement from the other.
I’m torn though, I too tend to think of a butcher HOWEVER, it’s eye catching and a little “shocking” which can be very good.
overall, the look is nice - clean, very web 2.0 - I’m just not sure how I feel about the cleaver…and maybe the mixed feelings is a good thing, it depends on what you’re going for. you might not get the business of a local hospital or stuffy business or conservative church but you’d probably attract younger edgier clientèle. I actually chose my name and logo with the intention of attracting young and edgy because i had no interest working with banks an dentists and baptist churches hehe
I have a stylized red tree frog for my graphic design logo so take my feedback for what it’s worth hehe
September 4th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
I don’t know that I would use the cleaver at all.
I think it would be more interesting to focus on the “adhere strongly to” meaning of cleave. I just think I would be more interested in hiring a design firm that’s going to stick to the problem until it is solved rather than one that is going to hack at it with a ginormous knife.
But that’s just me.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:45 am
I have to comment here as the typography is killing me. You really need to go in a kern the entire thing. There’s a difference between kerning and just setting the tracking in Illustrator or Photoshop. Look it up on wikipedia or something. The spaces between C-l-e and the D-e-s are the problem areas.
Also, I wouldn’t go with a system font, like Myriad. Modern Telegraph (http://www.moderntelegraph.com/) uses Myriad effectively, but I dislike that font as a logotype because of the way the serifs are designed. Apple also uses it, but if you notice, they never use different weights together and they kern it when they use it for a title. People are starting to see it a lot more on the web, so using it in a logo kind of seems like your design is cookie-cutter.
I kind of understand that you wanted to use a more playful font to offset the seriousness of the cleaver, but unless there’s a specific reason for it (like if the product you’re creating a logo for smashing something together), I feel that tracked in logos destroy the readability of a logotype, which is really what you want if you’re going to ditch the cleaver icon.
Also, if you’re going to make a ligature, you usually want it to connect two things. Like you would want to connect “Cleave” and “Design” by figuring out a ligature with the e and D. Or the C and D if the two words were below each other. Connecting the g and n at the end is just totally random and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Again, another pet peeve.
Some books I get inspiration from are the Logo Lounge series, they’re available on Amazon. There are some hacky logos in there, but those are few and far between, most of the examples are excellent because they were designed by major design firms. You can normally find them in a Barnes & Noble if you want to look at them first, but they’re like half price at Amazon. I hope this wasn’t too harsh.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I’m late to the comment party, but…
The cleaver, while a fun idea, is a little to literal. There’s a coffee shop in town called “Grab-a-Java” that features a hand reaching fora a coffee cup as their logo. This, while not nearly as bad, is playing the same game.
If anything, a more stylized and subservient cleaver would be the order ofthe day.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Looks good. I like the wordings too but the cleaver looks a bit large.
I would definitely hire you based on your theme.
The cleaver looks a bit menacing to hire you, based on just your logo :)
September 5th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Drop the knife.
September 8th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
It made me laugh, but the knife should go.