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Untimed

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Untimed – Logo Faceoff

Aug29

A while back, Cliff Nielsen, the amazing artist who created the cover for The Darkening Dream, finished the amazing new cover painting for my second novel, Untimed. This is going to replace the stock photography clock cover to the left, but I’m not ready to reveal it (I will in a week or three) but I’ve been experimenting with logos and wanted to collect your opinions. As a side note, I’ve been doing my mechanicals myself. Not only is it cheaper, but my photoshop skillz have gotten moderately elite — at least for a programmer/author.

Below are three takes on the logo. You can even see just a hint of the cover illustration here, but I cut it tight to be a tease (and content aware filled out a bit of someone’s head!).

A fairly heavily “styled” version where the text is inspired by antique clock parts (this is after all a time travel novel with clockwork killer machines). Thanks to longtime friend Jason Rubin for help on an earlier variant of this logo.

A similar brass treatment, but using a more strait forward lowercase type treatment. The font is modeled after an 18th century typeface.

Same deal as above, but all uppercase.

Similar to the top-most one, but with arabesque tooling in the metal instead of brushing. This new variant was added 9/12/12, after most of the comments. Since people liked #1, I wanted to work in that direction.

So, dear readers, which version do you like? Let me know in the comments. None of the above is a viable opinion, but please give reasons.

The back of a Breguet watch, I was going for a similar sort of vibe with the arabesque tooling.

Related posts:

  1. Untimed – The Second Cover
  2. Untimed – Meet the Tocks
  3. Untimed – Two Novels, Check!
  4. Untimed – Two Novels, Two Drafts!
  5. Untimed – Out on Submission!
By: agavin
Comments (26)
Posted in: Untimed
Tagged as: Art Design, Book, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Fiction, Logos, Time travel, Untimed
  • http://www.facebook.com/stoutat Andy Stout

    Diggin’ the top one. Makes me think more of a clock/gears/etc.

  • http://twitter.com/9Matt2 Matt Wallace

    I like the first one, the mechanical cogs on the U M and D and making the U and D have a cog effect on them adds to the cool clockwork style which makes it my personal favourite. If i saw it in a bookstore the first logo makes it look much more appealing and would make me more likely to pick it up than the other logos do.

  • CB J&D ND fan

    the first one is great actually , but the cogs , gears around him ( in the other pictures , logo and novel cover) are a bit distracting , still great though .

    • http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

      I’m definitely not going to use the key shape with the gears around the logo. That is some cool art, but it’s too comic booky and busy. You can also see that even in the top (#1) logo I normalized some of the letters since the one to the left to make it more legible. It’s, however, still a little more “comic” than the other two.

      • CB J&D ND fan

        it is cool art ! any way i don’t mean to brag about my photoshop skills or something but the logo , it’s something unique (kind off) it has a touch in it , all you need to do is a little modifications make it sharper and not round-ish because i think that what makes it somehow cartoonish and comic booky , as i said before it has touch in it unlike the other too but it need to be edited .

        a loyal fan
        CB J&D ND fan

        • CB J&D ND fan

          “unlike the other too” sorry i meant TWO not TOO , stupid me

      • CB J&D ND Fan

        here , a few 3-mins logos http://imageupload.org/getfile.php?id=239204&a=ee854475e9f2f384064c97ad5d822f3c&t=5041c2f1&o=05A57788148446950953F85E6EBD2F580DB9768A129C158C1652970230F633217AA576941484&n=untimed.png&i=1

        • CB Fan

          damn , why is this happening … here a fresh url that is actually working http://i47.tinypic.com/11b5h6d.jpg

          • http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

            Cool! Food for thought :-)

            Sent from my iPad

          • CB Fan

            glad it help inspire you for the logo , i’d really love to see the cover

          • http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

            I may post the cover this week, perhaps wed. We’ll see.

  • Maggie

    Really like the first one – very “clocky” and eye catching!

  • http://twitter.com/Dranea79 Amy Eye

    I like the top on the best. Feels much deeper – almost like a 3D effect. had a very unique style to it as well.

  • nobody

    The first one looks interesting but it’s hard to make out what it says. I prefer the second one. Has a lot of character and is the most readable.

  • katswan

    I like them all! I love the cogs and wheels on the letters of the first one but my old eyes have a little difficulty reading the letters due to their overlapping nature. Perhaps a little dark shadowing to separate them a bit would help. If your target audience is very young than this is my favorite!

    If you’re looking to target teens on up, than the second one is my favorite. This is also the most legible of the three for me!

    Lovely artwork!

  • http://www.facebook.com/gadzgamz Ryan Gadz

    The first one of course: it has the most character. Nice job changing the “d” though I like the “i” from the original.

  • Jami Gray

    I like the top one!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nipun-Garg/100002372382108 Nipun Garg

    The first one steals the cake, no, the whole bakery in fact.

  • Pingback: Untimed Cover Reveal! :: All Things Andy Gavin

  • Valerie

    I like the first one because the gears are more prominent, but I dislike the font. The other two seem too plain.

    • http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

      I’m currently going with the one on top of the page in the header which is basically #1 with arabesque instead of brushed tracing. But I’m not really done with it. I’m not a total lover of the font either, it is a little comic booky.

      • Valerie

        It’s still a great logo no matter which one you pick. In any case, I can’t wait for the book!!

        • http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

          Either can I!

  • http://www.facebook.com/neocc44 Tony Duan

    i like first one.

  • http://twitter.com/SixGunReaper Jim Phillips

    Like the newest one. The lettering is fantastic. Not crazy about the thing to the right of your name. Keep the arabesque tooling for sure.

  • cverneau

    I like the one in all caps. To me it is the easiest one to read. the other fonts look almost childish. The only thing I would like to see is in the background maybe a tiny bit of Clockwork showing through, just a wash out transparency of gears so not to compete with the title. Or try the opposite and mask the gears so that it fills the font only, but again, just a hint of gears so that the background, font and design in font dont compete for attention. Like the direction….good luck!

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