[WIP] Pixel Logo attempt

[Anarkhya]

Ok, here I go, I'm now entering the arena with this logo I made.
In case you're wondering, this is a logo for AMP,
a website dedicated to amiga music, past and present.

I really dont know how I can improve it even if I feel it has flaws.
So your critics are my chances to finalize the pic...

nb: 23 colors and no embed color profile.

[ErekT]

The star thingy in the middle seems oddly flat compared to its neighbours. The two lower 'legs' on it look like they're extending towards the viewer yet have no highlights or shading to suggest moving towards (or away) from a lightsource.

[Rydin]

Cool!
The A looks like "C-" and the M looks like"X"  You want to be careful with letters to make sure that they're still readable.
Also, what use are the gradients in the corners?

[Anarkhya]

@ErekT: thats interesting, thanx for the perspective tip!

@Rydin:
- ah well the readability is a pretty long story, I wont break the "demoscene tradition"... Seriously, in that particular case, readable letters of this logo are not a problem as the AMP website is hosting 100 logos with a script which displays them all randomly. So everybody going to the website is aware of the letters significance...
- the gradients? man I dont know... I probably wanted to test dither... Are they that useless?

[Rydin]

To me, it seems like you're using "demoscene tradition" to substitute for proper typography.  Even while employing such a heavy style, it's important to make sure your letters don't look like the wrong letters.

[st0ven]

I think the rendering is pretty nice. there are a few spots where im not quite sure why such saturated highlights are hitting such neutral values so quickly. When blended properly in certain areas in the logo it comes off as a really nice electrified luminescence, but when theres such a harsh drop off of saturation in places in the 'm' character it reads a bit off to me.

I think the overall visual effect is very aesthetically pleasing but i think that is largely in part owed to your wonderful palette. Compositionally, i think there could be more in the background to tie together your lettering, and as rydin mentioned the lettering itself is a bit confusing. i also mistook the m for an x and would never have been able to gather the crescent was part of an 'a' .

Honestly all in all i think your rendering skills are quite nice, but the layout/composition feels a little too loose.

[EvilEye]

I'm going to second St0vens points.

The rendering is great. but the composition is bad.

There is no consistent light source that I can see. The highlights are coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The shapes themselves are out of perspective. That might be ok if they were all consistently out of perspective, but they each have their own skewed angles so they don't fit together. It looks as if you drew the different elements separately and then put them together.

And last there is the readability of the letters. To me it looks like C X backwards-9. AMP is quite a stretch.

[Anarkhya]

seems like you're using "demoscene tradition" to substitute for proper typography.
make sure your letters don't look like the wrong letters. The A looks like "C-" and the M looks like"X"
I also mistook the m for an x and would never have been able to gather the crescent was part of an 'a'.
To me it looks like C X backwards-9.
 

I understand where you want me to go, I  just wanted to symbolize letters... but oh well.. Ok Its cleraly a fail!. I'll drop the symbolization idea and I'll go back to understandable lettering.

why such saturated highlights are hitting such neutral values so quickly.
When theres such a harsh drop off of saturation in places in the 'm' character it reads a bit off to me.
Compositionally, there could be more in the background to tie together your lettering,
layout/composition feels a little too loose

composition is bad. no consistent light source. highlights are coming from everywhere and nowhere.
shapes are out of perspective. they each have their own skewed angles so they don't fit together.

@ALL:
So the hard blow is:
there is a need for a complete rewrite, these flaws in mind. It hurts because I will have to restart the whole thing from scratch, but understanding truth is a more rewarding path! So Warm Thanks for that!

Well I think the thread is paused now
until I'll go back with a fresh piece, but forgive me because Im REALLY slow at pixelling