Nurse Logo WIP

[NaCl]

Not sure about where you live, but the caduceus is the traditional symbol for medicine in the US, even though it really has nothing to do with medicine. Short of that, actually adding the rod for the serpent to wind around would more clearly show "medicine". Right now I think it's a little hard to tell it's a snake at a glance.

[Jeremy]

Actually this'un would be more of a Rod of Asclepius. Apparently it's also the origin of the striped barbers' pole (The first surgeons being barbers). Or so my uncle told me.

On second thoughts, having the figures solid and the snake and ring transparent might be better

[twodayslate]

I just realized that the orange thing was supposed to be a snake. Just thought it was a random swirl...

[STE 86]

generally speaking in my advertising design job, private medical outfits like nurses and carers and mental health will usually adopt shades of green for their logos as its a very neutral soothing colour. it promotes the idea of peace and harmony.

also be very careful about using the translucent effects, as at letterheading size, they will tend to blur and logos do need to be sharp.

% shades of a single colour like a single green would also enable professional printing of the logo to be done in cheaper "spot" colour as opposed to the more expensive 4 colour CMYK process at a later date if required (when they realise that to print their own letterheads in any quantity is extortionately expensive on an ink jet desktop)

also generally speaking an earlier poster was correct. if u can make a logo work in mono first then the same logo will be easier to make work in colour.

Steve

edit:

after looking at the design again from a logo POV rather than a pixel one, i think if i were u i would try it without the ring too, u already have a ring in the shape of the 3 people to signify care and support. u could even tilt them slightly towards the angle the ring was at. the simpler the better for a logo tbh.

also 1 last thing u could even simplify the snake down to just a series of "S" shaped curves with no actual head in a similar style to your figures.

[Manupix]

Thank you Steve, that's highly valuable advice!

Latest version:



Redrew it at the larger original scale; tried to make the snake more stylized and graceful, and got rid of the ring.
Decided those before reading your latest edit: looks like we're on the same thought track!
I'll seriously consider the possibility of a headless snake too.

Greyscale (because of overlapping shapes) and pure black versions; sure gives a better idea of how shapes work together.
Also it might have to show acceptably on just any B&W desktop printer.

@ NaCl, Jeremy: yes it's Asclepius's rod - see my first post
Over here too (France) the rod appears in the most traditional forms; these look too rigid however in my (our) opinion. They're more suitable for really official documents, like parking permits...
My friend is not even insistent on the snake. I think it's important.

In many of the google refs which are specific caducei () for nurses, the rod is actually an I for Infirmier (nurse). We're not getting into that either.
For the fun, the one with a large O is the midwives'! (and a lovely one too)

[STE 86]

try the snake in 10%-20% black so its the lightest thing on the greyscale one. its competing for attention a bit too much at the moment where i think it should be secondary. afterall in the caring profs, "the people" would be the main focus. definitely leave it in tho coz it does say "medical" to me.

and maybe try a couple where the ring of people are not so horizontal. in the same manner that your original ring was. definitely coming down the right path now tho i think.and the simplified version will be much easier and cheaper for a print agency to reproduce in vectors should itbe necessary and you not want to do it

Steve

[Jeremy]

I think that even though they want neither design nor colours to be what you think of when someone says "Nurse", it may be reading as a bit too hippy; if you're not careful maybe even a logo for a design company  
If I'm right, France uses the green + sign and blue * (With caduceus on it)? Hospital colours are pastelly greens, blues and pinks; so maybe even raising the saturation of those colours and using them might work? Although, removing the ring looks good so maybe the design is streamlined enough now

(Snake looks off center to me, should be more to the left)

[STE 86]

hi i vectorised your image and made the ammends to illustrate what i meant. it starts to get a bit complex in just words



Steve

[Manupix]

Thanks guys.
Steve, that's epic! Next thing I learn is vector drawing.  

I followed most of your advice, starting from a redrawn, rounder arms ellipse and cleaner lines.
2 versions of snake, 2 versions of tilt with some distortion too.
I think I prefer the snake with its head. The tilt brought some unwelcome transparencies again.  

(Btw, there isn't a way to free-transform (in photoshop) without auto AA, is there?)

Also tried 2 'cooler' color versions; interesting but not there yet.




Then I experimented a bit with color reductions. Some interesting options there, especially with the greyish/brownish tones.





Awwright, this is drifting further and further away from pixels, I'm sorry about that. The end product will be pure pixels, I promise!  
Even so, if you mods wish to move this thread to a more appropriate place, I won't mind!

Edit: forgot to put numbers on the images for further discussion.

First row:
1  2  3  4

2nd and 3rd rows:
5   6   7   8
9  10  11  12

[Atnas]

I'm sure this could qualify as low-spec. Personally I would move directly to the vector, you have a good design and pixels don't work well for logos simply because they're raster in nature. I think if you want AA practice you should probably do it with something for yourself rather than for another. But if there's no rush on this then don't let me stop you!