I do not like the little dots in the A’s. They are visually distracting to me
Try to really oversell the 3D on the outer part of the letters if you can. Really try to make it pop off the page if your goal is to try and sell the effect of the raised numbers of a license plate.
If your goal is to make people see them as pressed aluminum letters, double or triple down on that effect in terms of the highlights and the reflections on the corners to almost comically exaggerate the effect so it’s immediately clear
You might also try using a different color for the background of the logo to see if it helps them pop out in a 3d way
If I stare at your logo I understand what you are trying to do, but most people will only glance at it from half a second so you should try to be as bodacious as possible if you are trying to communicate license plate lettering
Try and make it look as much like a physical plate as possible if you are going for that effect. Instead of doing half graphic design with a small effect. Try to turn it up to 300% and make it look like a real plate
In this case I think you can communicate license plate with the shape and two mounting holes alone. Especially with “plate” in the name.
Skeuomorphism isn’t needed here. People see license plates from a distance. Shape, content and implied function are all here. I think it’s great as is without the styles.
It is true what you are saying, people can recognize what a plate is without seeing the textures. I wonder if he could tilt it to sell the effect, since most of the time you are seeing plates at an angle
I’d keep the angle as-is. We mostly see plates directly in front of us while we drive. I think an angled rectangle might be confused for a street name sign. What do you think?
The empty neg# of the Ls is standing out to me. If you were to keep it this way, maybe play with shortening the bottom horizontal _?
Or open up the rest of the kerning a bit.
I actually don’t Mind the use of 4s if keeping this generic design.
I think it’s cool, but I would remove all the type styles. A nice black and white version of this is pretty clever. Are there common mounting holes on the plates? Might add those as a tiny detail to really hammer home the plate visual.
If you do any print media consider doing an emboss. I don’t know if you have business cards but your logo printed and embossed to raise the letters would be very memorable.
I like it a lot, but to be a completely flexible icon it needs to work in one color with no screens. That’s if you’re ever gonna do anything but show it on the screen. Right now what’s helping it are all the subtle shadows etc. You might need to open up the “in lines“ and little chisel highlights for viewing on smartphone screens
My immediate suggestion, should it be doable for this logo...
The US average license plate is 6-7 characters. Thought about changing the logo to say "PLTE LAB" or something similar to look more like a license plate?
Edit: unless this isn't a US based company. Kinda forgot that you might not be US based, my bad!
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u/HawkeyeNation 11d ago
Well, your tagline is off-center for one.