Chinertown logo

[northup]

I like to wear hats. I like to make logos so I have custom hats to show support for things I like. I took a whack at the chinertown logo to make it more embroidered patch friendly, mostly to see if it would make a cool hat.

I've gotten so much help and info from this forum, so I'd like to give back if I can. After the ride, with a cold beverage, it'd be fun to wear a chinertown hat to rep all you good people and the bikes built around here. Would be fun to run into chinertown members in real life too.

I kept the black and gold, put a bunch of chinas in the chainring, and took liberty with the text. Here's what I came up with.



Sitar_Ned, I in no way mean to offend anyone (though I do understand the internet ). I don't know the history of the current logo, I just know it would make a difficult patch.

Love it or hate it, I'm not personally offended - I do design work for a living so rant your heart out. If anyone else would want to go in on something to rep the forum, I'm happy to put an order together and/or work a design to please the greatest number of people. If not, I'll make a hat, wear it, and see you on the trails.

[Sitar_Ned]

Hey Northup,

Sorry for the delayed reply. Definitely not offended... quite the opposite actually. Very cool of you to take the time to do this. Pretty creative how you used the China outline in the logo... looks really cool.

The history of the current logo isn't anything special. Just something I pieced together with an open-source free graphics program called GIMP. I don't even have the source vector files for the logo so yeah... it's uses are pretty limited. I actually had a friend of mine make up some logos to replace this one for these reasons and the ones you mentioned but when I tested them out on the site it just didn't look right to me for some reason. Don't get me wrong the logos he made are much nicer than mine but just get washed out when placed at the top of the forum. Maybe I'm a bit biased or maybe years of seeing that logo there has me set in my ways but I just preferred the current logo in that particular placement.

If I ran into a dude with a Chinertown hat on the trails it would seriously be one of the coolest things ever lol. Don't happen to be in Houston?

[northup]

Cool, thanks for the history. I know what you mean about the logo, I haven't been here too long but I'm sure for you it feels like home.

I can recreate the current logo so you can have some vector source files if you ever want to do anything with it. It's not necessary to make it happen, but if you remember the typeface, that would save me a bit of time. While I'm in there I might be able to make some minor adjustments to make it more patch/sticker/etc friendly too, I'll tinker with it this weekend, my hands are fidgety while I'm waiting on a frame...

I don't happen to be in houston, but you will find me in new england, and sometimes between denver and estes park CO

[bxcc]

I can do cut stickers (not color printed on white background) with my Cricut.

[Sitar_Ned]

The font is "Osaka sans serif"... and yeah, that'd be pretty awesome.

[northup]

bxcc that's awesome. do you need an svg for it?

sitar_ned, no prob my dude.

[bxcc]

Nope, I already have the template made. The Cricut app is super simple. If you make a new one with the original font, I’ll just make a new template off of the revised logo.

[Sitar_Ned]

Here are those other logos I referred to.

[northup]

bxcc - wow, that's awesome. I need to look into that thing

sitar_ned - I see what you mean, they just aren't quite right. I'll do a version that's as close to the original as I can get it, and I'll do one with the "china chainring" too, and see what you think. I simplified china to get rid of corners that were too sharp, and any tiny features that a computer would have a tough time tracing, so it would be easy to process in different mediums, and should look darn close to the original.

[northup]

Alright, for your review.

One is as close to the original as I can get while keeping rounded edges

One is very close to the original, and has a more asia focused globe representation

And the chainring has 32 teeth because mtb...

Also, it looks like the font itself renders the long strokes with that bit of a jagged look, so if we get somewhere you like, then I'll smooth all that out so it can be used high res without risk of pixellated diagonals.

[Sitar_Ned]

Wow, those look great! Thanks for doing that, I genuinely appreciate it.

As for which? Hmmm... I'm not sure, they both look good. It does make sense to have it more Asia focused, I suppose. Also, it's less busy and cluttered like that. But I am a typical self-centered American    Like I said... not sure. Going to sleep on it. I'm completely open to input?

One thing is for sure, I definitely like the 32 teeth version better.

And just in case my friend, Darin, (who's a badass designer that I respect) that designed those logos reads this... your logos look great, man. Thank you.

[northup]

Thanks for the feedback, and thank you Darin, I mean the entire work around the logo is his effort. I had the luxury of working from where he left off, and just smoothing out some corners to help it feel a bit more modern, and make it more widely applicable for printing/embroidery/stamping.

I hear you on the Asia vs US.. the US one feels familiar because I see it so often in the corner, and for you probably moreso.

[Sitar_Ned]

I think I like the Asia version, northup. Simply bc it's less cluttered. But like I said, I'm open to opinions from you or anyone else.

Interesting about the font being jagged.. always wondered why I couldn't get that have perfectly clean, smooth edges.

[bxcc]

So this is a cut image. Meaning what is black is any color decal material you want and the rest is cut out. This type may not last as long as the thin lines for the letters will tear easier than a solid sticker that’s printed with color.

[northup]

Sitar_Ned, sounds good. I'll see what I can do about the font, but yea, a computer can draw a straight line pretty easily. Unfortunately this font is giving bad instructions!

bxcc - good to know it's silhouetted. I can clean up an outline version in B/W to make for an easier/cleaner die cut. I hear you on the thin letters, it would have to be in a safe place.