Logo Change

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the logo up top has changed - The "Talbert" part of the script is different.  Improved, too, in my opinion at least.  This is a classic example of the domino effect in action...  Make one change somewhere and suddenly it echoes through a dozen related pieces of work.  I spent yesterday working in Photoshop to come up with a stamp design for our new pipe bags, discussed here.  This brought up all sorts of problems, because the logo we had been using on our website and business cards was too complex for a good embossed stamp (Too many wiggly lines):

I pretty much had to toss that one together last year just after arriving back in the states, solely so we would have something to put on our business cards for the 2009 CORPS show.  I was tolerably OK with it but never fully pleased, as I felt it was too comic book-ish, and not serious enough for a line of very high end pipes.  It worked better as a website header than as an actual portable logo, for use on other things like promo materials and such, and was especially bad for making a bag stamp from.  Knowing that this logo would have to be radically altered to make a decent leather stamp, I had to choose between either changing it explicitly for the stamp, coming up with a totally different logo just for the bags, or coming up with a new logo that the bags and website could share.  I experimented with alterations of the above design but was never able to produce anything that I didn't feel looked too comical - Indeed, translating that logo to a black and white stamp gave it an entirely undesirable "Flintstones" vibe. 

After a lot of thought and comparisons of different ideas, Em and I decided to go all-out, and make a new logo for the bags that would be backwards-transportable to the website and all our promo stuff.  Some time later, and after LOTS of logo and font comparisons, we settled on our new pipe bag stamping:

I arrived at this after a great deal of "trimming down" - I tried out ideas with "Pipes" included, pics, circles, warps, etc.  The bag stamping very nearly became Talbert Pipes, but in the end I felt that putting the "Pipes" in there was superflouous on a leather bag that a pipe would ship in... If you bought it, you would know full well what was in it.  Using just the brand name makes for a simpler stamp and a stronger stamp - My hope is that this, rendered well, will look quite nice pressed into the thick green leather bags.  It was tempting to "fancy it up" with pipe pictures and such, but as any designer can tell you, the hardest thing to do is to pare something down rather than adding stuff on.  Yet, the simplest designs are usually the strongest.  I felt the scripted lettering above was ideal because it suggested artistry and creativity, yet rendered in a professional and more serious manner than the old "paint splotch" lettering. 

Once the decision was made, the logo went off to the stamping company to get the bag stamps made, and I went to work changing the graphics on this site to reflect the new logo.  I'll be changing our business cards as soon as I'm done posting this.  Some remnants of previous logos will remain, in our Cafe Press clothing items (Sure to be an instant collectible!  LOL), because I just don't have the working time now to devote to changing all that stuff yet.  Also, we'll continue using our original Talbert Pipes briar stamp for some time, but eventually I hope to have a new stamp made to match the new logo.