Working on a logo for my e-newspaper

Although I creating a mock/parody newspaper, I still need to create a believable brand. The most successful parodies, simulate their target as closely as possible.

For example The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/) is a popular satirical news network, due to its highly believable brand. I have personally seen people share their stories on social network sites, not realising that they are purely fictional and comedic. However, although I want my satirical newspaper to be believable, the reader should know its from the Arabian Nights too - so they know that what they are reading is an ADAPTATION with a statement!

I knew that Newspaper logos traditionally use Serif fonts in order to show tradition and sophistication.

 1) I straight away knew that there was potential with combining the A and N letters as they both have similar legs to stand on. With this idea, I took advantage of the angled spaces in the N letter, to create A. However, due to the reversed look, I feel like people may see the A as a sharp P. I realised at this point that this logo could not work on its own.

2) This logo is more usual, simply placing the A against the N. By skewing the A to the right, I am able to share the N's left leg between the two letters - showing harmony and connection (an ideology that should be promoted with news media). Although this is quite a simple and conventional idea, I like the look of it, as it is easy to read.

3) Here, I have just placed the A in the background and the N in the foreground. I feel that this design looks a little too clustered. It could look as if not much thought was put into the design, as the two letters are simple just placed one infront of the other. I think by using a more obvious thickness distinction between the two letters could make it clearer.

4) I wanted to try give idea 3 another try, this time with Sans Serif letters, hoping that they would look more connected. However, with the lack of Serifs, the two letter forms are starting to look more like random lines placed infront of each other. Additionally, at this point I knew I should stick to Serif fonts, as I didn't like the look of the San Serifs - they were too bland. Although, with this idea I did try out using a lighter shade of grey for the A to show that it was in the background, but this still didn't make the logo anymore effective.

5) Although similar to ideas 3 and 4, here I tried making it more obvious that the two were separate letters, and not a combined shape that happened to look like an A and N. I used a darker tone and thicker lines for the A, to show its dominance as the first word in the Name (Arabian Nights). This time however, I made the central bar of the A stop when it crossed the N. To me this gave a layered effect, which I didn't expect.

6) After seeing how I liked the look of cutting the central bar of A in idea 5, I tried this at a more obvious level. I found that slicing the A in half as it reaches the N, stops the design from looking cluttered and again adds a layered visual aesthetic to the design. This is another one of my favourites.


Final Logo Outcome

Initials Logo

Full Text Logo