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Say what you think. I'm looking for your reactions. I'm considering a new logo and I've had a graphics designer render some variations on my idea. Which do you like best? It's OK to hate them all too. If you can articulate why you like/dislike any of them, it is more helpful. The small one is just a smaller version of the one to its left.

I like it Mike

Mike,

It's pretty cool although I think it looks like an electric guitar logo. I like the bottom one best, that font makes it look more like a word. I like the cursive guitar too! I'd like to see it without the half soundhole maybe.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I like the bottom 2 with the next to the last being my favorite.
But without knowing your name I would read Ahar Guitars instead of Mahar Guitars.
But I just a dummy from Kansas.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Mike,
I don't like it a great deal - it isn't bad tho'. Going from the guitar body as the "M" to letters somehow feels disjointed to me. If you are looking for a logo that you can use on your headstock then I tend to think the one letter/symbol things look the best. I really hate to ever say anything less than congratulatory on these boards but it seems like you are really wanting to hear all possible opinions, especially those of the dissenting variety. That said, the very bottom one is by far the best of your available choices. Maybe you could just use the "M" part for the headstock and use the rest of that logo for your soundhole label

All the best,
Simon

I like the last two best - depends whether you want the M leaning. (As an alternate, move the lower case left, use the first "a" as the soundhole & the "h" as the upper bout)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Mike,
As others have illuded too,
I think if you made the guitar body "M" shape more like it is part of the font, or vise-versa it would look better.
You do have a good name for logoism.
It can be difficult to figure what is best.
"Mahar Guitars" sounds good to me.
Let us know what you end up with.

If I had to choose tho, the last one looks good.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I like the second from the top.

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Simon, All opinions are welcome. Using just the M/Guitar part for the headstock is a definite possibility. Good suggestion.

Maharguitar is my email address and the working name I use for the business. For those who have never heard my name pronounced it is ma . HAR. And rhymes with guitar.

It looks good Mike but I would agree with Dave R. that most people would probably see it as "Ahar" .
Maybe if the M guitar shape was a bit more pronounced or something.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I've had people go the other way and only realize that the M is a guitar shape after looking at it for awhile. That's why I put the tuners there. Making the guitar more M like might be hard without losing the guitar shape. That 1/2 of a guitar looks like an M is the whole idea. If I can't make that work, I might just as well go off in a whole different direction.

Mike, have you tried it on your headstock yet?
I have a neat K logo that my sister made me that looks
very cool, but impossible to get to look "right" on my headstock.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I'm pretty sure it will need some modification to make it inlayable. The line of the guitar/M will probably have to be thickened up. I've only had the images for a day and I'm not very good at inlay. I might print up some white ones on clear mylar just to see how it looks.

I like the last two the best with the very last being my favorite.
Next would be the first two, with the 2nd being my favorite.

I agree it was a little confusing at first and looked like the guitar was not an "M" but rather just a guitar before your name. I too would probably like to see it without the soundhole.

A nice concept though.

Edit: You might also see about taking out the bottom 3 tuners and see how that looks. (Since there is only half a guitar, maybe it would even it out with just that half of the "headstock")

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

I hate having to say I don't like something and rarely will but I also sincerely want to help you Mike.

The "M" of Mahar depicted as one half of a guitar body does not jump out at me as being an "M." Also, the dots at the right end didn't jump out at me as being tuner buttons either and instead I thought it was Arabic writing.

You have a very cool name that should lend itself to a logo very nicely and I like the idea of the guitar body and the "M" being integrated I just am not fond of the implementations above.

Since your first name is Mike/Michael you also have the possibility of using both sides of a guitar body in your logo as "M's" with the second M (for Mike) being inverted. Just a thought.

With a 5 letter name or 6 if you use your first initial too I would envision creative use of line weights in a flowing, expressive manner.

I might be alone in this opinion, but I think I'd scrap the idea of having a guitar shape incorporated in the logo. It limits you if you ever want to build mandolins, electrics, basses, amps, etc... I also think it looks redundant on a guitar to have a picture of a guitar. The purpose of a logo is not necessarily to try to explain what your company does. If the logo is on a guitar, it's obvious what you do. If it's on a t-shirt, ad, brochure, or bumpersticker, you can add guitar graphics or text then.

Also, to my eye it appears it's trying a little too hard to be clever (in general, not your logo specifically). My apologies to those who have existing logos that use the shape of a guitar, I know it's not uncommon. I have a buddy that teaches graphic design that had a student do a logo for me with a guitar shape integral to the logo. While it was very well done, I wouldn't have used it for the reasons above.

That said, of the logos you showed, may favorite's the bottom one.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Wow...Hesh, that was harsh! But it was EXACTLY what I was thinking. I thought it looked like ahar with those funny Arabic squiggles.


I think he should use the M&M's logo...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

#2, but take off the tuners from the bottom. You cut the guitar in half, do the same on the tuners. The tuners could be a bit smaller as well.

The bottom one is the best in terms of a "timeless" logo...however I'd like to see the guitar "M" lean more in parallel with the rest of the font, making it a little smaller... and perhaps the "tuners" could be smaller rectangles rather than circles.

I really like the first option but agree that it's more fitting of the electric side of things.

Well, that was a fun exercise. Besides this forum, I've asked several others what they thought of the basic idea and which example they preferred. The answers were all over the map. Some thought the whole idea didn't work. Some thought that the design should be changed to emphasize the guitar while others though it should be changed to emphasize the name. Some saw a guitar with the letters ahar after it while others saw a Mahar and didn't notice the M was a guitar.

Most liked the oblique guitar instead of the regular shape. Some thought that the sound hole disguised the M aspect while others thought that the sound hole is what made it look like an M. I've been looking at the name Mahar all my life so I can't see this without thinking that the guitar looks like an M. Almost universally, people did not like non-oblique guitar shape with oblique letters. Some thought the angle of the guitar should match the angle of the script. The third example does this pretty well.

I am a bit surprised by the number of strong negative reactions. It is likely that I won't pursue this approach. Perhaps I'm out of step with the rest of the world when it comes to design. I did read the forum that was mentioned in a previous thread and found that I don't particularly agree with what most of those guys were saying was good design.

By the way. I think that this was a great example of how criticism can be handled on the forum. None of the posters ever came close to crossing the line. Opinions were expressed about the logo designs and only about the logo designs. Their points were valid and while I disagree with some of them there was no point where I could possibly take offense at what anybody said. Not liking my ideas has nothing to do with me personally. Thanks.

I am with Jonathan, in fact he wrote almost exactly what I was thinking ... I cant say I am a fan of a true logo that is made to look like a guitar, with your initials/name somehow incorporated into the shape. I would get a logo thats a standalone entity, whether its just your name, or initial, plain or stylized. Add the word guitars or a guitar shaped image after that - people will certainly get the idea.

Not that I am known as well as many others here, or the big manufacturers, but the number of times I have had a client of mine say to me that they were out playing somewhere, and somebody came up to them and asked if that was in fact a Karol guitar they were playing truly amazes me ... and thats simply from my stylized K logo.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Well... you asked....

Honestly, I wouldn't go down this road. I am not a guy that goes for the literal look. Personally I would think about the IDEA and the EMOTION that you want people to have when they see your guitars. Is it a contemporary style guitar (logo's that come to mind, Wingert, Benedetto, Kragenbrink, Poling? )? Is it a classic design (Walker, Red Diamond, Dudenbostle, etc.)? That is what I would aim for in the design. Make the logo fit the statement of your "brand" -- the idea you want to evoke in the mind of everyone who sees your instruments, your t-shirts or anything else that wears your "mark". Having your name morphed into a guitar doesn't really say anything about your instruments to me. (Sorry...)

Also, I would try very very hard to dump the use of a common font. I think using something custom or a standard font that has been highly modified is the ticket. I think at the end of the day you want something that you can wholly own.

I have no idea what your intentions are with respect to how to use the logo, but I think aiming in this direction gives you maximum flexibility.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Mike, I guess I am the odd one out here in that I saw "Mahar". (Haven't had my evening single malt yet either).

I kinda like it. I wouldn't use it on a headstock but it would look very cool as a logo glued inside the guitar and visible through the soundhole. Also it would look great on a T-shirt, particularly modeled by one who could accentuate certain.....

Or it would look great embroidered on a guitar case or guitar case cover.