To get a logo with a meaning, I first reseached some background about anything that's connected with FA, its purpose and it's doing.
In many ancient mythologies, areas that have a certain worth, or holyness are protected by certain artifacts. A widly common indication of a protected area is the "gate shrine". They are positioned at the enty points of the area that needs spiritual protection.
Water, as the symbol of purity, cleaning and also unity is often found at these gates in form of a well, or fountain sprinkler.
Sometimes even the water itself is protected by its gates. The hanging gardens of babylon, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world had dozens of such shrines.
Now the idea is to give the logo a meaning. The meaning should be clear at this point :
protection & unity.
A logo that symbolizes the protection towards the Fountain region and its habitants and the unity among the alliance corps.
I therefore have chosen the way of getting the "shrine gate" shape into a logo, without losing a contemporary and futuristic style.
Remember : without meaning and solid background a logo is really worthless.
Shrine in japan
Many gates indicating a protected area. Only "pure" ones are allowed to access. water often stands in combination with these gate shrines, cuz it stands for cleaning and purity.
Its importaint to keep a logo simple and clean. otherwise it wount get memorized completly or at all.
The key is to work with simple elements to get the most output from. Stuff like, texture, shading, lights, and every kind of fancy stuff can be added on demand. but the core shape itself has to be simple and clean, otherwise it wount look good at subpixel sizes, which we especially need for a good web logo.
i.e. you know what this means right ? ->
the most importaint thing about a weblogo is that its shape is recognizeable at low pixel sizes. most logos lose their face once you go below 64x64 pixel.
this one is actually 64x35.
the actual size of this series is 80x37
variations of shading, color and style are as usual endless. use your imagination for further mutations :P
2004 mindjam