The D&D Logo

[thedungeondelver]

Okay, let's break it down. I don't like any of 'em.

#1 - "The Fanzine"
#2, #3, &#16 - For your ATARI 2600!
#6 - From MECO Toys!
#7 - Actually this one sucks the least.
#8 - Hey, Chris_Nightwing, you almost got your wish on that one, brother.
#9 would be awesome if they'd put the ampersand actually between the words. As it is it looks like DUNGEONS DRAGONS &. Or & DUNGEONS DRAGONS.
#10 - ...looks like the logo for some awful Jersey City club where they play nonstop dubstep for product-haired spraytan douchebags.
#11 - Sdungeons Sdragons is what it looks like it Sdays.
#12 - reminds me of the dark years, from 1989 to 1999.
#13 - ...from MICROSOFT (circa 1994)
#14 - doesn't ATARI already have a logo for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE?
#15 - is it a pub? Is it an awful "bawdy" musical band that plays at ren fairs? An early Clannad album? (Hint: It's all three!)
#17 - If they turn D&D into a JJ Abrams produced TV show then, bam, they already have a title card.

#4 - "That's great, little guy! Daddy loves this one! You know what? I'm going to put it...riiiiight...here! I'll set it right on my scanner. I'll get a magnet and put it on the fridge as quick as I can! I just need to send this email to work so they can update the site."

 

[Lwaxy]

You forgot #16 - the communist version - pardon, socialist version - of D&D.

Personally, I hate #7 worse than some others. Looks like someone made his first website and went for a quick logo as a title.

 

[thedungeondelver]

You forgot #16 - the communist version - pardon, socialist version - of D&D.

Nah; I think it looks like an early mid-80s ('83/'84) video game box design choice.

Personally, I hate #7 worse than some others. Looks like someone made his first website and went for a quick logo as a title.

Really? Just looks like something they'd use on a splatbook or module or something. You know, quick, easy, cheap to get designed.

 

[Lwaxy]

Really? Just looks like something they'd use on a splatbook or module or something. You know, quick, easy, cheap to get designed.

Yeah, or that

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Of all the things WotC could be working on for 5E ... they want to ask about the logo?

Misplaced priorities ...

 

[Mercutio01]

Of all the things WotC could be working on for 5E ... they want to ask about the logo?

Misplaced priorities ...

Well, it is the art director. That's kind of his job, no?

 

[thedungeondelver]

Of all the things WotC could be working on for 5E ... they want to ask about the logo?

Misplaced priorities ...

I hardly think having one guy working on a logo is misplaced priorities. Saying "Mike, call someone in design and see if we can tart up the old D&D logo a bit." takes less time to say than it did for me to type. Three or four minutes on the phone? Then you're moving on. If it's not sent in an email, that is. That also assumes it wasn't in the artists' to-do list before they even started talking about the particulars of what the new edition would be like in the first place. If Mike Mearls and Monte Cook were posting 'blog notes saying "Yeah we worked on logos for 16 hours!" it'd be misplaced resources but this...? Eh, not so much.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I spent some time thinking about what would make a good logo for D&D Next. More than anything, it seems that a logo should say, "This is D&D" to as wide an audience as possible. This is a unity edition, and should have a unity logo.

I figure, why not borrow the strongest elements of each edition's logo and create something that feels like a bit of each.

Now, I'm no graphic artist, so bear with me, but I created a couple of mockups of what was in my head. A professional could do much better work than I.

Here's what I came up with. It includes the strong ampersand from 2nd edition, a muted form of the sword from 3rd, and the bold red of 4th.

This is a simpler version I made first. Part of me prefers it for having fewer colors and less overlap, but it lacks the strong D&D that the first logo has.

Anyway, I'm just tossing that out there. I have full faith that Jon Schindehette and his team know what they're doing. If anything, I just want to give them something to mull over.

 

[Lwaxy]

Yes, exactly. The sword in the 3e logo was amazing, the whole logo had a feel of being solid like a tavern's sign.

This is definitely better with the sword.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes, exactly. The sword in the 3e logo was amazing, the whole logo had a feel of being solid like a tavern's sign.

This is definitely better with the sword.

I recall during the 3e/4e transition that the sword made it really hard to put on the Spine. The 4e logo could be broken up so as to be stacked or run sentence style, something the 3e books couldn't (check your spine, if the book was too thin, it had a generic font D&D logo).