Gear Face, Inc.

[keethrus]

GearFace.com (http://GearFace.com)

I'm going to launch the full site Nov 1st, but I was just wondering what people thought of my company name, Gear Face, and the company's logo (see website for the logo). There's no reason for the name "Gear Face" besides it and the logo are unique, original, and fun. The slogan, "Fun. Useful. Smart." comes from the fact that I'm going to be creating FUN Games, SMART systems, and USEFUL developer tools. It goes along with my vision, but I'm not sure how well worded it is.

Opinions?

- Jeremiah

[tolik]

The "Smart" part will probably scare-off casual gamers.
The logo is scary! :)

[andyb]

I take it you've registered the trade marks then? If you don't mind me asking, where/how and how much?

[Jason Colman]

So you're going to have games, 'systems' (I don't really know what you mean there) and dev tools all on one web site ? This may give the wrong impression. Like, there is no clear idea behind Gear Face - they will do anything. With all the care you have clearly taken over the logo etc it seems a shame that the Gear Face brand is going to be so diluted. Do you know what I mean ?

Bear in mind that I suck dismally at marketing though. :)

[botman]

This is American law but...

... When can I use the trademark symbols TM, SM and ®?

Any time you claim rights in a mark, you may use the "TM" (trademark) or "SM" (service mark) designation to alert the public to your claim, regardless of whether you have filed an application with the USPTO. However, you may use the federal registration symbol "®" only after the USPTO actually registers a mark, and not while an application is pending. Also, you may use the registration symbol with the mark only on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the federal trademark registration. ...

From http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/basic/trade_defin.htm , so no, he probly hasn't registered them if he's using TM.

Which brings me nicely to what I was going to say. I like the logo, I think it looks pretty humourous, but I do think your trademark descriptions at the bottom of the page go overboard to the point of being silly.
:p

[Reactor]

Whoa.... that logo... freaky... it's like the kind that gave you sleepless nights as a child.

"Mommy! I can't sleep... I had a dream of that logo again!"

[Reactor]

Also...

"...its right eye bigger than its left..."

No it's not. From the viewer's point of view, its right eye is smaller.

[alfie]

Whoa.... that logo... freaky... it's like the kind that gave you sleepless nights as a child.

"Mommy! I can't sleep... I had a dream of that logo again!"

I quiet like it, I would love to have it on a T Shirt or cap and give it as a present to my niece...she's 2 on october 14th :)


Alfie

[keethrus]

Ha! Thanks for all the comments. I sincerely appreciate hearing them all! :)

I've never had anybody comment on the logo being "scary" or "freaky". Hmmm.. . I'll definately have to ask more people about it. Is it that it looks mean or angry? Does it not look like he's happy and smiling? I'm seriously interested.

As to the TM thing, botman is right on the money. And the obviously long trademark description at the bottom is just to get it seen by people and in search engines. Trying to get proof I'm using it that's all. The site I'm launching Nov 1st will have that info nicely tucked into a legal page.
And as to how much, I checked recently and it's approx $350 to register one trademark ... not too shabby if you ask me.

Jason Colman, you have a point. I actually only have one "smart system" planned. It's a symbol recognition software that may be a flop or it may be good enough to sell as a biometric program for fingerprint recognition, etc. I may have to release that seperately, or give it it's own site. Thanks for your comment!

alfie, I'm actually thinking about using CafePress to sell T-shirts, etc with the Gear Face logo on it. I figured some people might like to wear it. :)

Thanks for all the comments! I definately want to hear people's opinions on this matter. And now I'm especially interested if anybody else thinks my logo is "scary". I actually love it, and I *thought* he was really happy and fun. :)

- Jeremiah

[Devman]

Hi!

I think the logo might be improved to look happier and less scary by changing the mouth to not be a "gear mouth" but to just be a more regular cartoon-like smiling mouth. That might be hard to make look good since you have the gear-motif going, but I was trying to figure out why the gear face looked to me more angry than happy, and that's what I came up with!

Good luck,
Devman

[BongPig]

hehe. Nice!

Ive got a feeling your logo, and our logo, are some kind of long lost relatives. :)

[GameStudioD]

From the website:

The Gear Face Logo (Smiling Gear Face comprised of an eight-sided gear for it's face outline, two eight-sided gears for eyes, its right eye bigger than its left, both eyes' gears meshing in the center, and a smiling mouth with a gear-like outline), the Gear Face Logo Text (Gear Face in custom font) and its font style, and the slogan "Fun. Smart. Useful." are trademarks of Gear Face, Inc.

I thought this was pretty funny. Usually Copyright © usually works fine. If anyone does steal your logo, it would be Tim Burton.

[kerchen]

I'm not sure which way I lean on the logo. My first impression was that it was fun and harmless, but upon further viewing, I started to feel like there was something a little deranged about it. Perhaps it's the different-sized eyes? If your target audience is young kids, I'd say you should reconsider your logo. If you're aiming for an older audience (say, 10+), it's probably fine. Also, once you have some games on your site, the flavor of the games will probably affect peoples' interpretations of the logo. For example, if you have a bunch of dark, post-apocalypse-style games, Smiling Gear Face takes on a much more sinister feeling.

[keethrus]

kerchen, Thanks for the comment. I think I agree with you in that the style of my games will probably give people a feel for how to view the logo. I'll have to try and keep my games happy too. :)

I've setup a new logo comparison here:
Gear Face Logo Comparison (http://gearface.com/LOGO_comparison.gif)

Does the "smooth" logo seem more happy and less scary? I'm interested if people's opinions change now that it's smooth.

- Jeremiah

[botman]

Personally I think the smoother logo looks less cog like without any real change in the scariness level.

I quickly drew some variations of your logo that I think look alot less scary yet still retain their cogness. http://it-stuff.co.nz/cogs.gif

I think DevMan was right when he said it was the mouth that made it scary (the crooked teeth did it for me).

I must say though, I think your logo how it is has a certain crazy charm to it, where as the ones I drew just look too "I want to be your best friend in the whole world, everything is a rainbow la de la la happy happy".

[Greg Squire]

I didn't think the first logo looked "scary", but I do have to agree the newer "softer" logo does have a more "friendly" appeal. It looks cute to me.

That being said, I'm wondering if focusing on both tools and games is to diluted. For this same reason your slogan seems a bit confusing to me. My first thought was "what does 'fun' and 'useful' have to do with each other"? On the other hand, "Tools and Games is what Garage Games is doing and seems to do it well, although I still feel they need to separate these out better on their website. I think some potential casual game buyers are turned away (or are at least confused) when they see programming tools listed right along side with the games.

[kerchen]

Since it was the eyes that bothered me, making the corners smoother doesn't make any difference for me. I'd leave it alone if you think your games will help 'soften' it.

[Andy]

Jeremiah,

What is the problem really? Take FearFace.com and everything would be appropriate. I suppose. :D

[Night Elf]

I also think the original logo looks scary. I think the main problem is the mouth, which looks like it has very few teeth left... That's why I like one of botman's variatios much more than the original. The one I like is the first one on the lower row, with the white polygonal mouth. I think it's much better.

However I think it would be even better if you also changed the eyes. In my opinion, the difference in size is not a problem, but I don't like the 'geary' outline. Maybe you could turn it into irregular convex polygons, like the mouth. See the attached image, for example.

[Anthony Flack]

Here's my effort. I tried to give it a bit more of a "human" character.

www.squashysoftware.com/gearhead.jpg

[Reactor]

LOLOL

Now THAT's scary ;)

[Andy]

Here's my effort. I tried to give it a bit more of a "human" character.

Anthony, crazy?! :eek:
Amount of children are game developing as well! :D

Guys, let we agree that original was as minimum kind of "cheesy" - look what amound of feedback it arised. So I suppose that may be everything is not so bad with it.

[oNyx]

I like botman's (lower left) variation most.

The original one looks indeed scary... it's very similar to these halloween pumpkins actually. However, imo it's pretty good and recognizable, but most likely it's a bit too "evil" (as the others have already pointed out).

[Sillysoft]

I also like botman's lower left one. It reminds me of South Park...

[tentons]

Ive got a feeling your logo, and our logo, are some kind of long lost relatives. :)

It appears that gear-related things are all the rage, as my logo sports one too. :)

[lexaloffle]

There's also Gearhand (http://www.gearhand.com).

[elund]

Gearhand? Now that's a name with some oomph! :p Everybody should have gears in their company names, that's just bloody common sense, people...

[keethrus]

Now all we need is a "gearfoot.com" game company, and we'd have a big gear family. :)

Seriously, I'm either thinking about changing the eyes and mouth to make it "fun and cute and cartoony", or just leave him his crazy self. On one hand I'm thinking, "Having a scary logo is not good for selling games to children", but on the other hand I'm thinking, "Having a 'scary' but cool logo can make it memorable and get the business brand in people's brains". Hmm .. . As I'm going to be releasing a non-game related encryption application under Gear Face (it was an intern project of mine that I've put under my company name) really soon I need to decide quickly! :o

- Jeremiah "the guy with the scary logo" Martell