Alltop.com

I liked the simplicity of the original type-only logo, but if you're going to go graphic, I like this treatment. Looks great!

Sweet. I like it. It makes me want to, um, browse.

wow, this is a great logo. but somehow i can't really read it right away .. the paper border and the letters are in the same color, rather confusing. Or maybe it's just me :)

This one is cool...
Can we add a small .com as well... so that people viewing it elswhere can figure out that this is site...
I know its like old idea... just a suggestion...

I don't like how the first "L" touches the white border. Bleeds will wreck color selects when masking.

Didnt like it. Feels Vanilla. Doesnt invoke any emotion ( for e.g. Curiosity, Coolness ).

Have to agree with Tee Poole, I liked the original a bit better. (biting my tongue re: Karina's rant above...)

Love it!

Maybe it's the 'embrace change' thing but I liked the old one better too ??!!

It is very nice. My only tip would be to move the first L up. Currently it touches the border.

I like it.

A+++ - Would view again!

I like the overall idea … but the white borders hamper readability, there's a “busyness” I don’t like. I don’t think these borders and the shadows will scale well either.

I preferred the original logo, much cleaner. If going for this look why not try ransom-note style using the mastheads of some high-profile feeds?

I like the concept. But given the variety you offer, why are all the colours the same? If you cover everything, why not try varying typefaces and colours on the cards? Oddly enough, it made me want to drag letters around....

It has a cartoon-y feel. Doesn't feel cohesive to me. I definitely liked the old one better, but maybe that's the minimalist in me. ;)

Are this memory cards?

I am not a fan of this one, much prefer the original clean logo. Just reminds me of a ransom note more than a magazine rack. Sorry :-(

don't like how the "L"s look with that spacing. i think it would look better with less spacing btwn each letter.

I like the old logo the best. Very clean and simple. In this version, it takes a couple of glances in order to pickup that it says "ALLTOP".

I like it, although something about the "O" being obscured bothers me. The "P" is also obscured but since the character has a straight edge to begin with it isn't as jarring.

I like the logo. It's playful and dynamic. I think this would animate well where the pages can stack on top of each other.

I think the second "L" is not centered on the frame and this bothers me. I just feel that the letters should be somewhat centered on their respective frames. Otherwise it blends with the border.

Also, someone mentioned that the frame and the letters are the same color. I guess to create a duo-tone logo that works, but maybe having the frame be a darker shade of the color of the letters. This would make the letters pop out and de-emphasize the frame.

You also have the ability to create a smaller logo where there is just one frame with the whole "Alltop" word in it. Once the branding is recognize, people will relate the orange frame, placed at an angle with the word "Alltop" to the main logo above. IMHO.

Good luck with it.

I like the current logo better. It much more cleaner.

Suggest you unevenly curl the right corners of letters so they look like magazines that have been flipped through. Maybe even give suggestion of pages under individual letters - and not just single sheets. You want them to browse, right? What I'd like even more are multi-color letters b/c that's what you see on a rack.

I love you and Alltop, Guy, but I seriously hate this logo. Sorry, man...

Design rule of thumb: to test a logo's flexibility, turn it into black/white and shrink it down to about a quarter inch high. If it's still legible, interesting, and memorable - you've got at least a good start. I don't think this one passes the test.

The first logo was striking and sophisticated. This new logo is fun but amateurish. Have a problem with the first "L" breaking the border when the rest of the letters don't.

looks little bit chaotic to me. I also don't like white borders of the red paper lists.

First impression: Alphabet blocks. Playful. Kids. Reminded me of totspot.com's logo.

That was before I read the title "concept of a magazine rack". I guess it doesn't work for me.

While I appreciate the underpinning idea of a logo that better communicates the Alltop brand image, while relating or suggesting visually through its design elements its heritage of a magazine rack, I think it can be better done. This design is too disjointed, reminding me of the old Hollywood sign, or an old Monopoly or some other board game, both of which are throw-backs to a long past era. That era relates to the time when magazine publishing was done only on dead trees. Alltop is modern. Its content is current, and constantly evolving. I picture it covering the globe, in operation and available 24/7/365. None of those elements being communicated in the current design. Just disjointed letters that don't make a clear statement about anything.

I like the orange and white that works well for me. I don't like the L touching the bottom and I also don't like the letters all in different sizes, it isn't working. Also all of the boxes are not the same size and that make it look unprofessional. It wont work in print this way either I agree with the guy above.

I didn't really like the old one, but find this one unremarkable. I didn't get the magazine rationale, like said about the white page borders hamper legibility and there is just not enough depth to it... if I may be so brave as to say that it doesn't have the web 2.0 feel. Having designed a million logos (well not quite) I know what it's like when someone rips your new logo to bits, but sometimes as a designer you need to hear it.... sorry :)

Looks like diversity, freshness, maybe a darker red (at least on my screen) would make it more dynamic. Like it!

I agree with Rick Jesse on this one. I didn't get the magazine rationale either. 

A bit too busy and it won't scale well for various uses. Keep the type in line for better first glance legibility and background silhouette the "cards", minus the shadows and borders.

Doesn't convey "magazine rack" very well, and I wouldn't have picked up that notion if you hadn't told us about it. After all, magazine racks are horizontally neater. This more coffee table spread. (grin)

I agree with Robert. Fix that first "L" and it will look much better.

Guy, I love you and your staff to pieces. But have to be honest and say I do not like the positions or scaling of the letters at all...Like the magazine concept but don't like the font nor the tint of orange...Would go a hint of a more reddish orange color....But then am wild about the women's fashions from the 1920-1950's too...So I may have no taste at all! =) Good Luck Guy!

Whew! So many comments! Note to self: don't subscribe via email to Guy's comments, even accidentally. I feel like my inbox just threw up all over me.

I actually like the old clean look better...

It jumps, which is what a newsstand logo is supposed to do. I like the playfulness, but the 1st "L" shouldn't be touching. There may be too much going on--the inconsistency of the letter size is distracting. The O is too small, the P is too big. It needs some refining, but it's a good starting poing

No offense intended.

It is a good concept, but the execution is not so good. It breaks two design rules in my studio.
1. It needs to work tiny - shrink it down and see how the line weights fail.
2. It needs to work in one colour - cant see that happening.

Not a big fan either, gaps, fonts sizes. A bit messy for a mag rack. It should b more "appetizing" and meet a craving for reading, knowledge. Make us want to grab one of these cover to see what's in it.

The logo makes me think it's a product for kids. Playful, quirky. If it was multicolor it'd be a perfect logo for that.

Guy, I think it is stunningly cool BUT I don't see how it supports what alltop does. The tagline is the real strength here. It defines the product, the vision and the audacity of the idea.

Logo looks good. but I feel the old one was better, more professional, clear, clean cut. This looks like a jumble of letters(rack of mags?) Sorry. I'd give it a C+ or D.

Messy magazine rack. Messy, messy, messy... I like the clean look of your current logo wordmark.

Don't like it, and not sure what sort of symbolism you're getting at with it. The point of alltop seems to be that it's clean, simple, and easy (instead of a ton of RSS or whatev). This logo seems the exact opposite.

I like it, but yes, the second L touching the white frame makes me nuts.

If I were tweaking it, I'd even out the spacing of the letters. Hide the "magazines" for a moment and look at the letter spacing. The spaces between TOP are tight but lots of space between ALLT. It doesn't have to be perfectly kerned, but I think it looks a little off because of the spacing.

I like the idea, but the letters look like they are individual documents and not magazines. In its current state I'm leaning toward the old logo.

I really prefer the original logo. This isn't a matter of resisting change, but rather resisting bad change.
It takes more than a glance to read it, which is never a good thing.

The new logo looks quite cool, though I prefer the older one.

Best Wishes,
Shinil.
http://twitter.com/shinils

I agree with Rama above. The parts don't seamlessly come together as a whole. My eyes catch a little bit as I see it. Otherwise, the concept is great!

My initial reaction is, "what?" Something seems unfinished. My eye is drawn to "llt" in alltop. The font/letters are too similar in this treatment. I'm not liking it. Someone else mentioned playing with color. That might be a good idea. I'd play with font a bit.

I like the over idea, clean and simple.

I am sure you will put some more work on the alignments and sizing of the individual letters.

No go. A logo-like any branding element-should emote/evoke emotion (the right behavior emotion for your brand). I remember the design make-over you got for a presentation (the PPT). Like night and day, yes? Check out the logo for Billboard and others...create one that greets us like GK's Alltop is what's in front of us. Unless your personality is plain-Jane, non-descript. Then it's perfect!

I'd capitalize the T to make it easier to read for first time visitors.

The logo transforms into a motion graphic logo that "POPS"

Sorry, yuk. Very hard to read. Original was much better. :(

Nice and straight forward with a fresh appeal

Suggest a deck of cards - rather than a magazine rack

Go with it, Guy (pronounced "Ghee" with a hard "G")! Change is good, tho me callin' you Ghee never seems to.

Awesome - I totally like it. Nice move.

It feels a bit cluttered. Had to look twice to read it, even though I knew what it said. I think it's the borders.

I like that is simple yet it sends a clear message. The orange color makes it stand out. Great!

mmm...no, not a big fan. Something about it doesn't appeal to me. Couldn't tell you how to fix it, just know it doesn't do it for me.

I agree that the first "L" needs a little more breathing room on the bottom edge. I think it might also be interesting to see a mix of different colors and borders to come across more clearly as a variety of similar things.

I like it alot. Very dynamic, friendly to the 'eye'. Nice!

let's talk - we can do a lot better.

chris
social uk
+1 617 678 0318

Hard to read at first glance - are the L's, L's for one part. Logo rules say it shouldn't take time to figure out what it says.

The "slides" could use a little touch to make them more magazine than just slices of paper.

Nice, clean and simple and versatile. It will work well for web applications and can be easily adapted to use in one, two or four color offset printing. Because of the solid color, it's also easy to use it for vinyl sign making...

Wonder what it looks like with all CAPITALS that might give more of an impression of being the TOP

I loved the clean, timeless simplicity of the original logo. This one feels like it's trying a bit too hard. Also, it may not look as clean when scaled down.

If you really want a useful comment, ONE of the mag covers could be diff color. (Orange 't') Philosophically meaning "the ONE thing you're looking amongst all the other stuff is at AllTop."

Original one is a lot better.

Like the original better. Don't like the font or the way the capital A interacts with the lowercase letters. Seems very childish and whimsical. I think you're trying too hard to make the logo have significance to the brand.

Being Alltop, do you want to make all the fonts to be on top (superscript)???

Okay if you are in kindergarten. Come on, Guy...You can do better! Reminds me of someone else's logo.

I do branding campaigns for people all day long...not thrilled with this logo...it's really bland and I can't tell just by looking at it what it represents, the different size letters scream "kids" to me...like a mom blog or something. It just looks really generic.

I understand the spirit of the design, however the simplicity of the original more closely echoed, for me, the concept of everything in one place-order in an overwhelming sea of information. Sorry to see you walk away from the equity you have built in the old brandmark.

The LL's need some work (because they don't look "ellish" enough.) There's also an initial adjustment your eye needs to make in order to read the word in its entirety. It's an extra millisecond that I'm not so sure you want. The repaired LL's could fix it. But the color (a truly lovely and unique orange) and the magazine style design definitely work!

This reminds me of WIRED, and is hard to read. I prefer the award winning logo that we designed for you.

nope, it doesn't work for me. I can understand the idea but the execution could be better. all the elements are similar (in size and in colour), and with 6 in a row it feels quite boring, nothing catches an eye. quick fix - add an extra colour, increase the size of the T - anything to break the monotony

It makes me feel uncomfortable. I think it has to do with the particular way the card letters are misaligned and the contrast in letter sizes.

I like the new logo a lot! Any chance you can incorporate a Mac "coverflow" feel to it? Each letter clicks to that letter topic along with that funky animation of the tiles. Sick! Sorry if it's over the top but @Neenz would agree, ALLTOP desrves it! Cheers!

My first thought when I saw it was "toy building blocks," rather than "magazines." What about a fanned magazine with the letters on the fanned pages? Though, I'm not the most design-savvy...

Sorry, I like the original better.

Guy, These comments made my day. Puts my recent (and kinda downer) client focus group into perspective reminding me that opinions are like you-know-what... everyone has one! So my question to you is "how does all this great feedback change what you will/won't do regarding your logo?" Thanks again for making my day!
@bcavanaugh

I didn't see the magazine analogy until it was explained to me which isn't a good sign. The bigger thing that bugs me about the logo is that the type is irregularly spaced. I think it could be made to pull the type into a regular arrangement and have the magazines scattered around serving as frames. I did a quick mock-up of what I mean here: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=8x516x&s=5 The original version is on top for comparison's sake.

Jaunty. Definitely has the necessary tie-in to magazines. I'll have to live with it awhile to see if I really like it.

Interesting! I understand how much goes into logo design so hate to criticize but I also want to give input like you requested. I didn't get that it was supposed to mimic a magazine rack until you mentioned it ... I didn't know what it was supposed to be communicating to us ... didn't really tell a visual story about the business and I didn't get any feeling from it ... didn't grab me. I didn't see the previous version that people seem to like

I love the new logo. It definitely reinforces the concept of the magazine rack. And it blends well with your tag line. Awesome.

To be blunt: no.

First of all, if you have to explain a logo, that means it doesn't work. If you hadn't said "capitalizes on concept of 'magazine rack'", I doubt it would've occurred to most people, because the design doesn't actually convey a magazine rack at all. I mean, have you ever seen a magazine rack with all the magazines propped up on different angles, overlapping each other like that? I sure haven't. At best it _maybe_ looks like six magazines strewn across a coffee table, but again - I'd have to be told those are supposed to be magazines, because in no way do those obviously look like magazines. They look like rectangles with letters badly positioned on them.

Second of all, at a glance it just looks really sloppy, disorganized and hard to read -- which, I would think, is _exactly_the_opposite_ of the values/characteristics you want to communicate about your site/service/company.

Sorry, but this is not a good logo. The concept is questionable, and the execution just doesn't work.

If I say I like it, does that make me a fanboy? Its def better than the original.

I love it. Two thumbs up. When you redo the widgets (nudge, nudge) please put 'Alltop' at the top and not the bottom again.

How's it going Guy? I'm a bit rushed here so I haven't given it a long look, but have you tried stacking the boxes left to right as opposed to right to left? My eye has to try harder when things are laid out this way. (this means the 'A' would be below the other letters)

Idea is very nice, but the overall result is not really compelling. It looks a bit as if first the idea was born and then the characters where pressed into the system. The word "Alltop" does not really work with this idea. Mainly the "LL" and the "p" cause problems.

If the cards represent the topics, why are there also lower-case characters? I have not seen topics on alltop.com which start in lower case. Hmm.

The logo seems also not to work with the current design of the website. And the site design is near to perfect as it is.

Maybe this looks good to many eyes in the size above. But it loses when you shrink it to the size the current website needs.

I ask my self, why do you want to change the logotype? And yes Beth, should you take it, try to rebalance the the "LL". To see what I mean, just resize the logo to a very small size or take a few steps back from the screen.

Sorry Mate don't like it, can't read it at first, i just think you could do better, but this could just be my aussie view!

And this is how a magazine rack looks:

http://www.wolffolins.com/media/images/articles/wolff_olins.bmp

That means Letters on the top left site. All magazines are on the same baseline and they are stacked from left to right.

Maybe you can have a second look.

One more thing, there's something very simple about your current site direction which is not reflected here. Looks very busy to me.

Definitely true that opinions are like a**holes, everybody's got one, and some are more prominent than others. Shoulda turned off the "email me" before leaving my previous comment. How do I get off this merry go round?

A bit much, too busy and makes the eye (and brain) work too hard. I 'get' the concept but this doesn't look like a magazine rack - more like my coffee table. I think you are going to find this logo challenging working across mediums - like your business card! Signature logo on emails and such. Your service is more than a magazine rack (slow and actual) where you are fast and virtual - so the magazine spread may not reflect what you deliver. Not trying to be 'picky' but branding is such a critical piece that it should be torn every which way. Check out Alina Wheeler's "Designing Brand Identity". Good luck and keep up the good work.

Yeah, I like the simplicity of the original. I believe alltop exemplifies simplicity, ease-of-use and clean overall feel.

Seems there's no way to stop the flow after pushing the "Email me button new comments" button... quite annoying.

I prefer the old one... pls the first L bleeding to the edge.. is this something to show that this is a magazine rack that "bleeding edge"

moreover the objective of Alltop is bringing order to chaos out there... but the logo is chaotic

Hi, Guy.

No-go on the lo-go. I could direct the design of a logo to clearly communicate Alltop as a magazine rack. But, the four-color design I have in mind requires more $s than you'd probably want to spend. So, keep the current logo and add your new tagline underneath. Using words instead of images will be very effective compared with the sample design above.

Have fun!

Not a big fan. Looks like a deck of cards rather than a magazine rack.

I say stick with the original.

Hi Guy, met you at the Kepler's event in Menlo Park. Great talk. Not too crazy about this logo, it looks a little too "fun" and light-hearted, not serious enough. I definitely prefer the old logo - has a cool, simple, contemporary look to it. One suggestion, with new logo, for the mag rack look, is keep all the letters in line and same size/font (but maintain overlapping). Might look a bit more organized. Plus would maybe add a bit of black to logo for some definition. Would also change tag line to "all topics, one place"... ?? or "all topics, 24-7". You may not need to show "mag rack idea", seems unnecessary. Or with old logo, maybe do a black line sketch of an empty magazine rack in the left side orange space before Alltop letters. Just some suggestions. The site/concept are great. Started using it today.

After seeing other ideas, this one's not too bad.

Rule of thumb in logo design: people don't like new ones.

Do I prefer it? Not really.

But it does make AllTop seem friendlier to my less techie friends, and I would be more likely to recommend it. The new logo feels less "exclusive".

Guy you do cheese better than any other man on this planet. I salute you and wish you all success.

As a banner it's fine; as a logo no. It requires thought, which is not what we need from a logo.

It's cool as a concept but if you added different colors to alltop pages you would make them easier to browse and more in tune with what alltop is (not some b&w newspapers but a web page :). Another argument: if you want people to think of it as of magazine rack then you should add more colors 'cause magazines are colorful. If you do that with your product maybe it will lead you to adding different colours to this alltop logo to make it more in tune with the brand. If you' d like to know more about how design can improve your product or even get some decent propositions from my start-up creative agency you can send me a tweet, DM or e-mail. There you go, you've just been pitched :) You asked fot it, you got it :)

P.S. We're much cheaper the Abble Kendall 'cause we're in Croatia :)

Sorry, Guy, don't like it. Doesn't seem to evoke any emotion. It's a little flat.

LOVE the site but not this logo. Looks too loose for a source that is so tight.

Your company is about news and feeds. This logo looks like from a card-game (no-offense). I understand you want to break from the straight-forward-in your face- look and feel.
It's a start, but for me, this isn't it.

Start from the heart, the vision. What is the company doing, why and how do you want it to be seen. Make keywords and shape on that.

Good luck!

ps: your marketing video's are the best. Man, you can tell a story. Pure brilliance.

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Guy, I decided to not only comment, but to do a mockup as well. Tell me what you think: http://thatguynextdoor.posterous.com/alltop-new-logo-proposition

I kinda like it but it reminds me of Wired some...not sold on it all the way

A fantastic improvement! Love the look, Guy.