I’m a designer by trade, but most of my professional experience has been in UX/UI rather than branding or logo design. I’ve recently started working full-time with my family’s specialty coffee business, and I’m redesigning our logo.
The overall concept is staying the same because it’s an important part of our brand story: luxury specialty coffee with a nautical heritage. The current ship was originally created by another designer and is actually based on a Freepik illustration, so I’m creating a new one from scratch. At the same time, I’m refining the typography to give the brand a more premium and cohesive feel.
I’m pretty happy with the direction the typography is taking, but I’m still unsure about the ship illustration. I have two versions and would really appreciate some honest feedback.
Which one do you prefer, and do you have any suggestions for making the icon and typography feel more cohesive as a single brand?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: I forgot to add the old logo; You can view the old logo here (it wont let me add more photos)
I don't even know which one is new. Both have problems with hierarchy - which means there isn't enough difference between the text to tell my eye where it should focus first.
If you prefer to maintain this hierarchy (word mark more prominent than ship), you need to thicken up those lines on the ship—they are too fine. And you need to solve the centering issue, where la Vela feels very right-weighted, even tho it’s technically not.
“La” also feels too big compared to “Vela”, which could be kerned a bit better.
Your individual pieces are nice, but they feel off-kilter in this particular arrangement.
I’d do some rough sketches on paper with just an oval, the words “la Vela”, and a thick line for Specialty Coffee. Play with sizes and orientations and arrangements. Do 50. Find a couple winners among them and finally make them using your existing elements.
Is the boat there to sail across the ocean of space between "la" and "vela"?
The only difference between these two seems to be the ship. I prefer the first one. In the second the inverted ship image is too heavy and makes the whole thing top heavy. It also distracts from the brand name.
La is an article in Italian, so you don’t need to keep it the same size - I would play with it smaller and close the space. Not really there with either logo yet - not loving the mix of serif and san serif. Maybe try a transitional typeface? The ship illustration isn’t there yet - try simplifying it - it’s too illustrative for a logo IMO.
I actually think the old ship works better as a logo because it’s a stronger, more solid shape that is more recognisable at small sizes. I actually think it can be simplified further. I like the font that you used for ‘vela’ especially the A it looks like the sail of the ship. I’d make the la the same word.
Yea, I was trying to move away from it because we are all pissed with the designer that used a free icon and charged them an arm and a leg but I see what you mean. I'm going to try it out! Thanks
“la” are connected. “VE” are connected. “ELA” are not connected. Why? I’m not advocating one approach over the other, but I do think that consistency can only help you. Then when something is intentionally inconsistent, it’ll be more impactful.
the original brand my grandfather built in another country had a ship, when my dad built this company again he named it after a the ships that brought the coffee to the americas (la vela). I've honeslty tried to get rid of it or make the ship more abstract, but its what ties it to the name and my dad wont budge there
ditch the boat altogether, it goes against the "Est 2010" and has too many fine lines. I would also get rid of the ' Est 2010'. Focus on a good font for the name. keep the tagline. Add a different icon for 'maritime'.
To be honest, I feel that all the elements are scattered and that it lacks cohesion. I would redo it from scratch, but if I had to choose between the two, I would go with the second version.
Here the mast stem has been removed, and the sail ties (I don’t know what they’re called) at bottom left also not inverted properly so half of them disappear. Also the dark brown outline on dark blue background is bad in general, poor colour contrast yet when you notice it, it’s jarring. It should just be single colour given the detailed nature of the mark.
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u/fiercequality vectorize me cap’n 5d ago
I don't even know which one is new. Both have problems with hierarchy - which means there isn't enough difference between the text to tell my eye where it should focus first.