"corporate" design in the ambientworld

[phoenstorm]

What do you think is the importance of proper "visual" branding? What are your preferences in that field? Somehow, the roll-out of Ascendant with well-designed artwork on any social networking platform imaginable ;) made me think about this again. I'm not really that much into graphic design, but I thought I'd be fun to try and come up with a few new "phoenstorm" banner-type-thingies. This was done in Gimp. Owing to my rather limited skill set it's minimalist, but then, that's what I'd prefer anyway :-) What do you think?

[MetaDronos]

First banner works for me. It has interesting word wrap. But font is "too default". I suggest you to browse free fonts repositories and choose another one for your banner.

[Negative Spectrum]

I like the second one but as Meta suggested possibly a different font

[phoenstorm]

Thanks guys! You've sent me looking at other fonts- even though I have to admit I'm quite fond of the current one; it's "Sans" the standard font in Gimp (about which I haven't found out much so far), in bold. I know I want a clear, no-frills sans-serif. Helvetica is expensive and even though Arial seems to be a "rip-off", I don't like it too much. There's a few other options I need to think through. The challenge is to stay minimalistic but maybe add a bit of elegance. Hmmm, maybe I need to broaden my mindset, however, from the get-go I can rule out Trajan, Papyrus & Comic Sans :biggrin:

[seismic1]

Zapf Dingbats :eek:

[RikkiSho]

There are plenty of good free fonts on font sites. I've found loads. You don't need to pay. You do need to make sure they creator allows them for commercial use!
I personally prefer a minimal logo - something easily readable in a small thumbnail like most people are going to see on SoundCloud. Alternatively, a little image, like in my avatar <<< circles seem to be a popular and common shape. I used a the whole note musical symbol, and lines to suggesting a ripple effect radiating outward.