Tentative New Company Name, Logo, and Website Prototype!

Sunday, March 23rd, 2003

Hello everyone, I appreciate all the suggestions I received both on and offsite for the company name, and I think we have decided on the name “Akatombo something or other ” (thanks to Chris for the comment that led to this decision) for the company. As you can guess from that title, I haven’t decided on the other part of the name, and I would like to get your suggestions. Here are a few of the ideas we have, or have been given up to this point: Akatombo Media, Akatombo Media Services, Akatombo Productions, Akatombo Worldwide, Akatombo International, Office Akatombo (don’t like this because it isn’t used in America), Studio Akatombo (don’t plan on doing ONLY design, so this one isn’t that great either maybe?), Akatombo Consultants, and Akatombo Consulting.

I have come up with a tentative logo as well. Let me know what you think but also, if you can come up with something better submit it for consideration. IF YOU COME UP WITH A LOGO DESIGN THAT WE CAN USE, NOT ONLY WILL WE CREDIT YOU FOR IT ON THE WEBSITE, BUT WE WILL HOPEFULLY BE ABLE TO SEND MORE DESIGN WORK YOUR WAY. Sorry for the screaming, I just wanted to make sure that that part of the message got noticed. At any rate, here is the logo design as it is so far, let me know what you think or that you can design something infinitely better:

Akatombo Logo

Secondly, I have put up a prototype website for you to critique. Tear it apart, I can handle it! One word of caution: This design is only for standards compliant browsers. If you are using Netscape 4 don’t bother to write and tell me that the site looks like crap because you are right, it does, and I’m OK with that. My plan is that the site will be readable by old browsers, although I’m not sure it is now (just looked, and it is and it isn’t), but the design will only be available to standards compliant browsers, much like this site. If you would like to hear about why, let me know, and I’ll be happy to discuss it in a separate post. The site, as a prototype has only sample text as contents, so I’m looking for judgement and suggestions on the layout. Three pages have been made available so that you can see how the navigation works: the main page, the web design section (top tab bar), and the Mission section (side bar).

Without further ado, here is the prototype page (link removed)

P.S. When you let me know about the design, etc please let me know what browser and version (e.g. Internet Explorer 6 or Mozilla 1.3a), and your OS (e.g. Red Hat Linux 8.0 or Windows 2000). Also, if you prefer not to reply in public, or if you want to e-mail me a file please send it to ultrabob AT nospam.t4ac.com (change the AT to an @, take out the spaces and take out the nospam.)

Thanks A Lot!!

By UltraBob at 02:02 PM Link to this post here!
15 comment s


  • on March 23rd, 2003 02:45 PM gomichild said:

    Well I looked at it using Netscape 4 and let me tell you...ha ha just kidding!! -.-;

    Nah checked it in Mozilla and the rollovers on the tabs at the top have an odd flicker to them when you roll the mouse over. Also they may look better closer together so when you click on them they have that real “file folder” feel about them.

    Also you may want to reconsider using two shades of red - even web standard colours show up differently on different puters after all...as for colour-blind people well I dunno will they see two different shades of grey?

    Good luck with it all!

    MJ

  • on March 23rd, 2003 02:48 PM chriskk said:

    Bob,
    Glad that I could help. I’m hoping you’ll be the next great global company .. and I can say ‘yup, I helped to name that company!’ wink

    Looked at the prototype and here’s my 2yen:
    - don’t like the box around your logo .. like a cleaner top left
    - banner on top? if not then waste of space.

  • on March 23rd, 2003 03:28 PM UltraBob said:

    MJ,

    Thanks a lot for checking it out!  I’m interested to know what the flickers look like.  I’m also using Mozilla (1.3) but no problems like that.  Which version are you using?  About the tabs, everything is done with CSS, there is no Javascript or tables on the page, and I had to include the space between the tabs to make sure that they would wrap properly in a small browser window although I would hope no one will ever view the site with a window that small.  Any ideas of how to get around that?

    About the shades or red thing.  Good point, I’ll think about that.  I did a test for color blindeness at http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php, great resource if you didn’t know about it already, and the site does get a bit ugly, but it seems to be ok.  Not absolutely sure that the test is accurate though, I have a suspicion that the colors set in CSS are not changed.  I will have to take a screen shot, and run it through their image tester when I get time.  Anyway, here are the test results:
    http://vischeck.homeip.net/uploads/104843246921885/
    http://vischeck.homeip.net/uploads/104843256922773/
    http://vischeck.homeip.net/uploads/104843265123660/

    Thanks again for the input!

    Bob

  • on March 23rd, 2003 03:30 PM UltraBob said:

    Chris,

    Thanks again, I really appreciate all your support with this!

    About your comments:
    1) Yeah, I’ve been depating about the border, hopefully I’ll get more comments about this, and whether people like it or not.
    2) No banner on top, but I will put up my tagline there, and also the language Switcher between English and Japanese will go up there, so the space won’t be wasted.

    Thanks again,

    UltraBob

  • on March 23rd, 2003 03:46 PM gomichild said:

    I’m using Mozilla 1.2.1 at the moment (on a Mac (^^) ) and the flickering is like when you rollover the entire rectangle appears for just a moment before changing in the curve.

    As for the spacing - I’m curious as to why you have the menu as an unordered list...this may be an issue, but I can’t think of a solution just this second…

    I also checked it out in the latest version of safari and in that browser the tab menu doesn’t show up at all ;;

  • on March 23rd, 2003 10:42 PM kristen said:

    As an alternative to the pale red, why not try the pale blue accent in the akatombo logo as the rollover color and the “active tab” color? It will pull the logo into the rest of the design a bit.

  • on March 24th, 2003 03:07 AM Gary said:

    Liked the design. Not a big fan of red, myself.
    Regards,
    Gary Garner

  • on March 25th, 2003 10:08 AM UltraBob said:

    Hey MJ,

    Thanks for the input about safari, and letting me know of your results on a mac.  I can test on a mac, and on linux, and I desperately want to get a macintosh, they seem so brilliant lately, but I haven’t been able to get one yet.  Maybe after this big project I’ve got coming up.

    I know there is a service on the web where they will do tests on a lot of browsers, and give you screenshots, but I can’t remember where it was, and I need to be able to play around and see the results of my change if I am going to pay.

    About the unordered list I was using, I think there was a reason for it, but I can’t really recall what it was for.  At any rate I took them out, but I wish I could come up with a way of letting the tabs wrap without putting spaces in between them.

    Could you let me know if Safari displays things ok now?  I am trying now to give the design more impact and make it look “tighter”, any suggestions?

    UltraBob

  • on March 25th, 2003 10:27 AM gomichild said:

    Hey again dude,

    Ok the flickering in Mozilla has disappeared - but you’ll scream when I show you the screen shot of what Safari did to the top...I thought you were going for a saw effect...but then I noticed in Moz that you weren’t....

    Ok off to take a screen shot and mail it to you now…

  • on March 25th, 2003 10:47 AM UltraBob said:

    Kristen,

    Thank you very much for the idea.  I am considering it.  In fact if you look right now, the rollover on the top tag is in that blue.  Also thank you very much for the logo submission.  I think I like it better than mine, but do you think that at that angle, people will realize that the dragonfly is also a ‘t’?  Also, is it ok if I post your submission on the website?

    Thanks,

    UltraBob

  • on March 25th, 2003 10:51 AM UltraBob said:

    Gary,

    Thanks for the comment, the name of the company being Akatombo, I figure I’d better do some type of color scheme with red as the main color, but I am trying to tone down the amount of red a little bit.

    Also, I’m glad you commented, I hadn’t seen your blog before, now I have a new one to read.

    UltraBob

  • on March 25th, 2003 11:04 AM Kristen said:

    You’re welcome to post my logo idea, but please make sure that it’s clear that it’s a sketchy draft and not a finished product.  grin

    Regarding whether the angled dragonfly makes a good T, well, we could include a real T behind the dragonfly just to make sure everyone’s clear on the spelling.

  • on March 25th, 2003 11:33 AM UltraBob said:

    Hi MJ,

    Ooh! :( Looks like Safari doesn’t support the no-repeat option in the background tag in CSS?  That is an ugly problem.  I’ll search the internet and see what I can find out about work arounds for that.  I wonder how our blog looks in Safari.

    I’ve heard that Safari is great, but that’s just one more browser to worry about eh?  What a bummer raspberry

    UltraBob

  • on March 25th, 2003 11:54 AM UltraBob said:

    Hi MJ,

    I may have found the problem that safari was having.  When you get a chance could you tell me if it still looks ridiculous?  I really appreciate your help!

  • on March 25th, 2003 12:00 PM gomichild said:

    Sorry sweetie - still looks the same...keep looking…

    *another designer who wishes that there was just one standard browser to deal with and design for*