Art Thread: Menagerie RPG

[insomn14 (Mike)]

Because the Menagerie is a superhero comic, I figured that every good hero needs a recognizable logo (also I needed them for one of my comic projects). They’re first pass and I’m an illustrator not a graphic designer, so they might not be any good . Feel free to comment or make suggestions.

A more textured version of the Menagerie logo I have been using.

And now the characters themselves.

And now all the Newmen. I figured I’d go for a standard through line for all of them except Radiance who, while there will be recognizable elements, has her own thing going on.

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

I have an amateur interest in logo design and branding, and I always appreciate a good logo for comic book characters. Marvel set the standard for this back in the day, though sometimes with mixed results.

Overall, these are pretty darned good. Contemporary logo design tends to downplay 3D effects and the like as an artifact of the 90s and early 00s (when graphic software began to do such things, so everybody did it). Simpler is often seen as better, in modern design terms. I don’t always quite agree, but then I get an amateur thrill out of using all the textures, so I may not be a good judge, either.

Menagerie – I still like the letter forms here – the off-kilter and straining-at-the-seams nature of it all. I’m not sure the added texture here adds much, and may muddy things in smaller reductions.

Charade – Formal, angular, head-heavy, with a gradation to dark. Yeah, that works all too well.

Concord – Good use of the triangle icon. The gradations here may be too dark (Concord is a creature of light).

Ghost Girl – I like the color. The angular font is distinctive, but may be too power-forward for Charlotte. The very tight kerning combined with those inner stripes is attractive but, again, may muddy things up a bit.

Mercury – Nice use of the logo in the background. The font itself is very rigid and static for a speedster. True, doing something angular is almost too cliche, but there’s a reason for that. On the other hand, the texture in the letters does give that mercury/quicksilver nature.

(Not sure about anyone else here, but I grew up in an era where, more than one school year, some kid would bring a vial of actual mercury to school, and plop it on a desktop so we could play with it, blissfully unaware that we were dealing with toxic goo.)

Jason Quill – So the Indiana Jones typeface is a natural here, no question. That said, I’ve always loved the Q stuff you’ve done in the past, and something that tees off of that hyper-modern form fits Jason a bit better, I think.

Newmans – I really like these.

• It’s ironic that Link, whom I think of as the primary member of the Newmans, ends up with the smallest, tightest logo. It almost makes me think that his letters need some sort of horizontal expansion.
• I love that Radiance has her own, and it’s weird that the downlighting on it works so very well (this is a great use of color gradations). I’m tempted to suggest adding the same sort of horizontal heart-beat line to hers that the others have (because it’s a lovely theme) but I suspect that might muddy things.
• It nearly seems unfair, though, that Radiance should be so independent. Perhaps … just as she has her little sun as a micrologo within the lettering, the others could have something similar: a stylized vehicle or wheel or gear for Otto; perhaps literal chain links for Leo (or a stylized lion, playing off his true name); a wind icon for Pneuma; if not within the logo (as with Radiance) than at the right-hand side.

Cool stuff, Mike.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

@Dave

that Radiance should be so independent

I think it’s how I played her, and the others. Link, Aria, and Otto continue to operate in Leo’s combiner-mecha motif. That’s their strength and their preference. Summer consciously chose to develop her own identity away from that. Aria and Summer alone couldn’t achieve Pneuma’s true potentials - be both independent and Leo’s best partner - but together, they can.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

I’m gonna echo what Dave said, I think each of the logos really highlights the feel of each hero. I’m pretty sure I could show these to any comic-book fan and they’d get what the characters were about, just from these.

[insomn14 (Mike)]

@Dave

Menagerie – I still like the letter forms here – the off-kilter and straining-at-the-seams nature of it all. I’m not sure the added texture here adds much, and may muddy things in smaller reductions.

I don’t disagree with that. The white logo with the black stroke is very straight forward, but it does look nice.

@Dave

Concord – Good use of the triangle icon. The gradations here may be too dark (Concord is a creature of light).

Fun detail, this is actually the same gradient I use for Concord’s gold highlights. Might look brighter when offset by the black uniform, so I’ll try lightening up some of the extremes.

@Dave

Ghost Girl – I like the color. The angular font is distinctive, but may be too power-forward for Charlotte. The very tight kerning combined with those inner stripes is attractive but, again, may muddy things up a bit.

I don’t think I understand the “power-forward” comment. This one I wanted to pull double-duty for Ghost Girl the ghost and Ghost Girl the magus. Might not pull off both aspects well, but I think you get the idea for both of them.

@Dave

Mercury – Nice use of the logo in the background. The font itself is very rigid and static for a speedster. True, doing something angular is almost too cliche, but there’s a reason for that. On the other hand, the texture in the letters does give that mercury/quicksilver nature.

This is probably the one I’m least happy with, but I also have other concepts I’ll try to put together later.

@Dave

Jason Quill – So the Indiana Jones typeface is a natural here, no question. That said, I’ve always loved the Q stuff you’ve done in the past, and something that tees off of that hyper-modern form fits Jason a bit better, I think.

This is going to sound weird, but I feel like Jason and Quill Tech have different logos. If I was going to have Jason’s logo fit the Quill Tech corporate standard, I’d probably use the same font face as Charade’s (which has it’s own fun parallels*). I’ll probably give that a try when I work on alternates for Mercury’s.

• I tried to make as many parallels as possible for my own enjoyment. For instances, Concord and Link use the same font face, just with Concord’s being a little more compacted (shorter ).

@Dave

Newmans

These were all done last night after our Scum and Villainy game (I had the concepts mind for a while, I just hadn’t put them to paper since Link is “retired” in the current timeline, but figured I’d try to include everyone). There’s a combined version of this that probably ties all the elements together better, but that’ll have to wait until later. (This is also why I didn’t add individual elements as well, I didn’t want to overcomplicate the designs when they’re all together.)

There’s a part of me who wants to combine two letters in each of the Newmen’s names to hint at their combiner nature, but it seemed a little too gimmicky. Might still try it out later though.

@Dave

I love that Radiance has her own, and it’s weird that the downlighting on it works so very well (this is a great use of color gradations).

This was done for two reasons (time to flex my designer skills): first to evoke a rising sun. This could have been better done if the sun inset was a little lower to match the gradient more, but I thought that would be a little too distracting being off-center (and on the nose). Also, I wanted Charade and Radiance’s logos to look nice together when stacked (not saying someone is going to make a Charade & Radiance comic, but I’d like someone to write it ).

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

@insomn14

not saying someone is going to make a Charade & Radiance comic, but I’d like someone to write it

Summer Time - Menagerie Forum

[insomn14 (Mike)]

[insomn14 (Mike)]

@insomn14

There’s a combined version of this that probably ties all the elements together better, but that’ll have to wait until later.

It’s later.

I think the combiner aspect of the individual names goes too far, but it’s easy to go back to the original design (remember, always save a copy when making modifications).

[insomn14 (Mike)]

Also here’s another Mercury. I think it fits @Dave’s suggestion of something angular. Not sure which one I like better though.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

@insomn14

I think the combiner aspect of the individual names goes too far

On that note, I want to try something. Do you have the individual letters of the names, and can you send those to me?

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

@insomn14

I think the combiner aspect of the individual names goes too far, but it’s easy to go back to the original design (remember, always save a copy when making modifications).

Words of wisdom indeed.

The combiner aspects work nicely with Otto – Link feels a bit cramped, and Pneuma even moreso. In part it’s because the letterforms are already fairly narrow.

I do like the “NEWMEN” look, though.

@insomn14

Also here’s another Mercury. I think it fits @Dave’s suggestion of something angular. Not sure which one I like better though.

My thought on angularity was actually more around the cliche of slanted letters to convey motion. That said, I like this – the wings give it both a sense of speed and evoke the winged helmet of Mercury. Given the character’s colors, it might be worth looking for something more blue/gray, and I’m unsure the logo behind the name quite works. I do overall like it better than the first pass.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

@insomn14

Also here’s another Mercury.

My only comment is that (at least to me) the left ‘M’ is well defined because most of the letter is distinct, but the right ‘Y’ tends to get eaten by the wing effect, so my brain initially read it as ‘MERCUR’.

[insomn14 (Mike)]

@garrett

On that note, I want to try something. Do you have the individual letters of the names, and can you send those to me?

Yeah, I’ll try to remember to send those over tonight.

@Dave

I’m unsure the logo behind the name quite works.

@garrett

My only comment is that (at least to me) the left ‘M’ is well defined because most of the letter is distinct, but the right ‘Y’ tends to get eaten by the wing effect, so my brain initially read it as ‘MERCUR’.

I was worried about the branches of the Y getting lost. My other thought was to fatten the letters at the bottom rather than the top so that the wings could come from the bottom of the letters and leave the top halves alone. I think the right branch of Y might still get lost with the wings, but I think that’s just going to be an inherent issue with this sort of design.

Wanting to get the stylized mercury symbol into the logo seems like it might be more problem than it’s worth. I was thinking about maybe doing it in the negative space between the letters M and E (sort of like the star in the movie Justice League logo) but I think it’s slightly too complex to look good like that.

EDIT: I’m a fool. Make the Y look like the mercury symbol and then put the wings behind it. It seems like the obvious answer in hindsight.

[insomn14 (Mike)]

I was a fool for not thinking of this earlier. The iterative process is great for making this stuff seem simpler in hindsight.

Also, I did another pass on Mercury’s sigil. The original iteration just never looked right in many situations and didn’t read well when small. I liked it, but I think this stylized version will be easier to read and looks like something that symbolizes “Mercury” a lot more.

@insomn14

Yeah, I’ll try to remember to send those over tonight.

@garrett Sent those over on Discord. If there’s a more easily accessed method for you, let me know.

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

Ooooh. I like the new Mercury – logo and text. Only problem … leftward leaning letters feel more like “putting on the brakes” than “speed”. On the other hand, the integration with the “Y”-as-logo is kind of cool.

My suggestion would be putting the logo on the left, then have the name (including an actual “Y”) lean right based on that shape. If the logo then seems to make it look more like YMERCURY, then changing the logo color / tint might help.

[insomn14 (Mike)]

And we’re back with the Menagerie to talk about (of all things) props.

I don’t think we ever had a good picture of the Keynome during the game (there was the pictures in the book, but I don’t think they really fit the tone Doyce wanted to do with). So I tried making something a little gem-ish (but not Infinity Stone-ish) and sort of key-looking.

The Keynome in the Crystal Cavern in Issue 26

Keynome Kid Adam offering Alycia the Keynome in Issue 59

Thoughts?

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

I dig it. And I can imagine it extending in length, bringing to mind both a nerve cell in the brain (these things are supposed to be tied to some kind of cosmic overmind thing) and a Keyblade.

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

That is absolutely not how I imagined a keynome (maybe … kinda … like a geode? one that occasionally turns itself inside-out?) (or else just something very crystalline and glowy), but I like it a lot. I mean, it’s on point in being key -like, but that’s not a bad thing.

Did make me go back to check out the episode (MENAGERIE #59 - FOUR POTS ON THE STOVE).

[insomn14 (Mike)]

@Dave

Did make me go back to check out the episode (MENAGERIE #59 - FOUR POTS ON THE STOVE ).

That episode does hold a special place in my heart as an important turning point for two characters: Adam having surpassed his timidness through sheer levels of “fuck it” to offer up incredible cosmic power to “wanted international science terrorist” Alycia, and Alycia having grown as a character enough to no want anything to do with it. Yeah, that second one sure is a lot more positive than the first, but the first sure is interesting.

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

Yeah. It also felt like a moment where Alycia took the initiative within the group to go up to the roof and talk with Adam – I was more surprised by that, if that makes sense, than her turning down infinite power.

COSMO: You could have had the power.

BISHOP: I don’t want it.

COSMO: Don’t you know the places we can go with this?

BISHOP: Yeah, I do. There’s nobody there.

She’d seen what absolute power (or pretensions thereto) could do. Part of it was not trusting herself with it. Part of it was rejecting the whole idea.

(And, yeah, Adam was awesome, too.)