hextupleyoodot

The actual intent for this, as for all of the pieces in the "Smashified" series, was to try to match the style of the 3D renders for Smash 4. As such, doing too much with shifting hues along the value scale isn't something that quite makes sense for replicating that style.

This particular one, as well as one other, was done during a live stream, so time constraints were a lot more limiting as far as what could be accomplished. As such, the polish isn't quite up to snuff with others in the series. Texturing was definitely rushed quite a bit for this one.

Just thought I'd throw that out there, since it does have some bearing on how the piece turned out. Thanks for the critique!

A video game or movie logo is always tough to figure out. Video games, more so. And to take an existing franchise and try to create a logo in that same light is even more challenging.

I think the artist has done a decent job here. The biggest concern would definitely be the treatment of typography. While even the professional industry doesn't always make good type decisions, it's still important to make sure those decisions are made correctly. It's almost always a bad idea to take a serif font and add any amount of bevel or emboss. Also, outlining text should be done in a way that aids reading.

The illustrations here are quite nice, though I feel they are so complicated that one has trouble interpreting what they are. One should always be careful not to overdo layer styles or effects. A simpler design says more about professionalism than throwing on as many flashy effects as possible.

Another concern is the fact that the logos are highly monochromatic. Summoners Symphony does much better with it, but the other logos have the word "Zelda" in the same hue as the background objects, which creates less contrast: something of utmost importance when it comes to readability.

I understand that it may not be artist's intention to imitate the visual conventions of existing Zelda logos. Therefore, the fact that these logos have a much different feel than the official logos isn't necessarily a problem.

In summary, the biggest issue is typography: contrast of letters against the background, simplicity of design, and perhaps the appropriateness of the modern scrawl in the subtitles.

Take all of these into account, and your logos will go from being just more fan-made Zelda logos to something that will make your audience think twice.

Hope this has been constructive!

First, I wanna say that it's definitely nice to see some typographic pieces on deviantArt, as it's not a popular artform here at dA by any means. You've definitely captured a big part of the deviantART culture with this piece.

From a compositional standpoint, it's pretty strong, and it's clear what you're trying to do: create the illusion of a low-pixel graphic by using type in place of square pixels. And to that end, I think you've done well.

From a typographical standpoint is where I think it could use improvement. I'm a bit of a type purist, so perhaps my input is irrelevant, but the distortion of the characters is something that I tend to stay away from, as it renders useless the careful proportioning of each character by the type designer. It's my belief that when type is the only element in a composition, its proportions should be preserved as intended. The use of centered strokes on the characters also detracts from the typeface's intended shape. While I understand that you were doing this to fill in the counter space, it's probably not the best solution. Perhaps using a heavier weight and tighter kerning (to the point of creating ligatures) would have done better. Or perhaps constraining yourself to all caps would have been a better solution as well.

Also, don't be afraid to utilize the designed condensed variants of the typeface. It's always better to use a condensed variant of a typeface that to accomplish a "condensed" form artificially by distorting the proportions. That's why the condensed faces exist, after all. Modern Swiss typefaces like Helvetica Neue have a LOT of variants, so you should be able to accomplish this same composition without having to manually distort any of the characters.

Overall, however, I think it's a nice piece, and it's definitely something that a deviant can be proud of. I'm sure it's pretty clear how much love you're getting for it.

I'm still a student, so my perception of typographic composition is still a bit unripe, but hopefully this has been constructive.

Thanks for the input! Yeah, I was a bit concerned about the fur length, but I had trouble getting it shorter without losing some degree of authenticity.

About the tail: It was hard trying to stay true to a flatter tail, as animals in real life with flat tails have a lot different properties. Ergo, I ended up going with a more squirrel-cat like tail, and I had the fur density and length to try to replicate the widening of the tail as it goes further out.

Don't even know what happened to that ear... I think I'll fix that right now.

That's enough of me trying to justify my design choices. XP

Ahem