[Scott]

This is a draft Eyeman threw together in a hurry, so don't get all critic-y.

[Nick]

Great visual style and colours, but...

eilelopean? Or what does it try to say? Definitely needs more readability.

[Anonxeuix]

Hmm, it definitely needs to look clearer and more legible. I like the border and background.

[Radek Smektala]

eilelopean?

I see Eyelopeah. But it's great anyway!
From a layman's perspective, I think only the letters C and N need to be made a bit clearer. Otherwise, the logo works.

[Gondolin]

It looks nice, provided you already know the game's name. 

[Vince]

I like the direction and style, but it needs more clarity. I know it says Cyclopean, but it's very hard to read it. The frame design is kinda generic. Maybe it can be more oozing, chaotic, and tentacly?

Also, as an alternative maybe the name should be etched in some old stone? Like on one of those creepy stone doors you suddenly find in some old mine.

[Eyeman]

The font is my own interpretaion of 'Deutche Gothic', and coming from wildstlye graffiti roots I can read the alphabet in a pile 'o spaghetti, so I'm kinda blind to how legible my lettering is. This is 10 times simpler than my first draft, hehe.
I'll will definitely remove the superflous curlicues, etc and make any new versions much more legible.

I like the tentacle idea, I kept the border simple to bring to mind something more monolithic, rather than get caught up in intricate stone filigree, which I would still like to try though. Layered intricacy is my middle name.
Some sort of symbolism for tentacles might go a long way towards making it unique to Cyclopean too.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[Scott]

This is a draft Eyeman threw together in a hurry, so don't get all critic-y.

Yes, I know it's ILLEGIBLE, that's part of the horror!  You're not meant to be able to read it.  Vince, this is from your school of marketing, where you hide the content from potential customers and make them work to find it.

[caster]

The frame design is kinda generic. Maybe it can be more oozing, chaotic, and tentacly?

This.

It would be cool if tentacles were coming from behind the frame with letters and tangling juts slightly through few of them.
Maybe doing it with different colors would work too.
Something blue and green and shady - horror style. Though that may be too obvious.

I suggest using some fractal err... surfaces? That would give an impression of chaos, something spongy but half-alive half disintegrating. Like madness seeping in, taking over.
Also since the name is what it is maybe there should be some kind of eye somewhere in it.

[Scott]

The slimy, living, tentacled thing is certainly a theme many many others have gone with before.  If tentacles were included, I would probably go with a single, more subtle tentacle instead of the spaghetti-like mass.  I personally prefer disturbing hints to overwhelming horror, which I doubt could be conveyed in a logo in any case.

What I originally requested was dusty blocks of masonry, heavy and ancient rather than alive and spongy.  And cyclopean, as Lovecraft so frequently used the word, means "big", not "one-eyed", although as a pun it's not out of the question.

[caster]

Sure, im only throwing suggestions in.

Masses of tentacles surely need to be avoided. I agree.
When i mentioned some kind of fractal surfaces i envisioned it as something crawling into the picture. Those stone blocks - but with something chaotic eating into them from the edges or something like that, not as a design of the whole logo.

Anyway, just throwing stuff in as it pops into my mind.

[Vince]

Vince, this is from your school of marketing, where you hide the content from potential customers and make them work to find it.

Creating rewarding experiences since 2005!

[Eyeman]

Something blue and green and shady - horror style. Though that may be too obvious.

It sounds good in theory, but green and orange (Autumn setting) would clash... Hmm maybe clash is good though. The horror of contrast!
I actually stole the colors on the logo directly from a pic of an ancient greyish green stone.

[caster]

Well ok, he logo itself is a bit greyish.
I think the background looks warm and cozy and nice.

/
-  graffiti style writing is usually driving me mad. Mad!

[GhanBuriGhan]

The frame design is kinda generic. Maybe it can be more oozing, chaotic, and tentacly?

Also, as an alternative maybe the name should be etched in some old stone? Like on one of those creepy stone doors you suddenly find in some old mine.

This. Needs more creepiness. Don't get me wrong, the design is nice, but it is too tame. How about making the logo the cover of an unspeakable tome written by a mad arab? You could have something creepy hiding in the book art...

[Eyeman]

I think the background looks warm and cozy and nice.

The background is some unused junk I had lying around, this is really just a quick mockup. It just fit the bill as far as colors went.

-  graffiti style writing is usually driving me mad. Mad!

I once did a graffiti piece where mutilated bodies and rude fleshy appendages formed the lettering. Not one to paint near the local primary school, in fact it never made it out of my homies Blackbook, and with good reason. Some things should stay hidden.

[Brian]

It's a little hard to read right now. A solid color on a solid background would help. I tend to favor simple and clean lettering, because once you get art or stylized fonts in there it can make it harder to read at a glance, like in the case of dripping blood or tribal tattoo fonts where you have to focus for a second to get it. If someone can quickly scroll down a page and still get it stuck in their head, is good.

[34s Cell]

Kind of creepy but needs more madness

[Gareth]

Part of the problem is that the borders of the letters are about the same grey as the background stones, which means the letters don't "pop".

But believe me, I understand how hard it is to come up with a good logo, I'm still working on it

[CandyStick]

Hopefeully Eyeman doesn't mind me doing this. But today, I had some free time at work (I work as a graphic designer), so I challenged my self to see what I could do with "Cyclopean" under an hour, just for fun. So I figured why not share the result with everyone here, I decided to play with the "O", since there are equal numbers of letters on each side of it, so things balance out well visualy (just something to think about). Anyway here it is.

[Eyeman]

Hopefeully Eyeman doesn't mind me doing this. But today, I had some free time at work (I work as a graphic designer), so I challenged my self to see what I could do with "Cyclopean" under an hour, just for fun. So I figured why not share the result with everyone here, I decided to play with the "O", since there are equal numbers of letters on each side of it, so things balance out well visualy (just something to think about). Anyway here it is.

Not at all, I quite like the tentacles forming a rudimentary x around the O. I tried playing with the O at first too, then it got tired and I left it alone.
The x of tentacle gives me an idea... Like what first seems to be a rising sun but is actually a swarm of tentacles. Hmm. I got a lotta work ahead of me.

[CandyStick]

Hopefeully Eyeman doesn't mind me doing this. But today, I had some free time at work (I work as a graphic designer), so I challenged my self to see what I could do with "Cyclopean" under an hour, just for fun. So I figured why not share the result with everyone here, I decided to play with the "O", since there are equal numbers of letters on each side of it, so things balance out well visualy (just something to think about). Anyway here it is.

Not at all, I quite like the tentacles forming a rudimentary x around the O. I tried playing with the O at first too, then it got tired and I left it alone.
The x of tentacle gives me an idea... Like what first seems to be a rising sun but is actually a swarm of tentacles. Hmm. I got a lotta work ahead of me.

Cool, glad you found it of use. I always find that logo's are much more memorable when imagery interacts with the text, so that there is some kind of concept to engage people. I usually do corporate indentity work, so simple, gestalt based logos are what I end up doing, not this kind of stuff since for the most part game logos are more of illustrations than logos per se anyway. But it sure was fun, playing with all the photoshop stuff.

And have you though about making the "o" in to a creepy eye, or perhaps some kind of portal to another world showing a hazy glimpse of the sunken city, with tentacles coming behind it, it might work very well. Anyway, looking forward to seeing the new concept.

[catmorbid]

I think you should use a different kind of font, something that's more readable, maybe a bit slimmer? The current one is pretty horrible. Also, I completely agree with the need for more oozing, chaoting and tentaclous You could detail the background with stuff like book pages, letters and all kinds of weird occult symbols and shit like that

[Scott]

With tomblike stone letters, a sqaurish O could form a doorway to a bizarre world beyond (with perhaps a ziggurat?)  Then the book pages, letters and all kinds of weird occult symbols and shit like that in the background.

[FireStomp]

With tomblike stone letters, a sqaurish O could form a doorway to a bizarre world beyond (with perhaps a ziggurat?)  Then the book pages, letters and all kinds of weird occult symbols and shit like that in the background.

Ooh, I do kind of like that. Not sure about crowding the background too much, though. A bit of parchments, a few obscure symbols, fine, but too much shit spoils the soup. Erm... well, bad metaphor, but you get the point. Overloading it on tentacles and green, glowy stuff is definitely not the way to go, though. After all, a lot of Lovecraft's appeal is that the creepy, crawly, slimy things are presented through an austere, darkly calm, even restrained filter that makes the flashes of horror all the more disturbing.

Maybe, in the game at least, the picture in the O could shift slowly from a ziggurat to a less-Euclidean monstrosity and back? Just an idea.

[micks]

Also, if you go with a single, stylish tentacle, you could add a tagline like  "Cyclopean: the best game with tentacles since 1993"

[caster]

That is the conundrum isnt it?
To overblow by trying to put too much "atmosphere" it or go minimal?
And also a even bigger one:
Is one tentacle really ever enough!?!

[Eyeman]

Yeah, theres a lot to consider indeed. For me a logo says a lot about a game too. A bad logo can even stop me from picking up a game box.

[Wrath of Dagon]

The stone letters should be covered in slimy moss.

[GTFO]

Is one tentacle really ever enough!?!

Does this answer the question?

Cyclopean [...] is inspired by, and to a large extent based on, the stories and mythos of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and takes place in 1923 Western Massachusetts. [...]
I chose the name Cyclopean because it was arguably Lovecraft’s favourite adjective, meaning “big” in the context of his stories, not “one-eyed”.

Why don't you use an image similar to this as a background, which shows an early 20th century street (not really, it's 1890, but nobody will notice the difference) while still conveying a sense of big since it shows spacial depth and lots of big buildings.
Then you put it all inside a frame/border. The final touch is then having a couple of tentacles trying to come out of that picture (as in, if trying to escape from that world to our). So you see a couple of tentacles over the border/frame you drawed.
Oh, and of course you put the word "cyclopean" where you thinks it looks better. Or maybe something like, "cyclopean (and in smaller text bellow it) a cthulhu rpg adventure". And alternatively, the tentacles trying to overwhelm that logo.

Note: I don't mean for you to use this image or any image in particular. What I mean is for you to use it as a concept. Something which depicts a early 20th century location with ignorant sheeple, while making the person (that is viewing the logo) wonder on what will happen over there to all those people, since there are some pervert alien tentacles roaming there.

[caster]

It was a rhetorical question

/
Sorry if im already a bit boring with stuff from deviants but i thought to put in these few as suggestions for consideration and inspiration. Both describe what i would want to suggest better then i can

Also, since Scott mentioned Cyclopean should primarily be taken as huge, gigantic  -this first one sorta applies. Shame its "taken" already

http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/Portal-77332076

this other ...  thats,...story for itself.

http://tarrzan.deviantart.com/art/Thoughts-55846818


- check the full view of both -

[One Wolf]

Personally, I would not at all like to see anything slimy/tentacley/other-worldy.  That kind of thing always bothers me, it's like a slap in the face.  I want to wander into madness without being alerted to its presence at the title screen.

I much prefer something almost mundane, but also.... amiss.  Wrought-iron, stone etched; those are sort of commonplace examples that work for me.  I'm not suggesting them necessarily, just noting that they are examples that work for me. 

For example I love Penumbra:Overture's main screen, even though it has only a tangential connection to the story.   

[Scott]

I mostly lean your way, OW.  A tomb has lots of death/mystery-related connotations, but isn't necessary supernatural or even scary.  It hints at possibilities.

[Eyeman]

I mostly lean your way, OW.  A tomb has lots of death/mystery-related connotations, but isn't necessary supernatural or even scary.  It hints at possibilities.

Me too. I definitely want an understated design that hints at unseen entities rather than being overtly monstrous. I think it should be simple, unique and recognizable at first glance, as classic RPG logo would, then perhaps a little creepier with the details you notice upon studying the design for a moment. Perhaps then you stare at it, and notice smaller details like occult symbols and grotesque faces woven intricately and subtlely into the design.
As for things like streets in the background and so forth, they can be added later in different ways for different uses. My main concern is doing a logo that can fit with any imagery the game uses, and works by itself without a backdrop.   

[caster]

Having a multiple backgrounds for the logo could be really, really cool if used well.
You can set them to change with being in some particular area, discovering something in the game or any kind of solutions to quests player achieves - if you want to.

[Palmer Eldritch]

I once did a graffiti piece where mutilated bodies and rude fleshy appendages formed the lettering. Not one to paint near the local primary school, in fact it never made it out of my homies Blackbook, and with good reason. Some things should stay hidden.

Most of the people I know who were into graffiti are mostly sketching these days. I always thought it seemed like fun, but I never got into it. Suppose the illegal side of it seems rather juvenile and risky to continue doing as you grow older (well, I'm not particularly old, but still...). One of my friends actually does one or two carefully planned illegal pieces each year, but that's about it. Are you still active? What's your take on this (if you don't mind me asking)?

Anyway, the logo is a good start. There's not much more to say about it, although I think people were overreacting in regards to legibility. Looking forward to future versions...

[Eyeman]

Most of the people I know who were into graffiti are mostly sketching these days. I always thought it seemed like fun, but I never got into it. Suppose the illegal side of it seems rather juvenile and risky to continue doing as you grow older (well, I'm not particularly old, but still...). One of my friends actually does one or two carefully planned illegal pieces each year, but that's about it. Are you still active? What's your take on this (if you don't mind me asking)?

Anyway, the logo is a good start. There's not much more to say about it, although I think people were overreacting in regards to legibility. Looking forward to future versions...

Well, I try to get out and do legal pieces as much as possible, try and take the fire out of local anger over the 'Graffiti Menace' that apparantly plagues our town. Kids can't even buy spray paint without a parent or guardian anymore, next a guy won't even be able to buy a pencil. Oh boy look at the time, it's 1984 already.
As to illegal graff, yeah it's mostly too risky, especially in my part of town.  I'd rather watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer while sketching in my studio than play hoody ninja, it's frakking cold out there man!

[caster]

I found another one for inspirational purposes.
This one is kind of personal. And it has tentacles.
No its not that kind of a picture.

http://henning.deviantart.com/art/Field-researcher-124140527

The guy has a portion of his works devoted solely to Lovecraft.

[Palmer Eldritch]

Somewhat impressive technically, I suppose, but it's not my cup of tea. Not only is it generic, it has an odd synthetic feel that doesn't evoke Lovecraft at all, at least not to me. Way more of a professional end product than I could hope to muster, though.

EDIT. Had to correct spelling errors a few times. I really shouldn't be posting after work.