Personal Branding/Logo for Freelance

I have no issue with the type style. My issue is how the viewer receives your name. Your most memorable asset is your surname "Charity". Its highly original and is evocative. I would exploit this more. Your current logo first places emphasis on jamin (most legible) then Ben (large type) and finally on Charity. My recommendation is the reverse of what you currently have

"Ben Charity" sounds well, not too long, not too short. "Benjamin Charity" is a bit to long to pronounce fast (as a brand).

And don't confuse the clients with two names - decide for one and use it consistently

The first 2 layouts are much less readable - i actually thought it might be a band at first (jammin' charity or something). what if you used a different font for charity? birth of a hero goes really well with the maple origins.

I like the grunge look as well, unfortunatly if you ever plan on vinyl cutting something like this, forget about it. you would have to digitally print and leave a border around all letters and pieces. I also thought it was a band at first glance that raised money for Ben. Just me though. Benjamin is such a strong name, I would almost have to keep it all together as one word and play with the charity. Cool look though.

When i first looked at your logo the first thing I see is 'jamin', as its at the top and organised left to right.

I find the 'A' and 'E' on their sides takes me a little while to work out what it was.

What sort of back ground would you print this on, just wondering how the smudgy look will go on different colours.

Ficou parecendo marca de surf e está muito apagado! Mas a idéia é boa =]

ya Ben the concept is good, since u r in advertising many of your industry people should know u by ur name an in case if u start up a company then u can cash in on ur name only. Its always good to have words which can be spelt easily and short. I suggest use max 2 worlds like Ben Jamin or some thing which u like

I agree with Nicholas, I think Charity needs to be bigger and jamin smaller, the rotated version (3) is my favorite though.

Again - the two important bits are Charity (because that's what makes you different and memorable) and Ben (because that is what people will call you!). I really like the approach, but 'jamin' is the first thing you see and it makes no sense.

However, you do need to be careful - if you lead with Charity then the reader may not realise it's a name!

the logo looks very grungy right now. and the grungy details coming off the letters won't be very clear when the logo is printed small. You should be experimenting option that are more versatile, this logo will be very limited in how small it can be printed. Even the reduced version that you showed just kind of looks like there are dirt smudges around the the type.

good idea to design your name, you'll be using it quite a bit once you get out of school and start working on getting yourself out there. i agree with others that "jamin" is read first. i actually read "Bon" instead of Ben. but quickly realized my mistake. Charity will likely always mislead people if you accentuate that only. I think equal importance should be placed on first and last names. I recommend shortening the first name and just going with Ben. because sometimes in the workplace it seems childish or over formal when people go with their long first names "Jeffrey, or Theodore" I would choose a less grungy font, even though i agree they do look cool. but you'll want to be more generic, esp. if you want to work for people that wont like/want a grunge look. hope this helps..

I agree with Nicholas, Angela and Tessa about the Jamin and would try to resolve better.

One thing about logos is that they have to be usable, and usable across many media. For instance, on a website, if you wanted to put this in a header, it would be awkward because it is very tall, but not very wide (opposite of a lot of headers). Also. the typography is a bit gimmicky for me personally. It's got a good start though. Logos are a lot about how you use them though, so I think if you use it wisely, this could work.

I would change the orientation so that "Ben" is read first. As it is, "jamin" is dominant and what is read first. Also, Charity is too small in relation to the other elements. If reproduced at a very small size, "Charity" would not be readable. Hope this helps.

I personally am over the popular free fonts that have been around for the past year or so. I would grab a modern, clean, legible font that won't age so fast.

I'm not a fan of the placement either. It would work if you use a clean, square styled font with varied weights.

I like playing with ben-jamin, this is catchy but now is not enough clear.