Quick idea could be made by hand easily

or

I'm not much of a fan of things that use the state shape. I would be more partial to something simple and bold.

It's even Chank font for local designer cred.

It's an horrific Chank font. Please let's not use Dickwhipped Lincoln either. <anecdote>Chank & I were on the same BBS once, 12 years ago. I started designing fonts in Visio 'causa Chank, except the first two I did sucked so bad that I decided it wasn't worth it to continue designing fonts in Visio. But they were BOTH better than THAT one.</anecdote> No offense to Chank; he's done oodles better. (For 12 years.)

I'm tempted to do a simple 3-color design of a fez with TC Maker "embroidered" on it, but that would make sense only to Hoot and Noise (er, Krista and Pat). And going that route might mean I would eventually be expected to actually wear a fez.

A stencil font sorta makes sense for us, but it's hard to find a stencily typeface that's both clear and attractive. The design itself should reflect our interests without having to explicitly spell it out, y'know, like the AT&T logo says "global technology company". And the better the design element can stand up to being reduced to the most basic rendering possible, the better -- like 2 contrasting colors with bold lines and only 1 simple pattern. A strong logo should be stencil-able without losing any of its clarity.

OK, I'm just gonna start barfing examples here; I don't specifically mean we should adopt any of these... but lots of hand tools stay recognizable when given the logo treatment. Hammer, screwdriver, drill, ruler... ooh, skull and crosswrenches! ARRRRR!! (no really, I don't mean to do that last one, unless and until we actually have cause to build a vessel with appropriate yardarm upon which to hang such a dastardly device. Shivered timbers optional.) ...Hard hat. Steering wheel. Rotary saw blade. PCB traces. A simple IC chip on a contrasting background, with the POV skewed over and up a bit, so you appear to be looking down at one corner of it, with X/Y/Z axes all diagonal. Ones and zeroes. A bicycle wheel with stencil-friendly tire treads & spokes. Lightning zap. Modified "DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE" warning. Coffee mug. (What? It's a tool!) No Bleen. (Let me repeat, I'm just spewing.)

I guess I don't hate that font as much as you, but it was just the first non-boring display font I hit in my list (we could always use comic sans). Also I was just targeting having something together by pi day (will there be pie?). We can always work on something more meaningful/interesting/attractive later.

...oh now you're just yanking my chain.


Hmm, maybe so... I wonder... you know how I was describing the corner-on skewed view of the IC chip idea? Well, that viewing angle, on a simple crust-topped pie with traditional scalloped edge. But instead of fork holes or woven strips on top, the steam ("heat waves") is being vented from a cut-out Greek capital letter Pi. On the pie.

It's hokey. It's geeky. It's YUMMY.

got on to this pretty late in the evening - but heres a first draft of a logo/branding/graphic?
(10 mins of shooping - nothing fancy)

will work on more/alternative designs as free time permits.

I like the idea of working some tools in there, somehow, although I expect we won't be
able to represent all genres of tool so someone will always feel left out no matter what
we pick.

The skull & crossed wrenches has been done already.

.

heres two more...
cause i like to doodle around on sunday nights.

Here's one I generated using the "Official Seal Generator" at says-it.com
There's about a bajillion possible permutations available there.

Cool stuff Nick, great stylish look on all of them. I really like the warning labels, but the doodles are very cool too.