Brand Identity

For this project to be successful, I believe it's necessary to approach it as one would a commercial enterprise, to "sell" membership in the project the same way a company sells its finished game.  I use "sell" here in the marketing sense of the word: We need to get people interested in and excited about the idea.  Part of that is creating a professional and appealing brand identity.

We've already gotten the first step out of the way and chosen a name;  The next thing is a good logo to reflect the brand, which is one of things I've been working on as part of the new site.  For the logo, I naturally wanted something to reflect the "city" idea, but I also wanted to work in a bit of the Art Deco connotation that the name "Metropolis" carries.  Here's what I've come up with so far; nothing's finalized, but I think this basic shape works pretty well:



My biggest debate right now is whether to add a letter "M" to that, like so:



I think that definitely gives it a more "Deco" look, but of course reduces the simplicity.  Beyond the base shape, I've also been thinking about the color scheme, right now I'm leaning towards either a "silver" look:

    

Or even "gold":



But I've also considered adding a little contrasting color:



Or maybe even a lot of contrasting color:



Anyone care to weigh in?  Professional design advice and gut reactions are both appreciated! ;)