G'day all, Hows it goin'?

I have had ideas of starting a discussion/gamming community
where people are free to play, and talk with one another. I had
just been procrastinating though, but finally i got started on an emblem. I wasn't too sure if it was any good, so I came to the one place
that I know would help. Although it still isn't finished I am pretty happy
with it so far. Please, if you have some suggestions don't hesitate or
dumb down your criticism, everyones opinion is welcome here. Keep
in mind, i'm not any good at Photoshop or any art for that matter, so
its not "Gallery" worthy or anything like that.




added a tag for you. please remember to add it. -nagato

the drop shadow really never looks good

you need to work on actually designing something of magnificience and not just dropping drop shadow on simple words

Just a heads up, when you are making an emblem or a logo of any kind, do it in the vector based program, like Illustrator or Corel Draw.

Why? Well, call it a professional ailment, but as someone who is coming from the workplace where we do lots and lots of company logos on the daily basis the main thing about any brand is to make it in that way that is applicable to any format: textile, paper, engraving in paper, metal, plastic, embroidery ... Now, I know this is something you will probably never do, and your logo is only for web purposes, but nevertheless it is important to start with a solid base on which you will build your knowledge about logo making for later.

Vector graphic will allow you to transfer your logo from one medium to another with ease, without any loss of the graphic quality, and everyone is preparing their brand with that in mind. If you make a raster based logo, with fixed size and dpi, it will suffer during these transfers. Also, making a logo as a simplistic black&white clipart will put you in the correct way of thinking while deciding your visual identity and forming your brand. So, before applying any effects on it you have to start with basics.

Maybe this is all too advanced talk about this simple thing you have made and placed in this thread, but it can be a good advice if you ever decide to do some serious graphic design work later.

Now, looking at your logo I see you wanted to make a shape that has some connection with the wording 'team anthro', so you went with that 'butterfly' look. Ok, but the shape itself is too crude, made out from other basic shapes and very boring in its execution, boring to the eye and brain since it doesn't state anything that will leave an impression after the first look. Same thing with the font. Very generic, and the way you have used it, splitting the brand name on top and bottom, putting the uninteresting shape in the middle with the use of plain shadows and gradient, is also very uninteresting to the eye and brain. Nothing there is conveying any kind of message or statement. It is a work done with very little imagination and planning.

I would suggest browsing for some logos on the internet and absorbing some ideas first, so you can see examples of a good and bad branding, so you can form some kind of gradation before doing work on your logo.
It's not an easy job.

As an example, here is a variation of your logo: