The Logo Company delivers on its promise - lots of logos (11!) to choose from in less than three business days. I’ve organised the designs into two categories: the no comment pile and the “we’ll see” pile. I’ll let you figure out which one’s which.

First Category

Second Category

One week from tomorrow, we should have a good idea whether the store can be launched on our target date of 1 December. By then, our programmer should have finished developing the e-commerce portion of the site and our supplier should have sent us the first batch of T-shirts. We’ll see if we can make it on time for eDay.

“Tis the season when most retailers generate 20-40% of their annual eCommerce revenues and profits. Historically, analysts have touted “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Thanksgiving, as the highest traffic day for e-retailers. However, contrary to popular belief and based on actual 2005 data from its LIVEmark benchmarking service, Coremetrics advises its clients to expect their highest traffic day to actually be the following Monday, December 4, 2006. Coremetrics predicts that sales on this date, which it has coined “eDay,” will be 19% higher than “Cyber Monday,” and that 2006 overall holiday retail sales will increase 16% over last year’s holiday season.”

More info at http://www.coremetrics.com.

Our second T-shirt is ready to be printed. This men’s T-shirt is, I think, a playful twist on the Snellen eye chart. The idea popped up when I saw an ad for an optometrist on the Tube.

Ps: design for T-shirt 3 is ready but I’m not sure which T-shirt colour to print it on. Will have to do some scouting on Oxford St. later today.

Designing our company’s logo has been more challenging than anticipated. A reason for this is due to the name we chose, Swiftlabel.

It seems that whatever fonts I tried, and I have quite an extensive library, there’s an issue with the first 4 letters of the word. Maybe the S is too curvy. Or maybe the W is too wide relative to the following letters. I was quite aggravated and even considered the possibility of changing the company name.

But after more tinkering and patience, I became somewhat satisfied with a lettering based on the Frutiger font, used prominently (or at least a close relative of the font) in Barcelona and Berlin. I only need to find another S (or adjust it) to have it flow seamlessly with the other letters.

Moving on to the symbol, I wanted to create something simple, catchy but not sporty. I played around with different geometric shapes to have them form what looks vaguely like an S or an SL. Here are the four versions I designed:

But because I’m not a designer, I should also consider outside help. I actually did with a professional designer, but felt that the work, although impressive, did not capture the essence of the company. It looked more suitable for a sportswear company.

I’m now going to try the services of The Logo Company. We’ll see if spending under $150 for a logo can take me as far as it did for Phil Knight.

Note:
Swatch and Swiss Airlines are the only two companies that I found that have a good logo and a name that starts with SW.

The past weekend was a guest-listed affair. Friday night started off at the Cocktail Lounge at Mews of Mayfair. Tucked in an overlooked alley off New Bond Street, this hip basement bar had several things that I liked. It was busy but not stuffed, attracted a sexy crowd of people my age, and played music at a level that doesn’t disrupt conversations. With its discreet location, the Mews of Mayfair is a great place to show someone how well you know London. Just make sure you dress up a bit to fit in.

After chatting with and thanking our lovely organisers at the Mews, Friend and I then moved on to the View at Leicester Square for the launch of the Model Society 2007 calendar. I would be lying if I said that the party was such a flop that we left early. Now it might still have been a flop, it’s just that we never made it past the entrance although I got a confirmation that we were on the guest list.

It was evident the guy who prepared the guest list screwed up. Regardless, they should’ve let us in. Did they not know that we were with Swiftlabel? That cool fashion label / lifestyle brand… that still hasn’t made its first sale. In the end, being the cool people that we were, we went for ice cream instead and headed home.

On Saturday night, our busy schedule took us to a promising singles’ party at Boutique 60, the bar of the plush Baglioni Hotel in South Kensington. While queuing, we noticed a group of kids in tuxes ahead of us and realised this wasn’t the fully private party that we expected.

The theme throughout the night was finding our elusive organiser. We weren’t the only ones as we easily spotted others with the same perplexed look. What the heck was going on? At least it allowed us to mingle with them, which was the goal of the event anyway. But the party never lived up to its hype.

Addresses
Mews of Mayfair, 10 Lancashire Court, www.mewsofmayfair.com, Bond St. Tube. Time Out review.

Boutique 60 at Baglioni, 60 Hyde Park Gate, website, Gloucester Rd Tube, review.

I enjoyed a wonderful dinner last night at La Bouchée in South Kensington. With no fewer than 5 seafood and meat dishes, this quaint French bistrot offers a wide selection to please the discerning palate of the French expats who live in the area.
 
My first instinct was to order the entrecôte béarnaise. But recalling how my body violently reacted to the entrecôte prepared bleue at the London branch of le Relais de Venise, I played it safe and opted for the confit de canard. It was a good choice as it was prepared the way I like it – crispy in the outside and tender in the inside – and I don’t feel queasy today.

La Bouchée is a great place to take someone on a date as shown by the string of young couples filling the room. Ma seule reproche: the ice cream was shamefully bland.

Prices
Entrée:  £3-5; plat principal: £13-17; dessert: £4-6.
Service charge is added to the bill.

Address
La Bouchée, 56 Old Brompton Road, 020 7589 1929, South Kensington Tube
Other reviews: Londonelicious, London-Eating.

We’re finally sending our first design to the printer.

I can’t remember how I came up with the concept, but it might have something to do with me helping a female friend to get what she wanted.

It took us about two weeks to get the desired look. Fortunately, the designer we worked with and his associate were patient with us. Can you add an extra loop? Can you increase the spacing between the loops? Can you try a different font? Can you decrease the font size? Can you increase the font gradually? Good stuff, we’ll go with the first design you did. Sorry, and thanks guys!

At Swiftlabel, we strive to be good corporate citizens. When word came to us that Mayfair’s Pangaea was hosting a fundraiser for breast cancer research last night, we felt compelled to contribute to this great cause.

The evening looked promising. I got there early and quickly noticed that I was surrounded by women in their very early 20s. For a moment, I thought I was at a lesbian night (it has happened before). But when someone approached me to buy a breast cancer pin, I knew I was at the right place.

My cue to leave happened shortly after 11pm, when a swarm of bankers and consultants stormed in, flipping the girl-to-guy ratio and lifting the average age to 25+.

According to the flyer, Sara Cox and Louise Glover headlined the fundraiser. But since I had no idea who they were, I left at midnight and saw more guys queuing at the entrance. I’m sure those who stayed late had a good time.

Notes:
People were allowed to smoke inside although this was a fundraiser for cancer research… Pangaea’s more of a lounge than a bar or club. Good place to go if you like to be among an exclusive circle… Seats and tables disrupt the open space making it challenging to find a good spot to people watch or to dance on a busy night… The DJ who spinned before midnight played R&B, pop, rock and French house music (Bob Sinclar, Martin Solveig).

Pangaea, 85 Picadilly Circus, http://www.pangaeauk.com/, Green Park

Before we came up with Swiftlabel, we had spent days researching iconic brands and combing the dictionary to find a suitable name for our company. Adding to the complexity, it also had to have a .com address available. It’s incredible how many domain names are taken.

We explored two related themes for our company. The first consisted of finding an urban sounding name. The words we liked were loft, urban, pad, city, metro, studio, street, and lane.

The other was about the urban lifestyle. We think the people who will buy our products are like us – always on the go. So we looked at words that expressed the idea of motion: blast, dash, fast, fury, launch, mach, rush, speed, spin, swift, spark.

After narrowing our list to five names, we consulted with friends and went with Swiftlabel. I think it’s a cool name. But even if it’s not, at that point I just wanted to move on and start working on the company. At least we didn’t call it Petrol Clothing to emulate the Italian brands Diesel and Gas Jeans.

Here are the sites we used the most:
Thesaurus.com: http://thesaurus.reference.com/
GoDaddy Domain Search: http://www.godaddy.com/