Magic Thursday: The Story Behind the Logo

You've seen our new logo, right? Well let me tell you I had a hell of time getting it there as the blog team can attest to.

Why?

Here are the DarkSide DownUnder, things are not completely dark despite the name. We have members who write stories that are on the lighter side. I know my flash fiction tends to be this way. We also write a wide range of fiction - from epic fantasy, futuristic, paranormal romance, YA, historical romance, urban fantasy, dark urban fantasy, erotic romance, and much more. Trying to reflect all this in the logo was a bit tough going.

I knew my initial designs weren't quite right and with the blog team's feedback, this was confirmed.

One day sitting in a waiting room (which I do a lot of), I came up with a variation on the final design. I thought of hearts representing the romance; the angel heart for the 'light side' as well as the stories with angels and magic; the devilish heart for the 'darker side' as well as stories with demons and vampires and other creatures that go bump in the night; the moon representing all facets of spec fiction really; and being Aussie and NZ authors, the Southern Cross, which has the duel meaning of sci-fi and mystique.

Phew, not much too think about, eh?

After a first mock up on the computer, there was positive reaction except for the positioning of the moon (it was horizontal and looked like a big smiley face). I  then changed the position of this and of the hearts and the rest as they say is history.

As much as I loved our previous logo, which did have various elements, the lighter side was missing. So now, I'm happy that our new logo represents the DarkSiders so much better.

Eleni Konstantine also designs book covers and banners for writers as HelzKat Designs. She is currently studying graphic design at TAFE, and has set up a number of blogs/websites and has given talks on the subject of blogging and navigating in the online world.

You can find Helen at her helzkatdesigns.com