Legacy Hi, starting up Harley Tours with my friend and needing a logo

Hi there,
I have recently moved to Australia after having to leave NZ due to the earthquake destroying our house. We have basically had to start from scratch, but my friend here has a Harley. Recently I also got one and we want to do Harley tours for people with the goal of eventually trying to and make a business if we can. I have put together a website and tried making a logo with no real success. Any help with a logo would be very much appreciated. I have tried to answer the questions as best I can as follows:

1) What is the exact name you would like in your logo?
We have 2 parts we would like to do...tours (chauffeured bike rides) and hire (events, photoshoots, weddings etc).
The touring part is called "easy rider". The hire part is called "hire a hog"

2) What is your website address (ex: http:/site .com/; Site Name)?
Website address is Welcome to Easy Rider Queensland

3) Description of your website or business:
The "easy rider" tours will be us taking people for scenic rides around the area on either set routes or they can choose where they want to go.
The "hire a hog" part will be us attending events and functions with our bikes.

4) Have you found any logos/designs on the web that you feel convey
the style you are looking for?

I did up a placeholder using the Harley Davidson logo outline, but we don't don't want to be a copy of their logo and want to have something original
I found a site called eaglerider.com which has a logo with the harley colours, but is original in design, so I am sure it can be done somehow to capture the essence of a harley while also being light-hearted and original.
We don't want to end up with a scarey logo such as a skull etc as we feel this may not appeal to the tourist/joy-rider types.

5) Requested size of your logo:
High and low resolution would be ideal as we would like to use the logo both on the web and also get some promotional items at some stage.
Our plan is to give out bandanas so people can wear these under the helmets and also take away.
Of course, there are other things like shirts and cards etc that a logo would be used for if we can make it into a business.

6) Do you have any images/photos that can be used for the logo? (must be copyright free)
Haven't been able to locate any images that could be worked from as most seem to already have been used in some way.
As far as images go, anything from cartoony to abstract and swishes are ok as long as the essence of the logo can be felt.

7) What logo styles do you like (text only, image only, text and image, etc.)?
I feel a logo should be able to be recognised on its own, but it doesn't mean it has to have the name in it as long as it is, so am open to all types.
With that said, it is always good if there is a way to make it so people can remember the name more easily. I have seen some instances where there are 2 parts to a logo/branding which can be used either jointly or separately...pic part and name part, but again this is just something I have seen and doesn't mean that it is the best or only way to go.

8) What colors do you want to see in your logo?
That's a tricky one as many harley related logos tend to use the harley davidson colours (orange and black), While that's a good angle and easily recognised as being that, it is also well used and it would take an original logo to make sure it didn't just feel like another version or copy. Also the harley colours tend to be rather dark if used without "balance", so am very open in respect to colours.

9) What colors do you NOT want to see in your logo?
Nothing ruled out.

10) Describe the target audience for your logo
For the "easy rider" part, we are wanting to attract people of all ages, nationalities and cultures who may be familiar with bikes or have a secret desire to experience the thrill of riding on one.
Also we want to appeal to a more corporate audience with the events "hire a hog" part.

11) What are the top 3 things you would like to communicate through your logo?
What we do...Who we are...Approachability (not a scarey biker stereotype i.e skulls, death etc)

12) Where will your logo be used (print, website, etc.)?
Logo/s will be used both on the web and other media such as print and branded items (bandanas, clothing etc)

13) Do you have other info or links you want to share?
Have pretty much covered as much detail as I can above.

14) Finally we need is there a style font you prefer, please let us know.
Ahain, we do not want to portray a copy of the typical biker stereotype with biker fonts unless they are used in a way that is less obvious than the patches people wear, so anything goes.

I appreciate all the time and effort people put into this forum and website community and thank you in advance for any help that can be given. I really think with this one there is a fun opportunity to be as creative as you want and in return I look forward to joining in more as well. I have found that as well as putting together websites, I also enjoy the creative part of design and this community may well be the ideal way to help develop that, both by viewing what/how people go about things and trying new ways myself.

 

Hi

Welcome to the forum and thanks for jumping right in and helping out. Really appreciate that and sorry to hear about your move.

On the website you provided is the Eagle with the Orange background your logo? If it is then I personally think it's a pretty good logo and doesn't need changing. You wouldn't want to change something if it already works.

 

Hi,
Yes, it is one I have been working on for a while.
However, you will note that there are rough edges on it and the text is not aligned properly on the curve (font not the best either), so not really suitable to keep as is I don't think.

 

Anything goes...I used an eagle because Harley Davidson use one on some of their logos.

 

Hi 1970Forest,
Thanks for that. I really appreciate the time and effort obviously gone into it! I wish I had your skills as it would make things much easier. I really like the colours and badge approach, but have been trying to keep roughly to Harley style without being an exact copy. On their main logo they have a bar and shield. On another (live to ride) they have a swooping eagle with a banner. I have changed the one I had earlier to an image I got given a while ago and have adapted it a bit so it follows that theme. Came out ok and my friend seems to like it as well, so will probably just stick with it for the time being. Once again a big thank you and I am enjoying being an active participant on the site. Cheers!