For Ford yes I do, cost me $10,000 for licensing rights.
The Monster DC decals are a gray area. You join 2 logo's and you have created a joint copywrite. You can sell them, but not advertise with the registered names.
DC is a registered shape, so the shape has been tweaked, monster has a registered shape and color, so that was tweaked. It's a dirty tactic, but its legal.

Brainstorming: if you are dreaming.

Shapes: Soft curves, circles, stars, twinkle, contrasting edges sharp and feathered.
Colors: Black, shades of blue and white. Twilight
Idea: Something that you could not do in reality, is not possible. Comforting, relaxing, pleasing, happy, warm, dark, safety. which then makes me think water.
Artwork that comes to mind: Vincent van Gogh Starry Night

My color pallet is spot on with the colors I believed were dream like.

My name text is sharp and warm. Very pronounced.

Fish is round and smooth portraying a calmness next to the sharp edged text. This was important to make the brain register the text before the picture.

Make a image that made sense to me not others. This is my take on "small fish in a big pond"
or me starting a business on nothing but dreams in a big town full of graphic and sign companies. This 1 image tells my whole story of how I felt when I started.

My train of thought.
Big fish small pond, flip it. Small fish big pond. Take the thing people relate to as the biggest thing in the world = Earth. Make is seem like the tiny fish in the pond. What would make the earth seem tiny? space/universe, color of deep space? black. A picture of earth just in space make the earth feel naked and unprotected, exposed, vunerable, cold.
Smallest pet most people own? Gold fish, but I don't want a realistic gold fish in my picture, color is not in the pallete I am going with. Fish bowl is just to plain, it will never stick in someones mind. So lets take the goldfish and turn it into a bowl.

Now I have a bowl shaped like a fish, with no fish, just the earth. Something that could only happen in a dream. With the earth now in water and in a bowl it conveys warmth, security, trust, protection, saftey.

Spitting water? Metaphor for me stepping out into the world out into the world / out of my comfort zone.

That is a break down on my thought process for my own image. Maybe I mis catagorized it as a logo. It was never meant for tiny use. It was made for business card, signage, decals, shirts, sweatshirts, banners and such.

Finished product was a inside joke about me and my life, how I felt. Small, scared, inexperienced stepping out into a big world. Starting something I knew nothing about in a place by sheeps standards, that I did not belong.

... and the US.

I am not a pro, and I am not trying to flame you or harrass you, but the glass fish logo on your banner is so crisp and clear, and what you posted at the beginning of this thread looks like you smudge painted it. I think you are taking it in a backward direction instead of forward.

A simple vector drawing of the fish (much simplified) with the globe might make it more "logo" ish.

Good luck in your efforts...

Well at least nobody has come up with a much more iconic/simple design in less time...


Oh wait...


I did just now.

I wonder how much you think it is worth to buy the licence off me.

Nice clean look Marx. You have proof of ownership?

Lol, considering I drew it, I have the original files for a start.

http://img854.imageshack.us/i/picture114.png/

Because of the complimentary colours it will scale to favicon sizes, that's part of the design.

Logo Design is a very specialist business, the kinds of artefacts that are being constructed have to be versatile and visible.

There is also the risk of people just trying to take them, of course it is easy to do it when you are a kid in the playground, but in the big world of business especially in America where the hefty DMCA is in play (which made it illegal to circumvent a copyright) life got tougher for the non-professional trying to get inspiration, leaving the specialists and people who were trained by them to pretty much corner the market.

As my friend always said, "You know you made it as a Graphic Artist when your get that first letter from a lawyer"

I wouldn't know, I don't do underhandedness with my business practices. It's an easy way to get a bad reputation.

okay I'll try it again...
"dreamworks" was just an example!

I know your dilemma... on the one hand you need a logo, wich people can associate with your name and on the other in dreams there is anything possible!

but to realize your own dreams to a logo is the wrong way!
people have to think a lot to understand it...

why a fish; an earth; a bowl?

your graphic and the content of your logo have to be simple and it must be able to remember! your logo is waaay too complex!

we dont wanna judge you, we wanna help you to make no mistakes

I am going to give you a sample of the process that goes on inside my head for a second.

Logo Design for Dreamers

People who dream get ideas.

Anchor Ideas to Dreams.

Dreams: Cresent Moon, Cloud, Dark blue or purple sky, Zeds.
Ideas: Light bulb, Thunder waves, Rays of light.

Possible logo designs.

Thunder waves coming from a 3 Z's
3 Rays of light coming from a crescent moon.
A light bulb in a purple cloud.

- Negative connotations of tiredness removes the first option.
- The widely known Explosive Symbol looks too much like the idea for the second option. (This is not a bad thing it's a hint)
https://extranet.fisher.co.uk/webfiles/uk/web-images-large/LAB-440-033C.JPG

- Remaining logo is posted above.

There is one more logo I haven't mentioned at all which would fit your company, which I am sort of hoping you twig based on your own description.