I posted here 3 days ago with the first draft of my OC S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent for this passion project I'm working on (I included the first draft on the last slide for those curious). I learned a lot from your critiques and comments, so I went back and came up with a second draft.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES MADE:
My first draft was way too overcomplicated and used clipart pieces. This time I restricted myself to just geometric shapes and lines. I'm still teetering on if it's still too overcomplicated or not.
My first draft also didn't bring enough of the comic book energy and appeared too much like a government department seal. I tried to circumvent this by focusing on striking shapes that create a cohesive piece instead of a bunch of insignias and stuff slapped on top of each other.
Another common critique I got was that there needed to be more symbolism. I decided on a stylized Awen symbol. The Awen is druidic and is usually used to represent inspiration, however it can really be interpreted to mean any set of three things or virtues, depending on context. Here, I'm using it to represent peaceful coexistence and balance between the supernatural, humanity, and the natural world. The star at the top represents the North Star, a reminder to this agency to never lose its way and fall down a spiral of corruption, control, and evil. The dotted lines are Earth's latitudinal lines and both help give the background space shape and reinforce the fact the agency is a global endeavor. The center of the Awen is an upside-down spear. This ties in the agency's name and also represents the idea that prosperity and progress must always be defended.
Lastly, I changed the agency's name. I'm still not 100% on-board with it but I think it's a step in the right direction. The old name was the Universal Human Defense Agency, or UHDA and is now the Authority on Technological, Human, Extraterrestrial, and Natural Anomalies, or ATHENA.
I kept the latin phrase at the bottom too. It means "If you want peace, prepare for war"
Slide 2 is a more simplified version. I imagine that is what would translate to pins or medallions while Slide 1 is used as the official emblem/seal.
Again, some feedback would be greatly appreciated! I am by no means an expert on logo design
ALSO, Slide 3 is another logo that was going to be my second draft, but it felt too Big Brother so I tabled it. I figured I'd throw it in too to see what the crowd thinks, but I think I'm gonna reserve it for an evil corporation logo.
TLDR:
This is my rough draft #2. I made it less complicated, used only geometric shapes and lines instead of clipart, baked in a bunch of symbolism, and created two versions. Slide 1 is the official emblem, Slide 2 is a simplified version that I would imagine be used for pins, uniforms, decals, etc., Slide 3 is an earlier version of draft #2 that I tabled because it felt too authoritarian, and Slide 4 is my old first draft.