Ministry Logo research and tests

Well my original idea was to redesign or at least update the Ministry logo, but after looking further into this im not so sure this is the way forward for this brief. I found that The ministry logo has already been subtly updated in (around) 2002. I still think another update is due, but I dont want this to be the focus of my work in this brief.

This is the original 1991 logo

This is the c.2002 update. The illustration is much simplified all over, Rounded sans font replacing serif

Ok so now that is clear, on to my little testers of another slight update. I really dont want to change the meaning or the overall shape of the logo, but to give it a bit more edge .

The are 3 of my better tests, I really dont like the font used on the 2002 logo so I have spent some time testing ones to try to get a fresher look. Bottom one here is Dax and looks much nicer to me. I have experimented with filling in some of the portcullis to give an edgier feel.

Finally: a tester using the existing logo.

I wanted to see if I can do something fresh just using the old logo. The result is yes I think I can use it in visually interesting ways that are more 'low tech' than the typical over glossy rendered style ministry has long used.