Its a good concept but will likely require many reiterations before coming to a functional mass appeal.
It is still very hard to read KJ without knowing that is the intention. Partially this is due to shared paths. The crossbar forming the upper arm of the K reads more as a a tilted path than a connected form. As the J reconnects with the bottom leg of the K it forms one sweeping motion which almost can read in the negative space as a rotated P or D depending on how you read it first. I'd suggest taking the design and working on strengthening the readability of the J curve and K leg. The rest should fall in place if you can get those legible as separate forms.
The best way to iterate things like this is to layout the true shapes with no additions so just K and J and squint from afar. See if the shapes actually work in this orientation. If not you may want to try the lettering cropped rotated or at a diagonal as an example.
I'm sure the culmination of other feedback may have altered your view of my response but this is general designer to designer critique. I have no reason to personally attack you, nor do I have time to do the process for you. Squinting is meant to visualize shapes at scale and how they mesh together. Something like this in its current form when scaled down wouldn't have the same visibility as the logo blown up on a phone or desktop screen.
Your choice to continue to iterate or not is your decision as a designer. Any logo can be iterated millions of times or just once. I have no knowledge of your prior iterations or work portfolio so my critiques were very much surface level. However, design critique often feels very personal as you have spent a lot of time and thought getting to where you are. Understand "most" designers do this with the intention of seeing your best result not from a position of attack. Take feedback for what it is, feedback. Try not to take it so personally and look at things from a different offered perspective.
I understand and that's what I eluded to in my comment I get it. The thing thats important to know however is that at the end of the day feedback from designers and feedback from regular viewers should just be taken at face value. You shouldn't ingest feedback and make changes based on what people are telling you but rather take these as points to explore yourself and determine if it aligns with your vision. You're the designer at the end of the day and many designers myself included may have varying stylistic or technical bias. I myself am very minimalist but orderly. I like things that geometrically flow well and are driven by an underlying structure so my feedback may be influenced by that. Someone who likes ornate designs may ask for more flourishes and strokes, etc.
My point being is in design anyone may critique your design. Don't let that drive you away from pushing the concept. My suggestion would be to do another round. Don't take comments for changes and look at the common critique points. Look at it from your perspective and see why these may be points of consideration and use that to push the design. My biggest piece of advice is it sounds like you need to step away from the design for a while. We often gain tunnel vision when processing changes back to back and it will only benefit you to take some time away to come back with a fresh set of eyes.
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u/ballinboi3546 1d ago
Its a good concept but will likely require many reiterations before coming to a functional mass appeal.
It is still very hard to read KJ without knowing that is the intention. Partially this is due to shared paths. The crossbar forming the upper arm of the K reads more as a a tilted path than a connected form. As the J reconnects with the bottom leg of the K it forms one sweeping motion which almost can read in the negative space as a rotated P or D depending on how you read it first. I'd suggest taking the design and working on strengthening the readability of the J curve and K leg. The rest should fall in place if you can get those legible as separate forms.
The best way to iterate things like this is to layout the true shapes with no additions so just K and J and squint from afar. See if the shapes actually work in this orientation. If not you may want to try the lettering cropped rotated or at a diagonal as an example.
Good luck