Valkyria Games Logo

I made three versions of the Valkyria Games logo.

Here is the first.

I filled the body of the helmet with a grey colour and then added a texture to it, which made it look like battered metal. For the red swirls, I used the gradient tool and a deep crimson and bright scarlet reds. This created a 'shine', after which I added a drop shadow to make them look engraved for contrast. For the feathers I was playing around with the blue gradient, but then noticed that it looked quite 'cartoony'. I added a stroke effect around the edge, which gave it an unexpected but nice looking manga-style look.
I don't think the metal texture would work in a logo (because the detail is too fine), but I do like how the logo looked overall. The contrast between the three different aspects works in a disjointed kind of way. In other words, I felt that they didn't really work together, but in a way that lends itself to a sort of theme which ultimately does work. I didn't add the company name to the logo though, which makes the helmet look a bit 'stranded'.
I was really fascinated by the manga-look I accidentally found for the feathers, and decided to try changing the look of the helmet to accommodate that better, as well as testing the incorporation of the company name.

In this version I added the same effects I used in the feathers to the helmet: I replaced the metal pattern with a yellow-to-orange gradient as well as adding an additional shape to give it the 'gleam' at the front. I changed the inner shadow in the red swirls into an emboss effect and added a glow.
I think stylistically this works a little better, and the simplicity makes it more workable as a logo. But as per the look, I think I preferred the first version a bit better. However, the logo is considerably better now that the company name was included.
I wanted to try one more version, which would be much more simplified and focussing more on the name as opposed to the image.

This was the last version which I made. I decided to get rid of the helmet and instead focus on the feathers that I had liked so much. I also decided to keep the smaller swirls for interest and to fill the white gap left between the feathers and the words.
As a logo, this was my favourite. Being very simple, it still felt very iconic. However, due to the shape of the feathers, unfortunately the valkyrian look was lost and honestly I think the image looks more like a chief's headdress. This relates a much more Native American feel for me, in which case I might consider playing around with either the company name and/or the shape of the feathers.