Not a fan of visible logos.
Your logo is the design. It is instantly recognizable. Let the design be your signature.
A regular atelier wouldn't put their logo on the back of a nice suit. For those that care about labels, they place it tastefully on the inside of the blazer, like the approach you took with the Norbaforce.
The purpose of logos is for people to show off a brand - the intersection of conspicuous consumption and marketing. This item goes in your house - who are you showing off the brand to? Do you really need to be reminded that Norbauer made this case? Worse is that the logo design has multiple colors that detract from the asthetic. It reminds me of the colors and shape of the old Osprey logo on backpacks. Osprey finally decided to simplify their logo to a white logo because the original oval colored logo really clashed with several of the color options they offered and just looked dated.
If I was forced to live with a logo or branding on my keyboard I think the best solution was the Evil80 group buy, where users could create their own logo and have it machined and anodized in the color of their choice, both on the front and the bottom. In my case, I just left the logo blank.
I understand the sentiment, and I do agree that Norbauer doesn't need branding for people to know the case is of his design - however, I think the way it is incorporated here is quite tasteful and the logo itself is pretty cool. I can see why people wouldn't like it but I also think it's fairly inoffensively placed where it is.
Keyboards aren't suits and to me this adds to the design rather than taking away from it, not necessarily as a branding statement or "show off" but just as an addon.
Yes, this is pretty much the rationale. I'm already on the record as kind of hating conspicuous branding and wanting to avoid it on my stuff, but I've been surprised by how many people have expressly asked me to add some kind of "maker's mark," and this is my small gesture in that direction. I personally love the branding on a certain narrow set of things (Schoolhouse Electric lamps and clocks, Leica cameras, Montblanc pens and leather goods) and hate it on others (clothing, and pretty much everything else). I think it really just depends on the execution, my feelings about and sense of personal connection to the company/maker, and how visually obtrusive it is.
I mean, if for some odd reason people want to show that their case is something that came from me, well, I'm flattered and don't mind obliging, but I do want to keep it unobtrusive, so my requirements are: a) it be visually subtle and 2) actually
add to the aesthetic properties of the object. I happen to love enamel-and-metal badges, though, and I think I could do something cool with it. But don't worry: if I can't find a way to pull it off nicely, I'll just leave it blank. As I see it now, the enamel color will vary based on which finish you select and should be complementary to that finish.
Re Wetherbee's point about home use, a lot of people actually use their keyboards in workplaces and view it as one of the few ways of adding something unique to their space, so a bit of signaling is actually a (perhaps guilty) part of the pleasure for some people. Anyway, let's not pretend that this hobby isn't at some level about a form of conspicuous consumption, even if we're just making it conspicuous to ourselves and our private aesthetic/tactile enthusiasms. ;) These are inherently fanciful objects.
