I have started designing some Logos.  As I've been told before I shouldn't jump straight into the software and get lost with it all.  I have my content and focus all thought out and planned/planning.  The brief says to design a logo called 'Wonders Of Nature' then your chosen subject, mine as you know is reefs.  Below is just a mock up of a logo just to get a feel of the software as I havent used Ai in a while.  This is by no means going to be my final logo as I may play around with elements/add things to it.  I have done this to inspire myself.  I have added a 4pt stroke weight to the logo title with a rough natural drawn line style to it.  I have done this because it adds texture and looks hand drawn.  It gives the feel of variety depth.  The fish I also created in the software.  I just copied it from an image.  I used black and blue colours just as a trial and error scheme, after a very basic search on reef fish.   

This one below here is another version only with a lighter stroke weight of about 1/1.5.  I like the idea of simplicity as I feel in most cases simple is the most effective.  I think if i go with any of these ideas, negative space around the typography and image (logo) will be essential to a successful piece of design.

This one below is the same one as as the top one but I've added a dis-colourant type of effect to my reef fish blending out some of the colour.  The image almost looks drowned out.  I like this feel.  I think it could work but as I say, these are just designs and I did these as i felt like it was vital for getting my head back in and around the software got when I design illustrations for my website.  Over all I like these logos.  They are a nice piece of design but it's early days as far as logos are concerned.  I like the typography and my illustration I created but more re-search and planning needs to come into this to get a suitable designed logo which I could use.