📏 Logo Lab 8 — sizing the "48" on the map

Four studies: breathing room vs. bursting out.   🏠 Hub · Lab 5 · Lab 6 · Lab 7 · Lab 8

YOUR TWEAK — four sizings

The "48" on the 48, four ways

Left two: smaller "48" / bigger map, so it breathes — one centred, one nudged. Right two: amber "48" bigger than the map, bursting its own borders (very on-brand — "outside").

48
1 · smaller, centred
room all around
48
2 · same, nudged left
sits over the heartland
48
3 · amber, just bigger
edges break the border
48
4 · amber, bigger still
fully bursting out
My read: 1 & 2 are calm, confident, favicon-safe — the map clearly frames the number. 3 & 4 are louder and tell the "breaking out" story literally (the 48 won't be contained) — but the amber-on-blue can buzz, and at small sizes the overflow gets clipped or muddy. 1 or 2 for the working mark; 3 as a bold hero/marketing version. Nudged-left (2) has a nice off-centre energy.
YOUR STRAPLINE — under Concept 4

"Outside the 48? We know you're in America."

The mark + your line. The strapline does the reassurance the geography can't — it says you belong, out loud.

48 OUTSIDE the 48
Outside the 48? We know you're in America.
Read: The line is doing real work — it flips "outside" from excluded to still one of us. Worth testing variants: "Outside the 48 — still 100% American," or "America doesn't end at the 48." Strapline copy is a quick, cheap thing to iterate once you've picked the mark.