Skyline Home Theater 1: business name/identity

My friend had done design and installation of high-end custom home theaters for several years, but his business had always been casual through word of mouth. But now, after splitting up with his former business partner, he needed to have an official business name and cards. So in brainstorming business names, I looked at a number of different angles: his name, the bay area, local geography and landmarks, and audio/visual iconography (see sketches).

We discussed the various initial ideas, and eliminated several for different reasons. Earthquake audio/visual looked cool, had a nice double meaning with the jagged line, but made more sense if he were doing block-rockin' car audio, not fully-integrated home systems for mutual fund managers. The strong graphic nature of Meier audio/visual was appealing, but part of the goal was to convince potential clients to spend tens of thousands of dollars, we needed to steer away from any name that might suggest that this business was really just my buddy, his knowledge, and his tools. So we concluded that Skyline Home Theater was the best all around, so I went to the computer to explore different ways of executing that.