Logo Illusion

I noticed the LG logo recently, and something about it finally clicked in my mind.  Take a look, and see if you can figure out what caught my attention.

Here's what I think is really cool about this logo: the man's face also has the letters "LG!"  At first glance, it looks like a modernistic interpretation of a face with a somewhat boringly designed "LG" to the right.  But when you look more closely at the red circle, you can tell that the nose makes up the letter "L," and the outside of the face makes the letter "G."  It's like an optical illusion. 

I've now come to really like this logo because of it's amazing ingenuity.  It's a wonderful idea to make the letters of a company's name morph into a graphic - brilliant!  And the thing is, this idea could potentially have come across as very, very cheesy.  But the way the logo designer executed the idea with clean lines and uber-clarity makes it a wonderfully memorable idea, not a cheesy one.

Also, do you notice how there's a blank space in the top right corner of the red circle?  I like that part, too.  It gives the eye a little bit of resting place as you're looking at the logo.

The one qualm I have with this logo is the typography.  It's not terrible, but the "LG" on the right is so drastically different from the narrow, defined lines of the icon that it seems too disparate to me.  I can understand the bold font in the sense that LG probably wanted to portray a bold, strong image, but I'm still not sure that the bold font was worth it.

The icon is so great though, that it almost cancels out the mediocre typography choice.  I want to show you an alternate picture of the LG logo, now.  This is the one that's published on their website.

I'm not a huge fan of that beveled-ish technique used on the red circle, but I think, as bevels and gradients go, this one is quite well executed.  Although I think I agree that bevels, drop shadows, and gradients are overused in brand identity designs these days, they're not evil, and I think LG might have stumbled upon an appropriate use of a bevel.

In one sense, I really like that this alternate view incorporates "life's good."  It connects more with what "LG" stands for.  But, it means bringing in a third typeface (counting the "L" and "G" in the red circle)!  I think this creates too much business and makes the logo not flow as smoothly as it could.

So my basic opinion of the LG logo is: great icon, okay bevel effect, and not so great typography.  What do you think of the logo?