How do I fix kerning between v and a in my logo?

[Chloe50]

I’m trying to finalize a logo for a client, but I keep getting stuck on the kerning between the “V” and “A” in the wordmark. It looks either too tight and cramped or too loose and disconnected no matter how many tiny adjustments I make. Has anyone else hit a wall with a specific letter pair where your eye just stops trusting what it sees?

[Jack32]

I hear you. I’ve chased that V and A for days in a logo, and sometimes the eye just fights with the math. Some fonts bite back; the V looks pointy, the A pulls away, and no tiny tweak feels right. I’ve found that optical spacing and stepping back to see the whole word can help, but it’s still a gut call.

[Emily31]

I tried adjusting the whole word spacing instead of just those letters, because the rhythm of the word matters. In one project we swapped to a font with slightly rounder bowls and the V and A stopped fighting each other. If the client cares about a tight lockup, I do a quick pass at different weights to see if it improves. Sometimes a different font is the only fix.

[CamilaM]

Maybe the real issue isn’t the space at all. Could be baseline alignment, or the cap height relative to the rest of the word, or even how the logotype will be used at small sizes. I once spent hours on a pair and then realized the problem was the overall word shape when shrunk for a badge. Could be the perception more than the letters.

[DonaldT]

Short and messy: yeah I’ve hit that wall too. One quick move that helped was looking at the color or background; the same spacing can look different on white vs dark. If you’re stuck, take a break and compare to a minimal wordmark; you might notice something off in the negative space.