I think both of these directions you are going are working well. For the circle piece, I think the long O’s around the letters create the most intrigue for me, but having those O’s and the negative space letters in version 3 gets a bit too busy. Your last piece with the large black letters does a really good job of activating the negative space, creating cool counter-play with the black and implied white lines. There are a few places where the lines don’t quite line up and that is kind of distracting.
I think both of these directions you are going are working well. For the circle piece, I think the long O’s around the letters create the most intrigue for me, but having those O’s and the negative space letters in version 3 gets a bit too busy. Your last piece with the large black letters does a really good job of activating the negative space, creating cool counter-play with the black and implied white lines. There are a few places where the lines don’t quite line up and that is kind of distracting.