A look behind the curtain

When I work on projects such as this logo series, I tend to be a little... paranoid in my development process. I'm always worried I'm going to make a mistake somwhere down the line, and that it will be just beyond the power of the great "Undo Button". As such, I've developed a work method that lets me hold onto previous incarnations or steps of my design by simply dragging them of the canvas. As I make major changes, I make a copy and move it out of the way. Make another major change, do the same. It actually came in handy with the Dairanger logo where after I point I realized I wanted the "A" to be larger in the logo and had to go back to that.
This working method also has an interesting side effect of almost showing a step by step progression of my designs. To the left you can see where I was checking out different type faces to find my font. To the bottom you can see the progress of the main typography as it slowly took the shape I wanted. To the right and above you can see my various attempts and methods to create the "3D" effect seen in the final version.  But in the middle, all that's seen is the original Japanese version, and my final "recreation". Sitting there like nothing else ever happened. 
The final version can be seen here: trice01.deviantart.com/art/Gos…
And merchandise with the logo can be purchased here: www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8339…