I want to portray myself as a fresh, young but old-school designer that has an appreciation for crisp, clean design, though isn't afraid to go wild.
Just my opinion.... take it with a grain of salt.
Nothing about picking a font and adjusting the letter spacing reads "isn't afraid to go wild" or even "crisp and clean". To me (someone with a designer's eye) it reads "lazy".
The uneven letter spacing really causes visual hiccups horizontally. The circle around the A should be treated as an entire character rather than applying kerning then just adding a circle.
As for the line spacing... the bottom one is better, but it doesn't really matter due to the horrible kerning.
And reviews may be better if you used screenshots without the blue selection lines, unless you intend them to be part of the logo itself. In which case, yuck.