New Crayon Logo Results (for PSP prize)

[Phil Steinmeyer]

[Edit - the contest is now over - see the winning result at www.newcrayon.com]

(New URL - final 6) www.philsteinmeyer.com/games/logo2


No decision by me yet, but here are the entries:

(old url with all 81) www.philsteinmeyer.com/games

Feel free to comment. Be kind - some entries are by folks who appear to be less experienced with this kind of thing. But there are also a lot of good entries as well - 81 entries total, at least half are reasonably solid (IMO), and probably at least a dozen that are real contenders (to me) for the prize. I will withhold my particular opinions (and a decision on the winner) for a few days, and in the meantime, I welcome feedback.

Quick notes: I rescaled stuff to be roughly equal size. In some cases where someone submitted 4 or 5 variants of the same logo, with only color variations or other minor differences, I trimmed it down to the one or two best versions. Other than that, AFAIK, all entries are shown here. In a few cases I included monochrome versions of the logos that were submitted along with the color version, but I'm not entirely consistent about this.

If any logos appear to be too closely similar to a major corporate logo, please let me know - I didn't spot anything that was a direct rip-off of another company, but obviously I'm not aware of all logos out there.

Feel free to discuss here - if you have private comments, you can send them to me at psteinmeyer A T charter D 0 T net.

Order on the page doesn't really have much meaning, except the page is loosely chronological (I added to the bottom as entries came in).

The last entry came in 11 minutes before the deadline. C'mon - he could have gone out for a cup of coffee and still made it in

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Also, thanks to everyone who entered. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and depth of the entry field.

Phil

[Adrian Cummings]

12, 41 & 79 are the best I reckon

[Savant]

I like 14. It'll look good on splash screens and such.

[ggambett]

I like #13, #14, #41 and #44. I think #16 is a terrible idea

[Bmc]

really like
13, 14, 41 ,71

top 2 in my opinion are 13 and 14

[Robert Cummings]

29 - A good quality logo suitable for all kinds of games. Gives a good impression and makes YOU look good - one of the prime things you need from a decent logo. It is also trustworthy. It is the one I would choose for my company.

It looks like a brand to me. I'm fully aware it didn't take much work to make: but thats not the point of a good logo. When you choose, don't choose a logo that looked like it took the artist hours. Or reject one that uses well known fonts.

The perfect logo makes your company look great and helps people see you, not a faceless website. With so many high quality logos, I found it almost impossible to choose, but choose I have and it's 29.

Don't take my word as gospel as there's several others I think are real close contenders but I have to choose just one or it's not helpful IMHO.

[svero]

I have to say.. You got way way better results than mike did for the r64 logo. A lot of these are quite good.

[undersan]

If any logos appear to be too closely similar to a major corporate logo, please let me know

Crayola. A lot of the crayons in these entries look like Crayola crayons (stripes at each end, oval in the middle). Regardless of the legal implications (if any), I don't think I'd want to reference someone else's well-known brand in my company logo.

I agree with Rob about 29 -- it gives a good impression. However, it looks like the actual crayon was added as an afterthought. I think a crayon needs to be central to your logo.

Kudos to 42 for incorporating both "crayon" and "new", but I'm not too crazy about the overall look of that entry. I wish someone had entered a sunrise icon, with a crayon tip in place of the sun.

My pick is 81. The crayon looks great. The logo is simple and professional.

Weird sidenote on 81: I actually like how the jpeg compression noise breaks up the solid pink of the crayon -- it kinda looks like the pink was painted with watercolors or maybe printed with some crude 50's technology.

[Dan MacDonald]

13 .

[DangerCode]

[Edit - I've trimmed the list to the final 6 - see post #47]

(New URL - final 6) www.philsteinmeyer.com/games/logo2

Number 71, IMHO. Look nice.

[Gary the Llama]

#29 is the one to go with!

[Ricardo C]

13 or 29. If I had a gun to my head, I'd go with 29.

Unless the person holdoing the gun wanted me to choose 13

[soniCron]

Why do people keep voting for #29? It's got the most gawd-aweful color scheme!

[Stu]

Definitely #29. ( @ sonicron) Although I would tweak the colors just a bit. Or you could use them all and your motto could be "The company with 81 logos with mixed degrees of crapiness or a lack thereof."

[Robert Cummings]

Of the new selection, only 29 and 13 are any good. It's important to realise that it must serve a purpose and that is why 29 is better than 13.

Lets look at what a logo does: it says "This is who I am and this is what I look like and this is what I can do for you."

A logo isn't: "I am very pretty, very good to look at. I am funky but I don't give you anything else."

And ultimately a logo must work on: a splash screen, a website and also inspire confidence with publishers and customers. It must not be an introvert nor be so extroverted to alienate people. It must provide security and be positive and also say "This is who I am".

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Why I like 29: It's smart, very smart. It's going to work with the mac (aqua) people and the pc people. It's open, friendly and fun, yet it promises that it can deliver. I like it, it feels expensive but it doesn't feel like it'll mess me about. Friendly but purposeful colour. It manages to side step "red and green should never be seen" by using pastel colours. Crayons also are pastel. You can get away with illegal colours doing that.

Why I like 13: It's great and it's daring! Can't fault the colours, I would be wanting to experiment a bit more with this. Ultimately it doesn't work because it looks like a cross between a logo for a flash cartoon and a something you would find on a kids toy. It isn't really a product logo because it doesn't offer security. The reason it doesn't offer security is because of the chaotic design. It's too all over the place. Great fun though.

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Why I think the others aren't suitable:

71: It's just like jewel quest in crayons. It's nice to look at but it does not tell me it is part of a good company I can trust. It is just cool and nice to look at. It is a great design but ultimately it looks too shabby. I know it's supposed to look like crayons... but at the end of the day crayons are a metaphor used to indicate creation and creativity. Crayons actually look fairly rough so why do we want a rough looking logo? That is why I don't think it works.

81: Nice, it gets the crayon right, but the colours are not emotional. The colours will turn you off. You will not buy from these people if you use that shade of Blue, it's a colour which has it's guard up. It is also too rigid, formal. I feel the artist is formal or technical.

74: Good to look at, nice design, not inspiring enough. Tries but doesn't get the colours right. Again, Orange and Blue: it's a nice colour combination but it just isn't a friendly combination. Also too loose.

19: Close but no cigar: it tells me that it's a playroom or acting school. Or performing arts. Blue is a bit deep. Use light blue or pastel Dark Blue. Lovely idea with the hands though. I can see where the artist is coming from... Nothing to do with crayons apart from perhaps playschool hands on.

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Thats why I like 29. But don't take my comments seriously: and ignore what we've all said: ultimately, from that list, pick the one YOU like the most

[Nikster]

Why do people keep voting for #29? It's got the most gawd-aweful color scheme!

I agree, it should have used the vibrant colour scheme used in the Solari logo *chuckle*

twenty nine for me too, because I like it..

[DrWilloughby]

By the way, I like 29, feels very Pixarish.

[Omega]

I am confused about whether Phil wants the most impressive logo or a logo for his CUSTOMERS to understand what his company is all about. I think that in terms of getting his CUSTOMERS the most memorable logo and the only one that makes you think of edutainment (which is what Phil talked about in his blog) is the tic-tac-toe logo. Sure, it's not as spiffy as some others, but it instantly gets the point across and is the most memorable. Since you eliminated that one, I think you would rather have a logo that makes you feel impressive rather than one that communicates a message. Therefore, I suggest #29. For the sake of impressing his friends in case the company ceases to exist in 2 months, #29 is the obvious choice. He can look back and say, wow, but look at what the logo was! It is so impressive! (Same with 19. A completely useless logo, but hey, it looks expensive!)

[soniCron]

(Same with 19. A completely useless logo, but hey, it looks expensive!)

Ironically, #19 is nothing but a couple fonts. The handprint "NC" is actually a font.

[iopred]

13 really is the superior logo there, It is playful yet serious, 29's downfall is it relies on gradients, which are hard to print, it also feels a tiny bit too serious.

13 will work well both ingame and inprint as I said last vote.