Comic Dish Webcomics Hosting :: View topic - Comic Dish Logo Contest [Phase 2B] [FINAL VOTING!]

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 2:52 pm

[UPDATE! Phase 2B- FINAL VOTING]Well the deadline extension has yeilded nothing, so I guess these are our final entries[/size]

Vote for whichever one you feel is the best/most usable/most delicious logo to represent ComicDish for years to come! Very Happy

Phase 2A submissions

JTorch's

ClockWorkVirus'

MarioMK1's
Entry 1: Bubble Style

Entry 2: Curvy Redux

Entry 3: Classic Redux

All right my Comic Dish Compadres! As many of you know a new site design is in the works for our fair hosting site. So, to commemorate the change, I figure a new logo might be in order.

But where shall this new logo come from? Why from the members of course! You know what that means?

The answer is predictable: a contest. So if you have any ideas for a new logo, go ahead and post it!

However, as per Hawks suggestion, the contest will be done in two parts.

---Phase 1: Everyone submits their own custom designs for logos using the below rules, then people will vote on their favorite.
---Phase 2: Then everyone will take the winning design and make their own versions of it so as to have more varied ideas and takes on the winning design. Then we vote on which is the best re-indition.

Keep in mind though, that whatever the final voted logo is will still need to be approved by the site designers. So there is a chance that the winner may not be used. This is just a fun thing to see what ideas we have and see if our designers find any of the designs worthy. :p

Here are the rules:

If there is any confusion on the rules, please feel free to ask on this thread so it can be clarified.

Additionally:

Hawk wrote:

Note to all participants:
I think most people realize this, but making a good logo is in some ways similar to making a good piece of artwork. You'll be needing to think of a lot of things like positive/negative space, tangents, vectors, and balance.

However, you can't just make any piece of artwork a logo. Here are some things to consider:
- Will it look good as only two colors? (take the current Comic Dish logo for example)
- Does it look professional?
- Is it unique?
- Does it reflect what our site is about? (webcomics)
- Will it look good as a site banner, and an ad banner?
- Is the font right?
- How readable is it from a distance?

Sorry to get all preachy. I just think logos are serious stuff--far more serious than the mascot. And if the results of this contest are going to serve as the ambassador of this website, we want to make sure it looks good.

Now let's get cracking! Very Happy

Phase 1 Entries:

Current Comic Dish Logo

Current Dish Podcast Logo

MarioMK1's Logo

Modesty's Flat Vector
Modesty's 2.0 Shiny
Modesty's 2.0 Shiny Small
Modesty's Black version
Modesty's Go Green

Draxenn's Logo

KillerSteak's Logo

JTorch's Logo[img][/img]

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:07 pm

Cool thread. Unfortunately, I suck at designing stuff like this so I'll be happy to applaud those who participate from the sidelines! Good luck everyone!

!~[AOD]

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:25 pm

Thanks AOD. Very Happy

Also, I added The Dish's logo in there because it really does have a nice logo and I think would work great for the site as well. But then again, it's more up to you guys (though more Shane) if it stays up there.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:18 pm

MarioMK1, I suggest you reconsider the rule about only having one entry person. When graphic designers do logos, they usually come up with a whole sheet full of variations of their designs. I wouldn't mind seeing variations of the entries we see in this contest because sometimes it's a little detail that sells or ruins a logo.

You may also want to consider the winner of this contest as a midway point... that is, the people try their own variations of the winner's design and then vote again on those results. This tends to get better results and it's something I think we should have done with the mascot (and we still could).

I'm glad you're using the current logo as one of the entries. I wouldn't put it past our members to make something better, but just in case they don't, it's good to have that as a fallback.

Note to all participants:
I think most people realize this, but making a good logo is in some ways similar to making a good piece of artwork. You'll be needing to think of a lot of things like positive/negative space, tangents, vectors, and balance.

However, you can't just make any piece of artwork a logo. Here are some things to consider:
- Will it look good as only two colors? (take the current Comic Dish logo for example)
- Does it look professional?
- Is it unique?
- Does it reflect what our site is about? (webcomics)
- Will it look good as a site banner, and an ad banner?
- Is the font right?
- How readable is it from a distance?

Sorry to get all preachy. I just think logos are serious stuff--far more serious than the mascot. And if the results of this contest are going to serve as the ambassador of this website, we want to make sure it looks good.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:25 pm

Hmmm...tempting.

And I agree, I'd rather submit a few designs than have to restrict myself to one.

Now to see if I can squeeze this into my schedule... *dies*
XD

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:32 pm

Hawk wrote:

MarioMK1, I suggest you reconsider the rule about only having one entry person. When graphic designers do logos, they usually come up with a whole sheet full of variations of their designs. I wouldn't mind seeing variations of the entries we see in this contest because sometimes it's a little detail that sells or ruins a logo.

You may also want to consider the winner of this contest as a midway point... that is, the people try their own variations of the winner's design and then vote again on those results. This tends to get better results and it's something I think we should have done with the mascot (and we still could).

I'm glad you're using the current logo as one of the entries. I wouldn't put it past our members to make something better, but just in case they don't, it's good to have that as a fallback.

Note to all participants:
I think most people realize this, but making a good logo is in some ways similar to making a good piece of artwork. You'll be needing to think of a lot of things like positive/negative space, tangents, vectors, and balance.

However, you can't just make any piece of artwork a logo. Here are some things to consider:
- Will it look good as only two colors? (take the current Comic Dish logo for example)
- Does it look professional?
- Is it unique?
- Does it reflect what our site is about? (webcomics)
- Will it look good as a site banner, and an ad banner?
- Is the font right?
- How readable is it from a distance?

Sorry to get all preachy. I just think logos are serious stuff--far more serious than the mascot. And if the results of this contest are going to serve as the ambassador of this website, we want to make sure it looks good.

Your wise words of wisdom has been added to the first post. Very Happy

Also, you're right on all fronts, so I removed that rule and altered the existing ones accordingly. Wink

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:53 pm

Something else has also occurred to me. To fit the current design the banner would need to be about 60 pixels in hieght. I'm not sure about the width given that the picture of the site design is shrunk, but if assuming the banner hasn't changed sizes between the designs, I'd say a maximum of 630 pixels wide.

But I'm going to need some designer specifics to see how big the banner can get.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:50 pm

Hawk wrote:

tangents, vectors,

Tangent?

Vector?

Somehow I'm guessing that I'm wrong when I think of these. Could you explain these for those of us ignorant of graphic design principles?

?~[AOD]

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:54 pm

[AOD] wrote:

Hawk wrote:

tangents, vectors,

Tangent?

Vector?

Somehow I'm guessing that I'm wrong when I think of these. Could you explain these for those of us ignorant of graphic design principles?

?~[AOD]

Not sure about the tangent.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 7:12 pm

A good program to use to get nice vectors is Illustrator, but obviously not everyone can use it. So that's not much help...

I'm in. I just need to start brainstorming ideas after finals. Thats next week... yippy Rolling Eyes

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 7:18 pm

The geometry take on tangents is essentially right. In design, you want to try to steer clear of odd tangents... these would be lines that rub up against each other in awkward ways. Much like the way the circle in that geometry picture is nestled up to that lines, people don't like to see curves nestle up to the edge of a picture or another major line. It creates an pinching effect in people's minds.

Here's an example in some artwork I made years ago:

(it's Cthulhu Wolverine, by the way)

Look at the way that the face tentacle furthest to the left brushes up and runs tanget to the line on his shoulder. I should have positioned his face tentacle so that it didn't do that. For it to look better, one line should overlap the other or miss it altogether. Tangents can make a logo look bad unless the tangent is explicit enough to look deliberate and fitting to the design.

As far as vectors go, what I'm actually referring to is elements in a picture that make imaginary or implied lines to guide the viewer's eyes. But MarioMK1's example of vectors is an equally important and possibly more correct use of the word.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 9:01 pm

In Phase 2, it would be preferable if we can convert the final designs into vectors, simply so that we can resize and reuse the logo on anything ComicDish related.

A good free vector program is Inkscape. It's also really easy to get the hang of.

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 9:04 pm

Droakir wrote:

In Phase 2, it would be preferable if we can convert the final designs into vectors, simply so that we can resize and reuse the logo on anything ComicDish related.

A good free vector program is Inkscape. It's also really easy to get the hang of.

Yeah, I use Inkscape myself.

My entry will be submitted as a large version of the logo. One that is definitely big enough for anything we'd want to do with it. (and if it's not big enough, I can always send in a larger version.)

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 10:06 pm

Oh damn. So many elements to consider now...

I think I'll give this a pass. Unless I mutate into a graphic designer within the next 20 days.

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:22 pm

Here's my entry.