Hi all. YOu guys did a fantastic job of submitting entries for my contest last fall for logo for my endurance sports coaching company, Steel City Endurance. The winning logo was made by NothingMan, the guru of logos!

I am currently offering $20 to a winner from this site if I like the logo even vaguely. But if there are only 1-2 piss poor entries, no dice. I'm sure great entries from you guys won't be a problem. Ask NothingMan, I am good for the payment, and it may get you more work...I've referred 3 people to his so far!

What I need:

A logo or banner to be used in the header of my email newsletter titled "Forging the Athlete". The newsletter will have articles on training for sports like mountain biking, cycling, triathlon and running. The name is a play on my company name, Steel City Endurance. Click on my site to see the current logo.

I have in mind some type of theme involving an athlete being created out of raw materials, like forging steel. During my logo contest last fall, someone had a similar entry with a kettle pouring molten steel into one of the letters of the name...I didn't really like that specific instance, but a similar idea would be cool. I would prefer it to be horizontally oriented flowing from left to right. In otherwords, if there is movement of the figure or athlete, it should be from left to right. No clip art or copyrighted images. It can have a transparent background, or be part of a banner style that would get placed at the top of the newsletters.

The winner should supply
A color version and a black and white and/or grayscale version.

File types:
jpg as well as original layered eps or psd files if possible.

Closing date :
4/30/7. I may close it sooner if there is a clear winner, I'll give a warning of 2-3 days if that's the case.

Winner will recieve :
US $20 via PayPal (no wire transfers). If the winner does not have paypal, I can also send a check via US Snail mail.

Thanks a bunch!
Suzanne
www.steelcityendurance.com

Im not like disconsidering your competition
but don't you think 20$ might be too small for this?
I mean, a logotype/corporate identity costs around 100$ ~ 300$

Matheus, at a professional graphic company maybe. We are nothing but a bunch of kids playing in photoshop. 300$ would be too stupid. I will enter this if i have time..

I'm well aware of what it would cost to hire a professional. This is not a corporate identity, it's for a newsletter. I did the Logo contest for $50 and had more than a dozen great entries. I have also recommended this site to 2 friends who held contests offering between $40 - $75 for the winning prize. You guys rock which is why I post and lurk here. I've referred 1 additional friend to NothingMan independant of this board, and referred yet one more friend to this board who hasn't posted here yet. This is a networking site for you guys as much as anything else. Great marketing...and it's free. Do you know how much it would cost to advertise your services to try and get new clients? Word of mouth is the way to go. If you've outgrown the training ground offered here, more power to you, I know that all of you will be very successful in your projects outside of this forum

This newsletter contest is $20. If you think it's worth your time then enter. If you don't then move on to the next contest, your choice!

I think the winning prize is great for this

I'll be adding my entry soon!

Everyone must be thinking...I can see the gears turning in your brains...



-s

I'll have an entry done soon.

Here's my entry

I've got bigger versions if you need/want them.

Animated:


Static:

Well, it's not much yet, but I'll get better ideas soon.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

And don't worry about the hammer being copyrighted or anything, it's my father's hammer. He let me borrow it for the design.

Here is my concept, I'm not %100 sure of the colour scheme yet and even the design but, as I sid this is just a concept, let me know if you want anything changing.




Cheers.

Here is my second concept, let me know what you think.



Cheers.

My idea.

A note on the athlete icons, neither looks like a triathlete (swim, bike then run). One looks like maybe a basketball player? Or a soccer goalie. The other is obviously a weight lifter. But the idea of an athlete's silohuette (sp??) as part of the logo is nice. It should just look more like one of my athletes (runner, biker or swimmer). So far the feel of the Hammer & text most gets at what I'm hoping for...the idea that hard work goes into making an athlete. For some reason the hammer does that best so far. The shoe is a nice idea, perhaps if the graphic were something more aggressive though?

Looking forward to more mods & other entries, keep up the good work!

Oh, and of the hammer, I like the sketchiness of the black & white on both the text & the graphic for what it's worth.

I'm glad you liked the hammer idea. I figured on the b/w one, since it was a newsletter, I would give it a old-style print look to it. Kind of like when they would make a etching and then print it on paper.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l75/Bouzy_Bouzy/Ya.gif

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l75/Bouz...gtheathlete.jpg

What do you think? I tried to make them simple enough to be good for a newsletter. What do you think?

This is my entry. It's just a font at the moment. But I'll probably add 1-2 symbols or make some letters to symbols.

Click to view attachment

Bouzzy, Nice entries! I think I'd like them if the graphic were a little smaller and the text a little bigger to make the overall graphic a horizontal piece instead of a blocky piece? The animation is a nice idea too, any way to put interaction between the hammer and anvil?

MadMuhhhhhh....

I really like the metal font in "forging" and you've managed to create the feeling of movement in "the athlete". That's nice, although is there a way to do it without using 3 colors & 3 different fonts? Will the graphic you plan to add help add movement to the piece?

Nice work with the fonts to create feeling of strength and movement without "cartoon-like" motion lines.

Of course I could change the colours and fonts. Just tell me how you want it switched. Maybe I could make the "The" just like the "Athlete", but I have to see hoow this turns out.

@symbols: I haven't tried anything yet, and idk if I'll get a good result, because I'm not sure how good I am at symbols. We'll see.

I'll try and fix that and see what I can do about the anvil and the hammer. I'll enter my second version in a day.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l75/Bouz...uzy/Forging.jpg

Still Working on animation

Hmm, the symbols didn't turn out good yet and I'm not sure if I'll get anything decent, but I modified the text a bit:
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I think I like the looks of bigger words better with a smaller graphic so that "Forging" is the most prominent part of the logo. I like both the effects of steel letters with bolts, as well as the background steel plate.

Some ideas to experiment with...Rearranging the words, with Forging large across the top, maybe arcing or flat across teh top and an arc along the bottom with "the athlete" and a smaller symbol below? Different takes on the steel letter? What about letters cut out of a steel plate?

Just some thoughts. I like the sketchy graphic with the "steel" letters (and not the sketchy letters)...

Keep the ideas flowing!

Hmmm:
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I may give this a go over the weekend, haven't participated in a comp in a while and ive got an idea for this one.

- Griffin

So far I still like Bouzzy's design the best, although the xfgxfgraphics(?) entry was nice looking, it just had the wrong type of athlete.

Any additional ideas? Deadline is coming up this week, so if you got em, let me see em! We can always adjust or modify the little things if I decide your's is the winning entry!



I included this icon only because I think it's really funny and hadn't seen it before! Don't bash your head over this contest, but give me a few more great ideas!

I'm extending the deadline to the end of this week as I won't have time before then to look over the entries again anyway. A few of you posted that you wanted to enter, so I thought I'd offer a grace period...I know I don't always have my projects done on time.

Thanks all, great ideas if you have any more, please post. See my last post for my current thoughts!

I am glad you like my entry. I can change little things if you want. I am also stilllll working on that animation. I don't know how good it will be in the end but I will try.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l75/Bouzy_Bouzy/SNFTFA.jpg

My newist attempt. I like these ones. 2 slightly different variations.

I like those, pretty cool. I'd make a few modifications to the sillohuets (?sp), but we can discuss that later...assuming no one else posts any kickin' entries!

Absolute deadline midnight, EST, which is 3 1/2 hours from now.

Thanks all!

Hmrgz.. Didn't turn out that well.. but i'm probably too late anyways

Is the contest still open? If it is I will enter another entry. If it isn't who won?

Bouzy, You win!

FWIW, InFeri you're logo looks nice too and with more time, we could have worked on it!

Bouzy, can I see your other entry too? PM me for payment information, and we'll go from there. I like elements from each of your entries, so hopefully it will be a simple matter for you to combine somethings.

Thanks and congratulations!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Thanks for picking me, all I need for you to send me the money is your email. Then I can send you a request through pay pal. But you havn't responed to my P.M.s in 2 days so I thought I would try contacting you hear. Thanks for picking me.

P.S. Let me know what adjustments you want for the final version.