America Talks BusinessLogo Design Contest

Great work so far - thank you to the early entries. Watch for designer-specific feedback via Private Message. I'll post overall notes relevant to all designers and any updated information here as a comment.

First comment that may help all designers zero in on a thematic look/feel:
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A couple of other inspirations (perhaps)...

http://www.swiss-miss.com/

http://teuxdeux.com/

Thanks all - eager to see more from you!

Design team - let's take a break and please NO MORE submissions with the circle around the word "Talks." Unless you have a truly original treatment with the circle, let's give that concept a rest.

Review the other ideas in the brief. (It's way too early in the contest to be getting derivative of each other. YOU are better than that!)

Thanks for all the great work so far - please keep it coming and we'll keep the dialogue going.

Design team,

Thanks for your good work so far.

To be fair, I'm putting designer-specific feedback into Private Messages but I had a couple of new ideas that I wanted to share with all designers.

1. While still keeping the design strong, clean, and simple, I'd like to see some versions with the words TALKS in upper case where the "A" is replaced with a star and/or the "S" is replaced with the $ symbol. (One or both of these ideas may be too much, but I'd like you to experiment with them.)

2. Several designers have submitted concepts with speech balloons. If we go with this concept, the speech balloon would need TWO descenders to suggest a conversation. Also, let's try the speech balloon around the word BUSINESS, not around the word TALKS.

NEW ADDITIONS TO BRIEF:
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Several questions have come in about adding a graphic element to the logotype, which I think may be worth trying. Again, while keeping the design simple and elegant, you might consider adding a graphic element that suggests any of the following:
- Conversation
- Grouping
- Gathering
- Collaboration
- Connection

Examples for the "abstract mark" (Uses abstract shapes and symbols to convey an idea or attribute about the organization) that might suggest similar ideas are:

http://mobileroar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/blackberry-logo.jpg (without the "BB" shape)
http://www.thinkmap.com/images/other/logo_thinkmap.gif
http://problogger.com/ (without the "P")

Thanks!!!

-- David

Fabulous designers,

I think we've exhausted the quotation mark concept (as per my own earlier request!!) so thank you for doing so many good attempts. I don't think the quotation marks work - too literal and not very exciting visually. The other challenge is that a lot of quotation mark designs end up looking like the numbers 66, 99, or 69. None of which is good.

STRETCH TIME - Let me ask you to push me a little beyond the brief. If you want to get creative, break some of the rules, or suggest something I'm not seeing, this would be a great time in this contest to see what you might contribute.

In deep appreciation of your talent - thank you x 1 million!

-- David