Hi. Just wanted to help kickstart your contest with a couple concepts.
I have a flash media server project on AWS using a origin/end vps cluster type deployment and I've always had trouble explaining the cloud computing concept to web developers and even sometimes server admins. It's a very hard concept for some people to grasp, and it can be even harder to brand in a mark. I'm also going to try a couple non-cloud based branding ideas I have and hopefully you don't rule out that option completely.
I guess they way I've always seen it is people who need the scalability of cloud computing get it, people who don't tend to lean to dedicated vps hosting as more than efficient.
Thanks NeverSummer for the quick entries! Of the three I'm most keen to #3 and don't care for #1.
I actually don't mind you not including the cloud stuff in the brand. I think cloud is a fad and will fade just like ASP and the "information superhighway" faded.
I'm really interested on seeing if anyone creates characters for the brand and that's why I increased the prize to $400. I really like the idea of a Mr. Awesome cartoon superhero type character.
Maybe a superhero geek even. Since at the end of the day when we provide 100% uptime and failover clustering we're providing something very superhero like and it takes geeks to do it..
yea, I didn't care for the first one either... I was just brainstorming. I do think this one makes a really nice wordmark. works without the tagline and well in just one color.
I think the .net needs to be emphasized more... since you are in that namespace. Plus it creates more of a negative space on the bottom part of your type.
Additionally you could use the negative space at the bottom by inserting a tagline or project name or something. Doing that you could keep a very consistent look across the whole brand.
Hello NeverSummer, I'm going to request a little revision work done on a couple of the entries yours being one of them.
As you pointed out (and others have) the .NET really needs to be a bit larger and I think you hit it with #57. I'd like to see this same one with a sun type effect in the O though. It could be simple sun (circle with a few triangle rays out of it. The other thought would be with a cloud for the O but I think the sun may be nicer.
I'd also like to see what this looks like with the .net turned vertical on the end of awesome.
Sorry to put you to so much work on this. I'm going to try to nail it down ASAP.
Here's a couple variations with differing amounts of sunrays. With and without the tagline. I like it without the tagline because it has such a nice negative space effect, but then again you can always use that to your advantage when placing the logo in other layouts.