DASHLogo Design Contest

and they're off!

Thank you all for your early entries. You will need to read the full description of this tournament. It's different from most. The description contains CRITICAL information on how it differs. This tournament is NOT for a corporate logo. It is for a specific website - "www.collector-actionfigures.com" - by CollectorDASH.

We will be developing dozens of websites over the coming months. Each website is for a specific collectible and will have it's own logo. The first is "Action Figures" the next is "Bottles" then Cans, then something else.

The logo for www.collector-actionfigures.com must contain two common themes "Collector" and "DASH", as well as a theme for "Action Figures" (G.I. Joes, Transformers, Star Wars, etc.)

There is more information in the full description. Please send me any questions you have and I am happy to answer them all.

This contest is for www.collector-actionfigures.com

The next logo will be www.collector-bottles.com
The next might be www.collector-dolls.com

As you create create the logo, keep in mind that we want the "Collector" and "DASH" part of the logo to be included in all other category logos (bottles, cans, dolls)

The "Collector" and "DASH" part of each logo can take on the "Feel" of each category, but should still maintain some consistency across all categories. If you look at all of our logos, we want you to know they are all CollectorDASH websites.

NOTE: Think of how Google changes their logo for different occassions, but still remains Google

#5 & #6 Grey Source - I like the squareness of the logo. Symmetrical logos are easy to incorporate into many applications

#7 & #8 IdeazDen - you have the right proportions. Collector is small, DASH bigger and Action Figures biggest. We really want to stay with our colors Red, White and Gray (or silver). Elongated logos are problematic. I would like to incorporate some graphical elements into our logos, instead of all text.

#12 & #13 - I like the way you are using camo color, and the consistent Collector and DASH.

All - One idea you might try is to include a DASH and Action Figure in the logo. It is possible that we could go with a logo that does not include the text "Collector". This would enable us to keep the logo more square. We may put the URL under the logo, which would include the text "Collector"

I hope this feedback helps. I don't want to limit your creativity by giving too much feedback, I would rather see lots of different ideas, so keep up the good work. Thanks, Doug

Graysource - I like your thoughts around incorporating the Action Figure into the Dash. In the Contest Brief, I mentioned that we thought the way Google incorporates themes into their name might work for CollectorDASH. Keep thinking about how we could use ANY or ALL of the letters of DASH to incorporate the different categories. (bottles, dolls, trains, etc.) and then use the color and pattern of the logo to continue the theme (pink for dolls, camo for action figures)

Maybe, we don't want use consistent colors Red, White, and Gray in the logo. If logo #14 had an Army Camo coloring, that might give it even more of an Action Figure feel. I don't much care for the Orange for Collector. I also like the reverse version #15. It makes the logo jump out more. I'm not sure how you would use Camo coloring this way, but I would be interested in seeing it.

#20 - Bamputra of your designs number 20 is the closest to what we are looking for. "DASH" is very prominent, "Collector" is present, and "Action Figures" is incorporated in an Action Figure theme, green and silver. I do not believe we need the tag line "What Collectors Need" in the logo. That is just too much. I'm also not sure the lines add anything.

this is a hard one

Question. Is it mandatory to include the actual website url? (www.collector-actionfigures.com)
or are we just designing for "CollectorDASH - Action Figures"?
because it would be too much if include both.

FEEDBACK TO ALL

I have been getting lots of private emails from many of you regarding what we are trying to do with our logo. In short, the general feedback to us was that we were trying to do too much by having Collector, DASH, Category, Graphic, URL.

In short - We agree. I know that many of you don't like it when companies extend the deadline, but given this modification, I think we need to extend the deadline by three days.

Here is what we think we need to do. Just create a GREAT looking stylized "DASH"

Forget the collector, categories, tag line. Just DASH.

We will have other contests for the category specific stuff later. The logos that have done this so far are ranked at the top. Here are our comments on the logos that are close to where we think we need to go.

#30 - Good bold DASH. This one is probably too "action figury" and wouldn't work too well with other themes, but we like the strength of the DASH

#34 - This demonstrates the idea of having a common DASH that we could put with lots of categories. This one shows the DASH over "Action Figures" but it could just as well go with bottles, dolls, etc. Again, we do think it needs to be stronger/bolder

#17 - Imagine this DASH being bigger. Again, a stylized DASH that could be put with anything. We were not wild about this particular logo, but it shows where we want to go.

#3, #6, #27, #25, #29 all have stylized DASH. We're not wild about them, but now that we are focusing just on the DASH, we hope it will make your job a little easier.

#36 - Opaque. If we had continued down the path we were on, you would have had a strong chance of coming in on top.

All,

Here are some more thoughts that may help.

What we are looking for is a strong "DASH" that can go with category specific images (we'll handle the category specific images later). We hope that by coming up with a prominent "DASH" that is exactly the same across all categories we can start building our brand in the collector market.

The way car manufacturers put their same logo (BMW, Mercedes, on all of their different models of cars).

When someone comes to one of our sites, we want them to quickly see the "DASH" and know they are at one of our collector sites. The site will be completed branded around the specific category.

If we had a strong "DASH" mark that we used in conjuction with a themed look like #47 for dolls, I think we would have something we could work with. NOTE: For now we are only looking for the "DASH" nothing else.

I hope this helps.

Thank you all for continuing to submit great work. I've never had so many options when getting logo work done in the past. This logo tournament concept really changes the way this process is done. In the past we Marketing Directors get two or three ideas and the best one is usually obvious and the other two don't really get us thinking about other possibilities.

With this type of contest, each new logo can get us thinking about things completely differently.

So here is where we are now. Even though we are now really concentrating on finding a "DASH" mark, we like some of the category work that you have incorporated into your logos. In particular we like the feel of the Dolls graphic in #63. We can definitely see that type of branding on a dolls site. What we are hoping to find is a "DASH" mark that can integrated prominently with that type of graphic AND integrate with other category specific graphics that we will be using in the future.

Some of the logos that we think are very much heading in the right direction are #53 #56 #65 #66 #68 #69

We are trying to imagine these logos above #63 #62 #45

Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Thank you again for all of your hard work

All,
Even though we simplified our contest to just the DASH, some of you continued with the original brief and submitted ideas for CollectorDASH Action Figures, Dolls, Bottles etc. So, what I have done is rank all current logos together. Some just DASH, some CollectorDASH, and some with the category integration. This is our first use of Logo Tournament. I hope that we have been providing adequate feedback for you all. I'm also not sure when the "right" time to rank logos is. I thought now was a good time so you could all see where our preferences were.

I am VERY impressed with the talent on this website and we plan on using it often.

We have just a little over 24hours left in the contest. Please send me any questions or comments you have and I will respond as quickly as possible. This is my top priority over the next 24 hours.

If you post a new entry or modify an existing entry. Please send me a quick private message. I with there was a way for me to get automatically notified when ANY new entry or change is made, but I don't think there is. I'll send that in to the website managers as an enhancement request after the contest is over.

Thanks again,

Doug Benson
VP Marketing
CollectorDASH