Confederate CandleLogo Design Contest

Folks, just so you're aware - I intend to check the contest area several times each day, providing as much feedback as I possibly can, both good and bad. I'll rarely suggest tweaks (aside from possible recolorizations) in designs, and if I think it's bad I won't sugar-coat it.

Just keep in mind though that if I think you've submitted a bad design, that doesn't mean you can't submit others, or that it's not marketable - all this is obviously subjective!

Hello! Here are some hints for getting the most out of your contest:

~~ Rank designs daily -- this will encourage more participation.
~~ Ranking designs daily will also keep your contest from getting cluttered.
~~ The more feedback you provide, the better results you are going to see.
~~ Designers are not offended by "Not Interested"
~~ Over-use of "Not Interested" discourages participation.
~~ Ranking is a non-monetary means of showing appreciation for designers hard work.
~~ Designers earn points for ranked designs. We like to earn points.

1st place - 50 points
2nd place - 20 points
3rd place - 10 points
4-6th place - 5 points
7-10 place - 3 points
10th on - 1 point

More detailed information on how to get the most out of your contest can be found here:
https://logotournament.com/forum/general_discussion/914


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First round of comments:

TSquare: I like the 'generic' nature of the design. The color selection isn't what I might have had in mind, but as-is it's at least for now the best of the bunch. You might want to experiment with different types of candles, different color combinations to see if there's a better fit.

Brendan: I honestly like your design a great deal, but there are a few things that cause it to be ranked #2 at the moment. First, you pluralized "Candles" when just "Candle" is in the name. Second, you seem to have given it a gradient-looking Web 2.0 look which could present problems with printing the design. Third, you've tended to focus on candelabra-style candles, which would tie our identity too much into a particular style of candle.

Baco: Yours is a nice layout for print purposes, but the green and red color combination you've chosen just happens to match our aforementioned sister business'es identity exactly. Also in looking at the design it seems the graphic is a little too abstract while the text seems 'forced,' if you know what I mean.

Husk: This design is unique in that it's vertical rather than horizontal, but frankly otherwise that's all it has going for it.

the B: I kinda like where you were going with these, but the reversed "C," at least at first glance, seems to detract from the rest of the design. Perhaps a "C" within a "C" motif could work somehow?

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. Keep 'em coming, gang!

A second round of feedback will be posted here some time within the next 12-18 hours. I just didn't want to put a revised ranking together completely without explanation.

I promised a 2nd round of feedback, and thanks to some new submissions there's been a re-ranking as well:

ZZFANTA is re-ranked to the #1 slot due to feedback received from our staff. I'm concerned about the colorization aspect of the design however.

A new entry from J3 leapfrogs a bunch and enters at #2. It's admittedly not the best pure design from among those submitted, but J3 has done something many haven't - he actually paid close attention to the parameters of what we're seeking, and produced a logo that, with some adaptation, will easily work within our limitations (particularly 3 colors).

DE.SIGN enters at #3 in this re-ranking, despite completely ignoring the 3-color limitation. Should a re-work of his design be capable of being utilized under our parameters, he could move up.

BACO, TSQUARE and MIKEMX's designs were moved into the "Not Interested" area simply because the people looking at them (myself included) thought the designs currently ranked better portray the image we want for Confederate Candle. They're by no means bad designs at all.

BRADEN, we absolutely love your designs, but inevitably each of them has been placed in the "Not Interested" category because they appear 'too ornate' for our use; use of too many colors or a Web 2.0 appearance, for example. They've all been simply brilliant and we'd love to use them, but unfortunately cost limitations for printing prevent it.

Hope this feedback helps. Should anyone have any specific questions, please ask them. In the meantime, keep 'em coming!

The latest rankings (as of 0925 US ET, 09 Oct 09) are tentative; I'm having our staff look over the designs as well, and based on their feedback the rankings may change. I will have additional feedback on most if not all of the newly submitted designs once I confer with them!

A revamp of the rankings and with some feedback in this post, following receipt of a boatload of feedback from our staff regarding the designs:

ZZFANTA's designs continue to top the rankings, with our team liking the black backgrounded version most. I however see potential for print-related issues due to the "illuminated" background. I'm going to check with our printers to see how viable this vision is to convert to print format, but the staff really likes entry #36, thus it's ranking. Entries #35 and #34 are at this point are solid alternatives.

J3's entry #28 has been re-ranked to third, as the staff and I loved the way the candles were aligned to produce C's. The staff wondered if there was a means, however, of changing the candles shape into something that "wasn't as block-like, perhaps even utilizing different shapes and colors, while retaining the "C-C-C" vision. As it is the design is simple, yet almost exactly the type of thing I originally had in mind. Entry #41 also gained immediate recognition as a beautiful design: once again not at all overstated, yet with a touch of elegance and sophistication to it.

BACO's entry #32 ranks fourth currently) is another one that is elegant yet simple. The only significant matter which (and it was only my opinion that kept it from being ranked higher) I disliked was the position of the candle and flame in proportion to the circle. Simply put in looking at the design, if I took away the "Confederate Candle" text, I wouldn't know if I was looking at the logo for a candle company, a flower shop, or my natural gas cooperative.

TSQUARE's entry #27 is a nice, colorful design, but unfortunately it's apparent that the six candles are merely three candle designs that were cut-and-paste, then recolored. Not in and of itself a disqualifying factor, but not a point in the design's favor, either. However, perhaps such a design could be improved - for example, perhaps by shaping the candles in an abstract form of a skyline, such as that of Confederate Candle's home (Raleigh, NC) the concept could vault to the top of the heap.

Great feedback! It's wonderful having so much input from the contest holder. Thanks again for the ranking!

Okay... a new day, a recovery (for me) from a birthday weekend hangover, and a new preliminary ranking. Individual design feedback will be gathered from our staff later today, after which I'll have some to provide on the newest round of submissions!

My apologies for a two day delay in re-ranking and feedback, but unfortunately the actual business has been busy to a point where it took me a while for the staff to get around to giving me feedback on these designs! In no particular order...

#51 BY TSQUARE:
A great overall design: simple yet distinguished. It might've been ranked at the top spot if the flame had been coming from the "L" or "N," as would be the case with a candle, or if the "L" or "N" could've been modified into a candle somehow. Still a great look though!

#52 BY DEN:
A good submission, but we felt that the design was one that we might have difficulty translating well into certain backgrounds. Part of the intended use of the design is to have it etched/printed onto glass, using the color(s) of the candle as a background. In this case, the design may not serve that purpose very well.

#54 and #55 by SANTINO:
Provocative, but the "C's" didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the design.

#53 by VUELTA:
Ultimately the flame device wasn't a hit with the staff. I wish I could provide better feedback but the consensus of those reviewing it was a simple "I'm not feeling it."

After a flurry of 'last-minute' entries so huge in number that we simply gave each design a cursory glance and a simple up-or-down vote as to whether or not it fit in with our plans, we finally broke down and opted to extend the contest another 7 days - there are some really great designs here (including many from those submitted in the past 24-48 hours) and if nothing else we need more time to look through what has already been submitted, presuming nothing comes in during the extension that blows us away of course!

WOW!

Apologies for the long delay in providing feedback here... a number of business-related issues have cropped up which have prevented my staff and I from putting together any form of substantive feedback. That plus the wave of entries we received was such that we finally had to resort to simply saying "Yes, I like that," "No, that doesn't work," or "It's nice, but I see problems with implementation" to the various designs.

I've updated the rankings based on the most recent substantive feedback received, whittling things down to a top three. As a result, Entry #57 has reclaimed the top spot, as our staff (while loving the city outline designs) thought it ultimately would result in our being perceived as a local/regional concern - with people outside the Raleigh area not having a frame of reference as to why there were buildings in our logo design. It also had a "Frasier" reminiscence to it that they ultimately didn't care for once they saw it.

Less than 24 hours to go! While I honestly don't anticipate a last-minute submission topping what tsquare has done here, there's obviously still time to prove me wrong!

And just so everyone knows - a reworking of an existing concept is NOT going to vault you atop the leaderboard here. We're capable of envisioning 'alternative styles' of the same concept work. Just trying to save those of you sending in re-vamped versions of existing concepts a little time!

I wish to thank everyone who submitted designs for this project, and to congratulate TSQUARE on producing what was ultimately chosen as the logo for Confederate Candle!

TSQUARE: If you could please provide the appropriate files in a format that is compatible with Adobe Illustrator 9.0 (yeah, we need to upgrade), I'd appreciate it.

I only wish we could declare several 'winners' and utilize multiple looks as part of the business' identity package. A number of these submissions were simply breathtaking, and ultimately the final decision came down to a hybrid of beauty and simplicity of design coupled with ease of use in printing and other related processes. While TSQUARE's design admittedly wasn't the most simple or the most cost-effective to use, in the final analysis it was viewed as just the right blend for our purposes.

Again my thanks to everyone who submitted designs. Hopefully we'll have further design work at some point in the near future!