Cricket & AbacusLogo Design Contest

ATTN: ALL ARTISTS -
Please visit our website at www.cricketandabacus.com and view our etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/cricketandabacus to get a feel for our aesthetic and ethic before working up designs...our pieces and our "about us" page will give you a very good sense of what we are about and what we want our branding to communicate. Can't wait to see what the world comes up with - Thank you for your time!!!
Elena-Lisa Bass
C&A

one suggestion; regarding the feather-on-water's-surface design idea (or any other concept) please feel free to work in the name and mantra as an overlay to the graphic...for example, if the feather/ripple image was in a circular shape, with the text curved above and below...

While we will consider horizontal orientated designs as well, we'd really like to see some images that are close to congruent in height and width, to allow for printing on gift boxes, etc (in other words, that will fit well within a square field)

Ideally, we'd end up with one concept that could be orientated two different ways, either linear-ly (banners, skinny business cards, headlines in promotional materials) or centralized (t-shirts, gift boxes or bags, item tags, postcards, website or image "watermark")

Sorry for the weird terminology, if this doesnt make sense, or if you have any questions please ask!!!

also - feel free to play with the concept of a circular logo - the circle as a representation of a bracelet, with a feather charm...like the image of one of our bracelets that is attached to this brief

maybe with some of the text as beads or charms...

re: TEXT preferences - (company name and mantra) - Name should be capitalized like proper names, but not all caps; "Cricket & Abacus"
Mantra should be all lowercase; "find something yours"

re: FONT preferences - we want something with character, maybe with a antique, organic feel, but not too "pretty" or "girly," as we do men's and unisex jewelry as well (please see newly attached image for "Papyrus," what we are using now)
***Here are our favorite font submissions so far, just as a GENERAL guide: #2, #14, #17, #24, #36, #37

re:FEATHERS (if used) - we're looking for a more "realistic" feather, as opposed to a highly stylized one...we want to maintain that natural, organic feel as much as possible

***It is also very important that this logo translate well to stamping, as we hand-stamp all our gift boxes and larger merch tags***

...so while we would love a multiple-color logo for print materials, we also ideally need a design that is wholly or in part still workable in monochrome

What size of a stamp do you use or intend to use? this will effect the amount of detail that can be included in the logo.

Thank you ALL for all of your submissions to help us develop our branding - - - this is why i adore LT - best, most creative, attentive designers ever! And so many ideas and designs we never could have imagined ourselves...really beautiful work, everyone.
Thank you again; your hard work and inspiration is deeply appreciated!!!

PS - sorry for missing the stamp question earlier - - - our typical stamp size is 2x2 inches at the largest. We may make a smaller stamp of just the graphic element, if possible. The rubber stamp company we use is pretty accurate for detail, but it will be a mono-chrome image. Thanks again!

to our top 5 designers:
This is my third time on LT, so based on a past experience, I want to make sure I say this now since it's important to us...and in case it matters to any of you too...

We know you all exist outside of LT - - - Obviously, we are definitely looking to come out of this with a logo, but we're also hoping to find some additional designs/designers we can work with in promotional materials and on products that will give us multiple options. My extended family does a lot of what i (oh-so-creatively) call "on-board" advertising for me...not only do they wear my pieces, they hand out my business cards, wear shirts or carry bags with our designs on them, etc. (bless their hearts!) and i have found that sometimes a cool motif is just as likely to grab someone's attention as a piece of jewelry...and so many of your designs are so beautiful, i don't see how anyone could NOT want to see them again!

Long story short, i would really like to be able to acquire some of our favorite designs even after the contest - so while it would be understandable for any artist to only be interested in 1st place as it gets closer to final judging, i'm hoping that won't happen here.

I just wanted to say that i promise we will NOT waste your time if we're not truly interested. If we ask for revisions, it's because we genuinely appreciate your work and think it might have potential.

So the only thing we ask is this - if it gets closer to finish, and you are even *considering* leaving the contest because you are not currently ranked in 1st place, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me a note first - PLEASE!!!

We don't want to lose the chance to work with you now or in the future because we didn't speak our mind to begin with. The top 5 we have currently ranked have each provided designs we would be proud to have represent our brand. That's all. Thank you for reading, and for all your amazing effort for us - we're so excited!!!