Einstein's StarsLogo Design Contest

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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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Thank you to all the designers! Great ideas!

For all I think the main draw back is that they seem a bit young. Think more edgy and modern - 20-something brilliant mathematicians and less science camp.

Looking forward to seeing more! Thank you!!

Designers,

Just got some more detailed feedback from the owner to share. She's not happy with the direction of these so far. Here are some pointers:

1. just Einstein's head, no body or hands;
2. less friendly doe eyes, more wild creative eyes
3. less cartoonish, more edgy grapic art lines and colors

It should have street feel. MUCH darker in mood, a la manga, street art, graffiti, dark comic books.

We're looking for Einstein the crazy mad/wild scienist (ie. crazy hair, tongue out, wild eyes). Not so friendly.

The designs need to be much more dark, modern and edgy.

I'll post a few more pictures of Einstein to help clarify the mood and direction we're looking for.

Thanks for all of your entries!

Some more inspiration:

Pop artists like: Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.
The design should be satirical/parodies in the vein of these artists. These artists took advantage of an images that everyone knew and turned them into something else/something new. They transformed the medium. Taking these concepts/reference to this genre and updating it into something more modern and edgy for today ... street art, dark video game graphics.

Totems of power for geeks.
Merlin, Gandolf, Wizards .... Einstein ... Power through knowledge not muscle.

This guy has some great transformations of real people into superheros and villains.
http://merlintwizard.blogspot.com/2009/05/x-men-origins-wolverine.html

See the pics of Gene Simmons posted in the brief for reference on the level of detail and realism vs. graphic art that we're aiming for as well.

Thanks designers! These are definitely heading in the right direction. Remember to keep the character likeness to Einstein. I think some of these are not quite there. Beyond the hair and mustache, I think where some of the designs are faultering may be in the face shape and the nose. Also, don't be afraid of color and we're not crazy about the black backgrounds. Keep them coming! Thanks for the new entries!!

Designers,

We've decided that shoulders and maybe hand is okay with an active stance, but no more than half body. We'd like to see some variations with this in mind.

Also, you can add some realism to the designs. This is primarily for a website, so we can have more pixels. Thanks!

Einstein bequeathed his likeness rights and name to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) for commercial exploitation. Companies who have Einstein-branded products (Like Oral-B, who have Little Einsteins™ toothbrushes) pay a licence fee to HUJ.

Thank you for brining this to our attention HappyB!

Designers,

Due to licensing issues we must change our name and character likeness.

Name of company is now "Merlin's Stars".

Picture: Make it look half Einstein/ half Merlin. Ie wild hair, but it can be longer. Maybe a go-tee. No tongue out. Tongue is definitely too Einsteinian. Let's add a wand or a fist or a staff!!!

All other style elements should remain the same.

Thank you to HappyB for alerting us to this issue.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We appreciate the participation by all of the designers. Given the graphic abstraction, we believe the tweeks to the character design shouldn't have to be too extensive to avoid Einsteins likeness and licensing issues.

Designers are advised to present on solid or subtle backgrounds only. Anything else must be contained with an enclosure of some sort that can be neatly centered within the presentation space, allowing sufficient space all around. This will help maintain the integrity of the site aesthetic and ensure that what we sell here are logos - not backgrounds.

I believe Merlin as a fictional character is copyright protected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/faq/copyright
http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-merlin/copyright.html

Hope this help :

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110703093341AAMrbkn

Thank you for all the new and updated designs!! These are great!

So, some general feedback. Please we'd like you to think more about the character than the text or background. Think of it more as and avatar. We need to get the character right. The text and background will be easier to get right later. (We're not sure the background of our website right now.)

We prefer not to have containment around the character circles, squares etc.

We like action stances, not straight up and down. Look at action shots of Gandalf and X-Men images for inspiration.

The characters a great, but we overall they need to be less mean. When we suggested "dark" earlier it was to steer designers away from the initial tendency towards cartoonish/disney, etc. designs. The character should be aged, sage, wise, intimidating, yet compassionate. Like an old tree.

Hope this helps. Thank you!!

Contest Note: Hi all this contest is extended. The client requested more time for the following reason:

Client working with key designs.