Hampton Snowbird RendezvousLogo Design Contest

Welcome to all of you creative and talented designers! We are very excited to see your logo ideas for our annual boating event. The Hampton Snowbird Rendezvous kicked off last year and was VERY successful. We had about 100 attendees who gathered together for 3 days to hear seminars on navigation, weather, medical emergencies aboard, and other topics of interest. There was a breakfast, lunch, and dinner gathering every day as well as field trips and assistance getting to local merchants and services for provisioning, laundry, propane tank re-filling, etc. This year promises to be even better! We have moved to a 4-day format and the City of Hampton has pulled out the stops, sponsoring the logo and the event with cash and local restaurant and merchant support. We look forward to having a professional logo and image for signage, event promotion, and participant giveaway uses. Thank you again and good luck to all! Mark

Thanks jekson and Dyoz for your submissions! I'll try and participate on my end as instructed. And I will rank frequently and also attempt to give feedback with each batch of submissions. If I'm doing this badly, or you need clarification to my ramblings, please let me know. At this point, I consider myself to be working for you! So here goes ... I think we'll have to be careful with the use of boats in the logo. Most of the attendees have sailboats. The smaller number who have a powerboat have what are known as trawlers. Both (sail and power) are different than the weekend cruiser-type boats most people visualize who are not really involved in boating. It is also a split audience, with powerboat owners having a tendency to pick on sail and vice-versa. :-) That doesn't mean we shouldn't think of perhaps using a boat or boats, but I will search and attach the URLs for the type of sailboats and trawlers that make this journey. Next, the use of birds is possible, either as gulls hovering around or as part of a caricature logo ... as an example, maybe a penguin in a hawaiian shirt? I'll go get some cruising sailboat and trawler image links now. Again, many thanks! Keep up the good work!

For those who are thinking of using a boat or boats in their designs ... I couldn't really find a specific URL for what I would consider "cruising sailboats" or "trawler boat" ... but if I Googled those terms, and then chose "Images," Google spit out MANY fine examples of these class of boats. Without making the logo too detailed/complex, a cruising example of a sailboat or trawler would appear heavier and more rugged. It would typically have solar panels to provide electricity at anchor. There is also a radar unit to see in foggy environments like Maine or at night when crossing shipping lanes. The sailboats, especially, would have metal davits on the stern to lift their dinghies out of the water. If you look at the images, you will see what I mean. Picture the kind of boat (and not necessarily BIG) that you would trust with your family on this trip. A cruising boat will have that look of seaworthiness about her. I hope this helps.

EDIT: Thought a "brand" would help clarify a mental image. Google "grand banks trawler" and "island packet sailboat" for representative (and popular) trawler and cruising sailboat brands.

I like a lot of the stuff that I see coming in! Nice work folks! Here are a couple high-level comments:

1. I think the designs that start to get too "wide" (or I guess "too tall" would fall into this comment also) won't work. That doesn't mean that the logo should be "square" (1:1) but I do think you should envision a t-shirt (as an example) versus a banner. A solid standing, balanced ratio would be best (4:3 or 3:2 most likely).

2. The event is more "masculine" so script type, light and airy, or thin line multiple elements probably stray from the event feel.

3. The use of boats is good but please note the comment (and examples) I already posted above. This is NOT a sport-cruiser crowd and seaworthy sailboats and power boat (trawlers) would have to be the representative boats in the logo.

Again, GREAT ideas and illustrations! Keep them coming!

Don't pay attention now folks to any "bottom ranking." I'm just grouping up your other submissions and trying to move your "number 1" and place it at the top, while grouping your other submission together below. I'm having a hard time seeing everything on LT's limited workspace (so, why have a BIG monitor?) so I'm just doing this as an organizational thing. It doesn't mean that I don't like your "other" submissions. Just trying to figure out how to play in the "Top 5" Phase that's coming up. GREAT work by everyone! Thank you again!

Folks, PLEASE DO NOT WITHDRAW YOUR DESIGNS. We are using the rankings among the committee for discussion purposes and to allow a couple designers to "tweak" their submissions. Please be assured that at the end, I will change everything around and get as many of you points, etc. as I can. I'll just have to read the guidelines for that and I promise to do everything I can to reward as many of you that worked hard on this contest as possible. Thank you all again, Mark

Thanks to everyone again for all of your hard work and creative ideas! Congratulations to jekson for the winning entry and to Medi, and BusinessBuilders for REALLY strong honorable mentions. The HSR committee appreciated everyone's great ideas, hard work, perseverance, and professionalism throughout the contest. We learned a lot, made some friends, and had a GREAT time. Many thanks, Mark