New Earth InstituteLogo Design Contest

DEAR DESIGNERS:
Let's break the mold a bit with the designs. We love the submissions so far, but we want to see some designs that are a little less "safe".

HERE ARE SOME NEW DESIGN NOTES TO CONSIDER:

- We are an educational organization. Our learning approach engages cognitive, emotional, somatic, relational, and spiritual aspects of intelligence, so...

- We want a logo that symbolizes:
-mind
-body
-soul
-spirit
-integral/ holistic (bringing together opposites to create a whole)
-balance
-totality
-whole person

- We would like to see what designs you come up with when you think of the image of the Tao or yin and yang. We don't want this symbol in our logo, but we like the essence of it -- i.e. brining together opposites:
-body and spirit
-form and formlessness
-being and doing
-action and inaction
-movement and stillness
-light and dark
-fullness and emptiness

- In style, we want the logo to be:
-Playful, raw, creative, feminine (not staunch, conservative, modern)
-Simple, sparse, elegant (like a calligraphic brush stroke; 'zen' in its feeling)

- We are not sure that the earth is the right symbol for the New Earth Institute. It does not say "a new way of thinking" and could represent an environmental organization or sciences organization.

I like the entries so far, but I wonder if you could break away from the theme -- i.e. image to the left, text to the right. Could we get a different look going? I am not disregarding this theme as an option, but I would love to see some designs that are a bit different to this.

I would love to see some Lettermark Logo designs with "NEI", our short form name.

We encourage you to play with themes like the Tao/yin-yang (but not using Tao/yin-yang), mandala, yantra -- i.e. symbols that have an 'eastern' feeling, that bring together opposites. It should be simple (almost zen), but creative, playful, raw, fun (rather than staunch, conservative, modern).

We love the entries! Keep them coming. The designs are getting very close to what we are after.

I want to invite you all to play with the them of the circle (zen circle), in a raw, brushstroke style, and a symbol of growth, like a tree or some other element from nature. This was a suggestion from members of our organization who are viewing the contest and we would love to see what you can do with this.

Thank you for all of your amazing, creative work!

Saskia

We are down to our top nine entries, which are being reviewed further by committee as of tomorrow afternoon ADT. If you have other designs to submit, please do so soon! We are going for something that really captures "transformation" and integration in the style of the remaining logos.

Thank you everybody for your amazing work!

We are in judging mode now and we are still not clear on who the winner is. If you have designs in the top 20, I would love it if you could leave them ranked for the next 2-3 days, or let me know if you are going to withdraw them. I am sorry it is taking us so long to decide which design to go with, but we got so many excellent designs and such different concepts, that it is hard to choose among them.

I am so grateful for all of your work on our logo!

S.

Please review the design notes above.

Please review the design notes above.