Rick's Real FoodLogo Design Contest

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has submitted logos--I am so excited and really blown away by your collective creativity! So many great ideas. It's going to be really hard to pick just one!

Couple of quick observations in general.

1) I definitely find that I prefer designs that incorporate "Fine Foods" in smaller font, so I can say definitively that a winning design will include the subtext.

2) While I love the idea of a fork in the logo conceptually, I'm finding that I'm not liking it as much in print as I do others.

3) I'm thrilled that a few submissions are dark backgrounds with light color logo and text and that others are white/clear backgrounds with dark logo and text. I think a winning design will ideally look great in both, so I would be thrilled to see both a negative and positive design option.

4) This observation I'm almost hesitant to make, but I will anyway... I'm finding (and I'm not terribly surprised) that, in general--but absolutely not universally--I tend to prefer logos with a border. Shape doesn't matter--square, rectangle, round, etc... I do want to stress that there are several submissions that I really like that don't have borders, but, again--just in general--my top picks thus far would likely be skewed a bit towards logos with a border.

5) I'm not a big fan of cursive and fanciful fonts. I wish I could give more specific font guidance, but I definitely like relatively clean font choices. In general--(again, as above, I almost hesitate to add this comment, because you are all so talented and creative and I don't want to reign in your creative freedom and expression because you may blow me away with something that I don't even know I'd love!)--so pls don't follow this comment strictly or religiously. I'm just trying to give as much feedback as early as possible to assist in designs. In general, I prefer all caps, but there are one or two designs that have lower case letters that are really appealing. In my own letterhead designs in the past I have always been a fan of small caps.

Thanks again so very much to everyone who has taken the time to submit a design. You are all so gifted! Very exciting!!!

Dear Designers, I want to thank you all again so very much. I'm so grateful for all the submissions--you have no idea! I have had one or two instances where people asked for feedback and then withdrew when I didn't respond quickly. This is my first time doing a logo competition and honestly, I didn't even know that this messaging and feedback was a thing until about 18-24 hours into it. If I didn't respond to you, pls know it does not indicate any lack of interest on my part. I will try to reply in a timely manner, but have a full time job too and, while I'd like to spend full time on this, sadly, I have to work too...and care for a school age child on top of it all! Hope you can appreciate these challenges. Please don't withdraw based on lack of feedback from me--only if you don't feel any inspiration for my project. I will do my best to respond to any requests--Thanks for your understanding!

Rick

P.S. I have a committee that is going to review all submissions once we move to the next phase of selecting finalists. Just want to encourage everyone to be patient with us. We are spread around the country and it will take just a bit of time to get everyone's input included on selections. Will do our utmost to do this in as expeditious a manner as possible.

thanks!

Important Note: Sorry in advance for this change. I am not formally asking anyone to make any changes to existing designs--I know your time is very valuable and there are no guarantees here for anyone. So, that said, I had originally planned to use Roots Fine Foods as the company name and logo. I have decided that I may (>50% likelihood--probably closer to 90% for me personally, but still getting input from other stakeholders in Roots, so still TBD) change to Roots Ancestral Foods. Roots is all about time-honored, traditional, tribal, ancestral food preparations. That is why we are starting with fermented products--most primitive cultures fermented many of the foods they ate both for preservation and also for health benefits: probiotics/beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and digestibility for foods like nuts, seeds, grains and legumes where phytic acid, gluten or other hard to digest acids and proteins are present in unsoaked or unfermented foods.

While these will be "Fine" foods on one hand, they are not highfalutin in any way! They were eaten by primitive, native, aboriginal, tribal peoples and cultures that were largely free of heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes and other illnesses that are epidemics in our modern society with its empty food sources.

If you are contemplating a new design, pls give some consideration to our business honoring indigenous, tribal, native, aboriginal peoples from all continents and all time periods. This will be Paleo and Keto certified when and where possible, but please note that I do not want a caveman theme. The formally known Paleo diet, currently popular in the US, was not well researched--paleo people ate grains and other foods that are not part of the formal Paleo diet--they just ate them in the way that Roots will prepare them--soaked, fermented or treated naturally in some other way to improve nutrient absorption and digestibility.

Thanks so much to each of you for your input into our company's brand and identity. We are truly grateful!

Best,

Rick

Just want to say, again, how deeply touched we are that so many truly gifted artists and designers have submitted designs for our project. I am totally blown away by the options that have been submitted. I would be honored to work with almost everyone here. It's going to be gut wrenching to make a single selection...there are so many wonderful logos! Thank you, truly!

A really important note to all designers:

The current "rankings" are not ordered in a meaningfully significant way for me yet. I am dragging logo designs that I particularly like initially into the rankings column and ones that aren't ones we're likely to pursue into the not interested column, however I have not tried to systematically rank logos within the ranked column. I didn't even know that you could see the rankings during the blind portion of this contest...As I said above, this is my first time doing this and I'm learning many things by making mistakes as I go... Apologies!

If I dragged your design into the ranked column, I really liked it for one reason or another. If I dragged it into the not interested column, there were attributes or concepts that didn't reinforce the image we are looking for. If it's still sitting in the unranked column, I was considering it a place to reserve all the great ideas that have come in for consideration by all of the other people that will be helping me evaluate finalists and winning designs.

I may not be typical of everyone who enters a contest here. I have quite a few people who I want input from and my timeline and process may not reflect what you've come to expect from many other contests--especially if the norm is that one person makes very quick personal choices on finalists and winners without getting input from others.

I know that there are no guarantees here for anyone--me included. Please know that we are truly grateful for your participation and would be proud and happy to work with many of you. I hope that you won't read too much into the specific rankings this early into the contest and decide to withdraw a design submission based on rankings. It's going to take me a while to get the input I need to get to a true, final ranking. Where a particular design sits in rankings right now is highly like to change based on input from others. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Rick

Last update on name...

After consultation w/ some friends who are grocery and food consultants, as well as family and partners, we've decided to use Roots Real Foods as opposed to Ancestral Foods or Fine Foods, as I indicated that we would do above. Ancestral got too many negative and incorrect associations with people, while Real got exactly the reception we hoped Ancestral might have. So, the name will definitively be Roots Real Foods. I have edited the brief to reflect this, but I think the contest title still says Fine Foods.

Many thanks,

Rick

Hi All,

The client has to step away from the contes to deal with an important matter. He'll be back as soon as is reasonable.

Ivan F

Hi everyone, sorry for the confusion on the pause in our contest last night and this morning. I've had a very sad passing of a relative whose family I am very close to, and who could have had meaningful input into Roots. Needless to say, there will be services to attend the following weekend. I have asked Ivan and LogoTournament if they would be willing to extend the tournament just a bit to allow me to do what I need to do to support my family. I will definitely be checking in during the next 10 days, but perhaps not quite as actively as I had been. I hope that you can all understand if it takes me a bit longer to respond under the circumstances. My main priority (other than ending up with a logo that we're 100% inspired by) is to hope that we don't lose momentum or see withdrawals. Please know that I remain completely 100% interested in all design submissions. Pls don't withdraw designs due to rankings or slow response, for now, ideally until we get to a place where we are actively ranking designs with input from the rest of my family and friends (most all of whom will be with me at the upcoming funeral services...). I will definitely check in no less than daily, and as often as I can. I am shooting to have input from all family and friends as soon after the memorial service as possible, but no longer than a few days. That will put us roughly 2 weeks out from today when I can accurately rank semi-finalists and finalists. I hope you'll each stay engaged, or continue to submit a design if you have new ideas or haven't submitted one yet. We feel so blessed that we've received so many inspiring designs so far.

Thanks to all of you for your designs and your understanding.

Best,

RW

Hi Designers, I wanted to send out a very quick note of both apology and thanks to each of you for hanging in there with me through what has turned out to be a very long contest by typical LogoTournament metrics. The combination of a family funeral and the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has affected us in many ways, and have caused us to focus on other matters for the past few weeks. I sincerely hope that each of you is well during this trying time for the whole world. Sending best wishes and positive thoughts to each of you as you navigate this yourself and with your families.

These situations have also caused us to rethink some decisions we made initially about the naming of the business--the subject of this contest. Initially, as you all know, we had intended to use Roots (and then made changes from Fine Foods to Real Foods). After some deep reflection and consultation with friends and family, we have decided to rename it "Rick's Real Food." While this obviously is a big potential change from a branding standpoint, we still like many of the same exact logos we liked for Roots. I am not requesting any changes from anyone right now, as you've all already put in enough time and energy on this contest, but I am certainly open to any new logo submissions that the change to Rick's Real Food might inspire you to submit. The underlying brand comments that I made at the beginning of the contest still hold. All of our foods will still be tied to heirloom/wild/ancient/traditional food types and methods of preparation, so there's no change whatsoever to the philosophy and context behind the business. We're still about "real" foods--not the processed, empty, industrialized foods that have become the standard of most food co's (especially here in the US...). Therefore, the natural, organic themes that have run through so many of your logos thus far still apply and potentially work very well for our application. If you feel moved to change the text itself to reflect the new name, we certainly appreciate that, but it's not necessary for us to move forward.

Want to give a shout out to Tyler and Ivan at LogoTournament for the really wonderful support for us during our contest. Really appreciate all their efforts to help us navigate through a tough few weeks during our first contest. You guys really rock! We've agreed to hold the blind phase open for just a few more days to let anyone submit a new idea for Rick's Real Food. The blind phase will end on 31 March 2020. I will be soliciting feedback from my family and colleagues over the next few days so that we can narrow the list down to finalists beginning on 01 April. Thanks again to all of you for hanging in there with me and Rick's/Roots. Sincerely hope that all of you are well.

All best,

Rick