Sam McDermottLogo Design Contest

Wow, I'm really impressed with all of your ideas! What a strong start!

As I mentioned to de.sign, I know it's going to be a bit tricky to find something emblematic for me as my communications activities range from the written to the spoken word.

I like the strength that these convey as well. I'm also wrestling with having something that's strong and yet feminine leaning (not too much though)...

Please feel free to send me a message if you want me to share some more specific feedback. I really do appreciate your efforts and am really impressed with your work!

Kind regards,
Sam

ATTENTION DESIGNERS:

I'd like to thank all of you for your submissions. Your efforts are much appreciated. I'd like to further clarify what I'm looking for in my logo.

1. While the balloon icons are unique, I don't think they will lend themselves well to my audience. Many of my clients are executives, attorneys, accountants, service providers in general and marketing folks from major companies. While I do want a logo with personality and vibrant colors, I want to be mindful of my prospective buyers. I'd like to move away from the balloon icons and icons in general and re-focus on the name itself.

2. To that end, I'd like to see a combination of logos with and without the tag line. I'm not 100% committed to needing the tag line as part of the logo so I'd like to see some with and without.

3. Here's a link to famous name logos that might spur some ideas: http://www.logodesignlove.com/10-handwritten-logo-designs. While I don't want to copy these fonts, and I don't want to use the most popular fonts out there like "Sean of Hand" - (While it is a cool font, I will be teased mercilessly by my fellow marketing friends if I go that route)- I wanted to give you a sense of what I'm trying to achieve. For instance, "Paul Smith" has what appears to be a handwritten logo and it really holds well. I'm open to being creative here and mixing font styles, as well as breaking out the letters SM and doing something interesting there.

I hope this feedback helps. I know this is a process and I truly appreciate your effort and energy. I look forward to seeing more fantastic ideas!

Please feel free to send me a note if you need extra clarification.

Warm regards,

Sam

ATTENTION DESIGNERS:

Let's leave out the tag line for now... Thanks!

HELLO DESIGNERS:

I appreciate your designs. Question for you -- I was wondering if you could either manipulate these fonts so they look more like a real person's signature versus a font signature... Or, do you have other ideas? Maybe handwrite something that looks real?

Thank you so much!
Sam

ATTN DESIGNERS:

I've extended the contest but don't anticipate needing the full 7 days and plan to close it before that time. I feel like we're getting closer, but wanted to give you enough time to manipulate designs through the weekend, before we move into the holiday. I hope this is more convenient for you.

Quick note-- I'm NOT committed to using my initials, so please feel free to eliminate the stand alone initials from your designs. That said, I do like the iconic feel that some of you are creating with, dots, bubbles and quotes and see some incredible opportunities in those images - as they give me something else that I can use as a stand alone to represent the brand.

Some of you have asked for additional feedback via PM. I'm happy to continue doing so on your specific designs, but want to give all of you some ideas about where I'd like to see this go. If possible, I'd love to see less of a font script and more of a font that either looks like it was handwritten or if there's a way to manipulate some of these fonts so it feels more connected, that would be awesome! I like the dominance of the S, M, D and like a thicker pixel as well.

Also, please feel free to introduce color at any time. I like strong colors - reds, plums, yellows, blues and am open to having those as accents (per the iconic images) or in the name itself. I'm open...

I feel incredibly fortunate to have so many talented designers working on this for me. And, I promise to tell my friends about all of you as well.

Thanks again!
Sam

Hi all,

FYI CH must be away for some personal issues. Sorry for the delay. Feel free to enter more options but she will not be able to give feedback until mid-next week.

Attention Designers:

I want to thank each one of you for submitting your designs. I apologize that I had to step away from the contest for personal reasons - but wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your thoughtful creativity.

While the contest is coming to a close, I am going to need a day or so to digest all of your work so I can put some thought into the ranking process. I understand you earn points for each ranking so please feel free to leave all of your designs up as I will include all of your submissions in the ranking process.

Again, I really appreciate all of your wonderful designs and hard work. I will be telling my friends and colleagues about you!

Warm regards,

Sam