We are an online skateboard shop in Australia. We offer savings on quality skateboards and longboards by shipping directly from the warehouse.
Industry
Sport
Top Three Things to Communicate
#1 - Our boards are great quality even though the prices are low
#2 - You get better value buying from us because we ship direct from the warehouse.
#3 - You can trust us.
Our Target Audience:
Skateboard buyers in Australia. More male than female. Teen skateboarders and older. Also, many of our customers are mid-twenties to forties getting into longboards as well as parents buying gifts for their kids. Big-brand name skateboards in Australia are very expensive, so our boards are appealing to customers that are looking for a quality product without the heavy price tag that comes with a big name brand (i.e. Mazda versus BMW). Our longboards are particularly popular.
Color Preferences
I am really open to suggestions here. The words that leap out at me from the colour association list are: Trustworthy, Unique, Energy, Youth and Passion. The logo will be going on a white background at the top of an ecommerce shopping cart which is white with grey/black menu bars and text. So I guess there's not really many colours to avoid and the opportunity is there for a striking colourful logo.
Our Ideas and Additional Information:
You can see our existing site at http://www.skateboardexpress.com.au
I would like to see ideas for slogans if possible. Slogans that reflect the core themes of "saving money on quality skateboards" "buying direct from the factory is the way to go", "changing the way you buy skateboards" etc. The slogan can be cheeky, sporty, funny.
We are rebuilding the site using ecommerce shopping cart software with a template that has a white background and grey/black menu bars and text. There will be images and shopping cart info for six boards in the middle of the home page and shopping category/information boxes down the left and right side of the home page.
Themes
Colorful
Bright
Loud
Playful
Modern
Raw
Sporty
Adventure
Masculine
Simple
Economical
Style
Pictorial Mark
Literal or representative imagery is used to symbolize the brand.
Famous Logos displayed under fair use to enrich the general publics' knowledge of graphic design.
Applications
Web
Print
Diamond Contest
We're sorry, but this contest is presently open to a limited pool of designers.
#12 - really like the concept. you've got action in there, you've got a skateboard and the text (particularly "skateboard is colourful and leaps out). I'm not sure whether both words are clear enough because of the strong taper in "skateboard" and the lightweight font in "express". As well as the website, this will be going on delivery docket, bumper stickers, business card, so I don't want people to have to look at it for 5 second while they figure out what the words say. Maybe I'm only thinking this could be an issue because I'm looking at a smallish version and it'll fine when it's blown out to full size. Anyway - some general guidance - I would like "skateboard express" to stick in people's minds.
#9 - this is cool. i really like this concept too. Maybe try to find a way to make the font stick out more. The white on blue/black works ok but the roundish font seems to melt together a little bit. i know that's the idea but maybe we can make the words clearer.
#3 - i like this as well but I think the logos with movement and a skateboard or skateboarder are grabbing me more at the moment..
#6,7 etc - eyefibre. I like the boarder riding over the top of the logo and the board going under - that's cool. I'm not crazy abou your choice of fonts. e.g the font in #6 looks old and classical to me. we need clear, bold, energetic. great concept, though.
#1 & #2 - i marked them out because they are a bit too complex for me and i'm not into the wings, skulls theme.
#3 - again, i like the concept with the skateboard in there but not the dripping, melting thing i.e. it seems to go against my themes of energy, boldness, newness.
thanks everybody so far - i will log in and at least twice a day and re-rank and make comments. I can see from the comments in the other contests that it's important for me to make comments, re-rank and provide guidance regularly, so I promise to do that. If there's something unfair or unclear about my comments here (or if they're just too long!) - please let me know - I can take it. cheers.
the logos that are rectangular (i.e wide) are appealing to me because a banner style logo will work well at the top of my site. I like the idea of having a slogan in there, if possible, to help get my message across. "changing the way you buy skateboards" or "a better way to buy skateboards" is the message I want to get across but those sentences don't seem punchy enough.
hi there - sofa, i really like #38. i realise it's very simple but the title really stands out and i like the slogan. the whole thing is simple - but it works.
I also like what you've done with #40. the skateboarder going up the ramp on the side of the logo is very clever and I like the way you've built the ".com.au into the corner". The font for the title might be a little bit too complex.
so if you take out the logo and the pictures of the two clowns in the middle, you can see that it has very neutral colours with a heavy, steel grey dominating the menu bars. This is why the colourful logos work well - eyefibre's #50 for example seems to match up really well with this template. I'll be using a modified version of this template and the header logo will be about twice as deep as the logo on the existing template.
re #45: I understand your comments about wanting to avoid a retro look, but I don't agree with your opinion that the typeface used in this entry is, in fact, retro; rather, it is a quite contemporary typeface in the Euro-techno style. But, since your opinion is the only one that counts...
hi ufotofu - fair enough, retro is the wrong word for that font. it reminded me a bit of 70s surf labels but I guess I'm not up with the euro-techno style.
i've shuffled some of the top entries around based on how they match up against the ecommerce template that I'll be using (http://www.7danademo.com/xcart/home.php?skin=Clean_Look) I've got a modified version of that template that has the grey menu bar right at the top of the screen and the logo will be centred just below the menu bar with images/text either side of it. The template that I'm playing around with has the logo at 400 x 170.
eyefibre's #62 seems to match up best so far.
regarding slogans - the one that works best for me so far is sofa's "better boards. better prices." I'm not totally sold on this as a final slogan, but it's direct and makes a simple statement that lines up with the site's message. If don't end up completely sold on a slogan, then I might just go without one and use my site headings to communicate the message. I don't know if it's appropriate for me to ask others to include a slogan that someone else came up with (do they "own" it for the tournament ?). It's certainly my intention to try and run a fair tournament (I asked this question in the designer's forum a couple of days ago but haven't had a response). Any guidance there appreciated. Thanks.
hi - some really cool entries this morning (my time). i'm playing around with the top 4 at the moment trying to work out which one works best for my site. thanks everybody - there's so many fantastic entries.
Hi everyone. Thank you for the great entries. I'm very happy with the result and really impressed with the quality. This is a fantastic site and just what I needed to help me with a logo. I could have really gone for any of the top 10 or so designs and been happy but in the end, the one that I picked just seems to work best against the site design and colours that I have. Special thanks to Sofa, eyefibre and kikko for putting in a bunch of excellent designs. Thanks again and good luck to you all with the site. If I end up cooking up another website, I'll be straight back here to get a logo for it.
For anyone that's interested, we're putting together a new range of skateboards and I'm looking for an artist to supply graphic designs for the decks. I know that some of you tried to go down the skater/tagging graffiti style for the logo and we didn't go that way because we felt it would be lost on parents and older buyers visiting the site but the new decks will definitely have a less conservative approach. Anyway, if you know anyone who's into skate art just pm me here or email us at sales@skateboardexpress.com.au
Thanks again - great site and a great bunch of artists !