#1 - I like the stacked square look - will work well on shirts and signs, but the buildings down here are usually made of wood with porches, so the column is a bit off. Celery might be more like it, but that might lack the elegance we're going for. Here's a link to some of the pictures that have made it into the calendar we publish every year - http://oviedotraditions.com/Past%20Photos.htm

#2 is just too lop-sided (and it looks like it says "TO....PP!" can't get past the potty training concept :) - also having a hard time getting into the blue - nothing in nature is blue, and we're also into preserving nature, so that should probably go on the "colors to use sparingly" list.

#3, in retrospect, ,does sort of look like a house, but it took me so long to see it that it's probably a bit too tough of a stretch for our audience of "everyone." Maybe a plank/board would work on the left?

#4 - interesting size/spacing of words, and the colors are easy to work with. We just don't have any leaves around here that look like this. Live oak and long needle pines grow here, Florida elm, and a few others....leaves, other than celery leaves or very abstract ones still attached to a tree should probably be avoided.

#5 - this looks a little bit like a sail on a boat....a mythical greek boat....it also looks a lot like the letter "D," which makes me wonder what D has to do with TOPP. It's also missing some letters in the organization's name. Might be a bit on the fancy side for looks, but has some other weird things about it too....

#1 - any chance you could swap the column for a sabal palm tree? Getting lots of comments from people around town that they'd like to see that!

Some comments from around town (seems like you can't post without logging on, so I'll try to keep these coming....we've got LOTS of eyes on these as of today :)

we like #4 best but we would change the leaves to palm fronds.

We like the look of #1 but a Roman column doesn't seem to fit Oviedo's architecture.

#3 is nice but maybe a little too modern for "preserving historic architecture."

Ill have one up for you today. :)

#1) I will post a new design using a sable palm. :)

#13 - I really like this palm tree idea, but this one's not a sabal....it's more of a date palm, maybe a queen....those aren't native to Oviedo - our palms are actually quite unmajestic - think palmetto on a stick :) And maybe in white for a little more contrast?

#11 - the font change fixes the eye chart thing, but the split up letters is still a bit distracting. Your logo is beautifully balanced, but I just noticed the word "the" isn't on there. We go by "TOPP" in newsprint and around town, so the "the" is sort of important. Maybe you could get Oviedo on one line and add another up top with "THE"?

#34 - that celery-V ROCKS!! Fun, but still pretty classy. I'd love to see other "Oviedo-esque" items incorporated into letters of the logo (maybe not all at the same time, but an orange here, a chicken there, maybe a palm tree if the shape is right).

#7 - just got in an e-mail from a fan of your design here in Oviedo (-: he'd like to see the orange be a logo in and of itself that TOPP could use independent of the main logo....

#37 - really like the font, but our current "logo" is just distincitve font as well. We're hoping to jazz things up a bit with some element(s) of Oviedo in the logo.

#17 - peoiple have been e-mailing in feedback all morning on your logo - they like it, but one person suggested a train instead of an orange up top, and another suggested a whole shrunk down logo up top (perhaps something along the lines of #22, something with a clean bold look). One person even asked for the green one back (initially, it went into the "not so great" list, then disappeared).

#44 - This is a much more subtle O, and I think it'll work well on a lot of our print material. The name is pretty hard to read....could you try making it larger? maybe a different font? Oviedo being slightly larger is nice though. On the house, we don't have many buildings shaped like that, BUT....we have one house (the oldest one in town) that has a plain roof with a round window....here's a link - if you could get a decent approximation of this house, it's something people around town would likely find hauntingly familiar....http://oviedotraditions.com/Past%20Calendar%20Pics/2008%20Pictures/image467.jpg

#22 - Do you think you could try extending the green space and putting the words up there in white? Still getting a lot of good feedback from viewers about the rooster :) 3 of the 4 words are pretty small though....can those get any bigger? bolder?

#36 - this isn't as clean looking as some of your other designs - I still like the tall palm better~

#27 - the palm turned out a bit prickly-looking.....and in the meantime, someone e-mailed in and said she liked "the one with the celery leaves." On closer examination, it must be yours....and if one is very familiar with celery leaves, they do resemble those. Might you be able to add some stalks?

haha... I did attempt originally to create celery leaves but Ill definately try them with stalks. Cheers! - #4

#44 & #45 - These are getting love/hate feedback so far....what I think is missing is something that ties it back to our town - maybe an orange in the middle of the O? The T shaped like celery? Adding the completely name of the organization underneath would be nice too....I like the colors - different, but distinctive~

#46 - could the letter be a bit higher? Something about the proportions seems a bit strange

#47 - NICE!! Any way to get the name of the organization bigger? The symmetry is great, color eye-catching....and it's got the rooster and fence. (There's a celery vs. chicken "battle" in town forming over the logo selection :)

#55 - I feel like Goldilocks....the first one was too low, this one is too high....if you could center the text between the top of the green and the top of the gate and enlarge The, Preservation, and Project, it would probably be just right :) (been getting some feedback via e-mail today on that)

#58 - I like the house idea, but we don't have much (hardly any) Victorian architecture....here's a link to a house that sort of looks like the one in your logo - http://oviedotraditions.com/Past%20Calendar%20Pics/2008%20Pictures/image467.jpg

#56 - The dot in the middle is looking more like an orange, but it's still a bit harsh and modern. We're aiming for a touch on the warm fuzzy side - maybe a leaf on top? I also like the logo with the words written out - if those could go underneath the TOPP one, that would take some of the mystery out of it :)

#48 - Classy! I like that this looks like it could fit nicely on a sign, but isn't actually a sign.... not so sure on the blue lines....maybe gray? The other sort of neat thing is that it could be easily adapted to work for other cities if our concept catches on....hmmmmm.....

#51 - super cool key in the words, but I'm having a hard time understanding what a key has to do with anything. Remembering our past is key to improving the future....?

#52 - I like the leaf! Not quite sure why the O has a quarter piece missing....it's making me think too hard about if there's a subliminal message I'm missing.....we gotta send out fairly easy to perceive happy subliminal messages to all who see our logo :)

#62 - Aaaah! I can picture this on a book, on a sign, on a shirt....many places. There's a bit of controvery around town about the font - I think this one shows up much better, though I like the more distinctive look that you used in previous versions

#60 - nice V! Our palm trees don't look quite like that though - we've got sabel palms. They're rather bushy-looking. Today we had a big holiday parade in town, so comments on the logos have been a bit slow from the community - hoping to get more in the next day or so :)

#61 - the teal is actually quite Floridian....it's really growing on me! Might you be able to sneak an orange into the concept? The symmetry of the twizzles is nice, but perhaps one or both might be morphed into an orange at the most ornate spot?

#62 - does that rooster have a beak? Just want to make sure....I'm guessing the actual file is much larger, but I can't get a large enough view to reassure some of the commentors on my end that he's a legit rooster :)

Comments e-mailed in to me today:

#54 - the frond needs to move over to the bottom right corner. Then, it needs to be rotated so that the top part comes from the left-hand corner and ends in the bottom right-hand corner. (I don’t like the fact that both linear elements are going the same direction, and I don’t like those 2 boxes being together on the same side.) Then, the fence block can move over to the left underneath the celery.

I like #34, but I’d like to see some horizontal movement going on – like maybe taking “Preservation” and moving it to the second line and moving “Project” to the third line. Right justify both of those words. Maybe that might do something.

#63 - nice oranges!

#62 - any chance you can either make "Preservation" larger until it's edges line up with "Oviedo"? (I like the wider spacing in the original design, but this font does seem to be easier to read. If the original font can squish to "normal" spacing and get large enough to stand out more, feedback on this end is that people prefer that)

#65 - The rooster has a beak! You have allayed many concerns

#70 - Full Steam

#70 - Full steam ahead! Any chance you could sneak a celery stalk in as one of those decorative swirls near the text?

the new leader #70 is nice, but as for now lacks #62 's simplicity (and the smoke looks like a worm to me). Genesis combined modern and traditional looks in a neat way (good job, man).

#69 - I like the leaf, but the words underneath seem really out of balance....

#67 & #68 - the arrow loop reminds me a lot of an "O" (for Oviedo), but it's a bit too modern looking for what our group does. Nostalgic-looking things have been getting the best feedback so far...

I think my earlier comment got lost on the way to post....

I agree with Jakub - #62 is strikingly simple. Until #70 was posted, it was the only one that really popped out (and its predeccessors). Something about #70 is incredibly nostalgic and progressive at the same time though. Both are getting excellent feedback from the community, and they are 2 of the most gender neutral designs submitted (meaning that both genders seem to like both - it's other factors splitting the difference).

It would be nice if the text in #62 could be fancied up a bit (but still legible). #40 might need to be a little less busy near the text. I'd love to see the smoke resemble celery instead of a worm, or, if that won't work, maybe the abstract twizzles could resemble celery leaves.

Note to both designers (#62 and #70): there is quite a little controversy here over the chickens (which most people who now live here believe to be Oviedo's heritage - they actually arrived around 1980) and citrus, celery, and trains (which actually ARE part of our town's heritage - from the 1800's). Since we're hoping the logo will garner widespread support for fundraising, it's hard to pick between being true to history and being true to people's belief of what history is.

I guess where that's going is that I'd like to see some more history pulled into #62....perhaps an O turned orange? Then again, that might mess up the simplicity that's so nice. It really is a nearly dead tie on these two right now with feedback from the town.

thanks for the kind words jakub. i'll keep plugging away at it. look for some more variations soon!

Genesis - #72's rising sun-orange is a really cool idea! Though I haven't gotten any feedback from the townies yet, I'm preemptively moving it to the front - we'll see how things play out in the morning :) (By the way, your rooster has wonderful details. Once upon a time, I tried my hand at graphic design, so I appreciate it more than you might realize :-)

An earlier comment that I neglected to pass along did come to mind with #72, and that was to try a rounded top edge....that might soften the orange/sun a bit - it's hard to be the nice clean rectangle, but the orange really does tie the logo to our agricultural history....

Here's a summary of e-mails I got since last night:

Don't like #70, the train. it is not representative of TOPP in any way. It is nice, but not for our logo.

# 72, fence w/orange. Iffy. Try putting a circle around the orange like it is in the other entries to define it as an orange. Now it looks like a flower.

The next best is #54, four images. Lower Oviedo and put the full name on one line across the bottom.

I like #46 the best, just cut off excess green space above the word 'the'. . Simple, clean, representative.

More e-mails from this morning:

#69 (no connotation to other meanings of this number) Has the abbreviation TOPP spelled out and is quite cheerful & bold (appealing).

#60 Is very lovely, but are those not Beach type palm trees.

#58 Nice concept. Add: The (word now missing) and change the type of house shown to a structure similar to 297 Lake Charm Cr. mansion (or another calendar home).

And one person wrote: Should the logo actually have TOPP shown or maybe these four letters underlined, to add focus to the acronym? (My response - not necessarily....we just call the group TOPP around town for brevity's sake - but it's important to write the whole thing out, beacuse most people don't know what you're talking about when you say TOPP.)

#72 - just got in an e-mail noting that the orange looks a bit like a flower....could you add a ring around it, like in the orange with the 4 blocks? It's quite a hit otherwise :)

#77 - less green is nice! The other was getting a bit on the long-looking side

#80 - BAM is right! This one pops out. The palm is a bit prickly looking....might you be able to get a rooster in there? Or maybe an orange?

#82 - Nice rooster and orange combo! Of the logos that mix rooster and citrus, this is the most appealing so far!

#75 - this color combo is more striking than the new one - it's cool how the letters are against a white background

#86 - LOVE the orange as the sun! And the rooster rocks. The palm as a burst behind the rooster is a cool idea, but it's still really prickly....can that disappear and the rooster get larger?

(Rooster and citrus seems to be emerging as the public's favorite combo....)

#92 - this palm is a vast improvement, but the state tree in Florida is a sabal palm, and it has bushier fronds. The good thing about a sabal is that I think it has more mass in the middle, so you could get the same effect as with th previous design - all white in the middle with the rooster standing out~

There's not enough time to swap much around on the design end, but feedback is all a frenzy on this end. To all the designers - thank you so much for all of your ideas and creativity! You're making it hard for us to pick just one logo (and that's a great "problem" to have).

Keep them coming in these last couple of hours - all logos are still in the running - the rankings here show what the community has shown the greatest positive feedback toward, though there's more that factors into the final decision than just popular demand~

And thanks to you and the people who contacted you for the feedback and suggestions. It was very helpful, and helped to make the contest quite enjoyable.