VanEdge CapitalLogo Design Contest

to logomotives - Thanks for getting this started...

The type treatment is a good start - like the color separation of "Van" and "Edge" and the much lighter weight "Capital" below. I like the boldness of the V-like emblem, but it looks like a road to me - with a solid white line, and fading off into tire tracks on the upper right.

in chosing #2 over #1 I am not saying that we want only a single color + black, it's just that in this case the orange/black version works better. Would be interesting to see this with some colors that communicate anything about our office locations - Vancouver (greenery + ocean), California (sun), Shanghai (red)...

referring to the previous comment - and to be crystal clear, looking like a road is not what we want, since it has nothing to do with our fund.

Will do revision,demolish the road for you.

We're off to a strong start... I intend to offer a lot of feedback, but I'm going to wait a day for ranking and more specific comments, since we are having a partners meeting here tomorrow and I can review these with 2 of my 3 other partners...

thank you in advance, logomotives, for offering to demolish that road!

To LisaJacksonDesign, I'm still a bit tongue-tied on #8 and now #10 - my first reaction was that is wasn't a good fit, and then the strong playfulness started growing on me. That is honest but hardly useful feedback, so I'll collect more a more concrete response for you tomorrow.

Romasuave: I like that the emblems are graphically strong, but #5 is confusing to me - I can see something of a "V" and an "E", but it looks almost pictographic - although of what I can't tell. In other words, it looks like it's really trying to tell me something specific, even though I can't tell what it is.

#3 is a strong, solid treatment - like it..

bamsite - I think #7 works better than #9 - the elements intertwining are playful and interesting, but the V & E on their own loose some of the playfulness and take on an elegance that is not quite us...

OK, I decided to rank and comment ahead of tomorrow's meeting...

#3 - like that it is strong, simple, solid, but wish we could take that design and make it more playful

#6 & #5 - romasuave, my business partner suggested that in #5 you were representing a globe (with the V as the ocean and the green NA & Asia). Whatever you were trying to show, we like that direction, but neither of these designs are there yet. Of the 2, prefer the simplicity of #6, but of course it doesn't read as anything other than the "V". and per my previous comment on #5, it looks like it could be a helmut or mask, or a lettermark combining "V" and "M" - maybe if the sphere were completed it would look like a globe.

#7 - Interesting treatment, but probably not for us. Don't want to rule it out entirely yet - if you have some variations on this theme would be curious to see them.

#4 - too literal as a rocket or fighter plane - as with #5, it is a strong pictorial element, but not clear on the message

The design of #8 has continued to grow on me, but at the same it is clear that even I like it in the abstract, it is just not right for our fund. It reminds me of rain on glass, which is a nice play on "Vancouver", but as a loose, organic, liquid-like mark, not a good fit for us. Likewise #10 too loose and unstructured - would be a great mark for a cafe - hadn't thought of it before, but with the brushstroke look it almost looks like a verbal play of "VanEdge" and "Van Gogh"

#11 - the type treatment itself could work, but the green/yellow color treatment and the formal script "Capital" would not work for us...

To all designers - thanks for the results to date. I would rather err on the side of over-communicating than under-communicating, so if any of my comments are unclear or you need more, please feel free to ask. As for the designs I've ruled out, thanks for the submissions - I figured it is everyone's best interests for me to be fast in thinning the list so that no one wastes time in the wrong direction.

i will post revision & some concept later this eve. thanks

#14 - like the mark - even though it doesn't suggest anything beyond the "V". would prefer red to orange

#15 - love this logo. I know I suggested blue and green for Vancouver previously, but as my partners and I looked at this today, we saw that green on it's own reads as "green tech" or "green energy", which is an issue because it is a) very hot in venture funds right now, and b) unrelated to what we do. However, we all love the mark and the type treatment - the internal lines in the "V" look almost organic, which on the plus side connotes "growth", but on the minus side reinforces that idea of green tech. Would be interesting to see different color treatments.

#16 - like that this is a globe, however the globe treatment feels a bit dated.

#12 - possibly some potential, except that the treatment looks (to me at least) very reminiscent of the old Pan Am logo and so too dated

#17 & #18 - like the type treatment, and the lettermark looks like it could have potential, but it still feels undeveloped... rejected #21 - the lettermark, along with the stark color treatment, reminded us all of Van Halen - we all thought it was pretty cool, but not reflective of our fund.


Thanks again to all designers working on this...

#7 reminds me of a vegetable market. The others are not playful.

I think what makes great logo design so challenging is that great marks often combine several attributes in a single mark. Agree that the entries so far are not very playful. But to be clear, we would love a playful treatment that communicates our top 3 priorities:

#1 - Financial Acumen and Investment Growth
#2 - Tech and Media Savvy
#3 - Innovative

If we can get these 3 things w/ a playful logo, wonderful. If we have to sacrifice some playfulness to nail our top 3 objectives, however, then that's a trade-off we're prepared to make.

By the way, I'm new to logotournament.com so I don't know how other contests are run, so I can only make a request for my contest. I welcome any questions, calls for clarification, etc from any designers. However, for our contest, I would ask that you each refrain from commenting on other designer's work - please keep your comments on either your own entries or general questions/observations about the brief. Thank you!

I'd like to call everyone's attention to the brief: I'm hoping to see Wordmark OR Abstract Mark OR Letterform Mark. So far the majority have been combinations of these. Since we are not in the retail business - i.e. we won't have a big sign that with our emblem that you have to read from the street - a Wordmark may be a good solution, and so far there have been very few of those.

#29 - I put this into Photoshop to see this in B&W, and also black against white so that I wouldn't be influences by the background treatment. We'll use our mark in a variety of ways, so we won't always be able to use a background treatment. Like the emblem and subtle letter treatment. Not quite there yet - like the way the emblem looks, but in its current form it strongly suggests gears/mechanical, which is not what we cover.

@VanEdge, I think you would be able to leave individual feedback to a particular designer if you click the image. In that way the designer gets an email alert everytime you ask them something individually. :) just my thoughts. All the best!

Thanks Mal,

This is a good time to post a general comment...

This is my first experience with Logotournament.com and I'm very pleased with the quality of submissions. See so much good work has helped my partners and I get a better idea of what we need, and I think the rankings right now show that direction.

We'd like a logo that is simple and clean, but has some subtle playfulness built into it. We prefer wordmarks - after we saw so many bold emblems it was clear that these would be more appropriate for a company that needed big signage, but not right for us - most of our logo use will be on professional documents, website, etc.

Since I've been in computer graphics forever, I'm finding that designs that look like old-school pixellation are not looking too good to me - too backward looking - but designs that somehow graphically and cleverly show the energy and fun of today's digital media are looking good.

#305, #306, #307 feedback please...

#322 please ;)

take a time to see others' entries like mine :)

#325 #323 #191

thanks

Hi,
#369, #370 feedback please...

So, i guess this competition holder is not interested in new or something original / dstinct...

THANK YOU to all designers who have participated in the VanEdge Capital logo contest - very much appreciate your effort, enthusiasm, professionalism, and, of course, great results. Expect some additional re-ranking, and selection of a final winner in the next few days...

The General Partners of VanEdge Capital

Good luck all, great submissions!

To all designers,

I am going to re-rank to fairly reflect the collective rankings of the general partners / decision makers. Tough calls, especially given the incredible level of responsiveness from most of you, particularly at the top of our list. We are very close to a decision, but not quite ready to close this off. Thanks again to all of you...

The General Partners of VanEdge Capital

nice sparky V, congrats!