TO ALL CONTEST DESIGNERS:

I have not given up on this contest. It's just that none of the entries has really hit home yet.

One of my academy students suggested that perhaps the logo could include a stylized version of the Excel Art BUTTERFLY that I created from an Excel chart here:

http://www.excelhero.com/blog/2010/…l-art.html

This is an interesting proposition. He even suggested that it might work well as the "o" in Excel Hero.

I'd like to see some designs using those ideas.

Remember, we are looking for clean, professional, designs.

And they should work equally well for the Excel Hero blog and the Excel Hero Academy.

Thanks!

Two things...

From what I have seen, I am pretty sure the rooster idea is not working, so please do not concentrate on that.

Please remember that the word "EXCEL" has a "C" in it. So many entries have misspelled the word!

Thanks to all the designers for the submissions so far.

I wanted to give some blanket feedback.

There seems to be a lot of focus on the letter, "X". And while that letter is incorporated into Microsoft's logo for Excel, we do not necessarily want this. It may work, but is not required and not sought after. If you have a great design that uses "x" then great. But please do not focus on it just because Microsoft does.

I would like to stress once again that we are NOT interested in comic styles or hints at a superhero.

We run a super advanced Excel training course at:

http://academy.excelhero.com/excel-…y-tuition/

The winning design needs to work for the academy as well as the blog.

We have shown the current entries to students at our academy. The ones that have been marked with one star so far are the ones they had some affinity towards.

But here is an interesting bit of information. Many students like the ROOSTER at the top of our websites. Originally this rooster-on-grass graphic was simply the default place holder for the MovableType blog.

However, it fit somehow with our readers. We teach how to find the golden nuggets in the mountain of information surrounding Excel development. So the rooster is pecking for the choice worms in an expansive field.

PERHAPS A STYLIZED ROOSTER DOING THE SAME SHOULD BE PART OF THE LOGO.

From our perspective the current graphic is very difficult to use for branding purposes, but you may be able to make it work.

Since we sell a fairly high-end product ($500 - $1000), the logo needs to be very professional and really say to a viewer... "I want to be a part of this program."

Some of the entries so far show promise, but none do that... yet.

Finally, we firmly believe that the winning logo will pass these FIVE tests:

http://www.damniwish.com/2011/07/ne…issue.html

Please read the "Further Requirements" section of the Brief.

We have added a lot for you to think about!