Okay. Hi everyone,
We've picked our winner. As you can imagine it was a long debate and with this great amount of talented entries it has been a difficult decision. In the end we agreed on haetros design to be our new logo. It goes well with our vision of 'fancy fruits', is versatile and in our opinion looks fantastic in the various sizes.
It was our first time holding such a contest and you all made this a great experience. We will for sure encourage others to start contests at SitePoint.
Of course we want to say thank you for your efforts to all the designers who entered in this contest. Perhaps we have the chance to cooperate with you again on a new contest in the near future.
Thanks again and a Happy New Year 2008!
Thomas

QUICK NOTIFICATION:
Hi everyone, later we will have our logo-meeting. Therefore you can expect our final decision posted here within a few hours or tomorrow at the latest.
Thanks for participating in this contest
Thomas

Hi Alex,
Nothing wrong with your questions. We're located in Europe.
Regarding the design-brief mentioning the 'modern' logo style, you've got a point there.
To explain our rating…
The design has to be strong on the emotional side. We want our logo to communicate that 'fancy fruits' is a fun and welcoming place. Our customers (from kids to mid-aged people) come by for getting delicious refreshments AND having a good time.
With the contest running, we agreed that the more 'modern' entries are a bit cold and distant. At the moment for us the not so modern entries do a better job on this. Of course it's not necessary to go for that direction.

Best Regards
Thomas

Hi everyone,
I've seen a lot of concepts using swirls as symbols. I know the idea suggests itself but it's not our preferred icon for a logo. The swirl is used by many many other smoothie bars/chains and we don't want to look like 'another' smoothie bar. We want to stand out of the crowd.
One of our team members suggested something like a fruit geyser/fountain. I haven't seen that in any entry so far. That would represent the refreshment/energy/joyful part of a smoothie drink. Don't know if this could work - just wanted to throw in.
Another information for you: if you want to use fruits in the logo make sure they don't look too realistic, we favor the more abstract or cartoon look. And last but not least, don't be too cautious with the colors. We like strong, glaring and luminous colors (bright orange, yellow, lime, ...)

That's all for now. I have to leave but I'm returning later to catch up on the feedback.
Thomas

hi dzyns,

Maybe this was a bit misleading from my side. The contest is still going on. The ratings are just a intermediate result. Every entry will get feedback - I know I'm way behind but i try my best ;)
Of course your entries will receive feedback and a rating too. Just keep the ideas coming :)

Hope that clears it up
Thomas

Hi everyone,

Just to keep you on track…
Our first ‘logo-meeting' was held and finally I can provide you with the certainly long awaited ratings (and some additional feedback) for your entries.
It was a difficult and to some extend controversial ‘event'. Sometimes the others agreed with my suggestions and sometimes I got overruled brutally.
That's all at the moment. A big thank you for this lively contest and these great and talented entries from the whole fancy fruits team :)
Thomas