Hi all,

I'm about to head to bed, but will check here first thing in the morning to see if there's any new entries - I'll then extend the contest if and as necessary.

BigP, I do like what you've submitted - it's a very different take on it all and obviously well thought through. I'm not, however, a huge fan of the logo itself. The material surrounding it (cards, etc.) is great, and you've been very imaginative with my references to textures and cutouts in the brief. I'd love for you to have a bit of a play with the logo and see what you come up with. The entries by baboons and DDDesign should give you an idea of what is likely to impress us with respect to the logo.

baboons, that's pretty much set - you can take a well-deserved break for the next 24 hours as the contest concludes! One very minor idea I had was to give the 'hot' part in the logo text just the slightest tinge (gradient?) of the gold colour from the logo itself to tie it all together a bit more tightly. I could probably do this at my end if you win (and if you'd prefer), but it may be a good thing to show the others at my end in case they mention that as a negative.

DDDesigns, looking forward to seeing your final submission. As I mentioned, I'm currently finding the front of the folders slightly plain, the overall colour scheme a bit too one-coloured and the two business card entries being slightly too full-on and slightly too simplistic respectively... a happy medium will surely be somewhere in between!

Thanks again,

-Chris

Hi wan's, I didn't mind the camera logo you did a while a back, which had the blue shutter area. I wouldn't mind seeing you have a go with that one running with a three-colour scheme for the cards etc of that blue, as well as the orange and dark grey referenced in the other finalists. My thought back then was there was a little too many colours, although if you stick to two (that will also need to be in the logo itself) on the logo text and go with those on the cards and letterhead it could be quite compelling.

Hi baboons, thanks for those changes... the dots look great. However I'm still not on the inside slip of the folder. How do either the blue gradient with the logo watermark from #57 or just the flat blue from the logo look? Or the flat blue with the mouse dots.

Just a quick one to both baboons and DDDesign:

baboons: A few suggestions. Firstly, the orange text should be first and the grey second in the logo text (i.e. hot in orange and shot in grey). Not of a fan of the letterhead bars in gold (probably change it back to the grey unless black looks any good) nor the inside slip of the folder (maybe see how this looks changing from gold to the teal blue that has been used before). Finally, I think carrying the dots like on the front (white side) of the business card over to the cover of the folder might work well.

DDDesign, I think I prefer #125 over #131 with the cards - though I think while the latter is maybe slightly too complex, the former possibly isn't complex enough. This flows over to the other items, which end up looking slightly colourless. I'm wondering whether it's worth looking at integrating a second colour into the design (not on the logo necessarily, but on the rest), or running a little more with the gunmetal grey (but not as much as on #131).

JS Design, would love to see what you can come up with, while gcboy is still in there too! jDUNA, #160 could be interesting. Consider putting the flaming guy image in the camera focus like you see on the second o on #112 or #7. If you're looking at submitting the card, letterhead etc., it's probably this logo I'd suggest you run with - I don't mind the addition of the blue as a third colour though.

Still definitely open to other entries: as I've said, if there's something I like I'll add another day onto the contest to allow you to finish. Also, just to remind you we'll be starting a web design contest for Hot Shot Media upon the conclusion of this contest and picking a winner.

Hi all,

I have done one additional round of eliminations. To give you an indication, our two leaders at this stage are DDDesign and baboons. However, those entries that I've not yet eliminated are those whose final designs - being the logo, business card, letterhead, CD/DVD label and presentation folder - we would like to see in the final round. Whichever of the remaining designs is able to form their logo into the most cohesive package of the other requirements (being the printed materials) will win - as it stands DDDesign and baboons have done a few of the above in a very compelling manner, but I'm interested to see who can close the gap in the last few days!

For those not yet entered, please feel free to continue to submit entries - if we like any of your logo designs we may well extend the contest one further day to allow you to get the rest of the brief submitted.

Thanks again,

-Chris

All,

Apologies for the lack of responses for a while.

I have started to eliminate a few entries at this stage, but am pleased to see there's still some great entries flowing through!

#90 (very similar to our leader's entry), #82 (the top colour combination is my preferred), #81 and #77 are all great entries, while #83/#84 isn't my cup of tea personally, but some of the other guys like it, so it stays.

As an extra credit assignment (i.e. more weighting will be given to entries with it), a design for a document folder (by that I mean a folded over thing like http://www.ballarat.edu.au/corpserv…olders.jpg containing some documents, a promo DVD, business card etc) would be fantastic!

[CJ] Hi all,

Plenty of designs to post comments on today!

#53, I think with a little work this could become a contender. Would probably lean more toward orange than red, though.

#30, #31, #33, #34, #35, #37, #42, #43, #52 are all either too generic or referencing ideas that I've specifically said aren't relevant (i.e. audio and video). #52, for example, 'looks' good, but I can't tie in anything to do with our product.

Vision023, your stuff continues to be great, and we all like all three of your current designs. I'm not sure we've come to a consensus on which of yours we like most just yet, so I wouldn't necessarily tell you to stop any of them at this stage.

JS Design, I like #40 the most out of your designs. I would be interested to see a couple of things: the font being 'joined' (for example there not being two parts to the t or three parts to the H), except for the second o, which might also look good in the viewfinder scope as referenced by a few designs.

baboons, this is now a standout. A few were a bit undecided on the logo but we love how you've integrated it into the cards and letterhead. As far as fulfilling the brief (for cards and letterhead as well as the logo) you have the jump on the other main contenders so far. Great job!

Still interested to see where some of the higher rated designs head with a little further development.

[CJ] I am the said other commenter from earlier on in the piece. Hopefully between DM in the US and myself here in Australia we can be commenting pretty rapidly on your designs!

Just to give you all a bit of a heads up, we are probably going to extend the contest by around four days or so, both to maximise the number of entries and to give you all an opportunity to finish translating your logo designs onto cards and letterhead. We will try to give an indication to those designs where that may not be worth your time such that we leave as few people disappointed as possible. Once we transfer into that stage we're likely to guarantee the prize also - the submissions so far have been great!

Onto overnight's submissions: I like #22 - it ties in the requisite themes well without being too 'photographic'. This one will be very interesting to see how you integrate it onto the cards and letterhead.

Vision023, I agree with DM on your creativity and thank you for your hard work. #20 is definitely more cohesive than #2 and could well work, but I think it needs a little bit of a rejig of colours and the like to really shine. #21 is good, but my feeling is that needs a little more 'bang'. I'm not quite sure how that's achieved, though!

#16, #18 and #19 all 'look' nice, although they seem a little vague thematically to me. I wouldn't mind slightly more tie in to the photography, voting, online and social networking ideas.

#17 I like. In terms of professionalism, however, an idea may be worth 'defacing' the flame and somehow integrating it within the photography theme. DM, what are your thoughts?

#15, house of d, I should like this, but something is throwing me about it - possibly the angle?

gcboy, #24 is your best yet, but the logo component on the left still needs a little more to it. Maybe try making it look more like a polaroid photo (like http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_th…rames.jpg), with maybe a very stylised, simple mountain scene in the background and the southern cross in the sky.

Thanks again everyone!

note: that there are 2 of us making comments, I wanted add a identifier [DM] to indicate this, in case it is helpful) Everyone, thanks for the wonderful contributions, keep them coming! vision023 I wanted to compliment you on your creativity. While I think #2 might be a bit too camera centric for us, the way you incorporated the name into the image itself was very creative. It was also not lost on us that on item 3, the use of the logo on the card makes the card itself look like a camera... again, very creative.

I think #18 and #19 also add a refreshing touch that reminds me to highlight 2 things to consider in the design. 1) there is a global component to our mission 2) there is also a social contribution component. these 2 entries with their integration of nature and camera elements works nicely.

I am also very drawn to #7. the elements are great thematically, symbolically and I like the crisp simplicity.

jDUNA, I quite like where you're going with this, especially #11, which if you continue to develop a bit you could have looking like both a portrait and a landscape scenery, which would be good! Needs a little more polish to get to the level of #6 and #7.