thebuzz.at: Logo Needed ~~Get Creative~~

Imagine Digg for bars, restaurants, cafés, music and comedy venues. Instead of voting for stories you vote for places. That's what we're creating. A simple, elegant and fun place to vote up your favourite local establishment. The results are displayed on a map with pushpins. These pins change colour according to how buzzing the place is *right now*.

So, where's the buzz at? Right here - but we need a kickin' logo to set the tone.

** UPDATE: ** I know I mentioned about needing pushpins in the design in the brief but I'm also happy to see any creative ideas that don't use pushpins. Your design *will not be eliminated* just because it doesn't have pushpins.

Also, we'll need your logo to include the ".at" top level domain. The site url is thebuzz.at

thebuzz.at

We need a logo for thebuzz.at, a new social geo-ratings service. We'll show where is popular on a map using coloured pushpins. This pushpin needs to be incorporated into the logo.

My name is Paul, going help right the way through the design process. If you show me something I like I'll tell you and give the reasons why, if I don't like it I'll do the same. Similarly, if you have any questions or you feel something needs to be clarified then just let me know. The more communication the better for all of us.

I've filled in a simple logo guide which you can find at http://critir.com/buzzat/buzzatLogoGuide.png which will hopefully enable you to get a feel for what we are aiming for.

We love beautiful fonts, I don't mean overly ornate, maybe a simple twist on Helvetica(?) but something distinctive. I want this logo to be recognisable; with a confidence in it's own sense of style and purpose.

- We would like a pushpin integrated into the design of the logo somehow. These are the same pushpins as will appear on the map. The pushpin colour will change according to how popular the place is. Can this be communicated in a logo??
- Logos we like:- http://grooveshark.com/ - clean and simple but with a bit of an edge. Obviously thought about
- http://www.shozu.com - vibrant, warm, intersting font with being over-the-top
- http://www.technorati.com/ - whilst simple the brand looks strong and the graphic illustrates the product elegantly
- http://www.feedburner.com - fun, simple
- http://www.dropsend.com/ - nice font and simple illustration
- http://www.illy.com - again simple, no illustration but nice font
- http://www.dopplr.com/ - elegant, sophisticated understated yet approahable. Although I have no idea what they do!
- http://www.ilike.com/ - simple, elegant although possibly a little too minimal

- Absolutely *no* bees, or any other buzzing critters
- Logos we don't like- http://www.bloglines.com/ - illustration looks cheap, like bad clipart
- http://www.fandango.com/ - looks cobbled together, I get it it the "F" looks like a movie stub.too simplistic
- http://www.ijigg.com/ - looks like the logo was drawn by a kid - too tacky
- http://www.purevolume.com/ - the opposite of ijigg, looks a little overdesigned although it does look sophisticated
- http://www.demonoid.com/ - just yuk! Looks like the work of amateurs. Character has no personality. Typeface is ugly
- http://www.natuba.com/ - fun but a bit too whacky
- http://www.spock.com/ - the colours look all wrong, too washed out