

HN please help me pick a logo for my next startup-related project - acangiano
https://99designs.com/logo-design/vote-rpcdzq

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michaelpinto
This isn't how you should do branding. The point of branding should be to make
your company, organization or in this case a blog stand out. Now if it doesn't
matter what the logo looks like, then this is the way to go. However if you
studied the rich history of editorial design you'd know that the yellow
rectangle of National Geographic or the the bent page outline in red on the
Time covers really made added to the personality of each brand. All of these
"logos" look like something you've seen before; they've got second rate style
but no substance; and sadly most of them look like they're for a cloud hosting
service while the last one looks like it's for some vague non-profit for
special kids.

Antonio do yourself a favor: Look at a dozen logos by Paul Rand, study the
process behind them (Rand wrote several books) and then re-start your branding
process.

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timsally
The branding you describe is orthogonal to what acangiano is trying to do
here. When launching a minimum viable product, it's best to go with a logo
from 99designs and a Wordpress/WooThemes/whatever template. Essentially a
minimum level of professionalism while focusing on building the core product.
Lest you think I'm alone in this recommendation, Patrick wrote a bit about
this here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1697558>. Attempting to brand
like Time magazine right out of the gate for a small project like this is
absolutely the wrong choice.

~~~
michaelpinto
If you're doing an endeavor which is designed for the communications medium
(which is different than software) the brand is part of the product. And I'm
assuming that this is a professional project, if it isn't then don't even
bother with the branding and just start writing said blog.

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Artalva
As a graphic designer this site makes me want to cry. Logo design is not free
and designers doing mock-ups for free is foolish.

~~~
morrow
What would you think of this idea: offer 2 tiers of competition:

Tier 1 for Junior designers - design the full logo for competition, winner
gets full payment. Ideal for building a portfolio of logo designing
capabilities, gaining exposure.

Tier 2 for Established Designers - after earning a certain amount of
reputation or karma points (based on voting records), they can compete in a
higher-level contest with fewer entries, but each legitimate entry gets a
percentage of the final payout. Competition is split into 3 stages, rough-
sketch, concept, and final version. Each stage, the top N logos are picked,
and those top N earn a % cut of the total project fee. (It could be that N is
based on how many logos the customer wants to see developed, maybe they could
pick from 5,10,15,20 etc. and pay accordingly).

The basic idea is a compromise somewhere between every designer putting the
full amount of design work on a project which could net you zero income just
for the chance at doing it, and just picking a designer based on reputation
and going with whatever they come up with. This system would let the designers
who value their time to explore an idea if they like, and earn money
progressively with how much time they put in, and how closely their idea
matches the customer's needs. In this system, nobody would spend days
perfecting / crafting a design just to wind up earning nothing, and nobody
would rush through a design job just so that if they didn't win they wouldn't
have invested too much time.

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robflynn
I tried to comment on these via the 99designs site, but the site was
misbehaving for me. I'll just post them here instead:

#123, #114, #109, #112 feel a bit too busy for my liking, though I do like the
shooting star.

#44 is nice - I really like the compact look and the small vertical rule
between the cloud and the name. I'm not sure if the jagged line is supposed to
be reminiscent of a chart-like metric, or if it's supposed to make you think
of "shattering", as in you're hoping to really shake things up.

#30 - I kind of like the window design but the font shading feels a bit off to
me.

#12 - Nice and clean. The blue seems a bit faded, but that may be intentional?

#8 - Makes me think of a charity / donation / non-profit organization.

Overall, I think I like #44 the best closely followed by #12.

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acangiano
Hi guys,

The Startup Dream will be my next blog/community/project. I ran a 99design
contest, and I was wondering if I could enlist your help to pick a logo. I
realize none of these are award winning (you get what you pay for), but I hope
we can find a decent one.

I will detail my experience with 99designs when the site goes up within the
next few weeks.

Thanks,

Antonio.

EDIT: Here is the design brief to learn more about the project:
[https://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/logo-startup-
drea...](https://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/logo-startup-dream-
blog-101664/brief)

EDIT 2: Illuminating and hilarious comments so far. I can always count on this
community.

~~~
theDoug
Having not used them yet, I'm eager to hear about your experience with
99designs!

I know it's meant to be a "cheap" alternative to working with a designer, but
it's still a bit disappointing when the highest-rated logo of 25 averages a
3.3/5 rating (with four of the five rating options being positive).

If possible when you write the post up, could you talk about your options for
a custom fit to your app? I see a lot of variance between these "best"
options, so I wonder how much guidance you were allowed to provide (that is:
whether the random assortment of styles, themes, and colors is on purpose or
due to restrictions on the process).

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pavel_lishin
I think it would help to know what your project is about. I'm inherently
opposed to the logos with clouds in them - seems like they're just
capitalizing on buzzwords, while making you sound like a hosting provider of
some kind.

~~~
acangiano
Sorry, here is the design brief: [https://99designs.com/logo-
design/contests/logo-startup-drea...](https://99designs.com/logo-
design/contests/logo-startup-dream-blog-101664/brief)

I'm surprised they didn't link to it automatically.

~~~
libria
Your business centers more around people/teams/collaboration than services.
Clouds imply service-provider/hosting, which leaves #8 - people in the shape
of a star - as the only sensible logo here.

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morrow
Agreeing with everyone regarding the overuse of clouds, but here's a simple
idea to mitigate that: incorporate those progressively larger bubbles that
would appear beneath a "thought cloud" in a comic or illustration. That way
there would be no question where it was representing "a cloud" which carries
all of the connotations of "the cloud", or more specifically "a
thought/idea/dream cloud".

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Mindphreaker
I personally prefer this one: [https://99designs.com/logo-
design/contests/logo-startup-drea...](https://99designs.com/logo-
design/contests/logo-startup-dream-blog-101664/entries/100)

It doesn't look that much like a cloud / hosting service, covers the idea of
growing and looks fresh.

Altough I don't think it's perfekt yet, it could work.

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mrchess
#12 hands down. Simple and clean is the new in. The rest are way too loud or
busy.

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helen842000
I've voted and was surprised to see the one I liked the least had the current
highest vote!

I think even having a simple logo for an MVP is good, it gives a sense of
focus.

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jorkos
none of them are great

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DanielBMarkham
Happy to help, Antonio.

It's a shame we couldn't have another section like we have for "jobs", but
just for crowdsourced stuff like this. It's something I think a lot of people
would like participating in, but, like jobs, it probably needs to go in its
own category (for the same reasons.)

