Competitions

Thanks for all the great submissions! I will be getting feedback from people as for their favorites, and will pick the winner by the beginning of next week… :)

Well, this was a bit later than I wanted to provide the last round of feedback, but maybe someone can use it in the last day or so… :)

[delirium]

Addition of the bones leaves me a bit torn – on the one hand I like that they definitely convey more of the pirate vibe, but on the other hand they do reduce the simplicity of the design. At the end of the day, I think I prefer it with the bones than without, because it does help express that element of the site more effectively.

Shorty

Not sure if I like the drips on the bottom, but the sort of pirate happyface idea is interesting. The design doesn’t say anything to me that’s really ‘game’ related, apart from the name of the site. :)

DoneCheffone

Good idea to combine the bar code and the low res pirate logo – gives an idea of maybe the retail/sales aspect with the barcode. I’m not as keen on the skull, but it’s hard to say what would work better at that pixel count.

Neonloony

Nice logo, I like the interplay between the G and the P, and I think it could easily work into a web design that fit well with it also. Ideally I would like something that gave a bit more sense of what the site was about, but there’s something to be said for just having a cool logo.

This actually highlights one of the cooler aspects of Logosauce – I would never have realized that the logo was similar to another. That being said, that isn’t a dealkiller for me, since we’re not doing the same thing. Another example of this was my previous competition:

ITR

The winning logo I really like and we came up with a web design that was working with it… Then Apple released the iPhone v2.0:

iPhone 2.0

Yeah, unfortunately I think they’re going to ‘own’ that kind of logo. Not that I think they would necessarily come after me, but when I’m just launching a new logo, I really don’t want people going “Oh, reminds me of the iPhone logo”.

Just a random sidenote, it’s interesting how many of the logo’s use a pixelated or low res version to give it more of a ‘gaming’ feel, when even the Nintendo DS doesn’t have graphics that pixelated. :) Not saying it doesn’t make me think of gaming also, just kind of funny.

Sorry I was a bit late on this, I normally like to give feedback at least once a week – I will try to do one more pass of feedback after this, probably a day or two before the compo ends. Until then, here are my thoughts on some of the new submissions:

robin

I like the kind of Wipeout/XL kind of feel it has, and the use of color is cool also. The skull doesn’t work as well as the other icons for me, since it doesn’t have the same ‘feel’ as the others (to me at least).

[delirium]

Very cool heavily stylized skull, I like the symbols in the head, and the colors used as well – very nice.

cheketere

A bit more fun than many of the other ones, which is a nice variation. I like the kind of ghost and DPad that give the impression of the crossed bones. I don’t like the pacman’s in the font that much, a bit too generic for video games, and I think distracts from the logo.

+java

I wouldn’t have seen all the elements if I hadn’t read the notes. :) Very cool, slick feel to it and very different from what you would traditionally expect. Clean lines and deceptively simple.

Ok, next round of thoughts about some of the new designs – as always, in no particular order:

cheketere

While I don’t like the look of top version as much (glass look is way too played out), the more simple treatments are nice – expresses game, piracy and P2P – I would probably additionally add graphs so it finished the thought. This is a definitely more on the professional side, but nice none the less.

mismatched

This one is definitely funky, having a bit of Tim Burton/American McGee feel to it. While it definitely says Pirate, the whole game side of things doesn’t come across to me.

ZariaZ

The addition of color really helps this stand out more, and make the skull and bones more clear. Great update!

Rowsey

Another cool and original take on it and I like that it incorporates many of the concepts. I like the rough skull head and earring, but the hook doesn’t do it as much for me.

theschism

We’re definitely in the world of the more stylized. :) I like the skull and eyepatch, and using the dpad as the eye is a great idea. Not as much a fan of the font choice in this case, and I’m not sure what the line connecting the two is supposed to illustrate – maybe a mouse?

ricklandondesign

Very clean and definitely connects the two main concepts, games and piracy in it. The consistent round aesthetic is nice in with this, and I could easily see the clean lines and colors being used in some really interesting ways.

I like to give feedback at least once a week, there’s been some really good submissions so far, so I’ll highlight the ones that stand out to me, and what aspects I like about them. Here we go:

LEP

Cool idea of combining the joystick and crossbones, although I’m not a huge fan of using the flag so much.

ZariaZ

I like the approach of using the pixelated view to give the everything a more ‘video game’ feel – simple but nice. Text works well in this case.

LogoNation

Cool idea of using mice instead of bones, but it doesn’t say games to me as much as PC because of it.

reeceybaby

Once again, not a fan of the flag, but I love the combining of the Space Invader alien with the bones – definitely gets the point across. The bones don’t mesh as well because of their relative resolution, so it would look better if they were downrezed.

Hippo

I like this one quite a bit, much more modern take on the skull and crossbones, and incorporating the buttons on the head not only gives a good video game connection, but brings some color to the design. Pretty evil looking, but I like it. ;)

Thanks for all the submissions so far – it’s looking great! :)