I need a professional-looking logo for my new company. As this is my first contest, please post or PM me if my description is somehow wrong, or not precise enough. Timeframe is about a week, payment by Paypal. I'll announce the winner in this thread, and also send a PM. I'll also try to assist you with feedback as often as I can. There should be two versions: The "official" logo with black background, and a printable one with white background. Additinally, I need a short animation for the one with black background - something like the short clips with the company name shown at the beginning of every motion picture. Here's what I have in mind for the Logo: - Logo size: Large enough for quality prints (think about 1000 pixels wide); should still look good if scaled down to 200 px width for the webpage - The company name should look like a neon sign - The second half of the name ("Works") should look like a reflection on water (or a mirror) of the first half of the name ("Concept") - Black background, neon-green font (for the printable version: white background, neon-green or maybe darker font) - A little bit of fog/glow around the neon would be nice - Format: PSD or XCF (Gimp), and PNG or JPG The animation should look like this: - Begins with a black image - "Con" starts to flicker neon-light-like - "cept" starts to flicker too - "Works" appears, no flicker; "Concept" does not flicker anymore from that moment on - The ending must look exactly like the logo - Here too, a little bit of fog moving in front of the letters would be nice - Softly moving camera would be nice - Playtime: Around 5 seconds - Format: 3DSMax, or whatever you're familiar with, and a small rendered preview (around 200px width) To give you an rough idea, I created a draft of the two logo versions: Please feel free to ask any questions, either in this thread, or by PM. Florian
Originally I wanted to close this competition on July 9. There's no fixed date where I need the logo, so I'll extend it to July 13, midnight UTC - if you need more time, please let me know.
If it helps, sure! I assumed it would be easier to do in an animation program, but you're the experts - flash is fine with me.
Aderain: Just noticed I forgot to post the drafts I created, sorry! But you're already further than they were, so I won't bother anymore. You're definitely going the right direction. Can you change from all uppercase to "Concept" "Works"? And can I see an alternate version, where the letters are filled, and a bit finer to compensate for the fill? Animation: The timing of the first two phases (flickering of "Con" and "cept") is perfect. But they look unnatural, compared to the flickering of a neon light. Can you change it to look something like this (but with the dark phases being shorter): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNeHUk1O-A Please remove the third phase, where "Concept" flickers together - go directly to the fourth phase, where "Works" fades in. I really like that fade-in, it looks perfect!
If you don't mind waiting for a while, I'll be able to get on it tomorrow evening. I'll post up when done.
@ fspecker - thats what im waiting for the example you have im a bit confuse about on what to do.. well im a gonna give a try to this one with a flash format.. thanks
att_kiara: Sorry for the confusion! If it helps, here are my drafts - as said before, Aderain's drafts look better, so don't orient yourself too closely to my drafts.
Any preferences on the sort of font? I.e would you prefer a more solid font like Aderains or something cursive like your draft?
No preference on the font - I chose mine for my draft because it connects the letters, supporting the neon-like look, but I came to like Aderains version better, it looks cleaner. I'm open to different fonts, if you feel like experimenting
I played around with some fonts, and some styles of neon imaging, timing for the flashing signs etc, and came up with this: and the animated mini preview: Feedback welcome.
Aderain: Thanks for round two! The letters should definitely look solid, that's a step in the right direction. The middle should be green too - not the same as the glow, but not too far away. And can you reduce the glow a bit, so it looks less blurry? I don't like the "e" and "s" of the new font - do you have something similar with "e" and "s" not "cut" in the middle? Otherwise, go for something like DejaVu Sans Light, Arial Hebrew, or DecoType Nashkh. Last thing about the logo: Can you increase the spacing between "Concept" and "Works", so they don't touch? Now for the animation: The flickering looks much better now, but still not quite what I had in mind. Best results would probably be if the letters didn't flicker as a whole, with the light "wandering" within them when appearing - don't know if that's doable. The first phase ("Con") has the right duration. The second ("cept") could be a bit longer, maybe (contrary to what I thought in the beginning - sorry for changing my mind!) overlapping a few frames with the first one. The pause between the second and the third phase (where "Concept" is visible) should be half a second longer, the third phase itself (where all the letters are visible) about 2 seconds longer. The pause at the very beginning, where no letters are visible, should be about 1 sec longer.
Pretty much anything is doable depending on format. I prefer to work with animated gif files because i'm less knowledgeable on flash. If it weren't for my day job, I'd get these done sooner, but once again I must say tomorrow for now.
att_kiara: Thank you! The margins are much better now. Move "Concept" up by about 10 px, so "Concept" and "Works" don't touch. The letters are still too massive, they should be finer (around 2/3rd of their current thickness). The glow makes the letters look a bit blurry (same as in Aderain's logos) - can you reduce it a bit? Also, the glow and the letters should be different shades of green - the letter a bit lighter than the glow, imitating the looks of a neon light tube. I like the idea of letting the glow flicker - it could add to a realistic look. But I think it sould be synchronized to the flickering of the letters (glow appears a few frames after the letter). Can you combine this with a more realistic flickering of the letters? Take a look at Aderain's animation (and my feedback to it). PS (for everybody else reading this): As I'm new here, I'm not sure about the forum rules for posting external links. att_kiara posted his animation to his own blog, as this forum does not support .swf - I hope nobody minds me posting this link here, so everybody can benefit from take a look at it (and my feedback).
att_kiara: The margins are good now. I don't like the new font, it is too round. For the font width, something between this one and the last one would be nice. And add just a little bit of glow (here too, something between now and the last version). For the flickering, it's a nice effect, but not what I'm looking for. Take a look at Aderain's work, and my feedback to it. It should really look like the flickering of a slightly worn-out neon light when being switched on. Also check Aderain's work and my feedback to it for the timing.