SteemMakers logo & banner design contest - update and feedback

in #utopian-io7 years ago (edited)

SteemMakers is a community which focuses on uniting, helping and rewarding makers and DIYers on the Steem blockchain. You can find more info about us and how to contact us on our website steemmakers.com.

We are SteemMakers, not artists or graphic designers so last week we started a logo & banner design contest. We have received quite some designs which we collected on a temporary overview page.

We are still looking for new entries and all designers interested are still very welcome to help us out and give SteemMakers an identity. At the beginning we did not have a clear vision about what the designs should look like. We gave some very general guidelines and that generated a variety of input. We appreciate all the work done but there is no accounting for taste. We now have a clearer view of what we want and can give you some feedback based on the entries we got. We can now better specify the task for the last week of the contest. Note that the entries used are just a couple of examples and in no particular order.

Flat design

"In flat design, ornamental elements are viewed as unnecessary clutter. If an aspect serves no functional purpose, it's a distraction from user experience. This is the reason for the minimalistic nature of flat design.

However, just because it lacks any flashy design doesn't mean this style is boring. Bright, contrasting colours make illustrations and buttons pop from backgrounds, easily grab attention, and guide the user's eye. The purpose of minimalistic imagery also contributes to flat design's functional character." (source: creative bloq)

Entries we like in this regard:
by @orcheva

by @podanrj

Technology or blockchain reference

As we discovered ourselves before the contest it is hard to cover all of the audience in the logo. We like some of the designs with tools but they just leave out a big part of our audience. Adding this reference in the logo is realy hard. In the banner we have seen some interesting concepts however. We've seen some with blocks and this design by @ady-was-here. It's bit too busy to be minimalistic but could be reworked a bit to be less 'busy'.

Also note how @orcheva modefied his design to give it a mory techie accent. The right one is the original, which made us think of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the left one is the reworked version.

Subidentities

As mentioned before it is hard to cover all of the audience in the design. Just recently a team member proposed to have a logo that allows for subidentities. By changing the logo color or texture we could try to cover several of our audience groups separately. For example in case of contests for a subcommunity. Take a look at the logo for the city of Melbourne below. It can be made to work on dark and light backgrounds. Changing texture could make the logo focus on woodworking, 3D printing, electronics, ...

Banner

Here as well we prefer a minimalist design. We like the banners that have a portion of the logo or the ones which add to the logo. We noted that gradients are allowed and if not too much they can add a nice touch.

By @lowlevel

By @ady-was-here

By @orcheva

A note of appreciation

Even if not featured in this post we would like to thank everyone participating. Only one design will be chosen, but every design helped us get a better understanding of what we need. And every design can be a source of inspiration.

We'd like to give a special thanks to @jefpatat and @plushzilla for coordinating this contest.

Questions

Feel free to comment your questions below in the comments. If possible we will update the post. You can also contact on discord. https://discord.gg/EFGbRuW

Please upvote and resteem to increase the reward for the winner(s).

Good luck!

The SteemMakers team.

www.steemmakers.com



Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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Thank you for the contribution. It has been approved.

You can contact us on Discord.
[utopian-moderator]

Thanks a lot for the feedback on Discord!

I knew you'd love @podanrj's entry! :)

P.S Do you still accept entries? If Im not mistaken, this runs for 2 weeks so perhaps until 21st or 22nd?

As mentioned, these are just examples from the entries ;-)

We really did not have a good idea where to head with this. All the entries helped us a lot in that process.

The contest runs for another week. It's no hard deadline. Somewhere next friday/saturday.

resteemed mate.. I do appreciate the relaxed deadline.. its more in keeping with the new wave of getting things done! :] It's difficult to place a hard deadline on creativity! ;]

Thanks. We've had some really good input. But it's so fun to interact with people and spark creativity.

We will have to make a choice at one point, we can't run it forever and that's why we give the indication.

Hey @steemmakers I am @utopian-io. I have just upvoted you!

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Hello! This is my concept for you. I hope you like it. I am willing to take into account any advice or idea to change the initial concept of the logo or banner.
https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@radudangratian/design-logo-stemmaker-and-banner-contest-1

8.jpg

@deveerei @jefpatat

Here is my entry: https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@nickdavison/steemmakers-logo-design-contest-my-first-entry

It is currently under review, please let me know if any revisions are needed.
Thanks!

Main logo
https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@j3dy/steemmakers-logo-and-banners

Extra banners and work
https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@j3dy/steemmakers-extra-banners-and-a-simplified-logo

I'm available to share my reasons for making this logo, but currently I can't spare any more time for the day, if the deadline is by saturday I can make a few more entries and clean up the current ones if you have any suggestions :)