Dam nice!

jesus usually its hard to pick logos but there is nothing here besides like 3 shit logos and ellas......ridiculous ellas is the bst but im sure there is someone who can compete out there its hard to pick ella as the winner because no one else showed up, its ridiculous

Its Monday, if you extended the contest, you should post the new deadline.

the contest is extended because your the only one who posted a real logo although they are great, i dont know if its gonna work. but if i do use your logo you will have the money - or u can sue me :thumbsup

also that slogan is pretty cool underneath could u change the slogan to

"SMALL COMPANY MAKING BIG THINGS HAPPEN" thats there slogan id like to see how that would look

Why change the slogan? This is the company slogan:
http://fivestarelectric.net/home.html
And they are not small. :) Unless of course, there are 2 companies in NY with the same name and they both have a new website (copyright 2007), both missing a logo and both using blue as the main color of their website.
Also you forgot to post the deadline again.

that is a horrible site and if they have all those big jobs then i dont know what the hell is going on they must be BILLIONAIRS. this is a small local shop that does electric work in houses, not the new FREEDOM TOWER are u crazy i wouldnt have to pay you $250.00 to do that lol

anyway ella, can u change the slogan


SMALL COMPANY MAKING BIG THINGS HAPPEN? or if you think of something better

www no-spec com


Why Speculation Hurts

By Robert Wurth, Creative Director, Freshly Squeezed Design

When your company seeks out a new logo design, advertisement, brochure, or any other marketing collateral, what you?re really looking for is a solution to a problem. For example, you have just made a new product. Your problem is that no one knows about it, so you require a means to alert potential customers. You might conclude that an advertisement is the solution. In reality, the advertisement is merely the vehicle that delivers the solution, but the concept is similar enough.

Some companies advocate the practice of gathering a number of different designers or agencies to pitch ideas for a project. The way it works is that the company calls up several different designers and says, ?We need a new ad. Come up with an idea to show us and if we like it, we?ll hire you.? If the designer is lucky, the company will at least have a creative brief, a short document explaining the problem, to send.

In the design community, we refer to this practice as speculative work. It requires a designer to put forth work on behalf of the company without any promises or guarantees of getting paid.

This practice has become popular because many companies erroneously view it as a quick and easy way to get the best ideas from various designers that they think they might want to work with. Unfortunately, requesting speculative design work is a poor business decision is because it caters to the lowest common denominator of design, and forces designers to engage in poor design practices by making snap decisions about the projects.

Currently, one of the hot books in the world of business and marketing is ?Blink: The power of thinking without thinking? by Malcolm Gladwell. In Blink, Gladwell advocates for the inherent quality of decisions that are made in an instant, citing that often these decisions are just as accurate (if not more accurate) than decisions made after careful, conscientious deliberation.

However, within the book Gladwell also cautions that the process of snap decisions can backfire, sometimes drastically. The difference, he says, seems to be one of knowledge and experience. For example, you might come to me doubled over and complaining that your stomach hurts. I might make the wrong snap decision that it must have been something you ate and that you?ll be fine. A doctor, on the other hand, might make the correct instant conclusion that you have appendicitis and then examine you more thoroughly.

Gladwell?s explanation for this would be that the doctor?s experience allows him to instantly take in all of the subtle clues about your condition, allowing his mind to make a correct conclusion based upon very little data. Of course he would order more tests to be sure, but that?s not the point. Rather, the point is that I lack the experience and knowledge to give me a chance to make the same sort of correct diagnosis. I might have been able to guess right, but that would simply have been a matter of chance. Instead, my snap decision is based solely on my personal experiences ? maybe I ate something bad once, and it gave me a severe stomach ache.

This is important because it relates directly to speculative work.

Inspiration never comes from just nowhere. It is the culmination of experiences stored subconsciously for the right moment to all click together. Speculative design work is an attempt to force inspiration without the benefit of experience. None of the designers are allowed the opportunity to get to know you and your business. They aren?t allowed the time to examine your market and industry. They simply lack the necessary data too allow them to make good, informed decisions about your marketing.

The result is that the designers are forced to develop ideas based upon their own personal experiences and preconceptions about you and your company. Without any research, or discussions with you to guide them, their ideas become less about substance and more about style.

If the designers are talented, they will certainly be able to come up with appealing designs. It?s even possible that one of them, through shear chance, might hit upon a perfect solution to your problem, but that?s a gamble. In fact, it?s a gamble on two levels: first that at least one of the designers comes up with the right solution, and two, that you happen to choose that design.

Many business owners tend to distrust designers. They will hop from designer to designer, never satisfied with the work and becoming more and more jaded to the process. Often this is a result of poorly executed ideas that come from the speculative process. The knee-jerk reaction is to blame the designers for not hitting the right message, without ever considering that their own process might be flawed.

So, going back to the beginning, you still need an ad. Having read all of this, you decide not to put out a call for pitches, but rather you decide to choose one designer or agency and work more closely with them.

Now, the process is different. Before the designer ever gets to the idea stage, he or she comes in and talks with you to get to know you and your business. The designer is armed with materials you?ve done in the past, information about who your customers are, about who the competition is, and what the industry is like.

As the designer absorbs more and more information about your company, preconceptions are replaced with meaningful knowledge. When inspiration strikes, it has context that is relevant to your business and your needs, and that makes for a better design that caters more to your needs, and less to the whims of the designer.

RGD Ontario?s policy on spec work

The Rules of Professional Conduct, a bylaw of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD Ontario), prohibits its members from engaging in speculative (spec) work.

Spec work and why it is a harmful practice

Doing work on spec amounts to providing design work for free (or for a nominal fee) as part of a pitch for new business. Uninformed clients mistakenly believe that requiring spec work as part of their search and selection process for a graphic designer or design firm is a good business practice. Spec work is universally condemned as an unethical business practice by responsible designers and design organizations around the world - see.
Spec work:

* is exploitative and unethical, a demand for free design work without guarantee of compensation,
* offers no future economic potential,
* can lead to infringement of intellectual property rights (copyright and moral rights),
* devalues the profession of graphic design and leads to negative competitive practices,
* is also discouraged by allied professions such as the advertising industry, and
* is unlikely to meet a client?s marketing and communication objectives.

Spec work threatens the integrity and work ethic of the graphic design profession. Neither the designer nor the client benefit from spec work. Designers who work on spec cannot do justice to the design brief and are unlikely to conduct the research and analysis needed to produce their best work because they have no guarantee of remuneration. Their abilities to act as professional consultants, partners or members of a client?s strategic communications team are not used.
How to select a graphic designer or design firm

* Develop and advertise a Request for Proposal (RFP) to include information about the project background, your objectives, the scope of the work, time requirements, proposal requirements (tasks, deliverables, designated team members, timing, budget, relevant experience and client references).
* If you are certain you require a presentation of creative ideas from more than one graphic designer or design firm, we recommend that you pay a fee to each competitor. The amount should be equivalent to what a reasonable design fee and expenses would be for a similar project under normal circumstances.
* If such a payment cannot be justified for your project, or if you require the work to be done pro bono, then choose a graphic designer or design firm by obtaining referrals from colleagues, reviewing portfolios and checking client references.
* These selection guidelines apply to both for-profit and non-profit business entities, and for both paid and pro bono projects.

More information


Call: 1-888-ARGD ONT (416-360-6486 in Toronto) Email RGD
Mail: RGD Ontario, 96 Spadina Avenue, Suite 503, Toronto ON M5V 2J6

sure

http://www.zavornic.name/k/contest/fse4.jpg

the hard truth, that is a pretty good read. is there a place where i can get a professional design?? what are good sites out there

You are FUCKING RETARTED!

You've got some rockin' skills, ella. :thumbsup

First of all, get a clue about how things work on this board. Why do you think these contest threads get so many views? When a designer is posting an entry, he is also advertising his design skills. Each and every contest I've been into, got me additional projects from many webmasters, not to mention this contest:
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=417649
that got me a 1 year exclusive contract with SapphicCash.
This is from a designer's pov. As for the webmasters, do you really think they have the time to go over hundreds of online portfolios? Not to mention all the dead links from a resource site, as many designers are no longer in the business or they are inhouse somewhere, therefore not available.
So that policy is not working for this board, sorry, you should take it elsewhere. :2 cents:

Thanks. :)

I'm very short on time right now, if you are currently accepting new work, why don't we chat later? :)

I'll hit you up tomorrow, thanks. :)

As a designer you can get a clue by listening to the the top designers in North America when they tell you what you are doing may yield temporary contracts but in the end you are only working to devalue the industry long-term.

www no-spec com

And yes, if advertising is so important to the webmasters then they will take their time to review portfolios from credible, experienced designers and they will take the time work WITH a designer.

The webmasters can't have it both ways by claiming their logos and adverstising are of utmost importannce but they don't have the time to talk with several designers. That is called a contradiction.

That's like saying my health is important to me but I don't have the time to visit several doctors to meet with them and thoroughly discuss solutions to my health problems.

You are making money now but what will eventually happen is that webmasters will stop eventually paying you because they can just get some ideas for free. That's the long-term damage to the industry that you are contributing to.

I think you should just pay ella.
Ella worked hard, made many revisions, & you're still beating the bush.

I agree with you on that one.

Its been a week since your previous deadline and nothing happened here. Pls lmk if you are not willing to select a winner, in which case I want to send the logos to the other company with the same name, free of charge. They don't have a logo and I think its a much wiser choice than have them sitting here on my desktop. :2 cents: Anytime before Monday morning pls.
I still don't get it why wasting my time with revisions, since you were planning to flake out on this.

Regards.

You got screwed.

As soon as I saw your design I was like "That's a winner".
Only a clown could not see that.

You should have been paid...and that is what "thehardtruth" is really saying.
He wouldn't be saying it if the contest would pay the winner and maybe sometimes pay small fees to some excellent submissions that didn't win.


Basically the contest are being held by cheap people who think a "super logo" that will revolutionize the world will emerge from the contest, so they are
not satisfied with a damn good professional logo that does the job.
They need more, the logo must propel them into stardom, it must solve all of their inner woes, which of course will never happen.

nice logos from ella


winner for sure

I dont understand how you have not won this yet ella.

A bump to let everyone here know that Mr Cashman 23 is a broke piece of shit.