Logo Competition - $200

**raycardillo** · 08 June 2006, 05:32 AM

Intro / Background
Hello, my name is Ray Cardillo, and I represent Mother Hen's Daycare (LLC) when I'm not performing my day job (Computer Scientist). After reading through the forum, let me start by saying that I'm not trying to offend or undervalue any professional designers. We're just a small family daycare center, with big dreams, big hearts, and a tiny budget! One of the moderators suggested that I post a logo competition to this forum, so here we go...

$200 Bounty
Given that there are plenty of logo design services that I can use for anywhere from $70 (LogoLoft) to $250 (LogoJeez, LogoGuru, LogoWorks, etc), I think $200 is a reasonable bounty. To be honest with you, I'd rather spend the money sponsoring a competition like this anyway. I hope it provides an interesting design challenge, and an excuse for some friendly competition.

Rules
Experienced forum members are going to have to help me with this one. Are there a common set of accepted rules for these competitions? Hopefully this will not be a black box submission. I would like to comment (and receive comments) on each submission until we converge on something that works. I would like to keep submissions public to help spawn creativity, as long as Mother Hen's Daycare (LLC) owns the winning design.

Motivations
Mother Hen's Daycare (LLC) is a home based daycare service that cares for infants, toddlers, and school aged children (before and after school care). Our daycare has already established a great reputation in the community, but we need to build a unique identity as well. Therefore, we need an original logo that people can instantly recognize and we can register as our servicemark. We would also like it to be flexible enough to use in advertisements, business cards, t-shirts, website, etc.

Comments on our Current Logo
The current stock clipart illustration of a mother hen and her chicks can be viewed on our web site. There are things we like about it, and things we don't like about it. I'll just rant about it a bit, and hopefully you'll understand what I mean. We like the fact that it conveys a "mother hen" spirit, which seems to translate well to daycare (providing a loving and safe daycare environment, under the watchful eye of an experienced caregiver, etc). We like the fact that the illustration is not too abstract, nor too realistic, but somewhere in between. If pushed too far on the realism, you loose the abstract association to daycare and it looks like a nature scene. If pushed too far on the abstraction, we fear it will be perceived as being too comical, or not taken seriously. The problem is that the bandana looks a little dated (kinda like an aunt jamima chicken), which makes it look more like a grandmother than a mother. The chicken is just a little too portly also. We're not partial to the current color scheme, as long as it's on the conservative side of fun (whatever that means). We like the red beak because it adds to the feminine look of the chicken (kinda like lips), but something seems "off" about the size and placement of the beak. The chicks are kinda cute, but there are probably too many of them, and some are obfuscated. Again, all this info isn't to say we want a redesign of the existing logo, it's just to provide points of reference to help understand what we're looking for.

Challenges
We would like a more modern, updated logo, that avoids the "corporate look" and still conveys the "mother hen" notions mentioned above. Simple brush stroke outline style logos might be interesting if they could someone manage to capture the "mother hen" spirit. It would also be interesting to see something similar to the existing logo redesigned to address some of the concerns mentioned above. It might also be interesting to see a "cleaner" scene with the mother hen watching over a chick breaking out of their shell (infant), a standing chick (toddler), and a slightly taller chick (school aged). Actually, we have no idea what's going to work best, so feel free to be as creative as you wish. I've called this out as a challenge simply because it seems difficult to design something modern, updated, and current while still conveying that "mother hen" spirit. Hopefully someone will discover something that works.

**masque** · 08 June 2006, 11:43 AM

Preliminary rough for logo.
I haven't gone for different ages of chicks as that becomes too detailed, too much of a joke, (baggy trousers, baseball cap, different sized chicks; all gets a bit too crowded). I've just focused on the 'care' aspect and kept the colours warm etc.
One option with 'red lips', bit racy for me.

derek

**gwpriester** · 08 June 2006, 02:01 PM

Welcome Ray

I'm sure you will find some outstanding logo solutions here.

Gary

**raycardillo** · 08 June 2006, 04:27 PM

Masque, I didn't realize designs would starting coming in so quickly. I'm home from work today so I have some time to do "daycare business".

Anyway, thank you very much for the submission. I showed it to the boss (my wife), and here is some feedback:

She reminded me of the one request that I forgot to mention regarding the hen's color. I had to recolor our hen to "lighter skin tones" a while back because people tended to associate the color of the hen with the color of the daycare provider. Yes, I thought it was stupid also, but after the change people started responding to the ads so there must be something subconscious going on.
The wing embracing the chicks looks a little disconnected because the scene is focused on the faces. So the "mother hen" effect doesn't really come accross that strongly.
Agree that in this illustration, the red lips don't really work.
Not sure how well the texture effects will translate onto other media.
Liked the way the LLC was included, but neatly tucked aside.
The style of illustration seemed to work well (not too realistic).

Thanks again for the submission. We thought it was a cute.

**masque** · 08 June 2006, 06:12 PM

Hi
Thanks for the feeback.
When I'm trying to produce a design for someone I like to get in quick with an idea because I find I can learn more about what they want from what they don't like about what I do. So I'll try to bear in mind your, (the bosses'), comments and come up with something different or at least the same but revised.
I'm sure there will be may other ideas from others posted for you to look at in due course.
Derek

**hgregory** · 08 June 2006, 06:38 PM

Hen & chicks --- one color logo!

**ankhor** · 08 June 2006, 06:52 PM

Okay I am not much of a logo maker, but I always looooove
a challenge.
So I just took the challenge and made this piece.
Njoy.

**raycardillo** · 08 June 2006, 08:02 PM

I'll have a chance to "babysit" the forum the next couple days, so I'll try to offer rapid responses as best I can. We had a chance to review the latest submissions, and have more feed back (below). I'm surprised that we're already having strong differences of opinion, but we'll work that out as we decide all of the factors that go into the selection process.

hgregory

Personally, I loved this one immediately. I think it looks trendy, modern, and clean. I was worried that the "mother hen" spirit wouldn't come across with this type of design, but I really like what you've done and think it does come across well.
My wife didn't like it very much mostly because she says that it doesn't look enough like a hen to her. I would worry that a spike up top would make it look like a rooster, or that too many lines would ruin the clean look, but maybe you can experiment a bit.
Maybe you could play around a bit to see what a two or three color version would look like?

ankhor

My wife thought this was really cute, and likes a lot about it. However, she didn't like that the hen's rear-end was the focal point, and didn't think the protective "mother hen" concept came across strong enough.
I thought it was kind of cute, but too detailed a scene for a logo, too much use of 3D effect, etc.
Since my wife liked this one, I'd bet she would also like more playful illustrations if anyone has any thoughts down that path. I didn't think we were headed in that direction, but I guess we are, as long as the protective "mother hen" nature still comes across in the hen.

As I said, we seem to be getting into an area of artistic differences and personal preferences, so keep the good work coming, and we'll keep providing feedback.

FYI, we're showing the designs to our customers as they're being submitted so we'll be getting their feedback as well and incorporating it into our response. Of course, we have the final say, but it would be nice to select something that everyone else finds appealing as well!

**-=Drifter=-** · 08 June 2006, 08:25 PM

A different twist.....

**ankhor** · 08 June 2006, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by raycardillo

I'll have a chance to "babysit" the forum the next couple days, so I'll try to offer rapid responses as best I can. We had a chance to review the latest submissions, and have more feed back (below). I'm surprised that we're already having strong differences of opinion, but we'll work that out as we decide all of the factors that go into the selection process.

hgregory

Personally, I loved this one immediately. I think it looks trendy, modern, and clean. I was worried that the "mother hen" spirit wouldn't come across with this type of design, but I really like what you've done and think it does come across well.
My wife didn't like it very much mostly because she says that it doesn't look enough like a hen to her. I would worry that a spike up top would make it look like a rooster, or that too many lines would ruin the clean look, but maybe you can experiment a bit.
Maybe you could play around a bit to see what a two or three color version would look like?

ankhor

My wife thought this was really cute, and likes a lot about it. However, she didn't like that the hen's rear-end was the focal point, and didn't think the protective "mother hen" concept came across strong enough.
I thought it was kind of cute, but too detailed a scene for a logo, too much use of 3D effect, etc.
Since my wife liked this one, I'd bet she would also like more playful illustrations if anyone has any thoughts down that path. I didn't think we were headed in that direction, but I guess we are, as long as the protective "mother hen" nature still comes across in the hen.

As I said, we seem to be getting into an area of artistic differences and personal preferences, so keep the good work coming, and we'll keep providing feedback.

FYI, we're showing the designs to our customers as they're being submitted so we'll be getting their feedback as well and incorporating it into our response. Of course, we have the final say, but it would be nice to select something that everyone else finds appealing as well!

I said I wasn`t a logo maker, but I was thinking just what you were thinking,
rear end

So I already did one from the front.
As a logo it probably wouldnt work, I agree, maybe as a poster.
(and the rear was more thinking crossing roads, so carefullness.)
So see it from the front now.

(And please don`t expect much logo wise, it just isn`t my thing.sorry)