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Tarsnap logo contest

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Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#21

Post by cperciva »

ericdykstra wrote: post #11

I think you would end up with a better logo if you just did a call to your mailing list for designer recommendations, and paid a real designer $500 for a few hours of their work to come up with their best effort. By opening a contest, you're not only going to get a much lower quality of submissions, but in the end, the final decision is going to be made by you, someone "useless at anything artistic". Paying a designe…

in the end, the final decision is going to be made by you, someone "useless at anything artistic".

That's a fair point... but I do know what Tarsnap is, and it's not exactly "typical". I don't know how many non-tarsnap-using designers would come up with something which is consistent with the rest of the "tarsnap brand".

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#22

Post by cperciva »

vicbrooker wrote: post #12

Considering Tarsnap doesn't have a GUI I'd suggest a text-only logo - something like Tarsnap_ for a full logo and then just T_ for social media icons/favicon/128x128. I can put something together but at the end of the day it's just changing fonts until there's a winner. Colin, if you're interested in the idea and there's a particular font/color you would like used let me know and I'll make the pngs for you. Don't str…

That's certainly an option. Whether that's the best option, I have no idea until I see what people come up with. :-)

But someone is going to get $500 (or $500 minus 99designs' cut), even if it's just someone who typesets "Tarsnap" is a way that I like more than anything else.

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#23

Post by cperciva »

dmix wrote: post #5

Glad to see Tarsnap investing in branding/identity. I like how Colin adopted prgmr.com style of appealing to the technical minded for it's website design/documentation. A simple logo wouldn't hurt.

A simple logo wouldn't hurt.

I'm certainly not opposed to having a simple logo. I want to see what people come up with. :-)

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#24

Post by exizt88 »

joelhooks wrote: post #15
cperciva wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what I might like. I'm hoping to get some discussion and sharing of ideas -- including from people who don't have any interest in or ability to actually produce a logo themselves. If I knew that, say, I wanted a graphic of a piece of tar being snapped in half, I'd look for an artist and say "here's $500, please draw this for me". But given that I have no idea what I want, I figure the more people I inv…

I wasted money this year on a designer, who had work we liked, but couldn't come up with anything we liked for our brand. Wish I had crowd sourced it.

How much did you spend on him/her, if you don't mind?

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#25

Post by cperciva »

cfqycwz wrote: post #8
cperciva wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what I might like. I'm hoping to get some discussion and sharing of ideas -- including from people who don't have any interest in or ability to actually produce a logo themselves. If I knew that, say, I wanted a graphic of a piece of tar being snapped in half, I'd look for an artist and say "here's $500, please draw this for me". But given that I have no idea what I want, I figure the more people I inv…

Lots of people hire a graphic designer with no real idea of what they want--the point of a graphic designer is to talk to a client about the ideas and values of their business, think a lot about those things, go through a bunch of iterations, and then eventually end up with a finished product. That takes a lot of work--usually at least 30 to 40 hours for a good logo. Would you put in 40 hours of work for somebody on…

I figured that Tarsnap users had a head start on the "figuring out ideas and values" part, in that they generally know what Tarsnap is and how it works.

It's possible that I'll find that someone has a nice idea but a poor implementation and award them the $500 but go off to hire an artist to draw the idea better.

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#26

Post by joelhooks »

exizt88 wrote: post #24
joelhooks wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasted money this year on a designer, who had work we liked, but couldn't come up with anything we liked for our brand. Wish I had crowd sourced it.

How much did you spend on him/her, if you don't mind?

$400, or most of my budget. Still have same tired logo that I "designed" 8 years ago.

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#29

Post by srgseg »

http://www.one-tab.com/web/images/tarsnap.png

A castle and medieval font to convey security and resilience

Use of a font with a distinctive R to help it appear as TAR-SNAP and not TARS-NAP

A monospaced font with underscores to convey that this for the UNIX command line

Subtle gold/silver colors that convey a history of widely acknowledged value and future longevity

Font: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/metamorphous (free) Castle: http://3docean.net/item/door-castle/4004680 ($32 licence required)

Please feel free to use/build on this concept if you like it, I waive my rights to this logo design.

Re: Tarsnap logo contest

#30

Post by ericdykstra »

cperciva wrote: post #21
ericdykstra wrote: post #11

I think you would end up with a better logo if you just did a call to your mailing list for designer recommendations, and paid a real designer $500 for a few hours of their work to come up with their best effort. By opening a contest, you're not only going to get a much lower quality of submissions, but in the end, the final decision is going to be made by you, someone "useless at anything artistic". Paying a designe…

in the end, the final decision is going to be made by you, someone "useless at anything artistic". That's a fair point... but I do know what Tarsnap is, and it's not exactly "typical". I don't know how many non-tarsnap-using designers would come up with something which is consistent with the rest of the "tarsnap brand".

Well, part of the $500 would presumably be talking through the goals of the project, what message you want to convey with the logo, how you might want to extend the Tarsnap brand in the future, etc.

To put it another way, if you needed to roll out a new feature for Tarsnap but couldn't do it yourself, would you hire someone on contract, or do a contest for it?

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