Logo contest results
So I did this contest on Worth1000.com for a Brad Sucks logo. The final count was 79 entries, which I think was a great turnout. The user rating is in and you can see that here. But I ultimately get to decide who gets the $100 prize. So first off, here's the winner:
I thought about it for a long while but I wound up going back to this one. I like it because it's simple, clean, evocative and weird. What does it say? Something about falling / hurting yourself / being inept / breaking your neck / warning. Pretty general but I think it's spiritually connected to whatever themes my music might have. People I've shown it to have alternately found it funny or curious, but just about everyone has been intrigued by it, which is what I want.
Also for bonus points: the falling guy was taken from one of my Hawaii photos of a warning sign which also said: "if in doubt, don't go out". I loved that when I saw it. "Welcome to paradise - BEWARE THE MANY DANGERS." Great funny/sad stuff. That probably helps me feel a personal connection to it and less like it's some phony contrived logo.
SECOND AND THIRD PLACE
I also bought two of the other logos for a lower price and they are:
Brad Sucks with the fancy BS logo - I really like the BS logo part of this. The logo style combined with the words "brad sucks" I think is kind of funny but also quirky and interesting. It's probably not one I would use to always represent Brad Sucks because it might be a little too funny, but it has a simple weirdness and irony to it that I liked enough to want to keep.
brad sucks logo design - This is the one a lot of people I know picked as their favorite. It was a little plain to me at first but I warmed up to it as it's nice looking, simple and would be easy to use on things without taking up too much space.
Read on for some more jibba jabba about logo selection:
WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENT
Before I get to giving props to some of the other logos, I should explain some things I didn't know I was biased against. Maybe this'll be helpful info if other musicians out there are thinking about getting logos. If I had to do the contest over again, I'd specify:
- No guitars. While I can and do play guitar, putting a guitar in the logo to me says "BRAD SUCKS IS ALL ABOUT GUITARS" which it's really not. I'd feel like I'm trying to be Van Halen or Steve Vai or something. And even they don't put guitars in their logos (1, 2). Also as a small nitpick: I play left-handed and all the guitars in the logos are right-handed.
- No "suck" puns. Lollipops and lemons and so on are cute but I picture people just thinking I really dig on candy or have an oral fixation. "Hey, I'm Brad and I like to put things in my mouth, what's up."
- No smiley faces. Despite having a smiley-face logo currently in my arsenal, I don't need another one. Nirvana rocked the smiley face and that's hard to compete with.
OTHER NOTABLE ENTRIES
Brad Sucks Copyright Logo - This is a really excellently done logo and it does a great job communicating several things at once. My problem with it is the message it sends. It clearly says "Brad Sucks is a one man band who plays guitar (maybe really awesomely since it's in his logo) and doesn't care for copyright" which, while true (except for the awesome guitar part), is kind of a vanilla message and doesn't communicate much about the actual themes or character of my music. It would probably get me more nerd cred though.
Brain Fix - At first I didn't know what this one was supposed to be and then I read the description and I was all "awesome!" and grew to love the little brain icon. The only problem was that most people I showed it to didn't recognize it as a brain (often even after I told them what it was) so I had to count it out. I wanted to love this one though.
Napster Logo - This one's pretty cool and well done, but it looks a lot like the Napster logo. Despite it being ironic, I'd feel like I was advertising for Napster -- which would be extra awkward as I turned down advertising for Napster on here recently. And it's got a bit of a suck pun in there with the tongue out and all. Maybe more of a lick, but still in the mouth area.
There were lots of other great entries as well, but those were the three that stood out the most. CONCLUSION
I'm definitely glad I ran this contest. It was fun to do and as an unintended side-benefit it got a whole bunch more people into my music. I feel like I got my money's worth out of it and I'd recommend it to other musicians on a tight budget. I think you'd have better success if you gave examples of the sorts of band logos you like, rather than leaving it wide-open like I did. I don't think I was as clear as I could have been in my contest description. So that's something I'd pay extra attention to.