HostGator Helicopter Logo

[swexpert]

Obviously, Raw Idea. Isn't even semi-final Needs much improvement. Please maintain copyright ethics.

Regds
IJ

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by GatorBrian

Can you think of a better logo for ebreakup.com? That wasn't such a nice thing to say.

Relax a little bit...it was a joke!

Originally Posted by codesight

and I think slapshotw was making a funny

I was.

Originally Posted by YukonMaster

Man, a smiley would have made a huge difference in the interpretation of you message.

Apparently so! Next time I'll be more liberal with my smileys to avoid misinterpretation.

[GatorBrian]

So anyway, how about that logo?

[gatorfirstlady]

Wow, that was quick! I think that is a great start.

Keep the ideas coming everyone!

Originally Posted by swexpert

Obviously, Raw Idea. Isn't even semi-final Needs much improvement. Please maintain copyright ethics.

Regds
IJ

[deltak07]

Hey everyone,

I am new to the boards, but definitely not new to Hostgator. I usually browse the HG forums once every week to see what is going on and stumbled upon this discussion. So I decided to give it a shot.

Here's my logos for ebreakup.com. Tell me what you think.

[swexpert]

I think we're doing better than the chopper. Poor Brent!
No offenses please. Just teasing...

Regds
IJ

[swexpert]

BTW, Welcome deltak and gatorfirstlady !

Regds
IJ

[gatorfirstlady]

Poor Brent? I don't think so!! His loss! Ha Ha.

The logos are REALLY looking good. I am quite impressed. Glad you joined the forums deltak07!

[slapshotw]

Honestly, I have a problem with both of these logo design processes. As a large, respected company, Hostgator shouldn't be supporting bad industry practice and speculative work by designers. You should hire a designer that can actually hear more about your needs, audience, and goals, and work with them in creating a good logo.

You can read more about this position here:

http://www.no-spec.com/articles/design-contests/

http://www.no-spec.com/articles/an-analogy/

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Honestly, I have a problem with both of these logo design processes. As a large, respected company, Hostgator shouldn't be supporting bad industry practice and speculative work by designers. You should hire a designer that can actually hear more about your needs, audience, and goals, and work with them in creating a good logo.

I actually heard of a supplier to one hobby getting "volunteers" from a couple of that hobby's fora to clean up and output an EPS file of the supply company's logo. Then he refused to pay a pro he'd also asked to do it, saying a volunteer had already produced the file. Pretty cheesy for a 15-minute job!

Car mechanics don't condition payment for a tuneup on how much more the customer likes driving after it's done; design and copywriting aren't different.

[esl]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Honestly, I have a problem with both of these logo design processes.

Honestly, I think what HostGator wants to do is none of our business, unless it interferes with the specific paid service they are providing us with. (example: hosting)

[YukonMaster]

Originally Posted by esl

Honestly, I think what HostGator wants to do is none of our business, unless it interferes with the specific paid service they are providing us with. (example: hosting)

Agreed, if you don't want to participate, don't. If I had some talents in Photoshop, which I don't then I would make some contributions, but so far, the logos submitted look great.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by esl

Honestly, I think what HostGator wants to do is none of our business, unless it interferes with the specific paid service they are providing us with. (example: hosting)

Did you read the links I posted? Design contests devalue the work of designers. Can you imagine hosting a "write me a cease-and-desist letter" contest with lawyers? Where you tell the lawyers to all spend time making the cease-and-desist, but you're only going to pay the one whose letter you liked the best? No legitimate lawyer would do it; they'd all laugh you out of their office.

Just as you find a lawyer that fits your needs and pay them for their time, and just like you find a doctor that fits your needs and pay them for their time, and as Gwenyth said, just as you find a mechanic that fits your needs and pay them for your time, companies should find a designer they need and pay them for their time.

Evan, you're a student, right? I assume you're either in college or will be looking soon. Can you image telling colleges that you want to spend a year getting their services--taking classes, staying in room and board, eating off the meal plan, using the medical center--and then you'll only pay the one you liked the best? After they already provided you the services? None of them would do it.

[gatorfirstlady]

Brent and I have given people the opportunity to create a design for MY company since they were upset about not being able to participate in creating a design for Brent's MOM's company. It is a fun little contest meant to cause no harm which the winner will be paid and recognized for. I believe if people had a problem with this then they wouldn't have submitted designs, but fortunately they have!

I am sorry that you feel as if this is wrong, but you seem to be the only one... we can't please everyone!

I am loving all of the different ideas and think everyone has been doing a wonderful job so far! Keep up the good work and keep the ideas coming...

[deltak07]

Honestly, I can see where slapshotw and gwyneth are coming from... and the only reason I am participating in these contests is to expand my knowledge in Photoshop (logo design/market branding/etc.) and participate in the HG community. I have prior knowledge from taking college courses and just self-teaching, but just to make things straight I am not a professional and Kristen does not have to accept any of our submissions.

In the end, it all comes down to Kristen (and Brent) on how they want to pursue this type of ordeal seeing how it's their business.

This is still an interesting means to gather the HG community to participate as well as (like slapshotw and gwyneth have brought up) be a means to discuss things.

Other then that, critiques to our designs (swexpert and I) would be nice and I'll try to make some adjustments.

Until next time... take care! :-)

~ Dennis

[GatorBrian]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Honestly, I have a problem with both of these logo design processes. As a large, respected company, Hostgator shouldn't be supporting bad industry practice and speculative work by designers. You should hire a designer that can actually hear more about your needs, audience, and goals, and work with them in creating a good logo.

"bad industry practice"? SO you are saying that collaboration of talented individuals is not a good idea? We could hire a designer and put forth our ideas for them to do. That is how most businesses would do it. We are not like most businesses. As you can see, we try to be different and take risks. HostGator is not just the "status quo".

What if that one person with a special talent out there doesn't know a way for them to be recognized. What else is a better way HostGator can give people the opportunity for their work to be showcased on a massive level. Who knows... Maybe the winner will not only get money, but also have the opportunity to work with us on other projects. They also have the opportunity for their work to be seen by other business owners who also look through our forums. I am sure the helicopter logo winner has something very nice to put in his portfolio / resume. As far as the other wonderful people willing to take the time out of their day to help, there maybe an incentive coming soon to any of the people who have submitted any work.

I don't see anyone on digital point complaining about how we gave them the opportunity to put their skills to the ultimate test. We could hire a designer but we also see a community of people very eager to participate and upset when they cant. Thank you for your opinion. If it doesn't work, we can hire a designer. At least we tried and gave people a chance.

P.S. The helicopter logo turned out very nice. Congrats to the winner. Maybe he can do it again?

[GatorBrian]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Evan, you're a student, right? I assume you're either in college or will be looking soon. Can you image telling colleges that you want to spend a year getting their services--taking classes, staying in room and board, eating off the meal plan, using the medical center--and then you'll only pay the one you liked the best? After they already provided you the services? None of them would do it.

Can you explain this?
http://www.abanet.org/tax/lstc/
American Bar Association Tax Contest

All ivy league universities participated in this. I am sure that that gave them experience, motivation, and helped alot of people at the same time. Trust me, if you put hard work into something, there is never anything lost. To students, experience is one of the most important things. Do you think that all the contestants in the show "The apprentice" lost anything when they didnt win the show? Their hard work and experience was seen by many people. I am sure they didnt do all that hard work and are now on the street asking for money. Anyway, just my opinion.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by GatorBrian

We could hire a designer and put forth our ideas for them to do.

Brian,

What if Hostgator was looking for a new Director of Training, but instead of wanting to go through the interview process the right way, they decided to have multiple people actually do ALL the work necessary, and then after deciding whose work they liked best, paid only that person? Do you think that would be the right way for them to handle the situation? As someone who is obviously qualified enough at your job to get hired, would you have given your skills away for free in a competition? Keep in mind they didn't ask for proposals and go through an RFP process, which is a fine way of evaluating multiple candidates--they actually required the full work to be done.

They also have the opportunity for their work to be seen by other business owners who also look through our forums.

Have you ever gone to your mechanic and said "I don't want to pay you for your work, but think of all the people that will observe my car as it passes if you do it for free"? If you haven't, why not? I suggest you go to a few mechanics and see what they say to that. See if any say yes. And, if any do, see if they are ones you'd actually trust with your car.

When you are hungry for lunch, do you go to a few delicatessens near where you live and tell them you're having a sandwich contest, and that you're only going to pay the deli whose sandwich you enjoyed the most? Do you offer to eat the sandwich at Central Park so that many people can observe you enjoying it? Or do you find a deli that makes sandwiches you like, and eat at that one?

I didn't mean to start a flamewar here, but Hostgator is not being innovative with a design contest. They are being cheap. Instead of getting a logo that is created with their goals, target audience, and the needs of the stakeholders in mind, they are getting a logos made by people who don't value their work highly enough to charge for it.

Designers, by entering contests like this, you devalue your own time and skillset. I urge you to rethink before entering another one.

Can you explain this?

Do you really not see how this is completely different? Do you really think I'm against students in a learning environment asked to do work that is similar to what they'd encounter in the real world? Read my example, and read yours. Just because they both use the word "college" doesn't mean they're at all similar...

Edit: ugh, I'm not going to keep writing long posts about this. Brian, if you want to keep encouraging designers to give their work away, just think about how you'd react if I started encouraging BizDev employees to work for free under the guise that you'd be better off. And then if companies started paying people like yourself only if you gave away your work, and in the end they decided they liked it. Graphic Design work is no different.

[YukonMaster]

Alright, and getting back to the actual purpose of this thread...(the contest)

(hehe) I love the smilies.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Edit: ugh, I'm not going to keep writing long posts about this. Brian, if you want to keep encouraging designers to give their work away, just think about how you'd react if I started encouraging BizDev employees to work for free under the guise that you'd be better off. And then if companies started paying people like yourself only if you gave away your work, and in the end they decided they liked it. Graphic Design work is no different.

I'm not going to keep this going either, but every person here who gets paid for designing websites should think about how they'd respond if the local Ford dealer asked them to be one of an unknown number of designers to put together, unpaid, an entire real, working site for the dealership to mull over and decide which one it wanted to use.

As for the "giving people opportunities" argument, well, it's a lot easier to exploit people who don't believe that's what's happening.

BTW, the people on that awful Trump tv show may or may not have gotten paid for whatever work they did for him--but they got paid scale rates for their tv appearances.

[GatorBrian]

What about chilly cookoffs? lol
I guess your not a fan of contests in general. Either way, we appreciate your concerns. We will still be providing excellent hosting service and will be continuing conducting our "business practices" in a very professional manner. We are sorry you didnt like this decision. We value all of your opinions. With that said, let us move on with this post. Thank you.

[smp]

Hey Kristen,

Considering no one else has posted an evil cupid I thought i'd take a stab at it. I hope you like it I spent a good part of the weekend making it!



If you want to see it in the making check out this thread: http://forums.hostgator.com/showthre...7466#post87466

Regards, Steve Xx

[Sam]

Originally Posted by smp

Hey Kristen,

Considering no one else has posted an evil cupid I thought i'd take a stab at it. I hope you like it I spent a good part of the weekend making it!



Regards, Steve Xx

Thats a catchy slogan

Nice work

[othellobloke]

Originally Posted by deltak07

Hey everyone,

I am new to the boards, but definitely not new to Hostgator. I usually browse the HG forums once every week to see what is going on and stumbled upon this discussion. So I decided to give it a shot.

Here's my logos for ebreakup.com. Tell me what you think.

Your first one is excellent. I could submit a design... but what's the point? Someone's already come up with an instantly recognisable and decent logo.

[esl]

Originally Posted by Sam

Thats a catchy slogan

Nice work

Does it spell BRAKEUP wrong on purpose? Looks good.