Top Design

[ehowton]

As many websites as drax0r and I have created this year (currently, kindly hosted by dentin - but we're working on a DR solution), we finally decided it was time to put our name to them. Problem was, we didn't have one. So after much cursing and gnashing of teeth, we finally settled on "HLM Interactive" a play on Hetero-Life Mate.

With that out of the way, rather that design my own logo, I turned to two professional graphics artists on my FL for a 'Top Design' style competition, with you, the voting public, to choose the winning graphic.

quicksilvermad has a BFA in Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Washington in Arlington.
stuf123 has a BFA in Media Arts and Animation from the Illinois Institute of Art - Schaumburg.

I'd like to thank both the designers for their time as well as their talent, and I'm sure they'd enjoy a comment below for their work from you. I also appreciate their willingness to participate in this contest. I thought all the designs were great, but in the words of Highlander, "There can be only one!"

The winning design, and creator, will be unveiled Monday - the polls will remain active until then.

Here we go:

Design #1	Design #2
Design #3	Design #4

[Poll #1399855]

Comments

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

#1 & 2 - dunno, they're a bit plain. When you're a site like Twitter or Facebook, where the name is the actual branding, you can get away with that, but for HLM what you really want is a distinctive logo, nothing about the name itself conveys what it is or who did it.

#4 - looks like a movie logo. For a movie website that would be great, but... :-P

#3 has a bit more design meat to it, without crossing genres.

[melancthe.livejournal.com]

I was going to say the same thing, but bsdcat summed up my thoughts pretty well.

#3 is the most interesting for me. #1's font comes across as a little dated, and #2 isn't distinctive enough. #4 is a bit brushed-metal for my taste; agreed on it being like a movie logo.

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

I speak for all right-thinking, tasteful people. :-)

[thesweetestnote.livejournal.com]

I feel so left out! *hangs head* *sigh* *cry*

I like #3 most. A good logo works well in full color and gray scale. Which 1, 2 and 3 would do well. But definitely #3 all the way. It's soooo says "hetero life mate" lol.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Don't cry! I didn't know you were a professional graphics artist, but now I do ;)

I was also thinking about transparent backgrounds, and how difficult that would be to do with shadowing and eight-year-old browsers - ugh!

[thesweetestnote.livejournal.com]

I was playing ;P. I'm not really a professional anything. LOL I get paid for it but consider it dabbling. Number 3 really rocks.

And I gave up on old browsers and trying to satisfy their users. If people can't get the latest version of browser - screw 'em. They shouldn't be on the net anyway. I'm waiting for this internet learning curve to be over. My mom is one of the newbies and boy... question after question. I don't know how many times I've said "mom, just do it don't fear it, that's why I got you the Mac mini..." I love PNG-24.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

And I gave up on old browsers and trying to satisfy their users. If people can't get the latest version of browser - screw 'em.

Oh I agree 100%! I think all users of IE should DIE! However, since we're working on generating advertising revenue from our pages and analytics show that over 60% of our users (a million hits next month) use IE6...*sigh*

[thesweetestnote.livejournal.com]

That's the sick irony. I despise IE but always make sure all of my pages work in it first. In the past, I designed a site relying only on Firefox to preview it - to get punched in the gut viewing it in IE when I thought it was done. I pretty much had to redo the damn thing.

You live, you learn :|

[wardlejew.livejournal.com]

Definitely #3. It is simple but identifiable and should work almost anywhere.
#4. is a little over the top, I keep expecting it to do something, move, make me jump out of my seat, something. I'm going to guess stuf made this one for that very reason.
#1 & #2. While nice, they remind me of road mileage signs.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I keep expecting it to do something, move, make me jump out of my seat, something.

Boo!

[mr-dowg.livejournal.com]

I guess I am just like different because I love #4 because it jumps off the page at you.....it makes you notice it!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I like you because you're different.

[catttitude.livejournal.com]

He likes movies?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

He likes to move it, move it.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

I was going to say the same thing, but mr_dowg summed up my thoughts pretty well.