AAE seeks new logo for Further Confusion
Organizers of Bay Area furry convention Further Confusion are looking to update its 16-year-old logo.
Entries should incorporate AAE's service mark, "FurCon", and must be "clean and easy to understand", look good in color and black and white, and be PG-rated. They should not use "specific critters or characters", and must be available in vector format.
Multiple entries may be submitted by 12AM PT, July 4; the winner will be picked by the end of July. The selected designer will receive a FC2014 patron membership and merchandise; there will also be five runner-up sponsor prizes. All six will be featured online and in the conbook.
Public response so far has not been positive, though a few artists seem interested. The submission deadline has been extended from June 14.
Update (14 Jul): The selection and announcement of winners has been pushed back to the next FC staff meeting (August 17).
Update 2 (15 Aug): Bizarrely, a Forbes article about Obamacare has used the old logo as an illustration, two days before its replacement.
Update 3 (18 Aug): The winner and runners-up have been announced.
About the author
GreenReaper (Laurence Parry) — read stories — contact (login required)a developer, editor and Kai Norn from London, United Kingdom, interested in wikis and computers
Small fuzzy creature who likes cheese & carrots. Founder of WikiFur, lead admin of Inkbunny, and Editor-in-Chief of Flayrah.
Comments
Why not simply call the event "FurCon"? I've never understood the name "Further Confusion" to begin with.
So "Further Confusion" is too confusing?
You're saying that "Public response so far has not been positive" based on the mild Internet comments of three people?!? Before there's an official response? Come on.
Yes, I am. Beyond the two artists I saw entering, the public response (what little there was) was negative. I saw several initial retweets, but a retweet is not an indication of support.
SmackJackal did post a tweet (that I just found) saying that the contest was "getting pretty good response so far". However, he is a board member, and the tweet - which linked to the website - was likely intended to drum up entries. The extension of the contest suggests they did not receive sufficient good entries by the initial deadline.
Chiaroscuro's comment does support the refresh, but was made after publication; he likely found out about it via FNN's repost of this story. Personally, I agree that the current logo could do with improvement; I may even enter myself.
Public response is not positive towards FC because they trademarked the words FurCon :P Words that were in use LONG before they did that as a generic term. "Hey, are you going to the FurCon?"
:P
Hence "further confusion"
The logo looks like terrible 90's clip art... oh, it is. Good idea to find a talented fixer!
I expected not positive response to do with the contention that logo design contests and on spec design work is bad practice. A couple of links to do with that: http://www.davidairey.com/logo-design-contests-bad-for-business/ and http://www.aiga.org/position-spec-work/
I'm guessing the winner or other contestants won't be getting paid actual money for this.
Nope. Now, if you're planning to go anyway, it might be worth your time to whip something up - there's a good chance of getting one of the six registrations, plus some name recognition.
While I sympathize with the point of view expressed in the articles Katherine linked, I don't think there's a big issue with pro bono design work for non-profits which you support, as long as you think of it as another form of volunteering with a potential bonus. WikiFur got a great logo from MelSkunk; it was just one way in which she was able to contribute.
I forgot that cons are non-profit (a-doy!), so that makes me feel a little bit better. Though I'm not sure if they're going to get a good logo with a bunch of amateurs (no offense to the artists). Good design work, especially logo design, is incredibly hard. Though their current logo...yea, overhaul. Their website has some major problems too: while I get they're going with a video game theme, the navigational font is hard to read and GOOD GOD THAT YELLOW. MY EYES. THEY BURN.
Well, not all of them are non-profit. One story I've got on my never-ending to-do list would cover the for-profit nature of organizations such as FurIdaho. (Technically, Megaplex, ConFurgence and Oklacon are also run by for-profits, though I have no evidence to suggest that any of them intend to make a profit.)
Doubtless, you get what you pay for. My attempt is unlikely to win any design awards. Still, they may luck out.
Those aren't half bad actually. Though I would discard or change the last one. The blob of dark blue around "Con" immediately attracts all the attention. I can barely keep my eyes on "Fur". #2 and #4 work best for me.
EDIT: To add, enclosing "Con" in blue or black is pretty distracting. Because of the high contrast around the word, it draws the attention. #4 works because "Fur" also has high contrast with the box, so both words are given equal importance. #2 works because even though "Con" still has high contrast, it's being read left to right, so viewers have to read "Fur" first.
The variants are to demonstrate the logo's flexibility rather than suggest a canonical form; it'd be used in multiple formats. I made some in other colours, too (and yes, the outline can be distracting; I prefer it plain).
A competent artist could put together something fancier. Of course, FC has artistic guests each year, so in theory a plain logo isn't all that bad, as long as it can be colour-matched to the art.
I like 1. The colors fix the contrast problem. 2 could work with some color tweeks, but 3's colors are too similar. 6 is too light to be noticeable. Overall not bad. :)
I think this contest is a great opportunity to attract amateur designers (like me) as well as professionals. I, myself, entered, but I don't think they would be able to beat anyone else's.
The selection and announcement of winners has been pushed back to the next FC staff meeting (August 17).
I saw that. The suspense is killer.
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