Recently I shared that our logo was designed through a contest on 99designs. I’m totally stoked about the result, but I do have an admission to make. After getting tons of ratings and feedback from friends, family and kind strangers that I didn’t even know, I didn’t end up choosing the most popular logo design.
To be honest, I agonized over this decision. The feedback wasn’t at all what I expected. In fact, the least popular logo was the one that I thought was going to win. But through this feedback, I learned a lot about what I was looking for.
Anyhow, I felt like after getting feedback from so many people that it’s only fair to share my thought process. Who knows, I could turn out to be terribly wrong, but ultimately I’ll have to live with the decision.
Observations on the logo design feedback
Before I share the results, here are some observations on the process:
Firstly, all of these logos are 4 and 5 star logos in my book. These designers all brought a unique and interesting perspective to the logos they submitted. It seems like when you are comparing a few options, people might provide ratings based on the other designs (to create some difference between the results)
Second, there was zero consistency in the feedback. I was lucky enough to have three different Creative Directors or VPs of Design weigh in and I have a ton of respect for all of them. Each of them had a different favorite. There was some commonality on the feedback, but it just goes to show you that there’s no accounting for taste.
Had I been working with a consulting firm or designer, I may have spent more time tweaking some of these designs. When doing a design contest, it’s the designer’s choice whether to submit another logo design. In some ways that might be better, but there’s also something to be said for getting the raw creative perspective of the designer.
The Logo Design Feedback
I’m a big believer in transparency, so let me share the results. I won’t get into the comments. but here are the three submissions with the average star ratings in order.
Again I want to emphasize that I would recommend any of the designers and I included their 99designs username in case you want to contact them directly.
So Why Didn’t I Choose the First One?
We went with the second logo, which ended up with a lower rating than the first. There were a number of things about this logo design that I found really interesting.
One thing is that a number of people said is that the text treatment isn’t quite as polished as the other designs. Some people might see that as a downside, but there’s something to be said about it being a little more raw and relatable. It reminds me of some of the surf and skate brands that really resonate with me emotionally.
Another interesting thing about this design is that it’s visually striking. It’s bold and colorful, which will help grab attention if it’s on a shelf with other soda brands. That can go a long way for a scrappy little upstart brand.
The last thing about this logo design is that it provides a lot of substance to work with. When I started to take the other designs and play with incorporating them into social media profiles or other imagery, it wasn’t at fun. Our current logo is fun to work with and the designer created what I would almost call a whole new universe for our brand to take on a life of its own.
Anyhow, I wanted to provide background on my thinking, thank everyone for their input and continue providing a glimpse behind the scenes for everyone who is following along.