• US$580

• 539 designs

• 231 designers

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Logo Design Brief

****EDIT: Many people are disregarding my instructions, so here's a new rule. No lighthouses. No liberty torches. And absolutely no weird contortions of the MPI initials into some kind of cubical box shape. These are lazy, generic, uncreative logos that we have no interest in -- please do something more original.****

We need a logo design for a corporate rename and rebranding of a non-profit based in Portland Maine. The organization is called the "Maine Policy Institute" and is a free market policy research organization that works on public policy in Maine. We work to pass legislation in the state capitol in Augusta, public issue campaigns, as well as analysis and evaluation of general public policy questions in the state. We approach public policy from a conservative/libertarian perspective, though much of our work is essentially neutral to non-partisan.

We are open to a variety of design ideas and have no preconceived desire for anything specific. The one thing that we likely do want, though, is the use of the colors, which are Navy Blue, Gold and White. Those can be used in any combination of main color, accent, etc. They are simply symbolic to political philosophy and we like the combination. That said, though, if you can make a good case that other colors are a better idea, we are happy to consider.

Here's the thing: I don't want this logo to look like it belongs to a bank, or is so highly generic that we could be selling insurance. I ALSO don't want something so insane and abstract that it looks like a college football team mascot logo.

What we want, ultimately, is something bold and creative that isn't overly complex, but isn't bland and overly homogenized. I like spartan (but smart) designs, clean lines, symbolism, etc. Something clean, modern and meaningful.

Elements you can use in the design are basically endless -- we think harkening to freedom and liberty, free markets, the state of Maine, etc are all great. But they are also traps that create the generic and cliche logos we want to stay away from.

Every logo for a group like ours seems to build in a state silhouette and something recognizably libertarian, like a liberty torch, or uses a silouette of the state's legislative State House, and likewise, most Maine based organizations also include a lighthouse, a lobster or something obviously associated with the state.

Perhaps there's no way of getting around that, but as those types of logo are so common, if you are going to use something like a lighthouse, I am cautioning you that it had better be damn creative, because there are just too many logos out there that use them for Maine groups.

End of the day, folks, I want you to be imaginative and think outside the box and create something beautiful that is simple enough to be used in a corporate context.

Target Market(s)

Maine citizens and policymakers, lawmakers and media

Industry/Entity Type

Non-Profit

Contact Information for Business Card

Need to have room for a name, title, the organization name, phone, website and mailing address

Logo Text

Maine Policy Institute

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Logo styles of interest

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Font styles to use

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Colors

Colors selected by the customer to be used in the logo design:

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Look and feel

Each slider illustrates characteristics of the customer's brand and the style your logo design should communicate.

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Requirements

Must have

• *A creative design
• *Simple enough to survive in a corporate environment
• *Using blue and gold as the color base (unless you can make a good case for different colors)

Nice to have

• *Something that shows we are a research organization and that we analyze policy... something that incorporates charts or graphs or some other research type concept
• *Something that acknowledges being from Maine
• *Something harkening to liberty, free enterprise, or freedom

Should not have

• *Cliche design elements,
• *Lighthouses and lobsters
• *Liberty torches or the statue of liberty
• ***Please do not do a generic shape with the MPI initials in them -- I do not want weird looking contortions of the initials, that isn't the style I want***