Updates

Went on vacation/holiday

Round 1 didn't yield any designs that I "loved" so we're going to Round 2. Some additional guidance this time around:

1. Be creative.

2. "Word Art" isn't going to cut it - if that's what I wanted, I wouldn't be on DesignCrowd. To be clear, the words are important but I want a logo that is able to stand alone WITHOUT the words in specific situations.

3. If your design has the words "A Loan for You" with an outline of a house around them then that's probably not going to work for me.

4. As it turns out, I'm not a fan of arrows (I didn't know this previously but I immediately eliminated every design that included an arrow so I would avoid that).

5. A loan for you is the name I'm planning to run my mortgage loan origination business through - key word MORTGAGE, meaning that it makes sense to include some sort of reference to a house but doesn't make sense to reference anything else. That said, logo designs don't HAVE TO reference a house (please see item #1, above).

6. Probably half of the original submissions were blue and green and while I like those colors (since I'm a HUGE Seahawks fan), it's very unlikely that I will choose a logo that is blue and green.

7. Showing the logo in various use cases and in different color combinations will help it stand out during my review.

8. If I send you a message about your design, please respond. There were some VERY RESPONSIVE designers in Round 1, but the majority of designers didn't reply to my messages within 2 or 3 days and were eliminated even though I may have liked their design if they made some tweaks or explained the thought behind a particular aspect of it.

9. In Round 1, almost every design fell into one of two categories - Category 1: A LOAN larger than FOR YOU; Category 2: Everything the same size. Tip: Finding a unique way to "emphasize" the word YOU could give your design an edge.

10. Keys are cool but seem to be VERY HARD to "pull off" in a logo. That said, a "well executed" key incorporated into the logo could give you an advantage.

11. I tend to lean toward "sophisticated and elegant" but I feel like that's really hard to pull off in a logo and it may not be "appropriate" in this particular circumstance. Other leanings include "playful and fun", "subtle" (in the sense that there may be more going on with the logo than first meets the eye - ex. the arrow that's incorporated into the FedEx logo).

12. I don't know if y'all can see my past projects but if you can, it may be useful to view the designs I selected. Project 1 was "CMA for You" and Project 2 was "The Eastside Home Team".

Good luck! I look forward to seeing some new designs (and/or some tweaks to previous designs).

Added Wednesday, 16 October 2024