IamaSource Blog

Logo contest for website: ilmiobookfotografico.com

IamaBlogger — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:02:57 GMT

Here we are with a new challenge on IamaSource.com: a new contest for the creation of a website logo. The website is ilmiobookfotografico.com, a new reality specialized in photo books production and photo composite printing for models.

The website will be constantly updated with contents about the world of photography and photo books. The team has been working for years in the national fashion industry organizing shows and famous beauty contests, including Miss Grand Prix Formula 1 and "The most beautiful man contest" in Italy.

Brief requirements are really clear and well defined. The website will have the following characteristics:

Brilliance/dynamics (we are in the show business, movies and fashion world, etc..)
Appealing (it's important to be the first to care about the importance of the appearence)
Professionalism (it's foundamental to convey idea of guarantee, a good partner for people who join this world)

For further information about the brief, here you can find the contest details.

Budget: 200€

Deadline: 31 January 2012.

Good contest to everybody!

Naming for a Start-up Company that produces Decorative Resin Flooring: budget 400 euro

IamaBlogger — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:08:27 GMT

New Challenge on IamaSource: find a naming for a Start-up Company that produces Decorative Resin Flooring.

Resin floors are the new trend, especially in civil construction area with a high level design, commercial buildings (shops and fashion stores, warehouses, showrooms), public areas (art galleries, exhibitions) and industrial areas.

The naming and the tag-line must focus on medium high customers profile. medium high customers profile.

It must convey a trendy company/product, high quality, "cool" product that can be chosen by a “cool” person, a "trend setter".

You can choose two different ways for the naming. The first one must reveal what the main product is (that is a name related to the “resin”). The second one can be something more emotional, revealing the product only in the tag-line.

Creative contests are a great way for startup companies to find their name.

Everyone can join the contest for free.

The deadline is the 27th of November and the budget for the best proposal is 400 euro.

Have a creative day.

"Company Brand that communicates": IamaSource won the first prize

IamaBlogger — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:19:23 GMT

We’re glad to announce that IamaSource won the first prize in the biennial exhibition dedicated to new entrepreneurs called "Voglia d’impresa" in the "The company that communicates" category.

The co-founders of the creative web site were honored by the President of the Province of Turin, Antonio Saitta, during the awards ceremony of the winning companies of the "Premia l'Impresa Mip” sixth edition.

"An award in order to promote companies that have achieved significant results," as Saitta said.

IamaSource wants to share this award with the MIP Consultants that allowed to overcome the administrative difficulties during the start up phase, letting IamaSource to create its own creative market place on the web.

The IamaSource community is an important part of this result too, joining the contests since the very first one in June 2010: more than 700 designers and more than 4000 layouts for the first IamaSource logo.

And more than 40.000 creative layouts uploaded since then.

Some tips for choosing a successful brand name

IamaBlogger — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:40:00 GMT

After some case histories of famous brands let us to summarize some tips to use when you’re choosing a name for a new company or a new product.
Sometimes what seems to be the right choice can’t be used, maybe because a competitor has a similar name, or because it has an ugly meaning in other languages, and so on.
To keep in mind these tips is the more important the less you have to spend in brand awareness.

Here are some guidelines that will help you in the difficult operation of finding a new company or a new product name.

1. Simple and easy to pronounce

The name should be easily pronounced and possibly should be immediately understood in verbal communication, even with people who have never heard it before. The fact that you need to spell or use a mnemonic trick to make it understood should not be that bad. To explain its meaning or make a combination to help other person to remember it might be helpful, but it must be an easy and immediate trick.

2. Distinctive

Thanks to Internet, anyone can do a bit of research to find out if the name already exists in the same market sector. Obviously this is not a substitute for professional benchmarking, but it helps to avoid choosing a name already used by a competitor that you can find with “one click". You can also check whether the domain is free or not. If your new name does not have a free domain you can find out if it's for sale and buy it (watch out for the high prices) or use a variation, for example adding some suffixes (e.g. -group,-online, -service, etc. ..).

3. Evocative

By referring to the world of the brand you can justify a proposal which appear to be nonsense (apparently). There are many possible references: historical, cultural... It is important that these references can be understood by everyone, not only by the one who thought it.

4. Complete (with the tagline)

The tag-line can be a natural answer to the name by "explaining" and "clarifying" some meanings. It can also represent the company's mission. In some cases the tag-line has the same importance of the logo icon. Think about famous cases like "Just do it" Nike, the "Connecting People" by Nokia, the "Impossible is nothing" by Adidas and so on.

5. International

Thanks to the web a brand can be seen and read by customers with completely different cultures and nationalities. It is necessary to ask what’s the meaning of the name in other languages. If you are opening a small shop on the corner, this would not be a problem, but today also a farmer can buy and sell products around the world (thanks to Internet). So you should be more careful than before.

6. It should not age quickly

While you’re looking for ideas to your brand name is important not to be very close to short-lived concepts which are the fashion today, but tomorrow? The name might be old even before completing the brand identity and launch the product on the market.

7. Fits within company's vision

Even if you do not have 20 years of history behind you brand, the tone that you want to give to the corporate image should be clear from the choice of the name. Serious or ironic, reliable or provocative, engaging or institutional ... the name should reflect one of these features and will be the first and fundamental element on which create all the brand identity.

8. Grammatically attractive

A name can incorporate many elements to tease the curiosity, and among them you can use different grammatical tips. For example, the alliteration, as in the case of Coca-Cola, Kit Kat, or you can find / create a name palindrome (not that easy but with results like "Civic" by Hyundai, the famous "M&M", or the insurance company "AXA"). You can also try to use the onomatopoeia (e.g. as "Yahoo", "Twitter") or the rhymes (including name and tagline) or neologisms where (almost) everything is allowed.

New contest for book of tickets layout by Trama Express New

IamaBlogger — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:59:43 GMT

After the first logo contest, TRAMA EXPRESS NEW, a company specialized on fast delivery, launches a contest for the creative layout for the new graphics for their books of tickets. Congratulations to ankast who won the logo contest beating 164 designers and being the first among 1078 proposal, and now let’s move on with the new contest. The Budget is 400 euros.

The books of tickets include the ticket released to the pony express while are taking the parcels, usually they are less than 23x11 centimeters in order to be included in the letter envelope. For the new graphics TRAMA EXPRESS NEW needs a cover that can resume their mission: to offer the most reliable and precise service in Turin area (Italy). They also need a monochrome graphic for the insider tickets.

They want a very recognizable layout, not so common. The designers can choose the size and the paper colour of the inside tickets.

Companies and, public corporations are the main target. They ask for TRAMA EXPRESS NEW fast delivery of packages, envelopes, boxes and gifts on time, with accuracy and absolute reliability in Turin area, as well as in Italy.

You can see the full brief requirements here. The client will check the contest daily and he’s available for further clarifications in the dashboard.

Enjoy the contest!

Logotype contest for a company operating in energy efficiency: Midori

IamaBlogger — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:52:20 GMT

Midori is a company that offers services, products, software and hardware related to energy consumption optimization.
Their mission is helping in reducing environmental pollution. Their dream is to see their products helping in getting people more aware and careful about energy and primary resource consumption.

Midori is asking to IamaSource creative community for the creation of their new logo. The budget for the contest winner is 400 euros. In the brief requirements you can find their philosophy and some interesting and helpful inputs for the logo design.

Midori provides services and products mainly for other companies operating in energy consulting, energy reselling and green energy. The company name goes with the tagline “free to innovate” (if you want you can add it in the logo design). This tagline is also a tip for the designers: feel free to innovate and find a way to bring Midori a step ahead.

Deadline is 8th of September 2011. Free your creativity and have a great contest!

The best and worst logos with hidden meaning.

IamaBlogger — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:15:00 GMT

Besides logos inspirational galleries, we’d link to collect some logos which incorporate hidden (or not so hidden) meanings, thanks to symbols or to a great use of negative space.
We don’t want to separate the best from the worst (even if it’s pretty clear in some cases), we prefer to show how to look at a nice design logo finding a meaning that improve the relationship between icon and brand name. Good logos must be immediate but sometimes have some abstract meanings which you can recognize just looking carefully, not something like “green color is for…”, “curve form represents…” and so on.
Watch out: after watching this gallery you’ll never these logos at the same way.

Let’s start with the French international hypermarket chain logo, “Carrefour”, literally “crossroads”. The logo represents two arrows and incorporate also an hidden white "C” (negative space between the two colors).

The graphic elements of Formula 1 logo represents velocity. You can see the number “1” thanks to the space between the black “F” and the red symbol on the right.

Excellent use of the negative spaces for the “8fish” Restaurant, more famous on the web thanks to this logo than for the Sushi itself. This icon improves the relationship with the name of the company. Also the “Toblerone” symbol, hides something (have you ever seen the bear in the mountain, symbol of the city called Berna in Switzerland? There is where the chocolate was born).

The current NBC logo (see its evolution below) represents the famous peacock. You can easily find it, but it’s not that easy to understand that peacock's head is flipped to the right to suggest it is looking forward (as the company philosophy).

Talking about hidden meaning for the FedEx logo could be wrong, but even if it is one of the most popular logo, have you ever see the arrow between “E” and “X”, that represents speed and precision of this courier?

Also the Amazon logo needs to take a more careful look at it in order to completely understand the meaning: the arrow (besides the smile) indicates that they do have all types of goods, from “A to Z”.

The Sony Vaio logo has a strong hidden meaning (maybe too much). It represents the integration of analog and digital technology with the “VA” representing an analog wave and the 'IO' representing a digital binary code. How many of you can understand it without an explanation?

The current Artlington Pediatric Center is that one on the left. It was changed by the Association after reading the comment on the web supposedly. The formerly logo was that one on the right, and it was not very helpful for their reputation.

The choice of the italian clothing brand A-Style is made on purpose: the letter “A” with two dots creates a symbol... well, it doesn’t need any further explanation. This was a guerrilla marketing case: this logo was introduced as a teaser campaign in the main cities of the World (Roma, London, Moscow, Miami…).

Below an inspirational gallery with some logos taken from the web. Find the symbol and the hidden meaning in there.

Need other logo inspiration?

Here there are some examples:
Logo Inspiration: High Quality Collection of "Symbols Logos"
Logo Inspiration: Best Initial Logo Gallery
Logo Inspiration: 50 Selected Typographic Logos
Logo Inspiration: The Use of Shapes in Logos

Logo Design Contest for Trama Express New - Fast Delivery Company

IamaBlogger — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:34:22 GMT

It is just started today a new logo contest for Trama Express New, a company specialized on fast delivery – usually called "Pony Express" - which relies on the creativity of IamaSource designers for the creation of the new logo.

Trama Express operates in Turin, the city in which IamaSource is based. We are so happy to promote this new creative contest, besides the fact that now we knew a company for our last minute deliveries. In addition to daily deliveries with scooters and cars in the areas of Turin the service also offers extraordinary deliveries on non working time, on weekends and a shipping service throughout the Italian national territory within 12/24 hours.

The the logo contest brief is really well written and a number of elements appear on It giving a good starting point for developing our creativity. The first elements are the speed of the service and punctuality. These concepts are fundamental for a company that takes care of deliveries and tehse elements can be transposed in the logo using different graphic techniques and approaches.

Another element is represented by reliability. When you leave a package or some important documents It is crucial to rely on who will take care of their delivery. This requires that the new logo transpose this concept, perhaps through the use of a solid fonts and colors that convey the right feel.

Another important element is the Trama Express website www.tramaexpress.it (which you should visit to get a more complete picture as possible about the company). Trama Express is present on the web and it is close to its customers at any time. Express deliveries are constantly monitored, so you always know where your package is.

The use of technology and proximity to customer are therefore two other elements that complete the scenario from which to build a successful logo.

Said that, we have 18 days to deliver the new logo Trama Express New. We, like them, on time as always.

Enjoy your contest!

Interview to Cineama: The New Crowdfunding Platform for Movies Social Distribution

IamaBlogger — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Here is the interview released by Cineama Staff, the brand new social platform which has relied on IamaSource community for the creation of the company logo. The contest opened by Cineama received 1266 layout. It was attended by more than 200 designers from all over the world, who tried to win 500 euro: the winner was the Italian designer called uomopera.

This brief interview is an opportunity to start knowing Cineama, soon on line at www.cineama.it.

1. A brief presentation of your company, Cineama.

Cineama is an online service and social platform, online within June 2011, with the aim to create, product and release film projects through the collaboration of the users.

Subjects and scripts can be sent to be selected, evaluated and discussed by Cineama community members (pros, filmgoers and movie fans); the best projects will be put periodically in crowdfunding and they will be produced, if they achieve the budget. The community members can cooperate with art directors of the single project and offer themselves for technical o casting roles.

A section of distribution – both online and in the cinema (thank to “on demand projections”) – will be created thanks to user reports; International quality projects which have not been released in Italy or Italian films that have not found a distribution, can be finally seen.

In order to complete the project, we’d like to mention special events, video contests, repair and digitization of film through the crowdfunding, a blog/magazine (online on www.cineama.it).

2. How do you approach to IamaSource and why have you chose it for your project?

Due to the Cinema open, participative and cooperative spirit we chose to create our logo thanks to a creative contest. After web searching we found and chose IamaSource, a start-up web platform (as we are) but with features and processes well built and defined.

3. How was your first experience on IamaSource?

Good, even if it was our first experience so we’ve learned day by day how to approach with the designers community and how to drive their work.

4. How did you manage the proposals received during the contest?

Our creative and interaction designers tried to drive the proposals by sending comments and voting those we liked the most, those closer to our feelings and to our guidelines, answering to the designers questions. Unfortunately it was not possible to vote or comment every single layout due to the huge numbers of proposals received.

5. What led your finale choice?

The originality of the proposal, the visual and communicative impact. It was very hard to choose among the last 3/4 proposals selected as potential winners, and it was long discussed by Cineama team members.

6. A comment about IamaSource website?

A website, even if it is young, with an amazing care and professionalism in the management of the communication and not easy technical process.

7. What will be Cineama next steps?

We’ll be online with the first website release within June 2011; within September all the definitive sections will be online. We’re preparing workshops and events with our new partners, movie festivals, institutions as “Scuola Nazionale di Cinema” (“National Movie School”), “Istituto Luce” (“Light Institute) and many more: well, come to see us!

Naming a Company or a New Product: Succesful Cases and Tips

IamaBlogger — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:10:00 GMT

Sometimes happens that for a new logo is required (wrongly) to include in it elements with a communicative value equal to a print campaign. The same thing can happen looking for a company name. A new company, a start-up, a brand or a new product ... all of them need a name: the first and most important identification element that will represent the company or the product over the time. What features should have the new name? Obviously must be distinctive, original, innovative and maybe even sound attractive, internationally, a name "that helps to sell." That’s all?

I don’t think so, because history teaches us that famous brands have thousand stories and different faces.

Successful Case histories.

Let's see some curious stories about "the creation of a brand name", hoping that gives some ideas to our community and clients. Let’s start from the founder of Avon, the famous cosmetics brand, who named the company after a trip to Stratford upon Avon in England. He was fascinated by the place, and decided to call in that way his own company.

Adolph Dassler named his company "Adidas", a neologism derived from the initials of his nickname and the first letters of the surname.

The founders of Yahoo! read that name in "Gulliver's Travels" for the very first time. "Yahoo" was referred to people rude, unsophisticated and uncouth. The name is also an acronym: “Yet Another Hierarchical officious Oracle!”).

Also the name IKEA is an acronym, composed of several elements: the initials of the founder (Ingvar Kamprad), the first letter of his native Swedish village (Elmtaryd) and the first letter of the town where he grew up (Agunnaryd).

The names chosen for the brand Sharp and Canon have a similar story.

Sharp, the Japanese electronics company, took its name from its very first product, created in 1915: a pencil "ever sharp".

The Canon took its name from the first camera made by the company called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in 1933. The model was called Kwanon, the Buddhist bodhisattva Guan Yin.

The founders of Hotmail Company wanted a name with the word "mail" in it. The final choice came from the fact that the name included the letters "html", a tribute to the programming language they had used to make their invention.

A new solution for a new name.

The stories are many, but today few entrepreneurs have an experience, a background or just a last name that lends itself well to represent your business, and not many have the opportunity to make huge investments for the "brand awareness".

The naming contest can be the solution: allowing to evaluate hundreds of proposals created following the brief requirements provided by the client. The ideas that come out from the contest can "stimulate" the imagination of the client and when he reads a possible name for his own company thinking "That’s brilliant, it’s that easy but I was not able to create it by myself": the choice is made.

Logo Design Contest for Cultural Association "Materia Grigia". 400 euros for the best designer!

IamaBlogger — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:26:00 GMT

The cultural association "Materia Grigia" has decided to rely on IamaSource and its community of designers and creatives to realize its brand new logo.

We are always happy to help and promote associations that have to do with the spread of culture, especially when these association are created by university students as in the case of Materia Grigia. We invite all the designers who want to help this project to join this new creative contest and, why not, promote this competition through their Facebook or Twitter profiles.

Materia Grigia was founded in Sassari in 1990 by a group of university students with the following institutional aims:

1. To improve the cultural and civic development of partners, university students and citizens

2. To propose to Public Entities an appropriate cultural program for the territory

3. To organize events, services, cultural activities in order to meet the needs of knowledge and entertainment of partners, students and citizens

4. To promote the development of movies, theatrical, musical and sportive culture, in order to extend cultural activities

You can visit the association facebook profile and the official website materiagrigia.splinder.com.

But let's talk about the logo contest!

The brief leaves in general ceative freedom without constraints. The advice that is given by the client is to avoid solutions (too) obvious, such as the use of elements such as the brain in connection with the name "Grey Matter" (Materia Grigia). Better then racking their brains (just to stay in the gray matter area) and take alternative routes, perhaps favoring metaphorical solutions. The elements that have to do with the mind and its potential are endless, it is worth reflecting on what might be the right concept to focus on.

The beauty of the contests on IamaSource is that you can let your creativity free abandoning the so-called "safe choice" that too often we are forced to go through. After all, one of the reasons why many companies are choosing IamaSource is certainly a wide selection of graphic designs but also (and especially for many) the opportunity to see and evaluate works that should not be "safe" but that try to go through not trivial or common concepts.

It 'also true that many clients have a more "safe" attitude, but in this case a good designer is who can understand the kind of client and can adjust the proposals according to the attitude of the latter, always preserving its creative touch and graphic approach.

Join the logo contest now!

And have a great contest.

A Holiday-Flavoured Design Contest: Create The areecamper.it Logo

IamaBlogger — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:13:00 GMT

It often happens that the design contests on IamaSource.com follow some trends. After a period, during the last month, when we had an intense flow of IT companies that have turned to the creative community of IamaSource, now is the time of startup companies and belonging to the sphere of tourism.

Areecamper.it is an interesting project which aims to combine two worlds: on one hand the new technologies and their communication power. On the other hand a shared passion that makes many people togheter. This passion is about travelling and discovering new places with a pinch of adventure and one element that makes all these people together: the camper.

This is passion shared by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. For many people this is not only a mere hobby but It is a true philosophy that it is worth to discover and learn, especially for those who will join this logo design contest. Wikipedia, as always, is a good starting point to begin to explore this world, understand the terms and the philosophy of the so-called itinerant tourism. A philosophy that has often the goal of discovering wonderful places threatened by emigration and has the merit of ensuring a source of revenue to the native peoples of those places. With a camper in short you are assured the opportunity to leave the conventional tourist paths. This is creativity!

In the logo contest brief (as anticipated) is defined another key element, that makes us closer to this project. The passion and the holiday flavour are combined with technology. The winning logo will need to mix these ingredients in a wise and creative way.

So what can we say... have a great and creative journey!

Join the logo contest!

Freelance Designers on IamaSource: Luigi Burrelli

IamaBlogger — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:35:00 GMT

The web template contests have one winner till now: Luigi Burrelli, Italian web designer who won Jelmini.it and Bizmeon web design contests, answers to our questions.

1. How did you approach the world of design?

During my studies at University (Industrial Fashion Design) after the “Laboratorio Multimediale” exam, a really important exam for my further working choice.
I’ve always been an Internet lover but in the past I was only a “user”. Today I see the web as the fastest and economic media existing ever. It sound crazy to me not to use its huge potential.

2. Which of your works you prefer and why?

I prefer to work for web projects, the famous web architecture... from graphics to programming. I’m very precise and I prefer keeping everything under control in my works. In my opinion web site graphical layout is as important as the programming phase.

3. What are your main influences received from the design world?

I’m influenced especially by the world wide web, an unlimited source of information. I’m signed up in most of designer blogs and I use to spend lots of time looking for latest news, new techniques, new strategies...
Everything about communication on the web helps me to improve myself little by little, day by day.

4. Mac or PC?

Pc... many designers prefer the MAC.... I don’t!

5. Your dream is working for...

This is not a dream... my dream is to marry the person I love. I’d like to say “aim”... that is to be a free-lance, to open a graphic studio (very soon) and maybe to build a big advertising agency in the future, known nationally and internationally! (I’m talking about a dream!).

6. Describe your typical working day.

My typical working day begins right after the “wake-up coffee”, I check my e-mail, viewers, contests, etc. Then I start with the real work, for all day long. I’m a freelance so I can organize the day as I prefer, using the spare time for my personal interests during the long working days.

7. Have you got a website where we can see your works and see something more about you?

www.studionewvision.it (it is not definitive because the "brand new official web site" is under construction).

Thank you for this amazing project (IAMASOURCE).

So, thank you Luigi!

If you want to have the same opportunity Luigi had, please join our community and "share your best creative work" on IamaSource Facebook page.

Create a logo for an italian design website: idee-arredo.it

IamaBlogger — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 13:42:18 GMT

Here we go with a new logo contest on IamaSource.com.

idee-arredo.it is an italian e-commerce for the sale of furniture and design objects. The store will provide its customers a broad portfolio of solutions: from design objects, up to complete the furnishing of rooms, studies, kitchens and living rooms.

The furnishings are proudly "made in italy", and "Italy" is a concept that you should try to follow in the study of the logo.

Here you can read the entire brief for the creation of this logo.

Have fun with this new contest!

Blind Contest: How It Works?

IamaBlogger — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:28:09 GMT

From several weeks on IamaSource is opened up a new type of contest called blind contest (also known as Closed Door Contest). This type of contest was, and still is, extensively tested through naming contest that allow to find the perfect name for new companies, products or services. Now this additional service is being increasingly used by clients who rely on IamaSource community for logo contest or other creative contests. Today we want to explain how a blind contest works.

How it works?

For designers nothing changes comparing to public contests about the upload of creative proposals, description of the artwork, etc. .. The difference with public contest is that in blind contests the client is the only one who can see all the proposals while designers can not see the work of other participants. Obviously each designer can view the proposals uploaded by him but not all the other proposals in the gallery.

For this reason when you as a designer access the gallery of a blind contest all the proposals are invisible.

Why this new type of contest?

A blind contest aims to further protect the ideas presented, which usually are visible to all, and also aims to encourage more creativity and research.

We suggest joining blind contests to all those who think they have the right idea but feel "intimidated" in showing their concept publicly.

It is a new service that we hope to go meet the requests of many designers and that many clients are using with excellent results.

Keep on having great contests on IamaSource!

3 New Logo Contests on IamaSource: Free Your Creativity!

IamaBlogger — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:59:03 GMT

Here are all the new creative contests on IamaSource.com!
To participate simply log in IamaSource.

This week 3 amazing Logo Design Contest to free your creativity and win 600 euros!
... Are you ready?

Logo Design Contests

Logo for shopping mobile application
[ENGLISH LANGUAGE CONTEST ONLY] Are you a lover of smartphones applications? Your iPhone get the world record for most number of applications installed? This contest is for you!
Create the logo of a brand new Shopper App like Shopkick or Shopsavvy with some features similar to Groupon and Facebook.
Read the brief of the contest, put in motion your creativity and create a real smart-logo now!
Prize: 200 euros - Deadline: March 3, 2011

Logo Design for IT service
One of the most important Italian companies in the IT industry is looking for a logo for its new platform dedicated to medium and large companies, banks, media companies, Chief Information Officer.
The contest is going to end in a few hours but there is enough time to send your logo and show off your creativity!
Read the brief carefully, keep an eye on the deadline and upload your logo on IamaSource.
Prize: 200 euros - Deadline: February 27, 2011

Logo for the fitness center "Zoi"
Zoi (which means life in greek) – is a fitness club in existence from twenty-five years, still in business. With the change management there is a need for a new logo (based on the new name Zoi).
The Zoi logo must be innovative and must also be accompanied by its tagline "energia in movimento (energy in motion)".
Prize: 200 euros - Deadline: March 2, 2011

Visit the complete list of contests on IamaSource now. Your creativity is always welcome...

Have great contests!

10 iPhone and iPad App Every Designer Must Have

IamaBlogger — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:08:43 GMT

The iPhone or iPad are certainly the most succesful objects for designers. Applications that may be useful to a designer are endless, today we have gathered together the essential App when you have to work on color, one of the main steps in the process of creating a successful design.

If you have other applications to recommend toIamaSource community feel free to post a comment and share with others your iPhone Killer App!

Enjoy!

1. Color Expert

Price: 7,99 €

Color Expert contains powerful tools to help artists and designers identify, translate, capture and showcase color.
Designers know inspiration can come anywhere at anytime. Just look around. Some of the best ideas are waiting for you in the real world away from the studio. Now with Color Expert, you'll have the tools to capture the moment, the moment a color captures you.

2. HEX RGB olor Guides

Price: 0,79 €

The HEX RGB Colors Guide app gives you an easy reference to RGB and HEX color codes right on your iPhone or iPod touch. This app is designed for anyone who deals with HEX and RGB Color codes when it comes to designing offline and online media of multiple types.

3. Color Toy

Price: 2,39 €

Whether you're a web designer, interior decorator, artist or just a lover of colors, ColorToy can help you find your ideal color scheme. This simple, flexible app lets you generate, capture, mix and store complementary color palettes.

4. Color Splash

Price: 0,79 €

ColorSplash lets you quickly and easily give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color. This effect draws the viewers' attention to the colored areas, creating striking images.

5. My Pantone

Price: 7,99 €

For all of you are obsessed with color as much as we are, PANTONE has developed and iPhone app that allows you to mix and match color palettes on the go. With access to a variety of PANTONE colors and inspirational color system libraries, you can now share color combinations with friends and colleagues when you aren’t plugged into your laptop. After you create your color palettes they are easily shared through html email or myPANTONE.com color sharing site.

6. Cliqcliq Colors

Price: 2,99 €

Colors is an easy-to-use color picker for discovering, converting, and managing colors and palettes.
If you're a designer or developer working with CSS, HTML, Flex, Flash, Objective-C or other media-centric technologies, you'll spend a good amount of time finding the exact colors you want to use and converting between various scales and formats. With cliqcliq Colors, you can create palettes based on colors you like best and quickly convert between RGB, HSB, and CMYK as well as integer and floating point scales.

7. Palettes

Price: Free / Palettes Pro: 4,99 €

Palettes is a powerful iOS productivity tool for creating and maintaining color palettes. Turn your iOS device into a portable color creation tool. Now you can create a color palette anywhere at anytime. Great for creating color schemes. Grab colors from a photograph, a website, or add colors using any one of 5 color models. Quickly find matching colors with support for many different color schemes.

8. Color Stream

Price: 2,39 €

Finally, a color app that feels like it’s working with you rather than against! If you’re working with colors daily, or even if you just enjoy looking at and creating colors, this app’s for you. With the ability to create and store palettes created from scratch, or generated from a photo or auto-generated using our built-in color schemer, you’re going to love this beautiful, elegant app!

9. Palette.able

Price:1,59 €

Like a personal style consultant in your pocket, Palette.able compares any two colors you choose from home décor, photos, magazines and the world around you and tells you if they complement each other. Using an advanced formula based on the way humans perceive colors, Palette.able generates a simple compatibility percentage that quickly tells you whether or not two colors go well together.

10. Fonts And Colors Reference for designer's

Price: 0,79 €

This application is a reference guide for designers. You can check diferents types of fonts are the most used and also get RGB values of any color.

Create a company logo relying on 314 designers: interview with Hickory Finance

IamaBlogger — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:11:00 GMT

We asked some questions to Ferdinando and Roberto co-founders of Hickory, the financial consulting firm that in recent months has relied on IamaSource community for the creation of the company logo. The contest opened by Hichory was attended by more than 300 designers from around the world, with the award € 600 given at the end of the contest to 12dozen a U.S designer.
The brief interview with Ferdinando and Roberto was a good opportunity to observe IamaSource from another point of view, that of the client.

1. How was your first experience on IamaSource?
We think It was surprising. We liked the mechanism by which we woke up in the morning, we browse the website and found new proposals. Above all, we liked interact with creative people from around the world. One day we wrote to Milan then to New York after to India, then to Canada. The winner at the end was an American designer.

2. How did you deal with the proposals?
We watched the designs received almost daily. At least every two days we looked at the comments and proposals received, giving some feedbacks on how to improve or change the designs received.

3. Are you satisfied about your experience?
With all the proposals received we could not be otherwise. It was difficult to choose because we realized that we had only one award to give, and near the end was developed a great interaction with some designers that responded to our requests until the last second.

4. How did you find our community?
Very varied and helpful. There were those who sent many proposals and those who prefer to send fewer but well-kept. Sometimes is then easy to write "I do not like," or perhaps being misunderstood with a comment. Instead all the designers were very professional until the end of the contest and respected my requests.

5. What led to your final choice?
The sobriety and simplicity of the logo, linked to the use of the initials of Hickory Finance. We realized as we went on with the contest of how many solutions there were, but only at the end we were able to express a clear preference, watching among those that we judged as best. When we started we had no clear idea of what we wanted. It was a good way to see many different solutions.

6. A comment on IamaSource website?
We do not want to overdo the compliments but we found it very easy and intuitive even for those who, like us, are certainly not accustomed to all the tricks of the internet. The support of your customer service was also very helpful, have always been very patient and quick in response, even when there was to prolong the contest in extremis.
This has helped and facilitated the management of work.

7. Would you like to greet the community of IamaSource?
Of course, we still want to thank everyone who participated in our contest and wish everyone a great professional success.

Brochure Design Contest: how to set your proposal on IamaSource.

IamaBlogger — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:06:00 GMT

New contest and new contest category on IamaSource: Brochure, card, flyer.
These are the BTL materials (Below The Line): they can be very important for the company and, depending on the target, sometimes as important as an ATL campaign. It’s essential to emphasize these materials, those are often the ones which let the brand to enter on tiptoe in consumers’ houses.

Below are some simple guidelines for IamaSource creative community in order to participate in a brochure design contest.

1. Set the brochure graphic proposal

The preview is 800x800 pixel so you’d be careful making the best use of the space available. You should give importance to the main cover, the first brochure page which must capture the attention of the potential client, and set a possible layout of images and texts in the other pages.

The template kit is created for 4 and 6 pages brochures. The layout of every single pages has the ratio of a A4 paper.

Every proposal that is uploaded must meet certain characteristics to be accepted.

Here below there's an example of a proper proposal for a 4 pages brochure::

- cover on the top (pag. 1)

- inside pages on the bottom left (pages 2, 3) with the layout including boxes for images and texts

- back cover on the bottom right (pag. 4)

- white background

Here's an example of proper proposal for a 6 pages brochure:

- main cover (pag. 1) and inside cover (pag. 5) on the top

- inside pages on the bottom left (pages 2, 3,4) with the layout including boxes for images and texts

- NO back cover

- white background

Usually the back cover is used to set the contacts (e-mail, website). In the 6 pages brochure kit, the last page is not considered in the contest, but the client could ask for it to the contest winner.

Proposals that do not meet these guidelines might be eliminated by the client.

In the IamaSource Template Kit you will find the layout for your brochure proposals.

2. Proposal description and contents

As usual you can fill in the description field when you're uploading your proposal on IamaSource, in order to explain your creative choices.

For the brochure it is very important to understand that this is the first presentation to the client, and usually you don’t have all the definitive contents here (from personal experience we can tell you that texts are going to change till the last sec before printing phase).

So it will be better create something that can suite with different images and texts which the client will use in the future. In the description field you can also include, for instance, that your layout can be perfectly used in different brochure sizes.

3. Images usage rights

In the brochure main cover and in the inside cover (that is pag. 5 for the 6 pages brochure), if you wish you can use photographical images. That is not bad at all, but you should keep in mind to say that to the client using the “usage rights” box while you’re uploading the proposal. Click on the relative button if you used images you don't have rights and the client must buy them separately and write in the description where the client can find the images an their usage right costs.

Here below there is a brief “inspiration brochure gallery”. Enjoy it.

As usual, good creativity!

Valentine's Day Arrives Early on IamaSource: Create the Lock-o-love Logo

IamaBlogger — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:52:43 GMT

As you know when a company develops a new product needs to realize its full graphical material in advance so to have all the necessary elements to identify and promote the new product before its commercial release.

Lock-o-love is an article of jewelry which will have its maximum visibility during the Valentine's Day but also dedicated to those who want to celebrate an anniversary, a special occasion or the birth of a new love (and you know, for this kind of things every day of the year may be right one).

Lock-o-love is a small, precious object, from a lock, that can be divided into 2 parts. Can be worn as earrings or necklace. An article which will be sold on webshops only dedicated to anyone who wants to make a special gift to a very special person.

Thanks to Luca Alberigo for choosing IamaSource community for the graphic design of Lock-of-love logo. We welcome this contest also as an interesting challenge to deal creatively with a theme that has been widely explored in graphic and communication, the theme of love. To this are added other issues that arise from the characteristics of this new product. One is the theme of uniqueness. As announced by contest holder the lock can be broken into two parts whose fracture is indeed unique. Thus only two parties can perfectly match each other and go to reassemble the original lock.
Another interesting theme is versatility. Lock-o-love can be worn like a pair of earrings or a necklace.

In short, all the elements to create a successful logo are in the hands of IamaSource designers, there remains to wish a lovely contest to the entire community!

Click here to read the brief and to join the logo contest.

Bizmeon: from its name to its logo. Brand identity in full crowdsourcing philosophy

IamaBlogger — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:27:00 GMT

A few months after its birth IamaSource is happy to be involved in a great event in the world of communication. A startup relies completely on crowdsourcing (literally rely on a crowd of professionals) to get a full brand identity process, from choosing the right name for its product to obtain a professional custom logo design to come up (we anticipate) to the graphic design of website layout and brochures.

IamaSource is the platform through which this complete dressing up of a new business image is happening. A real event that from the very first contest for the conception of the brand new startup’s name has involved hundreds of designers and copywriters.
Bizmeon is thus the name originated from more than 650 proposals sent in 10 days that will represent the new business intelligence product that enables business managers to monitor critical processes and business performance in a simple and fast way. A name invented by redeadhead18 winner of the naming contest and of the 800 euros award.

Now the creative process continues and today is beginning a new contest fo the creation of Bizmeon’s new logo. This time, the budget amounts is 1,000 euros for the best designer. The duration of the contest is fixed at 15 days and the staff of Bizmeon and IamaSource are ready to evaluate, rate and comment hundreds of creative proposals that will begin to be sent from the early hours of the contest.

Click here to read the brief and submit your logo design.

Have a great logo contest!

Find The Right Idea for a Company Name and Get 800 Euros: New Naming Contest on IamaSource!

IamaBlogger — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:56:09 GMT

It is just started on IamaSource.com a new contest open to all creative people and copywriter of our community and beyond. It is a naming contest, a creative online competition to give birth to the perfect name for a new company.

The start-up, headed by an Italian multinational company, sells a new Business Intelligence Product (data analysis, reports…) in an innovative way: a service that can be used via web through pc, smartphones and devices. Read the full brief ...

The creator of the proposed best name will get 800 euros having in addition the satisfaction of having created a succesfull name for a very innovative business project.

If you think you're ready for the challenge join the naming contest.

Also remember to read the simple IamaSource guidelines to set your naming proposal in the right way.

Have a great contest!

How To Properly Set a Naming Proposal For a New Company

IamaBlogger — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Today on IamaSource we are inaugurating a new category of contest: the naming contest.
Having the right name is an essential element for each new company and startup starting its activity on the market and it is the first important step in developing a winning brand. Through a naming contest IamaSource therefore wish to offer companies an innovative solution to find the perfect name for their new business projects but also for a new product or service.

Below are some simple guidelines for IamaSource creative community in order to participate in a naming contest.

1. Naming proposal graphics

Every naming proposal that is uploaded must meet certain characteristics to be accepted.
Here's an example of proper proposal:

- The name is centered in the table
- The font used is Times New Roman
- The color is black
- The background is white
- Font size obviously depends on the length of the name that will be inserted (it is advisable not to select too large size).
- The name may be all uppercase, lowercase or capitalized
- The tagline is inserted under the proposed name with a obviously less size font

Proposals that do not meet these simple guidelines will be eliminated. We recommend not to upload any logo as a naming contest is intended to focus attention on a new company name. The logo will be a natural next step in the development of the brand.

Inside the IamaSource Template Kit you will find the ready layout for your naming proposals.

We have also prepared a file for copywriters (who often are not familiar with graphic design programs) including in the kit a PowerPoint file with the correct size for the upload on IamaSource. You will just need to export a jpeg from the PowerPoint file in order to upload the jpeg on IamaSource. Just click Save As on PowerPoint -> than Other Formats -> and finaly choose jpeg on the menu of the available formats.
Your jpeg file with the correct size will be ready to be uploaded on IamaSource.

2. Naming proposal description

As always you can fill in the description field when you upload your proposal on IamaSource. This field can be used to explain in detail to the client the name you are suggesting, its strengths and reasoning that led to this result.

3. Characteristics of the contest

Every naming contest opened on IamaSource is a "blind contest." It means that the client is the only one who can see all the proposals. The copywriters can not look at the proposals of other participants in order to ensure fairness of the contest.

The success of a startup is in your hands, its name in your minds.

As always, good creativity!

Best designers freelance: Luca Bonetti

IamaBlogger — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:15:00 GMT

Luca Bonetti, Italian designer from Brescia, has answered to our questions:

1. How did you approach the world of design?

Thanks to “manual ability” in hand drawing and a dad with the hobby of photography: this is where my experience started.

I learnt from photography how the vision of something could be re-interpreted according to your own point of view, assigning a meaning to the result which can be the mirror of the feeling I want to convey.

Then I went to a “commercial art” high school, so I was able to improve my technique thanks to the digital world. Once I graduated I decide to enroll in a three-year master of industrial design in Brescia (Italy) called “Machina Fashion and Design Institute” where I was able to improve my skills working with professionals.
In the meantime, to pay my study, I worked in a small graphics lab in Brescia, where I made my first real working experiences, and the passion did the rest. Today (23 years old) I am the head of an international graphics / printing company which produces machinery for aesthetics.

2. Which of your works you prefer and why?

The works I prefer... see the one attached, that is a product concept design created for the brand “Bic”.
It was born as a scholar project, and it became the main object of my thesis. It represents a set of objects which creates different playable stuff using geometries of the classical pen cap.
I want to focus on the playful feature in association with a common object we can find in every house or office. For instance this kit gives some moments of leisure to the user in the monotony of a working day. We hope to see them produced in the future because design means also to improve life quality, and maybe laughing at it.

3. What are your main influences received from the design world?

I have had the greatest influences on great artists like Warhol or Dalì which I believe they were, and are, great for the madness they were able to convey in their works. In fact I use to say: “Madness is the reason for the creative person”.

4. Mac o PC?

Obviously Mac, after a first approach to the PC. I consider Mac better then PC, there are no limits...

5. Your dream is working for...

Myself at first, then for big brands like Ferrari, Barilla or Benetton. I’ve always been attracted by them.

6. Describe your typical working day.

Well, I don’t have a typical working day because every day is different and full of ideas! It is the nice part of this world, isnt’it? By the way what I use to do is the design of interior spaces for new places, or to study for a launch of a new product, creating the logo and the advertising campaign.

7. Have you got a website where we can see your works and see something more about you?

Unfortunately… not yet, it is under construction. I hope it’ll be online very soon, in order to obtain more visibility and also to have a my own space, a small treasure chest. At the moment my creativity can be seen on the company website where I take care of the image.

If you want to have the same opportunity Luca had, please join our community and "share your best creative work" on IamaSource Facebook page.

Famous Logos: copying, plagiarism or coincidence

IamaBlogger — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:17:00 GMT

How many of you, in front of some famous logos have ever heard or said : “Look at that logo, it seems the one I create long time ago…”?

This happens in every fields, not only on the logo design one..

“Hey that song sounds like the one we wrote on the high school…”

“Read this and tell me if it is not the same message of the print campaign we create for…”.

Back strictly to famous logos design: maybe you are lucky and it never happen to you, but we have heard this song more than once. And this in not necessarily plagiarism due to the fact our project can be found on internet. It happens, that’s all.

Plagiarism or...

So we want to avoid any discussion about “everything is a rip-off”, “there is nothing new, no more” and so on.

Sometimes it is a plagiarism, sometimes are coincidences and sometimes the creativity rides the same wave. Today, thanks to the web, it’s easier to spot the “fake” and to kick up a fuss. So we like to take it easy exactly how a huge website which collects plagiarism about advertising and graphics does. There are more than coincidences (visit http://www.joelapompe.net).

"Take inspiration"

“Copying from one is plagiarism but copying from many is research”, or not?

So for this famous logos gallery we have made a research (that is “copying from many”) to collect famous logo very similar to other ones. We believe that, despite similarities, the stronger is the logo the more it’s related to the product or service promoted (directly or indirectly).

Some logos are by nature like that (e.g. Apple icon/naming), other indirectly (e.g. Google naming/aim) and other become stronger thanks to media pressure (e.g. Nike symbol, Coca Cola font).

There are also cases where the logos “copy themselves”. The news of some time ago is about a logo paid 30,000 £ for 'near identical' logo (http://newslite.tv/2008/10/30/30000-for-near-identical-logo.html).

We know that for a logo contest on IamaSource with less than half prize you would have sparkled. Maybe the client would choose something “conservative”, but at least he would have seen what he missed.

Best Web Design Blogs To Follow from A to Z

IamaBlogger — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 22:10:00 GMT

Every web designer on the daily activity needs inspiration by authoritative sources on the communication field. Blogs about web design are really a lot. In this post we have collected 25 of the best web design blog ordering them from A to Z.

The advice is to bookmark these blogs and subscribe to their RSS feeds in order to be constantly updated. Some of the best resources for web designers go through these sites and thus you’ll be able to keep pace with what is happening in the world of web design every day. Feel free to suggest us any sites that we have not listed using the comment section below.

Enjoy!

1stwebdesigner

Design blog dedicated to bloggers, freelancers, web-developers and designers.

Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo is all about Design Inspiration and very useful tutorials. From Photoshop Tutorials to all sorts of apps we share our experiences in the design.

Alistapart

A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

Bestwebgallery

A showcase gallery that features all the best design Flash and CSS websites on the web.

Colourlovers

A creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns, discuss the latest trends

cssremix

Premier source for web-design inspiration and trends.

DesignMag

DesignM.ag is a blog and community resource for web designers. Follow industry news and browse through the design gallery as well.

Designyoutrust

Design You Trust is a daily design magazine, blog and community, full of new design trends, news and events, great design portfolios.

Designzzz

Designzzz is art , design and photography blog focusing on providing free design related material to users.

Fuelyourcreativity

Graphic design blog providing the latest news, articles and resources for all types of design.

ILoveTypography

The typography and fonts blog. Typographic inspiration, typeface reviews, interviews, free fonts, and graphic design.

Ipse Pixel

Ipse Pixel is a Design Blog Magazine. Every day you'll find great resources about graphic design, competitions (also IamaSource contest updates), photography, Photoshop - Illustrator and 3D Studio Max tutorials. A must bookmark blog!

Noupe

Noupe is a curious design blog that is always looking for new and interesting stuff on design, jquery, photoshop and more.

Psdtuts

Adobe Photoshop tutorials, from beginner to advanced. Including Photoshop text effect tutorials, photo manipulation tutorials etc...

Quenness

Queness is a hybrid of webblog and online community with heaps of design inspirations and great collection of javascript/jquery tutorials.

SixRevisions

Six Revisions is a blog that shares useful information about web development and design, dedicated to people who build websites.

SmashingMagazine

Smashing Magazine is focused on design and web-development. SM delivers useful information, latest trends and techniques and useful ideas.

SpoonGraphics

Design Tutorials, Graphic Design Articles and Free Resource Downloads from the blog of Graphic Designer Chris Spooner.

TheDesignInspiration

Daily Logo Designs, Illustration Art, Website Showcase, Business Cards, Photos and Patterns.

Thinkvitamin

A blog for web designers and developers. Keeping you up to date on the most useful web topics of the day.

TutorialSwitch

Photoshop and Web Design Tutorials.

Veerlesblog

Webdesign talk - XHTML CSS , Graphic Design tutorials.

WebAppers

Hunting the Best Open Source Resources for Web Developers.

Webdesignerdepot

Web Design Resources for Web Designers. We include Photoshop Tutorials, WordPress Plugins, and Web Development tools.

WebDesignerWall

Web Designer Wall is a design blog, designed and maintained by Nick La. Topics focus on web design, tutorials, and modern design trends.

WebResourcesDepot

Free Web Resources Everyday.

Web Design Contest: create Jelmini.it web template

IamaBlogger — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:16:08 GMT

Here we go with the first website design contest on IamaSource.com!

Jelmini is a refined clothing store for women based in Italy which sells women's clothing for the Max Mara brand and more...

The object of the contest is to create the new layout template for the website. The current website design needs a brand new look. Main characteristic will be the preview of the individual items for sale (pictures and relative description): the aim is to show the pictures (most important website content) and get the client to contact the store owner for booking some items.

An usable web layout template with a refined and very clean style is needed. Here you can directly check the whole contest brief. Upload your proposal right now and win 400 euros!

Budget for the contest winner: 400 euros.

Deadline: 6 November 2010

Best Tweets of September 2010 on IamaSource.com

IamaBlogger — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:17:00 GMT

Here are the best and usefull resources for designers we have shared on our Twitter account during September 2010.

We have ordered our tweets into four categories: Inspiration, Video Inspiration, Tips and Tutorials, Useful Resources for Webdesigners. If you think that an incredible blog post is missed in our roundup, feel free to share the link with IamaSource community using the comment section below.

INSPIRATION

45 design agency websites. Inspired?

Learn how some of the talented design studios out there present their work and attract new clients

Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration by speckyboy

A great selection of our splendid web designs from the past week or so

Great Poster Designs to inspire your creativity

A collection of 40 poster design inspiration created by amazing and talented designers

Designers Go To Heaven

Daily inspiration for the hungry.

Brochure Design Showcase

A showcase of 45 brochures from various designers (via the Behance Network)

Beautiful Crest Logos and More: 75 Creative Crests, Badges and Shields

New and old examples of crest, badge, shield or seal you can use to spark your own creativity

52 Awesome Examples Of Space Art Digital Drawings

Simply awesome space art digital drawings

40 Vintage Retro Style Website Design Inspiration

A very effective way of creating a striking design for your site

70 Stunning Artworks of Dragons

70 amazing dragon artworks in this collection to leave you inspired

Guerrilla Marketing Ideas for a Airplane Campaigns

Here are some creative examples on how you can market your product/business in the air!

Great Flyer Inspiration - Design for club and music events

Showcasing 197 inspirational flyer designs from all over the world

VIDEO INSPIRATION

Funny video by Google!

Google Search by Voice: Foosball

TIPS AND TUTORIALS

30 Fantastic and Splendid Digital Painting Tutorials

Useful tutorials teaching techniques for digital drawing and painting.

How to design a landing page or a light psd layout in Photoshop

Great psd template can be used for a landing page but can be used as well for a full website

Photoshop Video Tutorial: How to Create a Cool Diamond Shatter Effect in CS5

Learn how to create a cool looking image with different colors, paint splatters, and diamond shapes to use for whatever project you want

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR WEBDESIGNERS

Cool Sanf Serif Font collection - inspiration for designers and free download

A free collection of the most favourite and popular font among designers

Twitter Background Design – Great Tips and Gorgeous Examples

By designing your own interesting Twitter background you can express your personality through images

Logo Inspiration: High Quality Collection of "Symbols Logos"

IamaBlogger — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:28:00 GMT

Here there is a high quality collection of symbols logos. This kind of logo design highlights how it can be possible to create professional logos using really simple and common symbols. This kind of logo design can be considered the highest expression of quality and art of design.

Symbols logos here displayed are represented with simple symbols, maybe already seen, but the creativity and the ability of the designers were able to clearly express the brand identity concept.

When you ask for a professional logo design you should always try to find a symbol that binded with your logo can explain itself which is your activity and which kind of products you provide. This can be translated in a great brand building strategy based on recognizability of your brand.

In the following gallery for your logo inspiration can be seen how really common symbols, maybe already seen, can be designed in really creative ways thanks to the skills of the designers.

Need other logo inspiration?

Here there are some examples:

Logo Inspiration: Best Initial Logo Gallery

Logo Inspiration: 50 Selected Typographic Logos

Logo Inspiration: The Use of Shapes in Logos

Social Media Marketing: Guide To Creating a Successful Small Business Twitter Profile

IamaBlogger — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 19:16:34 GMT

The presence of young entrepreneurs, start ups, small businesses on Twitter is now widespread in the world so if your question is: my company should be present on twitter? Well, the answer is: yes!

Twitter has several very important functions for your business activity:

Learning: it easily allows to meet people with your same interests around the world, get in touch with them, learn from their tweet (content sharing), and exchange opinions.
Survey: This continuous exchange allows you to know the tastes and interests before other (or at the same time), a nice advantage that you can have over competitors in your market niche. Through Twitter you have the ability to identify what users think of your products or services or of products and services of your market field.
Growth of your brand: having a twitter profile allows you to get in touch with many people at a very personal level, this can strengthen the interest and sympathy of people in your brand. The distance between your business and your customers is decreased.
Investment: Even if there is no money investment in the use of Twitter there is a time investment to take into account (and time is money). Anyway, at least one hour a day of Twitter can lead to good results.

Here are some tips for entrepreneurs and start-ups that want to start on the right foot on Twitter:

Twitter set up:

1 . Register and complete your profile with your information

This informations are very important and necessary to better describe your business using the right keywords. In this way other users will easily find you.
It is also important to include the url of your website or blog.
Do not wait to fill out this information, it is important to do so at the beginning of your new account on Twitter. Very often a profile that does not have a biography or a reference site is not taken into conideration by other users (It may look like a fake profile) and thus you could not get the visibility that your business needs.

2. Add an immage or a photo

There are many brands that add the photo of their founder as there are many founders adding the logo of their company. The reasons are manifold. Some small businesses want to emphasize the human factor through this choice, while there are others who promote the brand through their logo. There is not a unique suggestion about this choice but if you want to promote your brand and are satisfied with your logo just add it. If you are not satisfied with your logo you can insert your photo or think about realizing a new logo for your company.

3. The background of your twitter profile

Here the most important thing is to be distinctive. The best thing you can do is creating a coordinated image with your site or blog. The twitter page will appear as the "extension" of the site and vice versa.
There are many websites where you can find free backgrounds for Twitter. They are nice, but everything free is not, by its nature, unique, while your brand must be unique otherwise will be never noticed.

Now you are ready to Tweet!

Get started with Twitter

1 . Start searching using the Twitter search

Find your friends or people who know your company. Once found, simply click on the famous “follow” button, automatically you’ll come into contact with them and you’ll begin to view their content sharing. If your friends will start to follow you they will become your "followers" and in their profile will be displayed the content that you share. Twitter is in fact a network of information controlled by the receiver.
Then you can start searching people interested in your own product or service niche. By inserting relevant keywords you’ll find in a moment a world of your users with your same interests.

2. Start tweeting

Start sharing your content is very simple. You can tweet news related to your industry or new services offered by your company. Remember that content is king. Try to involve your followers and offer them always interesting content and point of view about your industry.

3. Do not tweet to much

Especially at the beginning (when enthusiasm is high) is good not to over-tweet while It is important to maintain consistency over time. Do not fall in with banal phrases. Do not go off topic - not share what you had for dinner (unless your business is the food critic).
Sometimes however, you can share something more personal, that will make you appear more human (and not a tweet-machine) and maybe you can find some points in common with your followers.

4. Use a tracking system

If you share interesting articles read on blogs or websites is good to rely on a good tracking system that will allow you to know how many people have clicked on the link that has been shared by you. This is a good way to understand if what you are sharing really interests your followers.
Similarly using Google Analytics for your website will allow you to know how many users access your site by clicking the link in your twitter profile or on the links to your website that you share.

5. Be curious

Curiosity is always a great way of contact. On Twitter you can ask questions to your followers, especially the new ones. This can create interesting and fruitful conversations and possible synergies between entrepreneurs.

6 . Reply to all

Respond to who sends you any questions, employing do not wait more than 24 hours to do so.

7 . Be kind

Thank those who have retweeted one your content or who has advertised your business to his followers.

8. Not necessarily reciprocate follow

If someone becomes your follower you don’t necessarily need to return the favor. Many Twitter users have the sole aim to have thousands of followers. Returns the follow only if the profile sounds interesting to you, and you can establish a good dialogue with this user.

9. Automatic Direct Message

If you want you can set an automatic direct message when someone becomes your follower. The automatic direct message is good when is creative or refer to interesting content realized specifically for your followers. Otherwise It is better not to send an automatic DM and rather seek (especially at the beginning) to establish a "alive" dialogue with your followers.

Want to know more?

Twitter 101 is a special guide designed to introduce all the Twitter features that can be useful for companies and start-ups. In the guide are also reported very interesting case history. Excellent reading.

The Twitter Guide Book is the most comprehensive Twitter guide. It has been realized by the famous web portal Mashable. The guide is divided into three sections very well articulated: basics for the use, tips for creating your own community and advice for companies and small business.

Logo Contest: How to set the logo layout on IamaSource

IamaBlogger — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:29:00 GMT

Today we want to give some tips about how to properly set a logo layout when you join a contest on IamaSource.

These guidelines may be also helpful for creative contests and competitions generally:

One proposal one layout

It's very important to avoid putting in the layout many similar versions of the logo. It can be difficult for the client to rate correctly the proposals with the IamaSource stars rating.

Clean layout

To create a clean layout means to center the logo in the page with a limbo background.

Even if it seems quite common, this layout allows the client to look at the logo as it is, without being distracted by other backgrounds that will be not used in the future. For example on IamaSource Logo Contest was requested to set the proposals on a black background.

Make good use of the available space

The bottom of the table might be the right place to put any reductions or alternative versions of the logo, such as negative or different color versions.

Check the content

It is also important to avoid mistakes as “wrong client name”. We are not talking about layout details here, this is a mistake that can put you out despite you’ll send other correct variations. The client could not trust to a designer who shows his work with a mistake like that.

Few but good proposals

IamaSource website is a good opportunity for the client to get many proposals but too many proposals uploaded in few time by the same person mean a lack of selection from a designer who send immediately every layout created (that is good for a brand guidelines book, not for the first presentation). Moreover a lack of precision could be the result and you did not show a consistent style. The client will notice that.

Descriptions and comments

During the upload you can fill in the “Title” and “Descriptions” form. They are not compulsory so you can use it for you.

Especially the "description": if it is made properly it can reinforce your proposal: think about creative director’s presentation to the client. It’s only a matter to sell yourself at the best.

You can also use the dashboard to ask for comments and suggestion to the client before uploading other proposals.

Give suggestions to the client

The client is always right and he’s the one who decide, but this does not mean that he can not be helped in the choice. For instance, during a logo presentation, it could be useful to avoid graphic elements difficult to replicate (shades, complex backgrounds, photo images, complex 3D layouts…) and it is important to write that in the description, in order to promote the layout

In the past someone of the IamaSource Crew members joined ordinary graphic and creative competitions off-line and we can affirm that the proposals which are not submitted properly were immediately rejected, no matter if they were good. Those were “first take” competitions, where you were not able to send other variations: now we are far from that but, for the next contests, we suggest you to read carefully client requests, in order to introduce yourselves in the best way and not to ruin the job you did due to small details which maybe are very important to someone (e.g. the client, aka the man who decides the winner).

IamaSource logo is finally on our header.

IamaBlogger — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:56:00 GMT

After a fine tuning we’re ready to present our new logo on our website.

We knew it was not that easy to follow a reverse process for this contest: usually the logo comes first and then the corporate identity is created, but we can say that we are really satisfied about the choice, our choice (the finalist) and the community choice who voted the winner.

We like it for different reasons: the simplicity of the graphic lines, easy use, icon who plays along with the name (“I am”) and that it’s closely related to it, as the symbol was born using the letters of the font used. Congratulations to Stiva to be picked up and thanks to all the designers who joined the contest.

More design contests on IamaSource.

Stay tuned.

Best designers freelance: Laimute Varkalaite

IamaBlogger — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:38:00 GMT

IamaSource is on designers' side, especially freelance that need visibility through the web to achieve more contacts.

Here there is Laimute Varkalaite from Lithuania that answered to our questions.

1. How did you approach the world of design?

When I am designing - I am alive, and I am alive when I am designing. On my opinion, DESIGN is an infinitive space of creativity investigation of every designer. Design - is a visual message, a tool of communication, a form of expression of yourself.

2. Which of your works you prefer and why?

I love to illustrate and create logos. Why? Illustration is a space of possibilities to express your idea in a vast range of imagination, to produce it in various kinds of drawing techniques (on my opinion, designer should have well basic knowlegde of drawing) and styles of drawing character - from easy sketch to well filled academic work of art. Logo is a very concentrated an logical presentation of your mind. It proves designer's quality an an ability to create well indentified signs.

3. What are your main influences received from the design world?

Less is more - this is the main rule which I try to keep in my creativity process. The most important aspect in each design object (no matter what it is: logo, chair or environmental composition, atc.) is a concept, an idea wchich presents the professional work of designer and surprises client and customer as well. I make attention and analyse these works of design, which are created in original style, have ordinary and logical composition, unexpectable combination of colours and forms and extraordinary character.

4. Mac or PC?

PC.

5. Your dream is working for...

Could I make more accurate: my dream is working with... a great command of designers in order to reach goals professionally, to receive a constructive criticism - an inspiration to go forward. It would be a wonderful chance to divide your knowledge with others and to know useful news from them as well. A great command is always able to achieve great results.

6. Describe your typical working day.

My typical working day... Oh, it is full of different works of design: logo creation, web sites design and communication with programmers in order to reach the best rezult as possible, booklets, advertisements, etc. Sometimes my plan of my work changes very fast and unexpectable.

7. Have you got a website where we can see your works and see something more about you?

No, I have not my personal website yet - but I create a vision, what it could be. For this reason I send to you several of my works.

If you want to have the same opportunity Laimute had, please join our community and "share your best creative work" on IamaSource Facebook page.

New Features on IamaSource: Gallery Search Filters Upgrade

IamaBlogger — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:31:55 GMT

Here is a new implementation that should help all the designers on their work on IamaSource. These are the new filters for sorting proposals in the contest gallery.

Through the new filters you can easily find proposals among those present in the gallery. This will make it easier:

- Controlling the flow of proposals submitted, avoiding the risk of loading several times the same proposal or very similar variations

- Never need to remember the number of your proposal and look through the pages of gallery

- Easily check the client comments on your proposals

- See at a glance the client star rating for your proposals

This is an implementation that we have planned to make the work of designers and client more fluid and intuitive on IamaSource. Other developments we're working on will go in this direction: speeding up the flow of information between the community members.

Feel free to give us suggestions and advice for new features, no voice is more reliable of those who work, use and daily navigate on IamaSource.

The Brand New IamaSource Logo

IamaBlogger — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:38:38 GMT

We are very happy to present the brand new IamaSource logo, winner of the Global Logo Design Contest.
It has been designed by Stiva Bernabeu, the spanish designer who has won the 2,500 euros prize offered by IamaSource. Congratulations!

This logo has passed a first selection by IamaSource along with other 14 finalists selected among 4308 logos logos presented by creative people. Then it has been the most voted logo by the community, gaining the victory.
We think that this logo can efficiently represent the IamaSource community. We congratulate with Stiva Bernabeu and with the other 718 designers for the work done and the high value of creative proposals.
Soon the new IamaSource logo will take place in the header of our website.

Meanwhile on IamaSource the Hickory logo contest is going on and new creative contests are coming.

Thank you all and keep up the good work on IamaSource.

IamaSource Logo Contest Finalists

IamaBlogger — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:52:58 GMT

Here we are with the finalist logos of the IamaSource contest. After 60 days of our creative competition we are very happy to show the 15 logos that will be voted by all contest patrecipants.

Only one winner and only one logo will become the official logo of IamaSource.

Voting is very simple, you can find out some tips by reading the post: "How to vote a creative proposal on IamaSource.com "

The logos can be voted directly on the contest gallery.

You can vote up to 13:00 GMT of August the 3th 2010.

Now we'll await for the contest winner and for the brand new IamaSource logo.

Happy voting to everyone!

Designer: id stiva

Designer: DLazar

Designer: AndrewX

Designer: paulystig

Designer: AlexSilva

Designer: cinghialkrieger

Designer: UroGeyri

Designer: edodag

Designer: pandadesign

Designer: bonettiluca

Designer: Little_skip

Designer: arisamin

Designer: davidmcg

Designer: fly.angel

Designer: matotodesign

IamaSource Log Book #1

IamaBlogger — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:33:00 GMT

IamaSource Log Book is a space we want to share occasionally in order to discuss about us, about our community and about IamaSource a bit closer.
It is a space to analyze some issues in more depth, and also it could be an opportunity to answer to your daily e-mails we use to receive, including congratulations for our project, questions, doubts, requests, suggestion and also criticism (constructive, of course).

The last hours main issue is absolutely the choice to ask for help to our designers community to select the IamaSource logo contest winner with voting that will soon begin.
This choice was thought hard and we have found many reasons.

Thanks to this we would like to give the opportunity, to those who want to, to be active part of this contest once more, avoiding to end with an independent and unique choice by IamaSource. At the same time we want to choose the best creative proposals based on simple criteria.

Selection of finalists

Here are the criteria on which we choose the best creative proposals:

- our preferences related to our website layout (avoiding the infamous “I like it because I like it” heard it from too many clients, a sentence acceptable in some situations, not when you have 719 designers);

- a good development of the layout, thanks to the designers who send the proposals and get our suggestion in the properly way, having time to correct and make some variations;

- a strong connection to the brief. The designers saw in our comments the requests to focus on the brief requirements, trying to give suggestion always referring to what we wrote in the brief.

Some criteria for proposals which are not in the final selection:

- personal style but far from what we’ve requested (in this contest). After 60 days full immersion we can recognize the style of our designers at first sight, just looking at his proposal (maybe we need a long holiday). What’s not ok for this contest, could be the style other people are looking for, and many contests are starting on IamaSource;

- development and variations are missing. Unfortunately there are many creative proposals which should deserve to be in the final selection but they have not been developed as requested, or they are not set on a black background as requested in the brief. And we could not turn a blind eye just for one designer: this is not what we want to do;

- far from brief requirements. The creative thoughts run wild and our purpose was to focus on our suggestion (useful hopefully). Sometimes the suggestion helped the designers to improve their proposals, sometimes not.

- confused styles. Some creative proposals look nice, but these are followed by other proposals with a confusing style, created by the same designer: this made us doubt about the final choosing. This is also an example of how is important to “sell yourself the best you can”, so it’s better to concentrate on the details of few layouts then send hundreds of different variations.

Why vote?

We want that the voting method, besides help us choosing the winner, should bring more important messages:

IamaSource is a designers community and who more than the designers has the right to choose which will be the logo, such an important element?

We would like that the 2.500 € prize was awarded to a designer chosen by his “colleagues”. We believe there is no greater satisfaction than receive recognition from a jury of “experts like you” rather than a single voice.

We can not feel exactly as a client, (because we used to work for the client) we’d like to think that we help someone of you with our suggestion about how to change your proposal, trying to give suggestion to everyone request for it. That’s why we used a different way to reach the same goal. There’ll be one winner (unfortunately we still don’t know how to make everybody win) and we prefer to make the choice of the finalists and let the community chose our/their new logo (half and half).

What we want to avoid

Our purpose was to avoid:

- a “popularity contest” where everyone can vote, even if he/she did not join the contest. Think about it: “"Whoever has the most friends/parents wins”. Is that correct?

- the possibility to vote every proposal. For instance: you’ve to select the best 2010 song, choosing among 4300 song and 719 artists. You need to listen to every song at least, or choose without listening most of them. IamaSource have listened all those songs in the past two months, knowing the artists and that’s why we’d like (as a 50% client) to select the finalists following the criteria described.
We’re available for further clarifications and we'd like to have your feedbacks about this..

Happy voting!

Thanks to everyone who join the IamaSource logo contest and for your commitment.

There are new contests on IamaSource you can join.

Crowdsourcing example: the designers choose IamaSource Logo!

IamaBlogger — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:26:00 GMT

IamaSource guys are a real crowdsourcing example and want to demonstrate it once more and to choose their logo ask to the first principle of crowdsourcing: that is "ask to the crowd!". That means that IamaSource is going to ask to designers who joined the contest in the last 2 months to choose the new IamaSource logo.

IamaSource Logo Contest numbers

These are the numbers of the first crowdsourcing example on IamaSource.com:

- 2500 euro as first award

- 4308 creative logo proposals in two months

- 1 creative logo proposal each 20 mins

- 719 designers joined from 47 different countries

- 1 contest winner

How to choose the contest winner? Easy: the solution is crowdsourcing!

The 719 designers who joined to the contest will choose their community logo and then the contest winner!

Why asking to the designers?

This choice is due to the dual target IamaSource has got. As you can notice on the brief, our logo should be attractive for creative people, it should give them a sense of belonging to the community and impress visitors. But, at the same time, it should not mislead our clients with something too “out there” (we know... clients are often less creative!).

Then after a selection made by the client (IamaSource), it seems obvious to ask also to the designers' side.

IamaSource Logo voting rules:

- IamaSource has selected a limited number of logo proposals, considered close to the expected result. These ones will be the only one a designer will able to vote for.

- Only the designers who joined the IamaSource logo contest will be able to vote.

- Each designer can vote only once.

- The best proposals ranking will be displayed on the Dashboard section of the contest, where it will be possible to leave some comments.

- End date for voting will be communicated through email to the designers who joined the contest

- New IamaSource Logo will be the one with the highest number of votes received

Please note: other contests on IamaSource.com will follow the standard procedure for choosing the contest winner.

Some tips:

Choosing a logo, you will choose a designer also, then IamaSource Crew suggests also to have a look to the portfolio of the finalists. It could be interesting to see the author behind a logo proposal. In the other hand it wants to be a tip for all designers did not update their IamaProfile yet...

How to vote a creative proposal on IamaSource.com

IamaBlogger — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:23:45 GMT

At the end of each contest we're going to ask to our designers community to vote a creative proposal on the contest just ended. Voting will include creative proposals displayed on section "Gallery" of the contest.

Each designer who joined to the contest will be able to vote only one favourite design and obviously will not be able to vote his/her own design. This voting will generate a special best proposals ranking according to the designers thought and it will be displayed real time on the section "Dashboard" of the contest.

Note: in case of Iamasource Logo Contest, this voting will have great importance because will allow us to choose IamaSource Logo and then assign 2500 euros!

Here below there is a tutorial about how to vote a creative proposal on IamaSource.com

1. Click on "Vote me" to choose your favourite creative proposal. You can do it both on section "Gallery" of the contest and on the proposal detail page.

2. Click "Yes" on the confirmation pop-up.

3. You can see how many times the entry has been voted on the proposal detail page.

4. On the section "Dashboard" you can see the best proposal ranking real-time updated.

So, what are you looking for? If you joined a contest just ended, vote your favourite design among the other designers proposals. The best proposals ranking is a funny tool helpful to identify the best designers on IamaSource and best proposals realizaed on each contest. Then... maybe in the future there will be some surprises!

Logo evolution: popular logo case histories.

IamaBlogger — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:27:00 GMT

We could write many books about it, but it should be more interesting to analyze some popular logo case histories thanks to a gallery.

We want to present some different cases which can confirm and deny at the same time any theory about the successful logo choice.

The following ones are popular logo beloging to brands really different, but we can clearly assert that they are successful logo, for several reasons.

First of all, focus on brand consistency: should it be better to be tenacious focusing on historical awareness or update, improve and change your own brand with the passing of the time?

We would like to ask for it to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Two competitors with different marketing strategies, different commercials, with a completely different “logo history”.

There are more than 10 Pepsi logo variations and restyling in 110 years (average one per decade). Coca-Cola has got 1 in the same time, the most famous logo in the world. It was created by a Coca-Cola book keeper in 1885, using the dominant form of formal handwriting in the United States during that period (Spencerian Script), with a few changes.

So, these are two opposite strategies.

What does this mean? Coca-Cola is nicer (hate this word), or Pepsi keeps up with the times? We don’t have the answer.

In 100 years there are incredible (and necessary) evolutions: that’s Nokia. In order to became the brand everyone knows, Nokia had to do something more than a restyling, more than add some shades or improve the font style...

There are also some logos extremely consistent with themselves: after the first strong change they remain quite similar in years and so recognizable. This could be a strategy in order not to lose the “brand awareness” created. This is Alfa Romeo, the company logo used today is recognizable looking at 1910 version. Also Ford took a similar path, changing the logo in the early years and making a very few changes.

Sony and Metro Goldwin Mayer are other examples, but in the second popular logo case history we’re talking about a well know frame more than a logo.

The Fiat logo history also deserves to be mentioned. The brand synonymous with cars (not only in Italy) has changed completely its logo in years. Changing the form, the color, the font, the graphic treatment.

In 2006 the “new” logo is back to the origin: it is derived from the famous shield that decorated the front of Fiat cars from 1931 to 1968, with the elongated letters of the word “FIAT” standing out against a ruby red background, encased in a chromed round frame.

This popular logo case history could reassure every start-up owner: you can always adjust the aim of the concept.

Here below there is a gallery of some popular logo case histories:

Adidas

Apple

KFC

Kodak

LEGO

Warner

Starbucks

Logo Inspiration: The Use of Shapes in Logos

IamaBlogger — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:41:00 GMT

The use of shapes is the key element in design.
The basic shapes like circles, squares and triangles can be very effective in designing a logo. From basic shapes it then possible to derive abstract shapes that arise from the composition of different elements: rounded contours, sharp ends, etc..

The more interesting thing, however, concerns the sub-conscious meaning that you can associate with each shape. It 'very important to know that meaning when making a logo or when it is required the creation.

• The circle is an enduring, endless and associated with protection.
• The square denotes stability, honesty and trust.
• The triangle may suggest tension.

Knowing what a shape communicates is one of those creative skills that every good designer must have in his cultural background. You should also be able to associate the right shape with what a brand wants to communicate and then tying it to the intrinsic characteristics of the client or company that requires the development of the logo.
All these considerations and this study can be found in big brands logos. For example, try to identifie logos of companies that belong to the same industry or service category and notice how often the same geometric shapes are applicants in the logos of these brands.

Here is a gallery of beautiful logos characterized by the use of geometric shapes.
Do this experiment: identify how you feel looking at one logo rather than another, this is the first step in exploring your creative sub-conscious.

Are you looking for other logos inspiration?

Initial Logos Collection

Typographic Logos Collection

Brand strategic management: some tips

IamaBlogger — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

In order to successfully promote your business, it is important to choose your company brand and then respect it in the future. It's really important to have a good brand strategic management because some choices will be the mirror of your business, the first way to communicate to the others what you're going to do and your customers will recognize you behind this company brand.

Here there is a list of some good reasons about the importance of taking care your brand management.

1 - Your company brand is your first communication tool

A brand, is the first impression that your company gives to the outside. That is the concept in the mind of your customers when they think to your business personality. This concept includes merits and defects so a brand must be clear, well defiined and must communicate good vibrations to the outside.

2 - Brand perception is binded with advertising

The brand perception is developed through advertising, classic media campaigns or interactive media campaigns and it is certified and authenticated through the consumer experience. Many times the message given to the customers is more important than the real product.

3 - Brand history and feelings perceived

Brand is the istantaneous mental reaction when a company name is mentioned. This psychological opinion continuously changes with company actions, images, situations and messages that communicates. This group of things, with the passing of the time, are defined brand history.

4 - Brand perception is more important than reality

Many times the brand perception is not always as reality is, but for a company the perception counts; whatever company signals are, what counts is how they are perceived by customers and by the company market target.

5 - Brand perception changes continuously

It is a fluid concept and it can vary in a few hours. Bigger companies use advertising and mass media to change their brand perception or to vary their market target.

6 - Brand and product

Brand perception is what distinguishes the product from all the rest.

7- Uniqueness of product is the brand strategic point

At the same time, messages, advertising and media campaigns are nothing if compared with the uniqueness of a product, that for some brands of the world represents the real brand strategic and successfull point.

8 - Brand consistency

Today, more than ever, word of mouth means: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Social networks... This means also that messages run really fast and especially the bad news do it. Then, another brand strategic point is the brand consinstency that allows customers to trust a company and for a brand this means to beat challenger brands.

These ones are only some tips about brand strategic management, anyway, likely, one of the most important choice for your business will be your company logotype.

Here there are some tips about how to choose a winning logo for your business.

Logo contests: 10 tips to improve your rating

IamaBlogger — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:39:00 GMT

This mini guideline comes from the proposals received and from the comments on our first IamaSource logo contest.
The aim - that many of you like– is to give at least one comment to each designer who joins the contest (not that easy). We also want to say that the comments are made according to the brief requirements, and are intended to be constructive, without turning down styles or graphic approach just because “we didn’t like it”.

There is no need to say that it’s easier to write to designers who “lose themselves” when referring to the brief requirements. When we find good designs we try to say that, without exceeding, giving comments and rating stars.
For some proposals we had a doubt about the rating, and sometimes 3 stars as maximum rating means that the proposals, even if we like them, probably require some improvement which we’re going to ask for, in order to have many good proposals and to have a hard decision to make.

In the following there are some tips, good for our contest, and also for future contests. So read them carefully.

1) Read the brief.

In a high award contest there will be lots of proposals. It’s very important not to upset the client at the very first sight. It’s necessary to read the brief requirements and try to follow these. Sometimes it’s a matter of detail: a good proposal can be rejected just because it does not have the details required.
I.e.: in the IamaSource contest brief, among the others, we ask for a black background, a style with a strong impact in the virtual world, an icon that plays along with the name and that can stand on its own…
You can find some of these requests on “Constraints and suggestions”, you can easily understand how the lack of these goes against what can be “love at first sight”.
In that case we’ve sent comments asking for improvement, to try to have a better layout to evaluate.

2) When less is more.

In the uploading of the first proposals, you should avoid sending many different versions of the same layout. Try to focus on one proposal. This is enough to evaluate your style, your graphic approach and the creativity you put in there.
Eventually the client is going to ask for more versions.
If you have many versions of the same layout, make a choice and send your best one. You can ask for a comment before sending other versions.
Thereby the client can concentrate on your best one, without losing their attention while looking at your profile which has five similar layouts.

3) Check your creative proposals and, if you’ve received it, read the comment.

Even if you can’t hear the tone of the client voice, when you read a comment try to take the best from it, whatever it is. Comments are constructive. Thinking “I’m good, the client is bad” will not be very useful if you want to try to win the contest. It’d be better try to understand why the client has sent the negative comment, or focus on the positive comments to create the best layout.

4) Check out the other creative proposals.

Not only to get inspired, see the client’s favorite style, or report a copyright abuse, but also to avoid sending an idea that has already uploaded.
In IamaSource logo contest there are several light bulb proposals. It’s absolutely a correct concept, but after the tenth version we’re going to ask “is that concept so original?”. Once a way has been explored, try something else or a completely different and particular graphic approach.

5) Check the client rating (stars).

Check which is your higher star rated proposal. The client evaluation and yours are not always the same. Check the gallery, sort the proposals by rating in order to under stand what contest style is required.

6) Reread the brief (it’s really IMPORTANT).

We can't stress this enough. During your creative work it’s normal that your ideas are shaken, changed, improved… and the final result is not always close to initial requirements.
The most common risk is to lose the pieces or to go off topic. Maybe creating a good topic, but it’s off.
Before uploading your creative proposal, reread the brief it’s not a suggestion, it’s a must. While you’re rereading, concentrate on your layout. Even better, keep the brief and your creative work opened, in order to see them at the same time. Try to find which elements are close to the brief requirements and what’s wrong or still missing.

7) Emphasis on the strong and replace the weak elements.

It’s useless to be upset if the client doesn’t like a proposal. There is no time to discuss, it would be better to focus on the comments and maybe try to adapt your style to what the client requests are, writing your reasons in the description panel. A good description can support you proposal.

8) Update the profile.

For the client it’s important to understand who the designer is. Don’t be afraid to show your skills even if you’re at the beginning of your career, the client can be surprised in many cases: surprised by a senior designer with a good portfolio who sends a weak proposal, surprised by a young designer with not much experience but a very good proposal.
So whether you are an Art Director with a decade of experience, whether you’re students, don’t be scared. It’s important to be able to sell yourselves with the available tools.

9) Focus on media and target.

In addition to what is mentioned in the brief, you always have to focus on the final usage of the creative work. Where will it be located? Who will see it?
These are useful tips for a print or a banner campaign, but also for logo.
In the IamaSource logo contest it was evident that the logo has to be placed on the web (see the brief). The first use is in the web-site header. Beyond the aspect ratio guidelines for a logo (see IamaBlog), the proposals with complex backgrounds, layout base:height 1:5, sophisticated styles… they aren’t appropriate for the first placement of this logo and they should give you other tips not written.

10) Add the creativity (as usual).

No fear. What we have written doesn’t mean you can’t be creative.
Also with simplicity you can be creative: sometimes the best layout is the essential one. Other times the winning idea comes from more elaborate treatment, but we like to mention the Apple logo: instantly recognizable all over the world, but it’s not that original (The Beatles used it many years before). We challenge you to say that the Apple logo is not strong, making a strong or easily adaptable.
There are many ways to be creative, it’s up to you to choose the right one.

IamaSource meets the designers: Nicola Antonazzo

IamaBlogger — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:50:00 GMT

IamaSource is on designers' side, especially freelance that need visibility through the web to achieve more contacts.

Here there is Nicola Antonazzo from Italy that answered to our questions.

1. How did you approach the world of design?

I always loved color, lines, shapes, and I have always been fascinated by the world of communication, whether verbal or not. After graduation I joined Scientific IED in Milan. In the last three years I had the opportunity to approach the world of design.
I studied it, I struggled with it, and slowly I got it, but I think it is a process that repeats every day and in order to reach a high level of quality lot of time is needed.
However, now, thanks to the first customers, the first serious works and the first invitations to graphic competitions I can claim I joined the real world of design.

2. Which of your works you prefer and why?

I think the answer is "the ones that will come". The way I do my graphic works is the mirror of my way of being: I'm never happy about them. I always pretend to give my best in everything I do. All what I like and satisfies me today, probably will not like tomorrow. I do and repeat a lot of times my sketches on paper, works with Illustrator or Photoshop. I'm drawing so much, I try and try again until I can see a balance point on my works, that point that allows me to say:"It's ok! We can go!". If I were to sum up everything with a phrase surely I would mention "I Did It My Way" by Frank Sinatra. I put myself in everything I do, or at least I try joining my creativity my client's needs.
Sometimes is frustrating, I spend days, nights, trying to figure out how to do my best, I change my mind as the weather changes, what I liked yesterday is trash today. But I think this approach is also positive, somethings push me to do always better... Sometimes I feel like a child with a box of crayons in his hands.

3. What are your main influences received from the design world?

3 years ago I would have definitely answered something like street art, underground. Now I feel more influenced by clean things, not necessarily minimal, we could perhaps define a Swiss style, with a ratio shapes/weights definitely soft, perhaps with less use of color and a greater use of shapes (rounded lately).

4. Mac or PC?

Once you try Mac, you'll never go back...

5. Your dream is working for...

One million dollars question. Hard to say, if I were to name two feet so I would certainly Studio FM at Milan, Mutado or Leofloft for their unbelievable creativity and work quality.
My dream would be to work abroad, even overseas, would be fantastic working for Lava in Holland, or Unit9 at London. I really could spend a whole day listing great design firm where I would like to work, but also the idea of my own studio would be great!

6. Describe your typical working day.

I fortunately work a lot of time and in different fields. My typical day starts between 7.30am and 9am, when the alarm goes off an average of 10 times. When I get up I have to run to pick the bus, just to remind me that I'm in a hurry.
Right now I have a fixed working time that goes from 9 to 18, then I come home, shower, drink or dinner and evening entertainment. Usually at night I start working on personal projects or works for external clients. I am working with a studio in Sydney that is "stealing" me several hours of sleep but it is giving me great satisfaction.

7. Have you got a website where we can see your works and see something more about you?

Sure! www.nicolantonazzo.com

If you want to have the same opportunity Nicola had, please join our community and "share your best creative work" on IamaSource Facebook page.

IamaSource is a Killer Startup!

IamaBlogger — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:00:00 GMT

KillerStartups.com, website that reviews the best startups on the web, has reviewed IamaSource.com, crowdsourcing website about design and communication, mentioning it as one of the best startups on the web. It was a goal we set long time ago and now the article is here, earlier than we expected. Follow the link below to read the review and give your vote to IamaSource.

We are honored about this review and we wanted to share this good news with our designers! This is also thanks to you and the impressive quality of your artworks seen on our website and as customers (remember that IamaSource is holding a contest for its own logo) we are satisfied!

Now, our aim is to become the best startup of the month, so please help Iamasource.com and vote for us here.

Thank you so much and good creativity!

IamaSource Crew

Start-up advertising: "out of the line" and guerrilla marketing

IamaBlogger — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:32:00 GMT

Above the line or below the line. These are the classical categories of the advertising techniques .
Above the line is a type of advertising through classical media (e.g. television, print, radio, print, banners and web search engines).

Below the line is a type of advertising which does not use classical media (e.g. sponsorship, PR, direct marketing…).

More recently, the neologism "through the line" describes an existing process as a mix of ATL and BTL, used to integrate a marketer's efforts and optimize returns from these separate investments.

But you can find also something out of these schemes and sometimes you can have some doubts about what kind of advertising you’re looking at: that is "out of the line".

Here are described the basic principles of advertising you can categorized as guerrilla marketing (maybe) or buzz marketing (also), or viral marketing (why not?). Above the line and below the line… well there are something “out of the line”.

Guerrilla Marketing basic

1. Use it for new product or innovative services.
2. Got an original idea.
3. Promote viral spread.
4. Use a teaser strategy to increase curiosity.
5. Be in the web community, in the forums and blogs in order to increase product awareness and give an answer to the teaser idea.
6. Be honest, show fairness and transparency.
7. Do advertising consistent with the objectives.
8. Use an emotional campaign in order to achieve empathy with the target.
9. Humor: it is important to understand when it’s necessary and when it’s not.
10. Follow the rules and know the risks.

Guerrilla marketing: cases history.

In advertising, thinking of something “out of the line” we have to mention Guerrilla Marketing events, or advertising campaigns which stand out not only for their messages, but also for the unique media and way of promotion.

The stronger is the advertising the more it’s related to the product or service promoted, especially if the same message can’t be used in other product category.

DHL is a good example of this (“If it is where it belongs, it was probably delivered by DHL”). The simplicity is all, the message is strong, and this advertising “on the street” can meet every target.

Also “Formula” toothbrush (“Builds strong teeths”) builds his message on a great visual impact.

and “Jobsintown” advertising (“Life’s too short for the wrong job”) is also a good example of creatiity of the message.

Referring to Guerrilla Marketing, we can describe it as an unexpected and unconventional way of marketing, potentially interactive, with the consumers targeted in unexpected places. The aim is to catch people attention in a different, surprising and sometimes provocative way. It can meet also consumers in times and places where their defense against advertising is lower.

Even if Guerrilla Marketing, as Jay Conrad Levinson said (the first man to coin and use this term in 1984), is especially useful for start-ups, small and medium enterprises with small budgets, this kind of advertising is becoming increasingly important.
That’s why Nike or Sony use it in order to promote their products... and very soon... IamaSource will do it.

Design Inspiration: Fifa Word Cup 2010 South Africa

IamaBlogger — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:09:07 GMT

In this gallery we have gather together the best graphics resources on the 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in South Africa in these days.
The collection is divided into three sections dealing with web design, video (motion graphics and computer animation) and wallpapers (graphic design and photo manipulation).

In the first section we have web included the web pages that well-known brand sponsors or partners of FIFA Word Cup have dedicated to this event.
Every brand refers differently to the theme of the football World Cup but at the same time color and joy are some of the constant factors. These themes are still very common in major sports events but come back with particular strength in South Africa with reference to its culture and its history.

In the second section are collected some wonderful videos that we recommend to see, with just admiration for their creators.

The third section is then dedicated to the collection of beautiful wallpapers and graphic works of great impact and inspiration made by talented designers. A great idea for your iPhone background.

Enjoy!

Web design Inspiration

Video Inspiration

Celcom Bear - FIFA Worldcup 2010 from manymany on Vimeo

INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA (opener) from dirk rauscher on Vimeo.

Barclays Fifa 2010 from Nuno Pires on Vimeo.

FIFA 20 Centres for 2010 from Slinky Pictures on Vimeo.

Coke Quest from Margaux Durand-Rival on Vimeo.

Wallpaper

IamaSource Feedback to the first 500 Logo Proposals

IamaBlogger — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:27:27 GMT

As you have noticed, the IamaSource Crew has begun to send feedbacks to the first 500 logo proposals received in these early days of our contest.
In the coming days we will continue to send feedbacks to the many proposals that we are going to receive in order to have a continuous exchange of creative ideas with all the designers who joined to the contest..

How we have left feedbacks

1 - Comment on the single proposal

IamaSource has left comments on the single proposals (obviously not on all the different versions of the main layout of a proposal). We tried to give some constructive feedbacks to improve together. You can view IamaSource comments simply clicking on one of your logo proposals in the gallery. On the right of this page you can scroll through all the proposals that you have submitted for the contest, while on the bottom of the page (below your proposal description) you may find a valuable IamaSource comment. Check it out!

2 - Star rating

Through star rating it is possible to assigne from 1 to 5 stars to each logo proposal. This rating gives the designers an immediate idea of how each proposal is evaluated by the client.
Giving a judgment is always very difficult. We would therefore say that star rating does not want to be a vote but rather an indication to improve.

Here there are the criteria by which we have rated the logo proposals

0 Star
The proposal has not been rated or it is a different version of the main layout

1 Star - You can do better
The proposal has elements far from what client needs

2 Stars - Exert yourself
The proposal has a creative idea, but it should be improved to have it stronger

3 Stars - Not bad
The proposal follow the brief, and it has some interesting creative elements and a satisfying graphic design

4 Stars - We got it (almost)
Besides 3 stars rate, this proposal is very close to what client likes

5 Stars - We got it
The proposal is awesome, close to the expected result

What you think about star rating? Leave your comments below!

Winning logo for your business: how to choose it.

IamaBlogger — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:22:10 GMT

Here there are some tips about how to choose a winning logo for your business.

First of all it's important to define the logo category your business needs:

- Simple and ironic logo like Cisco, McDonalds or Fedex?

- Illustrative logo like Starbucks and Guinnes?

- Typographic logo like Verizon and CNN?

- Non-sense logo like Nike's swoosh?

Anyway, each popular logo brings its history and its brand awareness. Most of times it's not only due to its logotype, but it comes from other forms of communication and advertising that each brand uses.

Right questions to get a winning logo

These few questions want to stimulate some thoughts in order to get the right choice for a business winning logo.

Which is your activity?
Which product or service are you going to sell?
How would you like the others can think about your brand?
Where are you going to use your logo? Businsess card? Website and blog? Is a favicon needed?

Too many times this kind of questions is neglected and the entrepreneurs pretend that designers rapidly understand their needs. Too many times a client change his mind while a designer is working hard at his logo because what he wants is not so clear from the beginning. A suggestion in order to get better result is to try to reply to the previous questions and be coherent with yourself. Anyone can change his mind, but it's fair enough that this means a cost!

One-to-one or crowdsourcing?

Some clients often think that one designer can provide just a limited quantity of creative proposals to choose from. A classic question is:"What about if I can't find my logo between these few proposals?" That's the answer:"Please go to a crowdsourcing design website and post a contest. You'll be able to find all the proposals you need for your business logo!"

Obviously one-to-one approach can offer so many advantages that a crowdsourcing website can't and vice versa. Working with one designer for your logo allows you to establish a better communication and a good relationship with your designer and often it is possible to create a partnershgip between you and him.

By the way, crowdsourcing website (as IamaSource.com for example), so much more unpersonal, can offer a great quantity of creative proposals if you're handling the contest in the right way. A partnership is less frequent in this case, but this method can connect your business with the internet crowd and their feedback also.

Then, which way to get your winning logo?

Are you sure about what are you looking for?

Do you like to see a lot of proposals before choosing?

Have you got a limited budget and you don't like surprises?

If you replied "Yes" to these question, maybe your way could be invest about 300 € in a community of talented designers and post your contest with a detailed brief. Otherwise, if you prefer a classical personal approach to your business you should look for a reliable designer to work with.

Anyway, the basic concept in order to get a winning logo design is the right communication between entrepreneur and designer. This is so important! The entrepreneur must give to the designer a right perspective of what his business needs, even because, if you think about it, to let others understand the business is the main task of each entrepreneur.

But, if you're an etrepreneur, but also a designer, please follow this tips to create the perfect logo design.

Logo Inspiration: 50 Selected Typographic Logos

IamaBlogger — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:00:00 GMT

In this collection we have selected the best typographic logos realized by talented designers.

The creation of a logo based solely on the use of a font requires a large capacity and very thorough knowledge of what you need to communicate.
The absence of an icon, which often associated with the brand name communicates and reinforces a message, makes the choice of fonts essential and unique.
These beautiful examples of logos are an excellent starting point and inspiration in developing a high-impact logo for your client.

Are you looking for other logos inspiration? Also check the initial logo collection here on IamaBlog.