Recently RockyMounts, a respected and well known rack designer and manufacturer located in beautiful Boulder, Colorado held a call for entries for submissions of new logo designs for their corporate presence. or as they put it ” After 13 years of using our original logo, we are in the market for a new one.” Anyway from what I hear over 300 people participated and I was honored to have crafted the chosen direction. As far as the accepted design, I wanted to create a mark that was more evocative of the experience that RockyMounts promises owners of it’s products. The fact that, once you throw your bike up on the roof its staying there and you’re on your way to fun and adventure. The mark is called “the stoke” It conveys a smile, the mountains, lakes and a typographic reference all contained in a modern little capsule. Typographically I wanted to communicate speed and movement. I have since met Bobby Noyes, Founder and Owner of Rocky Mounts and have nothing but high hopes for the new brand. Here’s to the future. Stay stoked.
jason
October 14, 2009
NICE work kid. logo is real clean. fresh.
paula
October 29, 2009
I’m stoked
Doug
December 10, 2009
Cool, but this contest was a designers no-no. 299 other people worked for free. You could very well have been one of them. Don’t work for free!
angrybovine
December 10, 2009
I see your point and if crowdsourcing was around when I started I would be a mercenary today. When it comes to the free…lets look at money simply as a “value” or variable. I had more than simply monetary value in mind regarding the decision to do this particular project. Primarily that ANY work you do should it be for something like this or not, should be of the caliber that you can use it in your portfolio to get other work.
1. Rocky Mounts is a company I believe in, they are local and need brand help. I ride bikes and was stoked to do it. (design should still make you feel good when youre done with it.)
2. as a new creative to the area…I wanted to do some work in this area that would be seen widely.
3. And this is the most important one. As a (very) small consultancy, I have to figure out creative ways to “pay” my interns. This project in particular was brought to my attention by my intern, and I thought it would be a good job for them to participate and get work in the portfolio that wasnt school based. So we walked through my formalized approach to identity. His work didnt win, but he saw the process, leraned some things along the way. And now has something real to talk to in his portfolio.
I hate to admit but the world is changing and crowdsourcing is real. A local company here is built on crowd principles (victorsandspoils.com) I think the trick is to this all is figuring out how we are all gonna play in it and to what advantages you can make of it. I saw a quote recently that I thought was of interest. “Work for free or full price…but never for cheap”. Figure out what the value is at hand, and how it’s relevant to you and those around you.
Doug
December 10, 2009
Well written response. I do see you side, just disagree 100%. Try as you might, it’s impossible to fall up a slippery slope.
Your creative work is always top 10%, don’t ever sell yourself free.
Now to be more angry than I actually am about this. Taken to the extreme: WGivesAF if Rocky Mounts is a company you believe in. Their very existence is predatory (but very) smart business. They let Thule and Yak do all the hard engineering work – the individual model car clips. Then they poach on top of that design. Same thing they did on this contest. They spent nothing but others invested heavily.