We’re pleased to announce our new logo, thank you for voting!

Getting feedback from you was really interesting, whether through the 99designs poll or through conversation.  The results were very, very close and shows how diverse opinion can be.  A logo, it turns out, is a very subjective thing.  I’ll delve into feedback for each logo in today’s post.

While there were other logos more people liked, the winning logo was the one that most loved.  In our industry, it’s better to be loved by few than liked by many.  More importantly, it was the logo I had a gut feel for and your overall feedback reinforced that.  Though I must admit, there were doubts.

Let’s go through each of the four finalists.

 

I like the proportion and skew of this logo, as well as the straightforward symbolism of the icon: a play box with a detached corner.  I also really like alygator, who is very talented.  Some people preferred this logo because it has a white background; in retrospect, that’s a mistake as all logos will have two versions (one against light, one against dark) and what I should have done with the poll is have all logos shown against the same dark background.

As you can see from the ratings, this was a logo a lot of people loved and many thought was just OK.  Even though technically this was the lowest rated logo of the four, I would have been happy even if it was the only logo submitted.  A few comments from you about the design:

This one. My fav.

most elegant

Good design but looks like something I’ve seen before. But like how the image (icon) illustrates ‘corner’ and ‘play’

Looks kinda like an icon for a media player.

No video content on the website. Too much of a play button

Kinda reminds me of national geographic logo..

Too National Geographic looking!

nat geo

 

The icon for this logo is based on a rubik cube, which I liked because rubik cubes are fun and nerdy at the same time and that’s also how I view this blog.  We didn’t go with an actual rubik cube icon because it was too complicated as a logo; so bo_rad, who I think is super talented, de-constructed it to what you see on the left.  There was a version with three stacked cubes which some people liked, but I thought it was a bit unbalanced with the logo text so went with two.

What’s also awesome about this logo is that if you look carefully, the two stacked cubes actually resemble a humanoid figure glancing to its right.  A cool subtlety that makes you go “hmmm wow!”, which again is something I hope this blog delivers every now and then.

This design was quite bi-polar when it came to your ratings.  The logo was either loved or hated; there wasn’t much of a middle ground.

Definitely the best bro! And this is different than most of what’s already circulating. Not as simple as the others… But individual with defined colors… Just my two cents;)

Because if I understand the story behind The Cornerplay, the team spirit behind it is akin to that seemingly invisible contribution that help makes a big difference. Otherwise the tilted block could not have been turned to complete the cube into a magical result….

I like this one

This is cool

I like this design overall, but what about combining the square play design from #128 onto the blocks?

Maybe add a third block if u use this one ?

Icon doesn’t fit any even dimensions and can’t imagine that it would look that notable on a web page due to the seemingly arbitrary angles of the cubes in the design.

toy store

The cubes icon is not very interesting

 

This design just edged out the winning logo for the highest average rating, but it was mere decimal points as both logos received a 3.4 average.

I like this logo a lot because of the clear symbolism (corner tear in the box) and its modern and simple look.  It’s also the logo I can incorporate most easily into the blog, which is a nice bonus.

Most interestingly, this is the logo that many people liked and nobody hated, but also one that few loved.  This entry represents the most like a common denominator among the four logos, which is reflected in its high average rating.

Not as iconic as #30 but the combined look gives the most unique and identifiable quality of the four while still being somehow understated. Not sure if understated is what you’re looking for…

Great for a podcast!

Sandwich shop or some AMC type of tv channel

Doesn’t fit the blog’s content. Feels more suited for an arts company/theatre company etc

Nope.

Like national geo sign

As much as I personally like the logo, it’s interesting that nobody liked it enough to write a comment advocating for it.  I can see how if this process was judged by committee this could have been the winning design.  But it’s not.

 

As soon as I saw this logo, I had that gut feeling.  The same kind of feeling you get when you meet that girl or boy that makes you go whoa.

There’s something about this design that just felt iconic — like it will be able to stand the test of time.  It’s simple, modern, and communicates what this blog is about.  A seemingly straightforward box sent off-kilter with an arrowhead to the corner.  The uncommon observation, the contrarian insight, the hidden truth; all encapsulated in that little symbol.

In terms of ratings, it got a big cluster between two and four stars.  Despite that, this logo also received the most five star ratings of the four logos.  Some say that in tech, it’s better to have something few love than what many merely like.

My favourite. Corner of square is cool. Clearly depicts corner play.  Colour stands out.  Corporate

Best of the 4.

the bomb

remove the bottom logo, bold the letter “CORNERPLAY” on the middle and it will be perfect

Icon was a good idea and simplicity is a plus but it sort of reminds me of the icon of a web image that failed to load. Second best of the four in my opinion.

Looks to like national geographic to me, although I like the font type best

Looks too much like national geographic

Nono. Looks like natgeo.

Later of course I realized some of the brand equity from this logo might be because it resembles the National Geographic’s.  The association bothered me a lot; I even thought about changing the blog’s color scheme to neon blue or lime green or burnt orange just to get away from it.  So I asked the designer to come up with a few other colors, as you can see below.

(Note that The Weekly Cornerplay is a potential extension of the main brand that I wanted to make sure can be done.)

The orange is probably my second favorite, but I didn’t like how this blog looked with grey and orange as its color scheme.  I like yellow best and National Geographic is about as far away from tech as can possibly be — fuck it, this is a hobbyist blog at the end of the day so I’m just going to go with what I like.

I’m sticking with the original.

Mandara, if you’re reading this, thank you for the design!  And alygator, bo_rad and fiqi, you guys are awesome.  Thanks also to all the other designers who deemed the contest worthy enough to compete in; I hope it’s been as good of an experience for you as it has been for me.