All of you fans and designers out there (many fans ARE designers) check this out. The Indianapolis Colts are putting on a design contest to come up with a horse logo for the Colts. This won’t replace the famous horseshoe, but will still get some play. According to colts.com, “The Colts will use the winning design as a secondary logo to complement existing logos.”
What will the winner get?
According to Colts.com, “Five finalists will be chosen and their submitted logo will be posted on Colts.com for fans to vote for a grand prize winner. The grand prize includes two lower level season tickets for the inaugural season at Lucas Oil Stadium plus $1,000.”
To give you all a head start I have collected some famous horse logos from around the web. Horse logos have been done since the beginning of time- now is your chance to add to the global horse logo pile. You can use these logos as a guide, or you can use them as a guide of what not to do (my recommendation). My entry is shown above, so please, no stealing.
[Via Colts.com]
Technorati Tags: indianapolis_colts, horse_logo, design_contest, logos, horseshoe, sports_logo, colts_logo, nfl_logo, logo_design, horse_symbol
March 30th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Nice collection of horse logo images and cute Horsie too. I create horse logos for a living, but I don’t know if I will have the time to try for this contest as I am a bit backed up with orders at the moment.
Horse graphics in logo designs - http://alove4horses.com/blog/horse-graphics-in-logo-designs/
and more samples of horse logos here:
Horse Logos - http://alove4horses.com/blog/images/logos/horse-logos/
April 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
well I know of the design contest but when is the due date?
April 15th, 2008 at 9:08 am
April 16
http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=promotions_dynamic&id=227
April 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Today is the deadline. I do some logo design myself, although nothing involving animals til now. I submitted a logo, which, I feel could be a strong contender. But I could be wrong and often am… I can’t wait to see the five finalists though!
April 16th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Hey Joanne, have your design online somewhere we can see it?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Yes, I would like to see the logos you made too.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
This is one project that I think would be very difficult… how to come up with something that is truly original when horse logos have been done to death?
I can’t wait to see the final choices.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I just realized I could use my Picasa website . I didn’t use anything football related, except the color and the subtle hint of a horseshoe shape on the body. I gave him, what I would like to call “Marvin Harrison” toes. Hope you like (gulp).
Here’s my link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JoanneLeslieJohnson/IndiTheColtsColtMaybe
April 16th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hey Joanne, I like it. I made one as well but I don’t have it online yet. I’ll try to put it up tonight.
I like the pose you chose. I spent a lot of time just looking for photos of colts playing and I think that pose captures the playfulness quite well.
Overall I would say that your logo is pretty neutral from the evoking an emotion standpoint. I had the same problem on mine. A lot of the examples Ian has above are very dynamic (usually angry/aggressive) and mine ended up being very neutral as well.
Nice work!
Schauer
April 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I started out more “energetic”, it was very loosely drawn, lots of flowy lines; I had him up on his hind legs with his head thrown back… lots of energy but it didn’t say Colts to me. I hated it. So I just started over all over again on Sat. I went for stronger lines… thinking of the simplicity of the horseshoe logo itself and working from there. I put the “energy” in the tail.
If it it doesn’t make the cut, I’ll save it for something else… make my own Colts T-shirts, maybe?
April 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Ya I did a few energetic side views as well and I felt like I was just copying the Broncos logo.
As for “If it it doesn’t make the cut, I’ll save it for something else”…the fine print on the submission form…”Once submitted, all designs and all rights to those designs will become the property of the Indianapolis Colts, Inc.” Really the shadiest part of this content.
Schauer
April 16th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
As promised…
http://www.msd2.com/colts/index.html
**Note**
I don’t find these amazing or anything. I’m a Flash developer by trade so I haven’t designed anything in 4 years. Ian never taught me his excellent logo designing skills. Thats right, Ian, I blame you for my crappy horses. Haha.
Conceptually I don’t think they are horrible. Both are straight on views giving them a lot of symmetry similar to the horseshoe. Speaking of the horseshoe I tried to not so subtly imply it in the nose of both horses. The version with the long hair has the shape of Indiana down the middle of the face. The version with the mohawk is meant to relate to the Colts’ helmet, white on the sides with a blue stripe down the middle. I named him Lucas for obvious reasons and it doesn’t make for a bad horse name I suppose. Like I said before neither have a lot of emotion to them. Horse eyes in general aren’t very expressive so that didn’t help.
That’s it really. How bad are they for a colorblind Flash developer? ;)
Ian, did you make one?
April 16th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Hey, nice work - I actually did not try one; thankfully people are getting that my “horsie” drawing was a joke (looking back my humor may be a little too subtle there.)
I like the Indiana “forehead blaze.”
I would have tried, but seriously, all of my ideas would inevitably come too close to something that has already been done! You could call me a chicken. Bawk, bawk.
I think this particular project is so tough that they realized that it would be much more cost-effective to run it as a contest.
Like you noted, they get the rights to all of the entires, that’s a good amount of free brainstorming work done even if they don’t get something that is final.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:56 am
oops! I forgot about that. Maybe I can dress it up and use it as my screen saver….
PS I was only going to use it personally as a gift kind of thing, IF I even did that!
April 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Hey I’m just browsing through this.. when are they picking the 5 finalists? Does anyone know?
April 17th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
All I know is that they announce the winner on the 26th. I would think that they would want to pick the finalists by the end of the week, allowing a week for voting. But that’s only a guess…
April 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
If u put the horseshoe , indy , indianapolis, or colts in your logos they will not be counted. That is what it said in the registation form. only a young male horse, that is strong, playful, and one that will look good to all colts fans. I put two in. I hope they like them.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
if u want to see my entries go to facebook.com/cerbone13. under stevens drawings. under the caption are the two that i sent a jumping and a running horse with blue and white colors. enjoy.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/steven.cerbone/HorsePictures/photo#5190333800632578082″> this is the jumping horse.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I would like to know how many people submitted logos
April 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hey i just got on here and started reading some of the stuff, and I submitted a horsehead that I think is pretty nice looking but does anyone know if it is supposed to be a full body or was a head okay?
April 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I think a head is fine. There really is no limit when it comes to being creative, and yours may stand out more than others, as just a head. That’s great!
Does anyone know what the PMS colors are for the colts? I was worried my blue color didn’t match exactly.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I imagine one of the reasons they asked for the eps and jpeg is so they can edit it to make it the right Pantone (or 4-color) blue. I guessed by making a screen capture of the Colts website and using the eyedropper tool on the blue in Photoshop. Granted that’s a web color so it’s probably off. But based on that color, both my Illustrator eps file and jpeg are 4-color.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:19 am
hi my name is Valerie Miller and this is the first time that I have submitted any thing for contest…where can I go to find out who the finallists are?
April 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Yeah, I used the eyedropper as well. I figured they’d tweak whatever won anyways.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I don’t think the finalist have been announced but I would bet there will be something at this link when they are…
http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=promotions_dynamic&id=227
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Does anyone else think its wierd that we don’t know what the 5 finalist logos are yet?! If they are announcing the winner on Sat, and it’s based on a “fan vote” … when are the fans going to get to vote?!
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I do. I, also thought we would know by now.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Yeah I find that interesting as well. In the end they probably don’t care about a fan vote. They’ll use whatever they want since they own all the entries. Still, I was expecting to see something yesterday. No dice.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I just called. They had so many entries, that it’s taking them a long time to get thru them all. That’s why no announcement of the finalists. The lady I talked to said they are planning on posting the postponement article “soon”. We’ll see.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
From what i remember i thought they said the twenty-sixth. or was the after the voting.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
The 26th is when they announce the winner (which fans were to vote on prior) but I’m starting to agree with Schauer that it’s not going to be a fan vote after all, since they’re only leaving fans with 2 days to vote. They’ll probably manipulate the logos and just choose one they recreated… Kindof disappointing!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Ive been a fan for 24years if they do it they do it that way. That will be a very disappointing thing to have done the colts fan base. I believe there was alot of entries. How many people are actualy looking at them?
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
how many did u send in. The max was 2 per entry. I did two.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I just emailed them Hopefully i get a response here soon. When i do u will get the same info.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Finalists announced.
http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=promotions_dynamic&id=227
April 24th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I gotta say, I’m partial to the first and last ones. They have more character than the others. The last one has the benefit of an interesting and somewhat unique pose.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I just looked at the website that Rob put up. These were supposed to be colts, which are young horses !! None of these look like colts, they look like a regular horses to me. I guess we are the horses now.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I just looked at Joanne picture on the Picasa. That is a true picture of a colt, very well done !!!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Yes, Joanne’s, graphic is a young colt with correct portions for a colt (good work Joanne), but the finalist designs have the elements that I expected they would chose to symbolize the football players - action, speed, aggressiveness, masculine.
Does anyone know the final count of the designs they received for this contest?
April 24th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Yeah, I agree with you, Ian, 1&5. I voted for 5. Looks nice and when I looked at 1 I felt like I had seen that somewhere.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
the last one is the best out of the whole group. it show styly thought behind the it. the fourth one is anonther good one. the others what the heck were they thinking. There was no thought behind it. Just draw a horse that looks good. I send that in. out of the 5 the fifth is the unique one in the group. that one will stand out on anything they put it on. congrats.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Kim is right though… “colt” has never been what the team is about, a colt is a young little horse. All of the entries are older than that.
I suppose that is nit-picking, though :)
April 24th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
in the nfl. a nice little colts wouldn’t scare a fly. Right if they were looking for that type of logo. yes the third one would win. But as a fan of the nfl. it is a little too cute for the a game that is go get
‘em, take u down, stomp all over u league. maybe that is why the judges put that one in to see what the fans think. congrats on the final five.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thanks for the compliments, I really appreciate it.
Since the rules specified a “young horse” (i.e. colt), I’m surprised none of them look like a colt. I guess I’m just too much of a stickler for following the rules.
Of the five mature horse logos, #5 is definitely the best.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Hey everybody, I am entry #5. I appreciate the comments. I agree that a really young horse would not fit the bill for an NFL team. I think I was shooting for the equivelant of a 18-22 year old human male. A little tuft of hair on the chest, wild and crazy hair which is kinda typical of young horses, and a strong yet not “too bulky” body to show youth and strenth. If you look close, my initials are in the dirt particles being kicked up :) SH
I appreciate any votes and I congratulate the other 4 contestants. Thanks again,
Steve H
April 28th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
while #5 is a very nice graphic, it looks WAY too much like the denver broncos logo to ever fly as an actual logo that the team uses - 2, 3 and 4 are simply horrible and #1 has way too many shades of blue - there is some great discussion of this contest here http://boards.sportslogos.net/index.php?showtopic=57738 - i didn’t submit because of the stipulation that it becomes their property…shady, at best
May 4th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I like #1. Not sure why leggman thinks there are two many shades of blue. It looked to be 3 by my count.
5 is the second best and the other three are subpar. The 4th one is absolutely bad. I can;t believe they didn’t have a better one than that. It’s basically a sketch. I was going to do one but wasn’t really feeling it. I kind of wish I had now after seeing the middle three.
Why is #2 winking?????
May 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am
i think there are too many shades of blue because three is too many for a team that uses only blue and white in it’s official color pallette and the additional colors don’t do a thing to improve the logo aesthetically - the designer could have acheived the desired affect with AT LEAST one less shade of blue, if not 2 fewer…
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 am
Just to add to the conversation, I sent in one concept. My concerns had to do with translating a symbol into all the forms it might be reproduced in, from an embroidered cap to a lapel pin. So the requirements dictate simplicity, and the need to work in one color first. Doing a full figure horse forces the detail into a corner for small applications so I stayed with a head-only approach. Energy; a little attitude; speed or motion; are all a requirement of a successful sports animal logo. Mine didn’t make the cut. And I have to be honest, I don’t think any of them work well, but I think #1 will win. I am going to make mine into a hat, and I will be wering it in LOF.
Here’s mine…
http://www.prismdesign.com/wip/pdg_wip_colts_horse.html
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 am
Thanks for sharing. I really like your reasoning for the head-only approach. I think this is a very unique take on the logo and I think you have included the right amount of detail and motion. However, the mane’s repetitive and smooth-line style does not match the rest of the logo. For instance, the ears appear to be different sizes with different stroke thicknesses but the sections of the mane are exactly the same. There are also, in my opinion, some perspective issues that could be fine-tuned. Some other things that are working against you are the perfectly straight sliver just behind the nose (It seems like it should follow the bridge of the nose to between the horse’s eyes) and the mouth, though I think you entended to indicate the mouth wrapped around the face a little more, at first glance it seems to be more like he is a ventriloquist talking out of the side of his mouth. These suggestions are all just my opinion but I think it has a lot of potential and thought I would share my thoughts on it.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
this might be a question that i should know the answer to, but have they actually announced a winner?
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I talked to someone at the Colts facility early last week, and she said something to the effect that they hadn’t made a decision yet. Maybe now that we’ve gotten thru our Super Bowl quest, they will make a decision. It all seems so odd since the fans were supposed to decide the winner…
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I talked to someone last week too. She said they were checking to make sure there were no copyright issues. She told me they had the results but they had to make sure that it wasn’t stolen artwork or something like that.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
egarding Design a Horse Contest for the Colts: Poorly handled…..also, I was curious how (note entry rules that design should be “male”)-how do we know that winner is male? How do we know it is playful etc.-unique?
The whole contest from rules to results and handling-PATHETIC.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Well, egarding your contest question…
The pose should be unique and playful–not just standing or eating. To be a male,–since most people can’t tell if a horse is male or female without seeing its junk–it should NOT have a bow in its hair or long “pretty” eyelashes or lipstick. I think they were saying, don’t try to make it look like a female because it is the NFL..not the NWFL. If you DO make it look like a female, it will probably be thrown out and therfore, be a waste of your time.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:55 am
from the looks of some of the NFL players “flowing hair” a flowing mane would look “male/female”?…anyway-the whole contest was a disappointment! what ever happened to the showing of the Winner? Whoever dis-organized the whole contest should be traded to the Patriots!and Steve H–you’re right- it was a waste of my time!
May 30th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Who said anything about a flowing mane?
Is posting angry comments about the contest a better use of your time? Ultimately, you didn’t have to enter in the first place.
Have you posted your entry anywhere?
May 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hey SteveH, when you win, let me know if you wanna sell your tickets to the Bengals game. ;)
May 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Appreciate the confidence. I definitely have my fingers crossed but from what I have read on other forums, there are many people who have favor 1 and 2 to win. Then you have the other handful of people who are bitter and angry and childishly tried to rally voting support for their least favorite choices, 3 and 4, attempting to skew the results. If somehow I should win, I will keep your request in mind.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
SteveH, I for one will regret it was a fan vote if your logo doesn’t win. The others are not in the same league as yours. But you do have my vote, for what it’s worth.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
dito
May 30th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
forgot a t ;) ditto