Help answer one of the great paradoxes of our time: The Productivity Paradox
a logo and stationery project by ArthurAlston

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

We are surrounded by technology that is meant to make us more productive, and yet, many of us are not. We use e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. constantly, but these tools do not necessarily make us work more efficiently, do they? I'm sure you are vaguely familiar with this already ;-)

I am about to launch a consultancy that addresses this paradox. It will eventually provide bespoke personal productivity coaching. However, initially I will provide e-mail coaching. I have been scratching this itch on ad hoc basis for about two years and I think the time has come that I scratch this itch for other people, and get paid for it.

My site, http://www.theproductivityparadox, is in early alpha stage. The site will be used to address the productivity paradox, by blogging on the topic and providing a service, initially in the form of coaching. My intention with the site is to keep it very clean and uncluttered, no point in talking about productivity when your site looks like a dog's breakfast.

My intention is to ultimately provide bespoke coaching to top executives. They will be the audience for this piece. Therefore I don't want a pretty web 2.0 look that does not appeal to this market. Neither do I want something that looks like a pre-schooler designed it in Word. The logo and stationary has to look clean, efficient and like it means business. It has to look like a classy and expensive product.

I like strong red, black and whites. I like the look of The Economist's logo (http://www.economist.com) and the fact that the name is the logo. In line with this I also like the look of the logo on this page http://itredux.com. Again, the name is the logo.

So you can see I am open to using the name of the company as a logo if it is designed in a way that appeals to my potential market, who will also be readers of The Economist.

On the other hand, I would love to see a logo that plays on the paradox that the name of the company alludes to. A logo that illustrates the paradox somehow, in my mind when I think of the problem, I see this:

↑ technology ≠ ↑productivity
(an increase in technology does not translate to an increase in productivity).

The website will take design cues from the logo that you will design for me.