crowdSPRING

Creative brief

I'm looking for a logo to use online and in printed materials for Northwest Navy News, a site I'm developing for Navy families in the Pacific Northwest.

The site will feature news and information about housing, schools, childcare and businesses in the Puget Sound area, with an emphasis on issues that are important to military families. It also will allow people to connect with each other through profiles, forums, ratings and other social networking features. You can read more about it here: http://www.newmediawomen.org/nwnavy_blog (don't try to incorporate the colors or design from the blog site; it's run by a separate organization).

My ideal logo would incorporate colors or imagery that represent the Navy and the Northwest region. No anchors, please, but waves or the bow of a ship could work. I could also see using the outline of a mountain or an evergreen tree somehow. I want something clean and bold, though, so I'd rather have some great typography with no graphics than too much clutter. I'd also like to have a small round or square thumbnail version of the logo to use as a favicon-type graphic. That could just be a part of the main logo.

My target audience is 140,000 active-duty Navy and Coast Guard members, reservists, base employees and retirees in the Puget Sound area. Most of them don't know anything about my site yet, so it's important that the logo convey its mission and make them feel comfortable with using it to connect to each other.

Update 27-Sep-08, 5:46am GMT

A few more thoughts that might help guide you after seeing the first few entries:

Don't feel like you must use blue just because it's a site for Navy families. That's kind of the obvious choice, but I'm open to other ideas. I also want to make sure the logo works in B&W and on different backgrounds.

The identity I want is something fresh and young. The target audience here is mostly under 40 and more women than men.

Yes, I said I'd rather have great typography without graphics than too much clutter. That just means I don't want something busy. If you have a great idea for an icon or graphic that represents my site, I'd love to see it. I'd even like to see someone play with the letter N in an interesting way.

The real emphasis of my site is on staying connected — through news, community information and networking. News is in the name, but it's not necessarily the most important part of the equation.

I hope this helps. Feel free to send me a message if you have specific questions.