As part of a major redesign of http://ohmygov.com, we're looking to spruce up our logo.

OhMyGov! is a news & humor website with a national audience that will be expanding its offerings soon. We focus on government (i.e. the alphabet soup of agencies), not politics, and are read by a professional, predominantly urban crowd, wide ranging in age (25-65), who are regular visitors to other news websites, but still getting familiar with web 2.0. The upcoming site redesign will retain the current mix of hard news and humor, and include more social components and useful information tools.

The initial OhMyGov! logo was designed early on, and never got the proper detailing it deserved. In our redesign, the site colors, layout and sections will be simplified considerably, giving more room for the new logo and overall brand to breathe. Most other graphics on the current site will be scrapped. The logo will be a cornerstone of our new graphic identity.

The current logo concept evolved from Sisyphus pushing a boulder (symbol of slow gov progress), to our friendly, faceless, androgynous mascot BureauPat lifting up the Capitol dome to expose what's going on. Or is it that BureauPat is struggling to avoid being crushed by the dome? We can't quite decide.

Our thoughts on the current logo:

-- strikes a good balance between serious and playful

-- needs more dynamism (perhaps as simple as rotating it 15%)

-- the figure/ground setup is problematic for non-white backgrounds

-- Capitol dome is too detailed

The only requirements are these:

* the mark is "OhMyGov!" -- no variations in the punctuation please

* must convey both seriousness/reliability and playfulness

* should keep its overall integrity if shrunk down to smaller sizes

* must be simple enough to work well in video

Feel free to radically rethink the logo. Or tweak what's there now. We'll review and respond to submissions daily. Thanks