I'll be honest, there were times when I didn't know if we were going to make it, this year. Oh ye of little faith! In the end, your donations actually overshot our fund drive target of 00, for a final total of 52.30. And one-third of that was donated in the final weekend, which at this end of the operation was a nerve-wracking experience, but a hugely exhilarating one. I can safely speak for everyone here at Strange Horizons when I say that your donations offer an annual boost beyond the financial. We enjoy what we do, and aspire to get bigger and better, and this helps us do that. So thank you, everyone who donated, and everyone who publicized the fund drive, this year or in any previous year.
And what's next? Among other things, a new look.
I've already mentioned a couple of times this year that we're working on upgrading and revamping the magazine's website. We want to get this right. Our current system and our current design have stood us in good stead over the past decade; we don't want to lose the readability of our current style, or diminish the site's accessibility by loading it up with bells and whistles. But we do want to freshen things up a bit, at the front end as well as the back end, and we could do with some help. As a result: welcome to the 2011 Strange Horizons logo design competition!
What is the competition?
Design a new logo for Strange Horizons, and if your entry is selected, win $252.30, plus the first T-shirt printed with the new logo—plus the kudos factor of seeing your work here in the magazine.
What are we looking for?
Strange Horizons is looking for a new logo as part of our upcoming website relaunch. The logo should be reproducible on black and white backgrounds and be suitable for printing on various media (ideally in colour or in black and white). It will also be a central part of the magazine's new look, and may even suggest a theme that could be carried through the rest of the site.
We have some ideas about what we think we're looking for, above and beyond the practical constraints listed above. If you've got a brilliant idea that doesn't quite meet these guidelines, you may still want to go for it, of course.
- We'd like the new logo to reference or reinvent the old one—so you may want to keep the same sort of colour scheme, or make use of the planet in some way
- We'd like the logo to work in different sizes: at minimum, a "Strange Horizons" version and an "SH" version; we'd also like it to be printable at 300 dpi
- We're not particularly interested in a detailed artwork; something simple, suggestive, perhaps abstract may work best
- We're not particularly interested in the conventional icons of SF and fantasy (rocket ships, dragons, that sort of thing) (for the logo! At other times we love the conventional icons of SF and fantasy). We're more interested in planets and nebulae, oceans and islands
- We're more about curves than angles, more about organic than synthetic
- Some words to consider: modern, clean, precise, striking, light, and of course, strange
How to submit an entry
Email your entry to logo@strangehorizons.com by 23.59 PST Sunday 27 November. Please provide your entry as a scalable vector graphic (no raster files). Any fonts used should be converted to curve paths prior to submission (no font embedding), and font files for any fonts used should be provided with the submission (i.e. fonts used should be available under a license that allows their free distribution).
How will the winner be selected?
The winning logo will be selected by the Strange Horizons editors. In the event of an impasse, the final decision will be made by me (Niall Harrison).
Who can enter?
Everyone is eligible except the relatives of Strange Horizons staff.
What else?
By submitting you confirm that works submitted are your original creations. If your entry is selected as the new logo, we may ask you to make minor adjustments, and we will ask you to provide the relevant design files to enable us to adapt the logo for a range of uses. The winning entry becomes the property and copyright of Strange Horizons Inc, but designers retain all rights to logos that are not selected (and the original designer will be credited on the site). If no winner is selected, no prize will be paid.
So, good luck everyone! We can't wait to see what you come up with.