Hugo Award Logo Contest Closes
Cheryl & Kevin, over at The Hugo Awards website are reporting that the open submissions for the contest have closed, having received 390 submissions.
Ought to be able to come up with a logo from that.? I hope the committee eventually makes all of the submissions available.
More here
and more from me later – maybe I’ll have time to write up a response to the novel-length posts Jacqueline Lichtenberg has been writing recently…


03. Jun, 2009 








Actually, we haven’t yet decided whether to publish the other entries, or some subset of them (say, those that make it through an initial round of screening). There are reasons for and against doing so. I think the biggest reason against doing so would be massive second-guessing of the judges final selection. I’m curious as to what other people’s opinions on this are.
Well, as “another person” (which description is questionable some times) I believe: the artists would like to see some promotion for their work; I would like to see everything – not to second guess, but to revel in the creativity, be inspired by the different takes and maybe cadge some (cheap) art…
So far as second guessing the judges – I think you already have that problem since 218 artists will already be doing that for us…
As an artist that submitted a design I would love to see all the entries. Not for second guessing, but for the love of art and challenge. One of the coolest things about something like this where there is a topic with guidelines is to see how each mind interprets the same problem so differently. There are so many factors that play in, especially with logo work that make it fascinating. The Hugo has been around for a long time and is an award that is considered quite an honor. With something like that it is interesting to see how the designs go. Will they be a bit more time tested with elements of prestige? Or might they be more modern designs? Was there something totally unique? Were there any trends? Any designs that looked so strikingly similar that it would lead to anthropological studies of the minds of artists? It’s up to the committee. I understand that there might be an element of hassle, but it would be cool to see the entries.
I also submitted a design and would like to see how I stacked up against everyone else. Maybe a list of what place our entries came in would be nice. (or what round we made it to…)
Chris,
I just voiced my personal preference – but I don’t want to make trouble or more work for the committee.
Maybe the better thing to do would be to have some place where everyone who submitted something could get together and show off their stuff.
I don’t think they are doing a top to bottom ranking anyway.
Chris R:
Thanks for the feedback. I do not expect us to produce any “placements” other than the logo the judges select as the winner. It’s possible that we might be able to sort them into three groups: Winner, Finalist, and Everyone Else.
Thx Kevin, I guess the main thing is that I would just like to see all the other entries… I do not mean to cause anyone any extra work on this by any means. I am just excited to see the results. What you have suggested would be great…!
That’s a LOT of entries to list, so I can understand if the committee doesn’t want to do the extra work, but I would like to see what the competition was.
For me it’s kind of a personal growth thing. I like to see what won so that I could see what would have made my own designs better.
As for design contests and second-guessing, I’ve only every been a participant in one where the artists questioned the winning piece – and that was because the in-house designer for the company hosting the contest vetoed all of the winners. Leaving none.
The rest of the time, the artist community seems to be cool with whatever wins. Based on this experience I would say go ahead and publish the entrants. I think that it would be fun to see what everyone came up with.
As another entrant, I also would love to see what some of the other contestants came up with. I’m sure there were many that were obviously not in the running; that usually how these contests go. If they eliminate the ones that were absurdly complicated or had no obvious relationship to the Hugo, that would probably cut the total down by a fair amount. Just seeing the winner and the “serious competition” would be very educational.