Whimsical logo needed for global sewing site.

Sewcratic

Whimsical logo needed for global sewing site. We ultimately want to be the destination/brand for all sewing activities. Get it right and your logo should be synonymous with sewing for most of the online world. (Yeah, we’re that ambitious. Our motto: Sewcratic, the future of sewing.)

(A Socratic dialog: a form of inquiry and debate between individuals asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and learning.)

Think streaming video, plentiful Web 2.0 commentary and networking about styles, techniques, patterns... Now design the drop-dead iconography for it.

Anyone from sixteen to seventy-six. Anyone who sews, or wants to sew. Male or female, novice to 7th Avenue fashion designer. We want to be the destination for not just the passionate sewing aficionados in the world, but all those simply wishing to learn how to sew a button.

Think sassy, fun, more aligned to couture than craft. (We are definitely not your grandmother's sewing site—however, Grandma should feel comfortable too.)

Avoid a “crafts” feeling. All lace will be taken out back and shot. Think clean, vibrant, modern, whimsical, elegant. Also, something that scales gracefully from brochure to thumbnail.

COLORS: As users will upload a riot of patterns and pictures and colors, we’re thinking a Zen–ish, monochromatic site palette: white, grays, black, with orange as the highlight for links and buttons. Logo should play nice with these, against simple white or simple black. (Astonishing colors in the logo may cause us to revise our site palette, though.) Absolutely no pinks, please.

IMAGERY: We’re leery of a sewing needle with thread as it’s both hackneyed and hard to reproduce (but hey—if you can do MOMA-enshrined, killer image that survives reduction to a postage-sized GIF, we’ll ship you the champagne.) Preferable objects: buttons, buttons becoming globes, spools of colorful thread, swatches of fabric coming together, a glistening thimble... You get the idea space.

TYPE: If you can reduce the world of sewing to a cunning, artful bit of typography, by all means go for it, we’d love it; we adore type. However we like icons too.

VARIATIONS: please include:
Sewcratic
Sewcratic. The future of sewing.
Sewcratic. Where the world comes to sew.

Deliverables: Photoshop raster art, layered and flat; same for Illustrator vector art. Winner may be contracted for further paid work by brand.