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Logo Contest Winner

Published on 9 Aug 2009 at 7:51 pm. 50 Comments.
Filed under Logo Competition.

We were delighted with the level of interest in the logo contest. We received 390 entries from 215 different people and 24 different countries. Deciding on a winner proved very difficult.

The jurors were impressed with the standard of submissions, and of the many very different conceptions of the award, and were thrilled by how many of the submissions made their shortlist.

In making their decision our expert jury took a wide range of factors into account. Many very attractive pieces of art were rejected because they were too complex to be effective when added to a book or DVD cover. In other cases excellent images were let down by weak typography. The winner, designed by Jeremy Kratz of Arkansas, combined both the necessary simplicity to fulfill our requirements with a good choice of text and pleasing combination of the various elements of the design.

We would like to thank all of the people who entered the contest, and congratulate Jeremy on his win.

Here is the winning design.

Hugo Award logo

We will add a media library of high resolution images shortly.

50 Comments to ‘Logo Contest Winner’:

  1. Hugh Auld on 9 Aug 2009 at 7:58 pm: 1

    @DesignWinner

    Completely Agree with your decisions and choices!!

    Good Job!

  2. Mikko Saari on 9 Aug 2009 at 8:24 pm: 2

    Excellent logo, well done!

  3. Patrick Nielsen Hayden on 9 Aug 2009 at 8:28 pm: 3

    Excellent choice — spare, elegant, graceful, and (most importantly) liable to work on all kinds of book covers.

    I’m extremely relieved, to tell you the truth.

  4. File 770 » Blog Archive » Hugo Award Logo Contest Winner Named on 9 Aug 2009 at 9:51 pm: 4

    [...] in the Hugo Awards edition of Anticipation’s daily newzine Voyageur. It also appears  http://www.thehugoawards.org/2009/08/logo-contest-winner/ here on TheHugoAwards.com and other sites before too many hours have [...]

  5. Marjorie on 9 Aug 2009 at 11:16 pm: 5

    Nice!

  6. penski on 10 Aug 2009 at 12:38 am: 6

    Looks like a penis… :p

    Nice logo though; will scale well.

    *n

  7. Zoe on 10 Aug 2009 at 1:35 am: 7

    What is the font used in the logo?

  8. Henrik on 10 Aug 2009 at 3:27 am: 8

    Were you all out of vagina logos?

  9. THRobinson on 10 Aug 2009 at 7:31 am: 9

    I saw a few other entrants and well, can’t say I agree with this choice at all.

  10. David Dyer-Bennet on 10 Aug 2009 at 7:40 am: 10

    I dunno about the other 389 designs, not having seen them. But the one selected is very nice! It must have been a lot of hard work for the judges, because I’m pretty confident there were several dozen first-rate designs in the set.

    Congratulations, Jeremy! I like your design a lot.

    And thanks to the judges for their hard work, and the other contestants for their entries.

  11. Hugo Awards Logo : Jeremy Kratz on 10 Aug 2009 at 8:00 am: 11

    [...] I’m very happy to announce that my submission in the Hugo Awards logo contest was selected as the winner. [...]

  12. Bleec on 10 Aug 2009 at 8:31 am: 12

    Really not excited about this choice.

  13. ces on 10 Aug 2009 at 8:38 am: 13

    Congratulations to all who submitted!

    And congrats to Jeremy!

    I can see why Patrick Nielsen hayden liked it – it’s very similar to the Tor logo!

  14. An Aside | Winner of the Hugo Logo Contest - A Dribble of Ink | A Dribble of Ink on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:27 am: 14

    [...] From the official blog: [...]

  15. Peter on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:31 am: 15

    It’s a little phallic. Maybe that’s just the trouble with rockets and missiles…loaded with connotative imagery. Congrats though!

  16. X on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:50 am: 16

    A *little* phallic?

    Hell, I’d buy a replica for my bedside drawer, if you know what I mean.

    Seriously now?

  17. Leah on 10 Aug 2009 at 12:05 pm: 17

    @Zoe — looks like Futura to me!

  18. Moron on 10 Aug 2009 at 12:16 pm: 18

    Why is your logo a goddamn rocket? You idiots. WTF?

    By the way I’m having a house building contest. Whoever builds me the best house gets 500 bucks. Awesome!

  19. sh on 10 Aug 2009 at 12:29 pm: 19

    Are we going to get to see some of the other top entries? It certainly would be cool if we could.

  20. Aoede on 10 Aug 2009 at 1:04 pm: 20

    I see from the above comment that I’m not the only one who saw it and immediately went “wtf phallic symbolism”.

  21. Aidan from A Dribble of Ink on 10 Aug 2009 at 2:12 pm: 21

    Any chance we’ll get to see some of the submissions that made the shortlist?

    ~Aidan
    A Dribble of Ink

  22. sixteen47th on 10 Aug 2009 at 3:04 pm: 22

    Another request for a runners-up gallery. Give ‘em a nod!

  23. Fenny on 10 Aug 2009 at 4:17 pm: 23

    Yeah!!! I’m agree with you, Aidan…
    Please, all member of the jurors, we’d like to see which logos entered into the shortlist?
    I don’t shut my eyes for a long time thinking which logo should be perfect and what it could symbolized…i.e.this award is for s.f. writers… so something that could remember something of these theme…
    I am very happy for Jeremy…But I think that his logo it’s too simple… For whom that doesn’t know what is Hugo Awards, this logo doesn’t explain immediately its symbolism…(If anybody agrees with me, please, tell me??? Maybe, am I wrong???)
    Fenny

  24. Kevin Standlee on 10 Aug 2009 at 4:23 pm: 24

    Folks: Could all of you people who are wondering why the Hugo Awards logo looks like a rocket please actually look at what the Hugo Award trophy looks like? I’m here at the last day of the World Science Fiction Convention and have shared the comments with the people attending, and I will say that y’all have provided a modicum of amusement to people here with complaints that the logo for an award that gives out trophies shaped like rockets is “phallic.” We find it hard to believe that all of you are being ironic.

    I did delete one foul-language comment. Disagreeing with our choices isn’t enough to get you banned: being uncivil is. Assuming you weren’t a robot, the answer is “If you don’t know what the Hugo Award is, then why were you even reading our web site?”

    Regarding the sharing of other designs: If we do so, it will probably not be for some time. There are certain legal and procedural issues involved, and we’re under instructions from our parent body to be certain of what we’re doing before we proceed further. And to be honest, it’s rather difficult to get anything done for the month surrounding the Worldcon.

    Brick guy: Have fun. Maybe you can get the Tucker Hotel built.

  25. Kevin Standlee on 10 Aug 2009 at 4:33 pm: 25

    Zoe:

    It’s Futura. See the designer’s announcement on his web site for more details.

  26. Aoede on 10 Aug 2009 at 5:22 pm: 26

    One commentator did point out that rockets themselves were quite phallic. Your problem?

  27. Doreen on 11 Aug 2009 at 5:29 am: 27

    Hi, I have been eagerly awaiting the winning design. I came across this competition on the eve of it’s closing date and I just about managed to get an entry submitted. I would love to see a shortlist of the unsuccessful entries.

    Well done to the winner!

  28. ShaunOTD on 11 Aug 2009 at 5:42 am: 28

    *affects Austrian accent, strokes beard*
    Sometimes a rocket is just a rocket, you know.

  29. Brett Holcomb on 11 Aug 2009 at 7:39 am: 29

    Keeping it simple I suppose. FWIW here are 2 entries I submitted. I’d be interested to see some others if people want to share.

    http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/463145/Hugo2.jpg

    http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/463145/Hugo4.jpg

  30. André on 11 Aug 2009 at 5:16 pm: 30

    Excellent design! Congrats to the winner.
    And to all those seeing penises everywhere, please grow up.

  31. THRobinson on 11 Aug 2009 at 6:45 pm: 31

    I’m willing to share mine. I went for something a little Art Deco, to match the retro styling of the rocket. Works in grey scale or easily in black/white. 3 stars in the sky for the 3 main categories for the awards.

    http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs47/f/2009/181/c/c/cc3796830ca5ccfa58bbc683e955e2e4.jpg

  32. betty on 12 Aug 2009 at 9:30 am: 32

    THRobinson, your design is awesome.

  33. Brett Holcomb on 12 Aug 2009 at 10:50 am: 33

    Cool. I like yours THRobinson. Nice star placement. :-)

  34. EricH. on 12 Aug 2009 at 12:02 pm: 34

    Congrats to the winner!

    In the hope that others will do the same – I put my entry up here:

    http://eric9854.livejournal.com/33899.html

    Please feel free to comment.

  35. Colbuio on 12 Aug 2009 at 12:15 pm: 35

    I’m normally dirty minded, but the first thing I thought was “Ooooo, pretty rocket.” I didn’t think any penis thoughts until I started reading the comments.

    I like it for its simplicity.

  36. ThatRobert on 12 Aug 2009 at 1:40 pm: 36

    THRobinson’s is excellent! I love the Art Deco idea — one of my unsubmitted ideas went down that road. Here’s a link to my Flickr to see my 3 entries:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/51499942@N00/tags/hugo/

  37. Holster® | Hugo Award on 12 Aug 2009 at 4:16 pm: 37

    [...] I was quite pleased with the entry and thought I’d share it here, even though it sadly did not win. There were 390 entries in total from 24 different countries so the competition must have been pretty tough. Head over to the Hugo Awards site to see the winning entry. [...]

  38. Richard Holt on 13 Aug 2009 at 2:15 am: 38

    Well here’s my entry for what it’s worth…

    http://www.holster.co.uk/play/hugo-award

    …I’m still pleased with it, I guess it was too complex for the judges who obviously wanted a very simple stamp, although I can’t help feeling you can print some fairly sophisticated things on a DVD these days…

    …feel free to comment on my site and let me know what you think…

    @Brett – I love the Jupiter idea, lovely.

    ®

  39. Mark5four0 on 13 Aug 2009 at 7:51 am: 39

    I’ll share mine. I guess they wanted simple? What can I say, I tried.

    http://www.thoughts.swalrus.org/2009/04/hugo-award-winner-of-the-future.html

  40. Kevin Standlee on 13 Aug 2009 at 8:55 am: 40

    In response to some double-posted comments and queries: All comments here are moderated to keep out the bots and spam. Both of the moderators are in their post-Worldcon travel, which means a slower-than-usual turnaround on clearing comments.

  41. Kevin Standlee on 13 Aug 2009 at 9:04 am: 41

    As stated in the submission guidelines, “The logo will be used online, in print, on merchandise and to create “winner” stickers that can be placed on books, DVDs, etc.” The winning design needed to work at a wide variety of resolutions.

    The contest administrators, including me, were not involved in the actual selection; however, the need for the logo to work in both small and large resolutions was on the judges’ minds when they were evaluating the many submissions we received.

  42. THRobinson on 13 Aug 2009 at 9:24 am: 42

    ThatRobert… love the Logo3 one you did, the black and red one. Nice, clean, reduces down very well for small print.

    Richard Holt… like that design as well, oddly was reading your page earlier today, Weird. I liked how you did the added images… I did that as well, when submitted mine I had made possible stationery for what the invites may look like, envelopes, and the logo etched in a glass trophy.

    I’ll have to figure how you did that DVD hologram sticker effect though. :)

  43. ThatRobert on 13 Aug 2009 at 11:09 am: 43

    Thanks THRobinson. I’m really impressed with all the entries here. Obviously, they had a tough time choosing.

  44. jon on 18 Aug 2009 at 8:53 pm: 44

    Wow I pretty much had that same design on one of mine.

    Congrats

  45. John D. Berry on 2 Sep 2009 at 9:39 pm: 45

    Elegantly simple, as a logo should be. And versatile — also as a logo should be. There’s always a tendency to get cute, to try and make it into an illustration, or otherwise to over-design. This works as what it’s intended to be, a logo.

  46. Nicki on 3 Sep 2009 at 9:08 am: 46

    31 is really beautifull :) )

  47. Logo Design on 3 Sep 2009 at 9:38 pm: 47

    Hell yes! 31 is indeed cool and beautiful

  48. Greg Tatum on 23 Sep 2009 at 1:33 pm: 48

    http://hinchu.blogspot.com/2009/09/hugo-award-loser.html

    Here is my logo design. I was quite happy with it.

  49. yeghia on 16 Oct 2009 at 3:28 am: 49

    i like 38; and mine of course.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/43631977@N07/

  50. yeghia on 16 Oct 2009 at 3:32 am: 50

    my biggest issue with the rocket is it looks like a fork/ spoon.

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