Help create a smashin' logo for my first company, Stempla Design!

Stempla Design

Stempla (which means "to stamp") is a one-woman papercraft/scrapbook business. I intend to blog, sell cards, gift tags, boxes and more. I design arts & craft stamps which will be sold online and through stores.

Ok, this is it! I'm doing it! I'm starting my own business! Holy smokes, what am I thinking?! Wait... I can do this! With a solid foundation and framework, I can make it happen. But first... a logo!

Hi and welcome to my design brief. I hope you will enjoy this contest, and I will do my best to give feedback to each and every entry.

The demographic of the cardmaking/scrapbooking world has long been soccer moms and middle-aged women. Although I need to consider that audience too, I would like to court a younger group of women, those between 20-30 (not teens or kids!), to show them that card making and paper craft does not have to be frumpy.

I want to be a fresh and exciting element in an existing market. I want to keep a clean, modern look and stay clear of the busy, passé visual design some other companies seem to like.

The logo must look like it belongs to a creative line of work, but not necessarily stamping and papercraft. It must be elegant yet youthful.

- No cartoons - I like playful, but not childlike. I am not catering to children or teenagers
- Not too stiff and elegant - I don't want to look like something out of a corporate machine
- Not too frilly - I don't want to look like Beatrice Potter and Laura Ashley decorated my profile
- I like sans serif fonts, and sometimes handwriting
- Not your run of the mill scrapbooking logo. Take a quick look at a Google search for scrapbook logos, and you'll quickly see that there's a lot of tags, stitches and flourishes. I don't want that

Colours and profiles I like:
http://stampinginspiredby.blogspot.com/
http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/
http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/

A preview of the theme I will run on my blog:
http://themeforest.net/item/freshsh…iew/761146

UPDATE FOR FINAL ROUNDS

The logo I choose will be used on my website, on my business cards, my product packaging and probably on stationary. It will also be made into a custom rubber stamp. It is therefore important that the logo works both in large and small size, in colour and in black/white (or any other single colour), and on limited space media. The winner may be offered follow-up business to help design more stuff.

I want to keep it clean, maybe in two formats, the full logo and perhaps a smaller, simplified version (for smaller media's sake)

Keep in mind that my target audience is a younger crowd than the general demographics for this industry, yet they are not teenagers. They are hip, intelligent and socially involved. They want to be taken seriously, and they are opinionated.

Things to avoid:
- Any shape that resembles a typical stamp (the kind you put on your post cards and letters)
- Shapes that make you think I only offer one kind of service (a card, a giftbox, a stamp). My business is multifaceted
- Ornate flourishes
- Busy elements that disappear if the logo is in a small format
- Any words other than the name of my business
- Handwritten, cheesy, script, or calligraphy fonts
- Drop shadow, bevel/emboss or light filters

Things to keep in mind:
- Don't be afraid of trying bold, strong colours. As long as they match and they're not an eyesore, they won't scare me
- Don't be afraid of trying something you haven't tried yet. Wow me with your creativity!
- Keep your font choices to clean sans serif or serif typefaces
- Feel free to ask me questions in private messages if something I say is unclear

Links that might be helpful:
A public gallery of cards I have made for friends
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?…b9f10535fa

A demo of the theme I have chosen for my blog. As you can see, it is very light, a good canvas for the logo to stand out
http://themes.jamigibbs.com/freshsh…page_id=16