Logo & Header for Eco Village Green

I run a website/blog dedicated to green and natural living, particularly in the home/garden and in the way we live our everyday lives. The site's purpose is to inform readers about how to live in a more sustainable, environmentally friendly manner. I discuss various aspects of green living and occasionally recommend eco friendly products.

Eco Village Green (http://ecovillagegreen.com)

I am looking for a sharp, clean, stylish, modern looking logo and header that will look great on top of my website. The logo graphic associated with the header should be adaptable to business cards and stationery letterhead.

Here's more about the philosophy behind my website and its name. The successful design will effectively capture the ideas expressed here:

Eco Village Green came about because of my belief that fundamental change must begin with each individual. Each of us has the power to control the way we live, the way we do things, and the way that our lifestyle impacts the environment and our health.

One household changing a single light bulb to a compact fluorescent bulb doesn’t have much impact, but every household in America making the same choice would free up enough electricity to power 20 million homes without need for more coal power plants. Such is the power of the individual–not in acting alone, but in concert with others of similar mind.

The village green used to be a communal area maintained by all members of a village, where people would come together to celebrate or to chat and exchange ideas while grazing their livestock. Likewise, I want Eco Village Green to be a communal area where we exchange ideas about living a more natural and eco friendly life with others of the same mind.

Audience:

The website audience is intended to be primarily eco conscious consumers trying to live in a more eco friendly way. They're primarily of homeownership age and probably do own homes, but may include socially aware apartment dwellers and eco conscious college students. Content is for both genders.

- I want a logo and header design that is sharp, clean, stylish, modern to futuristic looking, cutting edge.
- The logo should be readily adaptable to business cards and stationery letterhead.
- The primary colors are black, grey, white, and the green shades associated with the green/eco friendly movement. The shades of green in the picture on this page is pretty close to what I like.
- Other colors may be used, but carefully.
- The logo MUST contain some kind of symbol associated with a village--a steeple, a clock tower, whatever. Just the word "village" is not enough! Extra bonus if you somehow manage to capture the idea of the village green as mentioned in the summary.
- The logo MUST contain imagery or a suggestion of eco friendly, green-ness, environmental movement, that kind of thing. It can be done through color or through a symbol (e.g. a leaf, recycling symbol, a tree, wind turbine, solar energy, whatever.)
- The logo must clearly portray to someone looking at it that the website topic is environmental in nature.
- The successful contest MUST include the following:- -->A full header (containing the logo) that must be 960 px wide in PNG format.The height of the current header is 100 px and you should try to stick closer to that, however you may use more height if you need to as long as it would look good and is in proportion on the website. The header  should be ready to plop and use on the website immediately.
- -->The logo in vector format (in BOTH color and black and white) that can be used later to create business cards and stationery letterhead.
- For the header, feel free to use the entire space rather than just the left side (on the current header I use the ad placed on the right will probably go away so you can use full width if you like).
- If possible, I'd like to have the font file if you use a non standard font. I occasionally change the byline (natural/green living in sensible style) as I've not yet settled on a permanent one, so I'd like the flexibility of adding that in myself in the future. If you feel this is a problem, please let me know--I'm flexible on this requirement.
- Since most folks are building on a black background to accommodate my website, I will also need a version on a white background so that I can use the logo on a business card.

- I dont want anything too frilly or overly complex.
- Anything denoting antique-ness or old-ness.
- Anything "me too." Be creative!
- Please do NOT include the blog's byline "natural & green living in sensible style" in the header. This byline could change over time, and I can add it myself to a header later.