Discussion: Urgent request -- new logo needed

Corn Maze Orienteering USA (CMOUSA) is in need of a new logo. It has decided to hold an open competition. Because of the tight deadline, the federation has condensed its requirements to the following two essential criteria.

1. The logo should express the athleticism, the coolness, and the deviousness of corn maze orienteering.
2. Any logo wishing to be considered must be submitted (either posted here or e-mailed to pg@crocker.com) by 9 pm (EDT), Tuesday, October 19, 2010 (that's this evening).

The judges reserve the right to reject all submissions, realizing that that would mean (sadly) that tomorrow's national championships will be conducted logo-free.

A commission of one Andrew Jackson ($20) will be paid to the winning entry.

Is use of "Corn Maze Orienteering U S A" required, or will "C M O U S A" suffice?

9 pm (EDT), Tuesday, October 19, 2010

*gasp* But that's not enough time to get absolutely everyone's opinion!

Guy - CMOUSA is clearly jargonistic, and won't appeal to CMO's target market of young female retiree professional male unemployed comatose athletes.

I don't think my psyche has fully recovered from the slugfest of OUSA logos, so I'm out. Though, the $20 is tempting..

Is use of "Corn Maze Orienteering U S A" required, or will "C M O U S A" suffice?

Read the criteria, especially #1. Neither is required.

A little under 7 hours to go.

Here's is what I put together when I should have been paying attention in a meeting at work. I could only take a picture of it instead of scanning, so it's a little fuzzy. This is just to start people thinking. You need the first one to get the ball rolling.

Wow, that's actually extremely good. Kissy, I love it!

That's a great event logo.

However, according to the request, it appears that PG is asking for a logo for CMOUSA, which would be a governing body, and not an event.

Obviously, CMOUSA is going to use this logo on websites, magazines, hats, t-shirts, jerseys for the US Corn-O Team, business cards, etching it into the corner of corn mazes....

This logo could get the creative juices flowing:

In the spirit of cooperative design but having no design talent, I will make suggestions for improvement but offer no actual prototype.

I suggest that kissy make her maze in a O shape, not square. And, changing the corn to red/white/blue would go along way to waving the flag. ;)

About a minute late...

A minute late? You have almost 2 more hours!

And I love it!

Oh, whoops, I misremembered and thought it was 7 PM. Looks like I have time to come up with another one if I get inspired.

@vmeyer: Unfortunately, that creation exhausted whatever miniscule amount of creativity I have in body. Plus, I was mostly just bored in a meeting and was distracting myself. I vote for jj's design.

Yes, J-J!! That was what I was thinking about on the ride home today - the OUSA logo with corn in the circle. You improved it with the color, though I really think the title should be changed to Corn O-Maze. ;)

kissy, someone else can now run with both ideas and then take all the credit for our brilliance.

My html skills are rusty, this may not work...

Indeed.

Wow, some awesome logos so far -- entries close in 13 minutes!

Too late, I know, but...

From Miscellaneous

Oh, in deference to Janet being the most recent event registrar, I think PG needs to extend the deadline to 9 PM west coast time, since that is when most people say that they thought the event deadline was when they miss the east coast time.

:-)

The O-Mazing Race!

Such fine logo submissions. Such a conundrum for the judges. Fortunately CMOUSA had assembled and waiting a distinguished panel of judges -- both from within the world of corn maze orienteering, with both the elite athlete and recreational sides represented, and also from the outside worlds of marketing and academia.

The instructions to the panel were pretty much what you would expect -- be smart, be fast, be devious.

And the panel has done its work -- if there is one thing clear about this whole process it is that CMOUSA does not waste time -- and the winner is....

Actually, it's going to cost us two Andrew Jacksons, because the winners are....

The fabulous JJ for the federation logo, and...

The beautiful Ms. Kissy for the event logo.

Look for both of them on tomorrow's maps.

Thanks to all the entrants, they were great. And now time to move on, much more to do, and the first start is less than 18 hours away.

Fine choices from fine submissions. The discernment of the governing body is clearly evident.

I'm a"maze"d I came up with anything, really, and rather happy with the composition of my submission (if not the quality) given the limited time. But I do think J-J's is the best logo for the federation. Too cute. ;-)

Just wish we could be there. Have a great time!

Do I get any royalties? I mean, come on. I'm right here. ;-)

What wonderful news to wake up to! Thanks so much. Please donate my winnings to the U.S. Corn Maze-O Senior Team, restricting its use to uniforms only. Thanks!

Ditto to kissy, of course. (All the Team money is going into one common pool with the new budget these days, right?)

@ JJ. No, while there is one budget and one big bank account, each team has it's own line items within that account. Kissy is specifying her donations to a particular purpose. It will be designated as "Temporarily Restricted," and can only be used by the US CM Senior team for the purpose specified.

More problematic is the lack of a Corn-Maze Team ESC and a set of well defined goals and training plans. Without these things, I am afraid the team will lack the cohesion and energy necessary to make an impact at the international level.

lack the... energy necessary

How can you lack energy when you compete in a field full of carbs?

TomGaGa, you are not using correct CorporateSpeak. Do not write: "to make an impact at the international level."

Instead, use the more aggressive: "to impact the international level."

There will only be a mild fine this time, but if it happens again you will be suspended for the rest of the season.

But with the World Champs most likely in North America within the next year or two (GHO and DVOA are both interested in bidding), it's time to get going.

And given the swiftness which CMOUSA has shown in organizing the 2010 US Champs, I wouldn't think that forming an ESC and creating a set of well defined goals and training plans would take more than a day or two. And then it's just a short step to, well, forget about just having an impact, the goal is domination at the international level.

And then perhaps another day or two and CMOUSA will have solved the problem of the eligibility rules for the North Americans.... :-)

On a similar note, it's too bad you didn't seek WRE status for today's event, given the high calibre of the participants and the limited opportunities for CM orienteers to improve their international rankings.

it's too bad you didn't seek WRE status

From whom? ICMOF?

I wonder what the team uniforms will look like...

I think the biggest international competition will come from two countries.

First, there is the Brits and their crop circles. However, crop circles are the corn-maze equivalent of continental terrain, possessing mostly large-scale features and little detail. They just won't have the experience necessary to compete in a highly detailed soup-can map.

Then there are the Chileans, whose native terrain are the Nazca Plains. While somewhat more complicated than a crop circle, they are not up to the detail of a corn maze. However, the figures and shapes of the Nazca plains were constructed by aliens and this will likely endow the Chileans with some bad-ass CM skills that we can't even yet imagine.

And the results of the U.S. Corn Maze Orienteering Championships are. . .?

...mentioned in the other thread. :-)

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