Well, we went global! Our top 2 designs hail from two very good graphic designers, one based in Montreal, Canada and the other from Ulm, Germany. So, whichever one we finally select – we’ve gone global!

We like different elements of each design, so we took the best of each and asked the 2 designers to come up with variations that could work together. We have black and white versions as well as designs in various colors. We are very pleased with the results.

art251 design #1, Ulm, Germany

art251 design #2, Montreal, Canada

So, watch for one, of both, of these to appear at an art space near you, very soon.

I’m stuck in Texas trying to finish the business plan for art251. So, it goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – I’m missing the annual Armory Show in New York City. The show runs from March 27-30 at Pier94. This year’s count is around 150 galleries featuring all new works from living artists… or is it living works from new artists?

Perhaps indicative of the growing influence of contemporary art in Europe and Asia, in this year’s event non-U.S. galleries outnumber home-grown ones.

So, since I’m unable to attend the Armory – after all, I did get to visit Art Basel Miami in December 2007 – I’ve posted a short pre-opening video that makes me feel as if I am, well, almost, but not-quite really there.

It’s over. After starting our quest for a new logo design just over a month ago, we’ve finally called-off the search. We received 490 entries from all around the world. We gave feedback to each designer, on every design. We ranked each entry on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5-stars being the best. We ended up with around 30 or so in the 5-star category. We rated these on another scale – funky, artsy, urban, trendy, sophisticated and expensive – which would reflect how each might be perceived by our target customers.  It took us a while to whittle down our top 30 – the quality was exceptional, and we had become quite emotionally attached to some of the designs! We eventually got down to the top 10 and then top 5.

Before I go on, here’s a screen shot of the top 24 entries. Each of these is a potential corporate logo, which could end up on our storefront sign, letterhead, website, business cards, packaging and all manner of other items (Roger Federer’s arm band, Tiger Wood’s polo-shirt perhaps?). But more importantly, each of these, and each of the remaining 466 designs, is a work of ART.

About a month ago, we set out to re-design our look. Our logo, website, blog and paper-based marketing materials needed professional assistance from a real graphics designer. So, we went local AND global.

Locally, we contracted with Chris Lauer, a graphic artist and illustrator to re-vamp our logo. He gave us about 30 or so great new designs to consider.

Then, we went global. We posted a logo design contest on 99designs. The response was overwhelming. We received 460 designs from over 80 designers. Entries came from all around the globe, including Argentina, Nigeria, Indonesia, UK, Portugal, France, Romania, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Pakistan, Germany, India, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Taiwan, Netherlands, Serbia and of course the US. In our own very local way we’ve become a globally designed brand.

So, we and our retail designer now have 490 logo designs – or rather, art – to sift through. The creativity, quality and quantity of this work really caught us off-guard. It will take us a while to rank our favorites and even get down to a short-list of 10 or so. As we do, we hope to post some of the best designs here.

We signed a contract with a talented, local retail designer – Bryan Wetz – today. He’s also an artist and furniture maker, so I think we’ve got a bargain. He’ll be bringing us some fresh ideas on how to turn our empty shell into an eye-catching space. I suspect he’ll also tell us what not to do and how much our crazy ideas would really cost. If you’re interested in learning more about Bryan, please check out his website, here.

It’s a shame the HGTV channel doesn’t have a reality TV show for this type of activity – we have all the ingredients: cool design, art, drama, attorneys, art, tension, insurance brokers, art, hip designer, signage requirements, general contractor, and did I mention art. I wonder what the show would be called?

Since marking up our 54 page lease with blue and hot pink stickies and even more scribbles we’ve made some great progress with the landlord. We’ve resolved all the major economic issues and only have a few items to clarify and agree upon. So, we probably only have one more round to go. This is getting exciting.