Updates

Thanks for the interest so far. 

The designs coming in so far have helped us clarify a few design elements. 

1) We would like an icon that is distinguishable from a typical government agency bureaucratic institution.  We are based mostly in North America and it seems like every health agency has an icon of people holding hands in a circle or a butterfly sitting on a flower. We do not want an icon of people holding hands. 

2) We are looking for a style that is professional, but it can also be playful. Think of Google. We all understand that there are a lot of really smart people at Google, but at the same time the corporate image (and logo) is a little playful - almost winking at us. Well, we are similar. We are confident that we create the world's best health calculators - but we don't work in government and so can be a little playful. 

3) Design elements that are really important are "calculation" and "health" - preferably "healthy living".  We weren't sure going into the design competition whether we wanted to be abstract or blatantly obvious about "health and calculation".  We now lean toward the obvious side, but this still means that the concepts of "health" and "calculation" could be stylized. For example, we remain quite open to the image of a calculator, but it should be easily distinguishable from the sort of icon or image that you would see if you quickly did a google image search. If it is a calculator, it is important to have a strong design element of "health", preferably healthy living.

4) We will be building a website following logo design. Right now we are leaning towards a website with a lot of white space and a large central "calculator" with buttons that represent different types of calculations that you can perform (e.g. life expectancy based on healthy living).  Again, think of Google or Wolfran-Alpha. Lots of white space, inviting the user to make a calculation. 

If there is a strong calculator element in the logo, then we would then carry design elements from the logo into the larger website calculator and perhaps use just the letter word mark (or word mark and health elements) on the splash page (maybe in the calculator display?).  If so, we would reserve the combination logo for other purposes and web pages. This may mean that we would may need to request additional work from you - which we would pay for.

Two notes:

1) We will be extending the project deadline. We've had an unexpected staff change. We are very apologetic to everyone who has been making a big effort to get designs in for our first deadline.  

2) Here is a link to an icon we like from a partnering company. The company connects together different health information systems. 

http://www.cliniconex.com

We posted the example because we don't seem to be getting more stylized versions of logos and seems to be a potential approach to maintain a strong calculator element, be very distinctive and also add "healthy living" in a way that isn't nearly pasting something on to the calculator. That said, we are not designers ourselves, but interested to see if inspires others as it has us.

One element that isn't working for us is a calculator with the addition of leaves. A real challenge seems to be to have a very clean and clear image that conveys both the aspect of calculator and healthy living. 

Project Deadline Extended
Reason: We've had an unexpected staff change. We are very apologetic to everyone who has been making a big effort to get designs in for our first deadline.  
Added Friday, September 28, 2012

Project Deadline Extended
Added Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Project Deadline Extended
Reason: Sorry folks. We are still regrouping after unexpected staff changes.
Added Thursday, October 18, 2012

We are back from our delays! Thanks for everyone's patience. We are hoping to finish the competition soon, but are aware that we have been slow to give feedback.

If needed, we'll probably add a few days to give designers a chance to encorporate suggestions.
Added Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Project Deadline Extended
Added Wednesday, October 24, 2012