IPA logo contest entries

Having had the fun of witnessing the judging of a couple preliminary rounds of a magazine design contest in college, I'm always a little leery of entering design contests. Don't get me wrong: contests can be a fabulous way for designers to showcase their work and for potential clients to be introduced to designers they might never have come across otherwise. On the other hand, it's difficult to know what exactly the judges are looking for (for that matter, what they're looking for could change depending on the day of the week), and it's an overwhelming and sort of bizarre process for judges to choose a design from a pile of deserving entries.

All that being said, when I heard that the Idaho Psychological Association was planning to revamp its logo in honor of its 50th anniversary and was holding a competition to pick a new look, I decided to enter. I love a challenge.

The two logos above are my entries (minus the watermarks, of course). The logo on the left is my favorite: It's representative of the human face of mental health care in the state of Idaho (a cause that, it seems, is just starting to get some of the attention it deserves), and the organization's influence across the state. The second logo is a little safer, but I also am quite proud of it: It draws on some of the features that exist in the current logo, and the scenery backing the "psi" is representative of the potential quality of life in the state.

No word yet on when the organization will announce a contest winner. Fingers crossed!