Logo and several characters for My Place With Jesus kids' ministry

Religious

My Place With Jesus (MPWJ) is a Christian ministry reaching kids ages 7-12. Our ministry features video-based lessons drawn from the Bible, along with activities for kids available from the website—puzzles, crafts, recipes, etc. We also have printed Bible lessons, an app, CDs and DVDs, and books in the process of being created. A central feature of MPWJ is the clubhouse, which is a tree house. Melissa is the host, who sends monthly challenges to kids, answers their emails, etc. We also have Dexter the dog, a cartoon character.

Detailed information is provided below. Please read! GOALS FOR LOGO & CHARACTER DESIGN Our primary aim is to update our logo to a fresh, fun design. The new design could be based on the current logo design, or it could be something completely new. We like a fun, bouncy look. The logo needs to appeal to a broad range of ages of both boys and girls. We also want to update the design of a character used with the logo—Dexter the dog, and introduce a couple new characters—a boy and a girl. In other words, we want a logo design that could be used by itself, without the characters, but could also be paired with the characters as needed. Later, we want to work with the winning designer to create more characters, and various poses, as separate design projects. So it’s important that the designer have character drawing skills. The idea is that we could use these characters throughout our website, brochures, posters, and other projects to create to add depth to the MPWJ “universe.” SUMMARY OF THIS CONTEST This is what we’d like from a designer: - New design for our logo (flat look, solid colors), optionally with a new icon to go with the logotype. - A fun, possibly 3D styled presentation of the logo. - 2-3 characters, including Dexter, in a style that matches the look the logo. - Agree to work with us to create additional characters and poses in the future as separate design projects. We will probably want 8-10 poses of the main characters including Dexter, and a few supplemental characters in 2-3 poses each. We will want a variety of boys and girls of various nationalities, perhaps some other animals (Missy the cat, etc.), and maybe a cartoon version of Melissa. We will request an estimate of how much it would cost for you to do all of that. - The final logo design needs to be your original artwork, something that we can trademark. We are also requiring that all characters be your own original designs, unique to this project. EXAMPLES OF OTHER PROJECTS We are in the process of redesigning our website. You can see a very rough concept of the new website design here (please ignore the slider image design—we know it’s really bad!): https://www.dropbox.com/s/w7cdxcxrwvatis8/MPWJ%20website.jpg?dl=0 We are in the process of creating a new series of Bible lessons in print. A few examples of the lessons can be seen here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mn608qw7gysm30f/AADhjf-OmXFCYLy65huQfcF5a?dl=0 You can see our older videos with previous host Jean on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MyPlaceWithJesus. We are working on a new series of episodes featuring our new host, Melissa. LOGO The logo needs to be a design that can be used in various color treatments: - in full color (CMYK), and could have gradients, shadows, or whatever - with 2-3 spot colors (Pantone colors) - in one-color (black and white) contexts Currently our logo is just the words (a logotype). However, we are interested in possibly having an icon for our logo (a logomark). We do not have a concept for an icon. Designing an icon for our logo is an optional part of the project, but would be a plus. If you include an icon, it should be something distinctive, not a symbol or concept that is generic or overused, and wouldn’t clash with the characters. Here are examples of our current logo, shown in full color, outlines, and spot color: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/95qecgr34olc8n6/AABO5sIZS15DU9bR-5te0S8ja?dl=0 CHARACTERS The main personality of My Place With Jesus is Melissa, who appears as a live action person in video, and who interacts with children through emails and posts on the website. In this old artwork, you can see the MPWJ logo in the top right, and Melissa holding a plush toy Dexter: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ggnx43xhvvg0lw/Logo%20and%20Melissa%20with%20Dexter%20plush.jpg?dl=0 This is a newer photo of Melissa, but in a more formal setting: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbw1son8jhdl5lh/Melissa.jpg?dl=0 The main cartoon character associated with My Place With Jesus is the dog Dexter. He is not part of the logo, but is often shown with it. We would like to have a newer, fresher version of Dexter. One that doesn’t look so flat. Examples of Dexter: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rp7uav9m90aqlj1/AABvjelQme2INSWjMhLTR16Xa?dl=0 We also want to add some characters: a boy and a girl, acting as friends or companions to the audience. (We do not have names for the children yet.) The target age for child characters is 10-12 years old. Eventually we will add more, maybe some other animals. Here are some character styles we like: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kwphi0c7tc87h8j/AABaWT7GNNk3Uo4_CVQcyz9ca?dl=0 We want characters that look happy and clean cut. They should have at least semi-realistic proportions (not huge heads, for example). We’d like them to look like modern kids, but not rebellious or reflecting bad attitudes, or dressed immodestly. Older videos from MPWJ also featured Missy, a black cat. A woodpecker and a ladybug also appeared as repeat guests in the videos. If we use them again, they would all need to be redesigned. A vector-based style could make scaling the characters easier, which would be a plus. It could also make it easier for our in-house designers to alter the characters to create new poses. TYPOGRAPHY The current design uses the font ITC Kabel Ultra. It works, but we are open to trying a newer, fresher font. Here are some fonts we like: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/824s1rn0n8lfsif/AACmtxW2DL_AfmbYHsYODy2qa?dl=0 Your design does NOT need to be based on one of those fonts. They are examples of styles we like. The font should be fun, and not too frilly or girly. Also, the font should not be too specific to a theme like ‘Old West’ or ‘Medieval’ or ‘Sci-Fi’. It should be a font that could be used in a variety of contexts. LOGO PRESENTATION IN A MORE FUN STYLE Just to be clear, we need a logo that can be used by itself, in a flat style, like our current logo — that is how it would appear embroidered on a shirt, etc. But in certain situations, like for a brochure or poster design, we would like to pair our logo with characters, and perhaps add some extra dimension to the logo. Perhaps give it a background, etc., so it is more fun and engaging. To differentiate from the basic logo design, I am calling this a “presentation style” of our logo. Because the clubhouse (tree house) is a big part of My Place With Jesus, incorporating a tree house into a design based on the logo would be our preference. But we are open to other ideas. Here are some examples of logo styles that we like: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/npnut15uwncc62s/AABooorS100rjiaP-KdkYux6a?dl=0 The above examples are merely for reference. We don’t want to copy anyone else’s logo. CONCLUSION To sum that up, we want one logo and 3-4 other designs. We would work with you on additional designs in the future, which we’d pay for separately. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about these specifications.

We are paying $1,200 to the winning designer, and $150 each to up to two additional finalists (if 99designs allows that, we are still checking).

Every design category has flexible pricing for all budgets. Character or mascot starts at €319.