A new Blogads logo (and maybe make $1000 or $300 for you)

UPDATE: Please note that this contest is over and we have selected a winning logo as of Fall 2005. You can see it on the top of this page and any other page on Blogads.com.

Yesterday on the phone Doc Searls expostulated, unsolicited, that the current Blogads logo is “butt ugly.” He’s not the first to complain.

The logo was actually a mistake. Three and a half years ago, unhappy with the creepy corporate logos a professional designer kept proposing, I scribbled in my notebook an inkling of what our logo might look like. As a placeholder, we scanned that scrawny image and stuck it on our prototypes… where it has lived ever since.

In the spring, I asked some blogger friends about inviting the blogosphere to help create a new logo. I fantasized about a piece of graffiti or something hand-drawn — some graphic incarnation of blogging’s hand-crafted joy and social richness. But their feedback was mostly negative. Blogging friends in the ad industry said “do an RFP, hire a pro, draft a creative brief, hammer out a brand identity… do it right!” Demotivated by that feedback and with lots of other projects bubbling, we put the idea on the backburner.

Well, with the third anniversary of Blogads’ first sale looming and a new programmer on staff but not yet locked in the madhouse of Blogads 3.0 coding, we’ve decided to FINALLY adopt a new logo. Please help us do better. Here’s the link to more information and the logo submission form.