Logo Design

I have entered a logo-competition at sigames.com in which you can win 10.000 pounds. The assignment is to create a logo that will fit the box of a football manager game, but that can also be used as a batch on merchandise, like caps and jackets. Please tell me what you think, which one you like best and what I can still improve.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sandrs/FM2005/

Also, there is this rumour that you can't use existing fonts in logo design. I used Arial Black, would this be a problem? And what if I free transform it a bit?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

I really like the second and fifth myself. No advice here, im impressed!

I like the 5th one too, but it would look much better if it had the Brazilian flag instead of The Netherlands... hehehe

I'm kidding, it looks great.

that is awesome, definatly the 5th or 6th. :D

Im voting for the 2nd.

#1 - I like it, but the gradient "05" doesnt work. Especially for a logo, cause what if the logo was going to be stitched on a hat or jacket? Most logos should be solid blocks of color. Also i dont really like the plain 05. It comes off more as a number on the back of a shirt rather than a year. And the way its blended, it breaks the flow of the whole curve.

#2 - This is the one i pick, cause of the 2005. The only part of this version i dont like is the orange. I think if you replaced it with black (like #1) it would look more solid. The orange is weird.....it comes off as kinda a playful color. The black instead....is like a period. It ends the logo and makes a statement (if any of that makes sense.....lol)

#3&4 - I wouldnt submit these as the orig. logo. Its very high contrast. Even though thats what #2 would look like printed on a black material, it doesnt have enough breathing room in that small image. Like if it was in the middle of a jacket or something, there would be enough material all around it that it would actually stick out.

#5&6 - I dont like these because i like the consistency with the curves (instead of the flags). Also your using the same colors as in the flags, so i see no need to change it. Also again, im not partial to the 05's.

Go with #2 - i like the "2005" as opposed to "05". But you should make that orange stripe BLACK (as seen in #1). Orange looks out of place.

Also, what font is that? I really like it..

Nos.

There are minor jaggies in all of them at the top, but nice.!

I really like them a lot.

I don't think the drop shadow is necessary if it goes on a hat. Usually its a patch thats applied and that stands a little off the hat anyways.

Thanks guys, glad you all like it. I think I'll go with the second one indeed, and probably will change to black. The 2 logo's with the black background were made just in case the game-box would be black, I don't really like them either but there really wasn't much of a choice but to invert the original.

Nostalgia, that great font is called "Arial Black" :D LOL

msz070 - I know about the jaggies. I've redone the logo in illustrtor but still can't get rid of all of them. It's much better now though.

The shadow behind the first one is only supporsed to be on the box, I have sent the same one without the shadow.

But to re-askmy question, is it legally allowed to use standard windows fonts in logo-designs, or should I create my own font? Would even free transforming the font a bit change anything? And if not, how do I create/edit fonts in a simple and fast way?

Thanks again!

Don't know the answer on the font question, I like the last one but I'l liek so see a little more seperation on the football maybe a line around it or something, I just seem to be losing it in the background.