Permitting Headaches and a New Logo

There's not enough Tylenol in the world that can kick the headache we've experienced over the past two weeks at the Building Department. Imagine government workers with a higher skill set and the same attitude. Actually, securing the permit hasn't been the problem, that part was relatively painless. What's getting us fired up is the cost associated with this whole racket. We budgeted one number to cover permits but it's coming in at an entirely higher one. Suffice to say, we're going by department, down the list, and asking for a reduced rate. I've had better luck breathing underwater than I did in getting us a reduction in permitting cost.

Some good news is that we've decided on the logo--finally--and will be blowing it out to the public within the week. I have to give a plug for this on-line service called Logo Tournament. I can't stop singing its praises. The gist is this, you fill out a questionnaire that describes what your looking for in a logo. You set a dollar amount that you want to pay for a logo and the time frame you're looking to have it completed. So designers from around the WORLD submit sketches of your logo from the information you provided. So you literally get entries from Spain, Italy, Russia, Indonesia, China, the list goes on. Our particular logo contest got 187 entries over the span of 10 days. We got everything from the sublime to the ridiculous. Obviously, the higher the prize amount you set the better talent you attract. We ended up going with a guy from Romania who nailed what we were looking for. I will say that the decision was extremely difficult, with so many choices it got to be down-right confusing. But we had a handful of friends with a decent eye help narrow them down. You also get to work one-on-one with each designer during--and after--the contest to really drill down on exactly what you want. Brilliant! Go make yourself a logo!

Here's a sneak peak. Now it's still being worked on so save the comments for later;)