Crowdsourcing Design Inspiration: The Story of the TCO17 Logo

This blog was co-written by: James Marquez - Topcoder Member

What happens when you ask the world’s best designers to create a new logo for the 2017 Topcoder Open? You get blown away with ideas!

The first design challenge ever launched at Topcoder was for the 2005 Topcoder Open logo before our design community even existed! Want to see how that want down? Check out the contest details and winners here.

Now here we are 11 years later, and with countless tournament logos in the books, we’re still going to the community for our TCO logos. And why wouldn’t we? Our designers are the cream of the crop and each year during TCO logo design time, they blow us away with their incredible design skills.

The first TCO with the name "TCO" was in 2003. Before then, Topcoder had tried a few other names that didn't stick.

How did the TCO logo contest go?

Each year the TCO logo contest gets harder and harder. The amount of submissions is overwhelming and the quality of the designs are noteworthy. How do we just pick one! I make it my mission to give feedback to all the logos submitted because I want the designers to really have a chance to win. I know feedback is essential for designers and I hope it does help them.

After we do the final round, my copilot and I select our top favorites. We show off those favorites to all of the Topcoder staff for an internal vote and whoever comes out on top is the winner!

After more than 50 submissions, and lots of feedback, we selected this as our TCO17 logo design winner:

The winning logo and concept was made by djackmania and he had this to say about his design:

The logo symbolize process, progress, and prestige. Where a competition is a process through positive progress to achieve the ultimate goal, prestige.

Process

The bouncing track (sometime up and down) represents a process that must be passed by a competitor in the tournament.

Progress

Only competitors with positive progress could qualify for TCO.

Prestige

At the end, the bounce upward describes the prestige that would be obtained if the competitor can go through all the processes and challenges.

The year may have changed and the colors varied, but the tournament still holds the prestige it’s always had. The gift of a new logo each year is our most sincere reminder of the greatness our community holds.