mySwan: logo needed for innovative 'citizen science' website

mySwan

We are biologists from the University of Melbourne studying the black swan, an iconic Australian species of great public affection, but about which relatively little remains known. One of our aims in this study is to involve members of the public in our research as ‘citizen scientists’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science) via a website. We are looking for a logo to help brand this website.

As part of our research, we place numbered collars on the birds’ necks, which allow us to identify the birds from a distance. We invite members of the public that see birds with collars in interesting places to report these sightings to us via the web site. In return they receive some information on the history of the bird they have seen (such as where it has been previously spotted, how old it is etc..). We also hope that the information we provide on the website will help to change any negative perceptions of wildlife tagging (some people dislike the collars because they worry about the birds’ welfare).

We are open to creative ideas for logos that will get across the idea of sharing between scientists and members of the public, via the collared black swans. We want this logo to be attractive, and for it to encourage people to care about the research and the birds, use the site and to return regularly.

Our target audience is anyone who cares about the environment or the natural world (nature lovers, birders, people fond of a particular local place where the birds live). We are also trying to reach people who might have mixed or negative feelings about wildlife tagging. We hope that the website can serve as a source of information to reassure them that there are no welfare problems associated with the collars.

We need a logo that includes a black swan with a collar and enhances the strong affection many people have for this bird. The collar should look realistic (correct proportions – images attached). The site name mySwan needs to be incorporated into the logo. Ideally, the logo will convey a message about two-way exchange between scientists and members of the public. We are open to the idea of an innovative design that conveys all of this, or perhaps simply a design of a collared swan with a tagline.

We would like two versions; one blended into each banner image at the top of our webpages (banner dimensions are 940x198 pixels); and an identical icon with a slightly modified tag line “submit your sighting” to click on for submitting a sighting.

The website is currently under construction: http://www.jojimo.com/blackswan. The look and feel of the website in general are not bedded down and we are happy to use different fonts and background colours for navigation if they suit the banner design better.

A website site that is trying to do something similar is http://www.redmap.org.au. This website is for a project encouraging people to submit sightings of marine life in Tasmania. The redmap people have chosen the byline ‘spot.log.map’ which is quite good, but we would like our tagline to convey more about the interactive nature of the site.