Win Fame, Fortune, and Glory designing a Shopper Marketing Logo

Retailgeek

Logo for Retailgeek.com shopper marketing blog. Thanks for reading my brief!

For the past 15 years I've been designing retail shopping experiences for the companies like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, T-Mobile, and Microsoft. I'm very well known in our goofy little retail niche (especially amongst consumer electronics retailers). If you've had a bad experience shopping for an HDTV, digital camera, or mobile phone, it's probably my fault (sorry about that).

I recently spread my wings, by leaving the design firm I own, to take over the strategy practice for a larger firm that designs web-stores for major retailers (SonyStyle, BassPro, Hanes, AdvanceAuto, Moosejaw, etc...), in addition to my traditional work.

Retailgeek is about helping consumers make purchase decisions (in stores, on websites, and on mobile devices), and about the rapidly evolving technology that makes it all possible.

Innovations in mobile and social are fundamentally changing how we all shop. We're all likely to visit websites, use mobile tools, and consult our social networks on our way to making a purchase. That's what Retailgeek.com is all about.

Thanks for your help making the blog become a friendly, fun, inviting, and credible place to hang out!

Future work to follow. I will be adjusting rest of blog theme to fit new logo design and color pallet.

Business managers for major retailers and consumer brands looking for thought leadership about shopping marketing.
Media that cover shopping, social, and mobile trends.
Business partners, peers, and other thought leaders in shopper marketing, looking for fresh ideas.
Event organizers looking for speakers for their shopper marketing events.
Publishers looking for great content about shopper marketing.
My mother.

A logo rendered in as header banner on http://retailgeek.com
Final graphic will be a PNG 960 x 140 replacing http://retailgeek.com/wp-content/up…_logo1.png

Required Elements:
Stylized text "retailgeek" (primary element)
Symbol representing the retailgeek brand (primary element)
Background
Slogan text "shopper marketing for an evolving world"

I'm looking for a something hip/fun/web2.0/whimsical, not too corporate/traditional/static.
Symbol should be relatively square and usable w/o the text. Symbol w/ text should be landscape.
Prefer cleaner styles that can be reduced to small sizes (favicon, etc..), that work when reduced to black on white, or white on black.
Color scheme is open. I like muted pallets with a vibrant splash (such as strong orange with pastel blues and grays).
Symbol should imply retail + tech. Possible symbolism:
Retail - shopping cart, basket, price tag, shopping bag (no dollar signs, cash registers).
Tech - Mobile (smart phones, wireless symbols), Social, BarCodes (particularly 2D QRCodes).
See attached moodboard for logo's I like, example symbols, pallets, etc...
Websites I like: retailprophet.com, moo.com, shopkick.com
Will require source files used to create .PNG. Prefer object oriented (illustrator, eps, etc...).

Does not need to match current site.

I really appreciate your skill, do not hesitate to ask and questions.