Unlock the Music - CTV Logo

For the famed ClickTheVote contest! Forgive me if this description falls under the "too much information" catagory. I just want to make sure I include everything!

I began with some really pathetic rough sketches of different ideas. From the start, I wanted to convey the idea of music being set free. I tried a note breaking free of chains, then floating in an opened cage, and then I came up with this.

The lock is rusty and old-fashioned to represent the out of date laws and practices ClickTheVote fights. The key represents the ideals of ClickTheVote - shining, pure, new, and capable of removing the old lock.

The lock is of my own design but the key is drawn from an actual photo.

I also had fun with the musical note. I wanted to make it very fanciful-looking, just for fun. It was it's odd curvey shape even in my original sketches - it just had more personality that way.

This logo was created in Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 7, using only tools and filters in the program, except for the note, which gained it's metalic look using Flaming Pear's Super Blade Pro. The key and note were made entirely in raster, while the lock was drawn in vector before adding the details. The leather background texture in this preview was also created in PSP 7.

The source files are included here in a .zip file. I've included several versions, in different formats including PSP, Photoshop, TIF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, and PNG. The background texture is only on this preview- the others all have transparent or white backgrounds.

There is a TIF, BMP and PNG version with no shadow (for easier manipulation).

Also included is a simplified GIF, TIF and BMP version in black and white (that is to say black graphics on a white background) that works well and looks good at small sizes.

Long story short - looks cool, very symbolic, gets the message across, in lots of formats so anyone should be able to open it, has a simplefied version.

Please do consider my Unlock the Music logo for ClickTheVote. I would love to be even a small part of this great new cause!