(Above Designs, Clockwise from Upper Left via:  Pinoy Athena, iKnod, Mukhtar & Bloc)

Much of what we feature on WebUrbanist is the culmination of an artistic or designer process, but it is worth seeing that sometimes pieces of the process itself is as creative, compelling and eye-catching  as the final product. Webist Publishing (WebUrbanist & WebEcoist) is currently engaged in a remarkable design contest, of which the end result will be brand new logos for both sites!

As exciting as this is, the various submissions to 99designs (like the simple-but-evolved series of designs by sixsixsix above) are equally or more so – they show an extremely impressive range of unique logo design work – even if only one can win in the end. See some of the best below and if you like their work, remember: you too can run a 99designs competition for a logo or other designer needs (and crowd-sourcing is so chic!).

One approach has been to create a separate-but-integrated iconography – identity through a symbol that is either directly or indirectly tied into the text of the design. In some instances, the more graphic-oriented portions are similar in scale and tone but different in color, details and other features while being similar in overall font and style – straight versus curved, rectilinear versus circular and so forth. The first pair above was produced by jminig and the second set was created by bobot.

The kinds of designs discussed in the previous paragraph raise an important core question about iconography, symbols and text. Some designers tackled potential approaches head on with variants of each type – such as the above design sets by adbas in which the more graphic portions are either explicitly isolated or entirely integrated as letters.

Some ideas showed a particularly artistic approach, combined with a creative use of negative space. While they may be a bit too casual in some cases for these particular sites, they illustrate a great variety of design personalities in practice. In order, the above were designed by DemonAce, Pistacho and Asiku.

One of the most ingenious proposals using negative space (as well as positive) has been presented in two forms by KingFelix – a more horizontal continuous-text version and a stacked-on-top variant. One of the neatest aspects of this particular design is the way it uses similar overall strategies but differing details to define the logos through similarity as well as difference.

There are many ways that designs can evolve over time, as some of the aforementioned designs have already illustrated. In some cases, the process is not necessarily linear from ‘worse’ to ‘better’ per say – meaning: both the first and final product can be engaging in different ways, sometimes through simplicity on the one side and complexity on the other. JawsofSteel created these in sequence, but each is worthy of praise in its own right.

Last but certainly not least is the work of Marius Jivoin – the same talented individual who created the unique logo design you see on Gaijtz. His work manages to be a great combination of creative and professional – it is not overly artsy, but is also not stuck in the overly-corporate mode typical of many logo designers (who are, to be fair, used to working on more corporate projects).

Ah, Cyber Monday – the infamous online version of the even more dreaded Black Friday. But before we get to that, here are a few exciting new features for WebUrbanist to help you stay connected to not only the content on this site but also to other amazing articles and publications. We also have a small favor to ask should be feel in a giving mood (do not worry – we are not requesting handouts).

Google Friend Connect (to the right) allows you to sign up, swap stories and favorite websites with old friends – and to make new friends as well with similar interests. Moreover, it is a great place to give us feedback on your favorite (as well as least-liked) aspects of WebUrbanist. Signing up (on the sidebar) is super simple and takes just a few seconds. Likewise, the new Facebook Fan Page for WebUrbanist is up and running – please help spread the word support us in our drive to get 1,000 fans as fast as possible. This will make for a stronger community of course but will also help us secure our custom Facebook URL.

If you are going to go shopping on this busiest-of-the-year digital purchasing day perhaps you would consider giving us a boost as well – it won’t cost you a thing and would sure help lighten the (server) load on our end. You see, it costs hundreds of dollars a month to host WebUrbanist – but if you click on one of these links to Amazon and buy something from Amazon.com, we get a small commission. Any revenue received by WU will be applied directly to offsetting our hosting fees. You will not have to pay a penny extra … just, well, if you are going to shop there anyway for the holidays, we would love it if you could help us out in the process!

You will already find that WebEcoist, Dornob and Gajitz have Facebook Groups – and they will shortly also have Google Friend Connection functionality. We really hope that in the holiday spirit of sharing you will consider helping to support WebUrbanist on Facebook and these other sites by joining up, participating in discussions and sharing what you like with your friends. In development: more dynamic, multifunctional and informational feeds on all sites – as well as additional image galleries, more streamlined load times and a reduced number advertisements shown to regular readers. It might seem simple, but a lot goes into making these publications work on a day to day basis. Nonetheless, the most important element is and remains you: our loyal readers, followers and fans both onsite and off.

We promised you a number of new changes when WebUrbanist turned one year old including more frequent and diverse content from fresh new authors. However, we kept one piece a complete secret until now: WebEcoist, an environmental counterpoint to everyone’s favorite WebUrbanist. Subscribe now for even more of your favorite travel, art, architecture and design oddities with a twist – a focus on strange animals, bizarre plants, green design, amazing environmental phenomena and other natural wonders of the world.

So far we have published a few foundational articles to get the ball rolling including the an introduction to the site, a brief history of the modern green movement, an overview of today’s most pressing environmental issues, a beginner’s guide to going green and for a bit of spice (in case you thought we forgot our roots!) a piece on the incredible tree-climbing goats of Morocco. And exclusively for you, our beloved readers, a sneak peak: in the next weeks will we be publishing content on the most exotic endangered species, brilliant failures of green technology, subversive guerrilla gardening and awesome green vehicles.

So to long-time fans of WebUrbanist and new readers alike: check out the new site, subscribe to the feed, leave your comments and watch for the forums coming soon on both WebUrbanist and WebEcoist. We appreciate you and your contributions to the site whether they be handy story tips, constructive comments or just your readership. Thanks for helping Webist Media grow and thrive! For more information on our awesome new project check out our very first post on the new site and subscribe to the feed!