TechSparked - FUN NEW creative social networking tech community

TechSparked / techsparked.com

TechSparked is a new social webspace for people to share, learn, create, and meet people that are sparked by creative and innovative interactive technology (touchscreens, multitouch, gesture interaction, eye tracking, tangible interaction, etc). There are various social networking aspects to the site. We aim to have a friendly environment and involve not just people already sparked (inspired) by technology, but spark new people too.

TechSparked is not yet launched yet and is currently in development. TechSparked is developed by technology sparked people for technology sparked people. We aim to give people a platform to share creative technology projects and teach new people how to create their own. You can think of TechSparked as the deviantArt site for technology.

Our current market is fairly niche, but growing. We aim to attract anyone that is interesting in or sparked (inspired) by interactive technology.

Our current audience:

- Use the latest devices on the market

- Are researchers, hardware hackers, tinkerers, designers, technology innovators, creative and finding new uses for current technology

- Male age 13 - 35

We'd like to expand to:

- Attract creative female users too.

- Involve technology sparked people, technology companies, researchers (academics), professors (academics), hardware hackers, tinkerers and the general hobbyist.

This means we're looking for a design that's open enough and can fit into various categories and demographics.

Here's a couple examples of creative interactive technology projects that would be on our website and that a user could learn to create as well as network and meet those interested in similar projects:

1) MTmini - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQpr3W-YmcQ
1) Reactable - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_FzLya8y4
3) The EyeWriter - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84H-xLrLvvk
4) Laser Harp - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7um3sX7jzxQ
5) Slider - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqi5l-LwA5w
6) Laser Graffiti - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWcAkxzkv4

We want this to be as original as possible and therefore we're open to various possibilities.

We are looking for two main things: Logo and Mascot

Logo:
1) Logos must contain the word "techsparked". The name should stand on it's own - like twitter and facebook.

2) 'techsparked' is not CaSe SeNsiTiVe, although we'd only like these variations used (techSparked, techsparked, Techsparked, TechSparked).

3) The logo should be inviting, friendly, and web 2.0/3.0.

4) The logo can contain any number of colors. We are partial to blue (or something that compliments blue), but this is not required. Multiple color versions are a plus. A solid, non gradient version that works in print is also welcomed.

5) We'd like to emphasize the social and community aspects of the brand to keep the feeling open and friendly to new people.

6) Feel free to be creative in how you address the 'techsparked' text - you may integrate the mascot in the text or a highly stylysed text treatment to emphasize any part of the 'tech' or 'sparked' text.

7) Nothing too 'geeky'

Mascot:
1) We'd like a site mascot (how twitter has the bird, mahalo has Hawaiian characters, digg has the robot, etc) that'll be used throughout the site. The mascot can be a single creature/person or (better yet) a family of variations. Mascot(s) should be friendly, welcoming, and unique.

Mascot examples are included in attachment.

We are working on the website but awaiting logo for colors (right now we're focused on using blues). We may ask the winner to help with other design elements if they'd like.

We would like the final product delivered in PSD for Photoshop or AI if you’re using Illustrator or both.

Questions welcomed!