Brandmark/logo for a U.S. Financial/Savings product

Bank on Yourself - http://www.bankonyourself.com

Bank On Yourself is a company that specializes in helping people achieve their financial goals and objectives. The plans use a little-known, but decades-old type of whole life insurance policy, combined with powerful financial principles not currently taught in schools or universities.

The company’s mission is to educate Americans and help them achieve financial security and peace of mind.

Please visit http://www.bankonyourself.com for more information and a look at the current logo design.

Most people who are attracted to the Bank on Yourself methodology are somewhat aligned with the current Tea Party concepts of frustration with government and taxation, pride in self-reliance and disgust at corporate bailouts that should not have been necessary. (please understand Bank on Yourself is NOT affiliated with the Tea Party movement and is NOT a political entity).

MSNBC recently offered this series of portraits and stories about some of the Tea Party folks. The frustrations that many of these people are expressing are representative of how many Bank on Yourself clients feel about money.
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/face…-tea-party

Again, we are NOT a political organization, our values merely align with many of the values expressed by this movement.

Anybody who wants to be financially independent, no longer relying on traditional financial institutions or systems like the 401(k) and Wall Street. They've been burnt before and they want to protect their money, not subject it to loss via market decline and/or fees and mismanagement.

Self-reliant people who believe in living within their means. "They think federal spending, deficits and taxes are too high, and they think no one in Washington is listening to them"

- we trusted the government and our advisers
- we lost much of our savings and investments and then bailouts and
bonuses went to the people who trashed our money
- we are proud Americans
- we want to take control of the situation ourselves, rely on
ourselves
- we have to rebuild our finances
- we want to do something, take action
- we feel frustrated, want something to change
- the idea of "opting out" of the current financial mess is attractive
to our audience. Think of Ayn Rand / Atlas Shrugged / Galt's Gulch
story.

This logo must give an air of stability. Imagery that evokes U.S. currency, pride in being American, and self-reliance. The use of symbolism is preferred to any obvious or cliched use of dollar signs or the like.

See http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/201…symbolism/ for a great article and some examples regarding symbolism.

We've gathered a few logos that we like. See the examples here:
http://www.bankonyourself.com/logo-examples The password is 99d

Other things to keep in mind:
- no cartoons
- no clipart
- no stock photos
- feel free to choose a new font
- the logo must be perceived as strong and stable
- the logo needs to be bold but not flashy
- feel free to create a new color pallet
- need both CMYK and RGB versions
- we require the file to be in vector (ai or eps) format
- The logo will be used on a website design (perhaps another contest)
- The logo will be used on printed material, emails, PDFs and Video. It will likely find its way onto book covers as well.
- We will need both color and monotone versions