Thank you so much to everyone who entered the Afrobella logo contest. It was really cool to see how each designer depicted their vision of Afrobella, and over the weekend I plan to post a gallery of all the entries. Some made more use of text and fancy fonts, some relied solely on image. I got entries from all over the United States — and a beautiful one from Poland. The decision was made after testing multiple logos on a dummy page and sharing the finalists with friends, family, and a couple of graphic designer friends o’ mine.
I received many beautiful entries, but when I saw Shari Neal’s entry, I just knew it was the one. She captured the essence of what I tried to convey in the original call for submissions. I called her over the weekend to let her know she’d nailed it.
Shari’s a 23 year old who lives in Chicago. Her family is from Belize, and she’s an artsy type who loves to draw, design, sew, knit, crochet, make collages, and dabble in photography. She’s crafty! And Shari’s also my Pisces sister – her birthday’s a week after mine.
Shari told me that she read about the contest on Fly and as a regular reader of that awesome blog she was familiar with Stina Persson. “I really like working in silhouettes and shadows, and I really liked that artist’s work,” she explained. Shari says her ultimate goal is to be a handbag and accessories designer. “I also plan to launch a non-profit arts organization with my brother, he’s a painter and photographer,” she added. Her favorite blogs (besides yours truly) are Fly, Me Myself & Eye, Young Black & Fabulous, and Concrete Loop. Her favorite quote is, “The only failure is in not trying.†And I’m so glad she tried to come up with a logo for my site. With this beautiful new representation, I’m ready to take Afrobella to the next level.
Thank you so much, Shari! Big respect to you!

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