The last time I needed a logo, I started with the company name, Forereach. One common meaning is to describe part of a dog's gait. The other, and the reason I selected it for a consulting business, is: to gain on or get ahead, even while taking in sail (or, as Google defines it: Movement to windward when hove-to under sail). Once I had the company name, that suggested a sailing motif for a logo.
 
I hired a young designer in the Phoenix area and paid her $50/hour for her work, not including several meetings. I started by searching the web for sailing logos and found a couple to use to base my description to her of what I wanted. I also ran the drafts past my brother, who is an experienced sailor. He made a couple of very important contributions with regard to keeping the logo "real", that is, that a seasoned sailor would see it and feel comfortable, that things are as they should be (main sail alignment to the (invisible) mast and spinnaker being the most important).
 
I paid her $637.50 (about 6 years ago), plus another $112.50 six months later for some additional work (KEY reason to have your own designer!). She provided me with flat and 3D versions in 4 resolutions, as well as camera-ready copy for business cards. Here are a couple of examples (keep things simple!):
 
EDIT: Looking for an alternative to Google Photos (which gives an apparently unusable share link).
 

 
Good luck!

Hey John....your images aren't showing in the post, just as a FYI. Sounds like you got a bargain there, good designers are worth their weight in gold.

I started this 99 Design contest yesterday and it's been stressful. My problem is that I really had no specific idea what I wanted, but I did provide a number of example logos in the brief which showed the kind of aesthetic I like.

The trouble with 99 Designs is that it's a ton of work sifting out the bozos who just ignore your design brief (I said no paw prints and no bones in the design and you would not believe how many I got that had both in). And even when you message the designer telling them this, they send you another 5 which are almost the same but with minor changes. How many times can you say "this is definitely not the aesthetic we're looking for" before they get the message? Some of the designs have been real stinkers - I'm talking cheesy clip art cut and pasted clumsily with a horrible choice of fonts. I've had designers send me monochrome designs in black and I've messaged them saying "we're looking for something more colorful and vibrant" and they're like "ok let me see what I can do" and then they send me another monochrome design in black. It's infuriating.

The scary part is that I guaranteed the prize in order to attract more designers, which means that even if nobody submits anything remotely viable you're still minus $500. Thankfully though someone submitted something of the right kind of stuff this morning and while it needs some tweaking, and I still have 3 days to see if anything even better pops in, at least I know I'll come out of it with something decent if all else fails. But damn some of these designs you would not believe anyone would put their name to them....

Don't know what to say about the photos not showing up. I uploaded them to Google Photos and then linked to them, like I've been doing for awhile. What do you see? Any text/message pop up when you mouse over?

TheMaartian
Don't know what to say about the photos not showing up. I uploaded them to Google Photos and then linked to them, like I've been doing for awhile. What do you see? Any text/message pop up when you mouse over?

I see 3 greyscale 'No Entry' signs.

I immediately imagined two logo approaches when you first posted about this.  One with a guy facing you and, in front of him, spread out, are five dogs being walked (i.e., coming at you as you look at the logo).  The other was of a dog on a treadmill.  No bones, no paw prints. Heh.

craigb
I immediately imagined two logo approaches when you first posted about this.  One with a guy facing you and, in front of him, spread out, are five dogs being walked (i.e., coming at you as you look at the logo).  The other was of a dog on a treadmill.  No bones, no paw prints. Heh.

Funnily enough, I considered the guy with the pack of dogs. Two problem with that though - we advertise that we don't walk packs, so I guess that would be a confusing message for us, and also what I'm finding is that the more intricate the design, the worse it looks at small sizes (and from a distance). So I think I'm gonna go with something simple, bold, colorful and cute instead. Someone submitted a good candidate this morning which I think will look great both on business cards and t-shirts.

Also I was told to make my competition "blind" (i.e. The designers can't see each other's entries) because apparently that attracts more good designers, presumably on the basis that they feel more comfortable knowing that lesser designers can't rip off their ideas.

Didn't know about the packs.  I'd have a dog walking the human instead.

I replaced the 3 missing images in my post above with a single logo image I uploaded to a new IMGUR account. Can you see it? I'll repost here.
 

Could probably pass as the next Olympics logo that!

TheMaartian
 

Just a cheap second rate advert for Oracle and their overly priced boat in their yearly rich man's race to nothing but spend money!