The closing date for the Club Logo Competition is less than three weeks away, but you still have time to come up with a great idea.

Anyone can give it a go and to help you along here's some inspiration and some guidance on how to go about it.

What’s the logo for?

The logo is a simple symbol that we can use on casual club clothing, web sites, club badges and medals as well as signage, videos, documents and anywhere the club will be promoted.

Three simple rules

A logo can be anything, but there's some basic guidelines to work to:

1. Simple:

Logos should be easy to recognise, versatile to use and memorable. The best way to do that is to keep it simple.

The Nike swoosh is the classic example. It works with or without text and in any colour.

2. Flexible

We want to use our logo over a variety of mediums, so it should work when printed large (like on a banner) and small (like on a business card). Ideally it should work when it’s printed in one colour and it should work with or without text.

The London Underground logo is easy to recognise at any size and in black and white. It can be huge when used as a station sign, it's easily printed on trains, it works without text, it's clear even when printed small on tickets, and is widely used on t-shirts, mugs and other merchandise. If you click the image to enlarge it, the smallest version of the logo is just 16 pixels square and still recognisable

3. Timeless:

The club has been around for 90 years, we should make sure the logo is still effective for the next 10, 50 or 100 years. To stand the test of time a logo should be easily recognisable and avoid designs ideas that might date. The Pirelli logo has been around since 1914, the Underground logo first appeared in 1908, and the Heinz label has changed little since 1869!

How to start

It's always tricky to get started when faced with a blank piece of paper, so here's some ideas to get you going...

Get some inspiration:

Before you begin to design, it’s worth doing a bit of research and as a start point, here are some examples of club logos, some local, some distant, some good, many bad and the odd one downright ugly. They should give you a broad idea of what we’re after.

Of course, we need something unique to us that looks great and represents the club. To spark your imagination here’s a collection of images from the club kit, the local area, and the three disciplines. I’m sure you can add your own ideas.

Start with a doodle:

Just start sketching. Don’t worry how good you are at drawing and don't worry about colour – if it works in black and white it’s already a long way to being “simple” and “flexible”. Remember, we’re not after fancy art work, we’re just after a good idea.

Play with the text:

There's no getting away from it, we have a long club name. How you use the text is up to you, but here's some suggestions. Do remember that flexible rule though; a logo works best if you can use it with or without text.

Keep it light:

Don’t try and cram deep meaning into the logo; we don’t have to tell the whole story of the club, the emphasis is down to what you believe should represent us. You can make it abstract or very literal, but remember to keep it simple and flexible.

Give it a go!

Above all, give it a go. Click here to find out where to send your entry - the closing date is 31st October