Corporate Logo for Green Energy/Renewables Company

We need a compelling new logo for a globally visioned renewable energy company.

Syntec Biofuel

Our old logo is exactly that - old and dated. While it's served us well, we've simply outgrown it.

Syntec Biofuels is a creative renewable energy company developing second-gen biofuel technology to convert waste cellulosic biomass into biofuels. Our main focus is on our patented catalyst technology that converts waste into biofuel.

Renewables are the new hot industry. There are tons of fly-by-night operations, but we're the real deal. We've been in operation since 2001, with thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars worth of R&D behind our technology. "Syntec Biofuel" is already well known and respected within the industry, and we are consistently invited to speak at conferences as experts in our field.

We're rebranding and want something completely different - fresh, unique, memorable and most importantly will stand the test of time...we want the logo to grow with our company into a strong international brand. Our new website (still in the works) is clean and simple (reflecting our technology) and we need a logo to carry on that message.

Important Note: Upon contest completion and full transfer of payment, the designer will be expected to sign a contract transferring all ownership (copyright and title) of the final design over to Syntec Biofuel. The Logo will become the property of Syntec, with the designer retaining the right to display the artwork in their portfolio and advertising materials. Please do not participate if you are not prepared to compy with this standard industry procedure.  

Our old logo is in the top left corner of the new site...as you can see it doesn't quite mesh and looks dated. With that as a reference point, feel free to design anything different from that.

Will be giving regular feedback & eliminating designs that are a definate "no."

Some Preferences:
- Logo should give ‘feeling’ of - creativity, credibility, professionalism
- The logo should be instantly distinguishable with an original design feature/graphic element or unique font.
- "Syntec Biofuel" should go straight across---not big fans of the current logo's stacked look & empty white space (lower left)
- If you'd like to emphasize one word over the other - Syntec should be emphasized
- Please no templates. Original artwork only.
- Transparent background
- Color is great, but keep in mind the logo should also translate/work well in B&WFormats:
- Vector CMYK Format  (logo needs to enlarge w/o quality loss for large exhibition sized posters for conferences). Adobe Illustrator
- Winning designer will be required to hand over the completed vector file and some bmp/gif images in various sizes.

- Logo needs to work well in print - so please no 3D effects or complicated colour gradients
- No busy/fussy designs
- No "leaf" designs...way too played out 

Edit: If you're just joining...please no more "drop" designs too. They're all starting to look the same to me.