Help me pick a logo (image warning)

[MJ4H]

I've been fooling around with MS Paint and The Gimp for a couple of hours here. I have no idea how to do this stuff.

I'm creating a badge for my Arkansas FC team in the Football Manager Live Beta. I made three options and I would appreciate any feedback on which is the best, what I could do better, or hell, you could even make one for me and throw it in this thread if you'd like to.

Here is what I have:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/hogbadge.png
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/hogbadge5.png
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/hogbadge4.png

My favorite is the second one. The first one is quite minimalist and was my first attenpt. I can obviously improve the text. I did that with Paint. Doing it with the Gimp would allow anti-aliasing, so that would be better quickly. I installed The Gimp after trying to make something decent with just paint and mostly failing.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts.

[Blade6119]

I like the third myself, the 2nd's ball just doesnt work with the black blackground to me

[k0ruptr]

I favor the 2nd. it is teh awesomez

[JonInMiddleGA]

I like the second one, the red pops nicely off the dark background although I think the grays could stand to be at least a tad lighter.

[JeeberD]

I dig #2...

[MJ4H]

For reference, I have #2 in the game right now. This is what it looks like in the context of how most people will see it (when they play me):

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/fmlw-logo.png

[JeeberD]

I can barely see the ball in that screenshot. Jon's suggestion to lighten the gray is probably a good one...

[k0ruptr]

I can barely see the ball in that screenshot. Jon's suggestion to lighten the gray is probably a good one...

word.

[Izulde]

I can barely see the ball in that screenshot. Jon's suggestion to lighten the gray is probably a good one...

Agreed and I also favour the second one.

The hog image gets lost in the brightness of the ball in the 3rd one.

[DanGarion]

Is that a flame coming out of his ass?

I like the last one the most.

[MJ4H]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/hogbadge6.png
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/fmlw-logo2.png

[k0ruptr]

excellent.

[Izulde]

Much better! :)

[JeeberD]

Perfect

[MJ4H]

Can anyone make the logo in post #11 (which is in PNG format) have a transparent background? I have been working on it for a while now and it never shows up as transparent in a browser or in the game. Help please?