Matthew:
a logo doesn't have to be 'stunning' - it should rather be disctinctive..! It is important that people can easily recognise a logo. It is also practical when it can be easilly 'reproduced', meaning copied on a photocopier, readible on a fax or scaled down to a really small size.
Therefore, I would advise you to try to develop a monochrome logo - and avoid gradients (i.e. in shadows).
You can always add a slpash of colour in the bg for example - but it would be handy to have a version that only uses one colour
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I don't think it is the font that's 'kiddie' - it is simply because of the irregular arrangment of the balls... that reminds you of those playing blocks with letters on every side
[img:04d4398501]http://www.cenational.org/public/Resources/images/building_blocks.gif[/img:04d4398501]
if you notice - the font used on those is a serif font - normally considered to be elegant and traditional = not kiddie.... But it works there...
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