No, really, go with the professional design

Because while professionals sometimes get it wrong, amateur designs are rarely as good as people think they should be.  "How hard can it be?" "We'll let someone try for free."

The new Colorado tourism logo (https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2013/08/31/cologorado.html) has is flaws (though I think it is a lot better, especially as a branding label, than people think at first glance) but these "See, even my students could come up with something better" are pretty uniformly hideous, over-busy, poorly proportioned, and dubiously executed.  

Remember, folks, this isn't flying on flags or emblazoning uniforms — it's a branding logo for posters and commercials and the like, a unifying design element for publicity campaigns rather than a strikingly complex piece of art in its own right.