A Good Logo

Good logos nowadays are hard to find. most people go for very complex, and if they do not understand good graphic design, they will complicate their logos needlessly.

We were discussing logos on Borg's homepage here:
http://www.torrentforge.com/showthread.php?p=239&posted=1#post239

and again this comes to mind. The logo I designed, although not my best work ever, is better than the alternatives Borgs made. Why you ask? Because of simplicity.

A good logo should be clear and concise and get the point across. And you also have to consider how it will look on letterheads, envelopes, businesscards, and merchandise. If it is going to look shitty on printed paper, then it is a shitty logo.

A logo is a brand that you are suppose take with you from you small lil internet storefront all the way to a multimillion dollar company. It should be easily identifiable, and if you are really good, creative.

Here are some logos I like:



Ebay - colorful, recognizable on a business card, and if you take a look at your bookmarks, even at the smallest size, you STILL know what it is.





FedEx - Simple, easy to recognize, and follows the conventions I listed above. Did you notice there is a lil white arrow between the E and the X? Hehe. I bet you didn't. Points for creativity.



International Peace garden Foundation
This logo is kool because it's really creative. The original design didn't have all that ugly text in it, something the owners added later. See the tulip that turns into a dove, representing peace.

That's the thing about design too. Sometimes you do a logo and the people in charge take it and bastardize it and ruin everything. There have been times I made a logo and because it was so badly screwed with, I decided to absolve ownership of it and tell them that I don't want them to tell anyone who designed their logo.

Take for instance the Wordforge logo. It was not intended to look like it, and it is all Borgs fault. Hopefully when Prometheus comes, we will have it back to how it was suppose to originally look.

Anyways, if you guys find any good logos, post them here so we can critique them and say whether they are good and what we like about them.

And also, remember the rules I listed above are just general rules. There are some designers who break them and still come up with something really cool. I have a big book of logos. I should scan them in and show you guys some of the really cool ones.

Oh, another thing about color. As a general rule, you should try and keep it with as few colors as possible. Graphic design convention says 2 is acceptable, although I find myself breaking this rule all the time. Good designers only need one color, generally. For myself, I usually end up using two or three.

This is due to the fact that color easily identifies your logo from the riff raff. A good logo should be unique.

Quick, how many multi colored birds can you name?

You probably couldn't name any, could you? But mention birds that are only one or two colors, and you remember the blue jay, bald eagle, robin, etc. If your logo looks like a rainbow, it might work, as in the case of Ebay and Google, but if everyone did theirs in multi colors, your logo would get lost in the background. Less colors is better.

I will cap the number of colors at two, and no more.

What do you think is the best source for public-domain logo art, and clip art for business use?

BTW, check this site out and let me know what you think. http://www.logoyes.com/logocreator.php

Hrmm, I do have a site my company uses, but I can't seem to remember the name of it. I'll ask my art director and get back to you.

As for the site, I think that is a cool idea, but unless they take out each little graphic after someone buys it, they are asking for trouble. There is only a limited amount of graphics in each catagory, and if that site takes off in popularity, it won't be long before one company selects a graphic and over time, adopts it as it's corporate image. If company B also selects the same one and then one day, over a trade show or other event they meet, then trouble! You would think companies that get big enough don't have these things happen to them, but they do. Few people understand intellectual property rights because it isn't something really taught in business education, and unfortunately, some people find out too late.

A couple of years ago, our boss, who runs a large hardware franchise, wanted us to take his 3 stooges postcards and put them on the cover of his flyers. My art director was very uncomfortable with it, and our manager didn't do anything about it. He just did not understand you just don't do shit like that without buying or renting the rights to the photo first. Luckily, we didn't get sued or anything. :o

In your experience, are there any colours that work better than others, Scorp?

You gotta like the red and black. I was gonna post some Nazi emblems, but didn't wanna troll the place up. Still in all candor, the Nazis had some good logos--sumbitches knew how to do design.

Primary colors are always good in my book, as are black and white. Green can be nice too.

That is a good question. A good question indeed!

What you are referring to is Color Theory. Here is a cool website that explains the basics of it:
http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

It goes into a bit more depth here:
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-theory-basics.html

Really, there are some rules, but I've seen people break these rules and still come away with great designs. If you follow the rules laid out in the color wheels, chances are you'll be fine. In terms of colors that go well together, that would depend entirely on the project. I wouldn't use pink, for instance, while designing a flyer for a hardware store. Nor would I use black predominently on a product designed for women. Generally, there are no bad colors, but you have to pay attention to the way design is going and spot trends in pop culture, fashion, and advertising. Last year, I saw a lot of people use pastelly colors in fashions, both in clothing and furniture. This year, I am kinda predicting people will get tired of that and duller colors will be in, giving things a more retro and olden look. But that is just my gut feeling.

And depending on what you design, colors can have signifigant meaning as explained here:
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Uh, excellent thread!

Here's another example of a very good logo:



Has anybody ever noticed the subtle connection between the O and the S? Subliminally tells us what MS' main product is - Windows, an Operating System.

I also loved this one:


The simple laurel wreath on blue has many different meanings: first, the wreath is the traditional 'crown' of every Olympics winner. Second, it somehow resembles the UN logo (another very good one) as you can pretty much see the Earth in it. And thirdly, white and blue have a meaning when you have been to Greece: that's how many houses look there. Those colors are dominant on most Greek islands - which is also why they chose that 'painted' look to make it look like you're seeing a wall with it painted on.

Several, actually.

I'm no expert, but I would think boldness or uniqueness of design would work better.

Here are some more really cool logos:


Inn At The Market
I like this one because it is a creative logo. I really don't know how they come up with this stuff. To combine groceries and apartments into one logo...*sheesh* I wish I could do that.


Ourhouse.net
I knew right away the company was called "Ourhouse" The H is quite well rendered and the house icon makes it noticable right away. It is one of those things that is so well rendered I doubt anyone would have seen "Our ouse".


Jackson Remodeling
Quite a simple logo, and it doesn't have any color to it - which I disapprove of, but notice the way the "Jackson" becomes part of the hammer handle. They really should have added color to this, but sometimes companies just want something very simple, and it always comes down to the customer's call, unfortunately. It's very strange, the design world is. A client never hires a lawyer and tells them in the end "No, I want you to defend my case this way instead, even though it might be a worse idea. You also never say to a plumber, "Yeah, you did a good job, but could you maybe rearrange the piping to go through my living room, and maybe replace the shiny ones with rusted ones? Well, it happens ALL THE TIME in design. You will design a perfectly good logo, brochure, or web page, and they will always "give their two cents", which by the way, is how much value I give to their "suggestions" but if they are the customer, they are always right, and you hafta change it. There have been some cases where I've had to absolve all ownership of the product because it looked ass-ugly after their "suggestions" I just wish more people would realize when they pay a dude to design their logo, they are paying for their expertise, and unless there is something terribly wrong with the image in their eyes, they should just trust them to know what looks good and what looks bad.


Phone City
Again, another logo that combines the two words in the company. A cityscape made out of telephones. Very catchy and only uses two colors to great effect!


Word Monsters
Another combination logo. This one is very cute. Very creative the way they illustrated the word "Word" with a word bubble.


Snake Music
This one was a home run from the beginning, but if it were me, I'd probably havethought of something like a musical note in the form of a snake. That is why these guys get paid the big bucks while I get paid average.


1-800-AUTHORS
This could have also been a phone book company, but again, another very effective design using only one color.

Unknown logo by PAVE Advertising
I wanted to show you guys this because it seems lately a lot of company logos like that "Sports Team" look. When I designed the forum icons, I was going for this look. The reason for it, I think, is because a good logo can be a source of company pride, and if it looks good, you can put it on a T-Shirt and get people to wear it, which is free advertising for your company.


Quiet Time Pillow Company
What an absolutely brilliant logo for a pillow company! I would have probably struggled with trying to come up with something that combines fluffyness with a bunch of Z's, but the person that created this took sleep, and thought of counting sheep right away, then added them jumping over clouds, which represents dreams. And they did it all with shapes that look like pieces of cotton! Damn! I can only hope to one day reach this level of ingenuity when making my own logos. I am thinking maybe some people are just born with this innate talent to be in marketing/advertising.


Ok, so far, I've typically shown you guys logos that are one or two color. The reason why I like these is because I wanted to illustrate how only having one or two colors can be extremely effective for a logo, and can beat the crap out of people who use multiple colors in their logos. But when I design logos, I go against my own word, because usually I design with more than one color. I'll show you guys some more logos, with, hopefully, more color to them.


Shark Bites Sandwich Co.
This is a colorful, eye-catching logo. The place sells sandwiches from the looks of it, and they added a shark fin to the top of the sandwich art. Again, this seems to be the type of trend logos are going, i.e. an illustrated style. Hopefully I'll one day be able to teach you guys how to use programs to do these types of logos, but that is for later. Notice, again, how this logo sticks to its color sheme, mainly the green and blue. The red and browns accent the colors. Why is the shark fin green? Does anyone know of any green sharks? No. The designer used the green fin because it fits in with the overall color scheme. I think if the shark fin were grey or another color, it would've made the logo look more confusing because it would look multi colored. Again, here the guy was able to get away with more than 2-3 colors, but he uses it more as a cherry on top, rather than part of the main course.

K, I am tired now, so I'll leave you guys with some other logos you can critique. Say what you like about them and why, or why you don't think they are good.......


PrairieFest


Chaos Lures


Red Ant Media Group


Press Release

SNAKE! A snake! Ohhh, it's a snake!

People will groan, cos coming from me - this is obvious... But I think it is a design classic...

Google and Fark have nice simple logos as well...

IMO, this would look better with fewer colors. The integrated shark fin and sandwhich are novel enough that they should be the focus of the logo, not the colors.

Some I just like:





And the BSG logo with the wings, can't find a copy to show though...

Very good thread, Scorponok!

Ok, I asked. Here it is:

www.istockphoto.com

Surprisingly, this company is located in Calgary, where I live. I also have dealt with some of the designers who contribute to that site.

Just hit ENTER on the bottom right and it should allow you to browse thru their stuff.

I'll check it out! Thanks.

Darwin touched on this with the Apple logo, but the key to everything really is simplicity.

An old but interesting article someone linked to recently.

Something I saw online reminded me how much this colors my perceptions of a place who uses one:

A logo with mistakes or misspelled words.

If they can't be arsed to double check that which represents them, then I doubt I would be interested in the quality of their services or products.

For example, I saw a flash ad for an insurance company...green words and a map of the United States with the abbreviations in each state. Not too bad...not particularly original or interesting but not awful...and then I noticed that the State of Maine has apparently reverted back to being part of Massachusetts as both states were labelled MA.

I don't know...maybe it's petty but that kind of needless oversight just automatically colors my perception of the place as a whole. I can't be the only one this bugs, so always proofread and double check your info!

You're right there. Lots of Austrianand German businesses now use the English 's in the possessive form. Like, Peter's Wirtshaus (Peter's Pub). It's just that this particular 's does not exist in German. If we use it at all, it's colloquial. It's more or less dialect and has no place in a logo or a publication.

Copywriters and other writers call it the idiot apostrophe, but it's making inroads.

Btw, here's a really bad example for a logo. I found that one on their homepage, but in the real world, it's usually brown. Butt ugly, uncreative and says nothing about the company (a tobacco producer). I can only guess that the longer bar symbolizes a cigarette, but then ...

interesting though, that the ruling pen exercise graphic for AT is used on an American brand too (forget which, blue and silver striping though, on a white box... PM or JTI product.)

Agree with TG about typos... I hate seeing them in the news.

OOH! I saw this logo for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony on banners on my commute to class. The French Horn integrates MYS into its shape. The banner is actually much better than what I found on the web--the French Horn is gold on a purple background, so it integrates using complementary colors. Quite nice, actually.

That's neat-o!

I could swear that horse one was my high school's logo freshman year, except that one was in red, orange, and yellow.