Lessons:

You get what you pay for. I think this is true for a lot of things, but lately it seems to especially ring true in graphic design.

Last week a new DIY logo design site was launched--LogoGarden (I'm linking to their FB page here. Check out the wall full of designers saying LG ripped off their work!). The premise is, for $69, you can choose from a bunch of pre-designed icons, slap some text on that bad boy, and call it a day. Or a logo. Whatever.

Sounds like it's too good to be true, right?

Yeah, that's because it is. See, these pre-designed icons? They were pre-designed by other graphic designers. Who designed them for other clients. And LogoGarden just took them, and started selling them as icons to be combined with text to make your own logo. Only, LogoGarden doesn't own these icons.

Steve Douglas has a really great post about it here.

Lesson learned? If you're starting a business, and need a logo… hire a professional, for the love. You can work with a professional graphic designer and get something completely custom--not predesigned (and, er, stolen). Yes, it will cost you more than $69, but if you're investing in your business, isn't it worth it?

Faux real::

When I was a child, I wanted to grow up and be an artist--but not just any old artist. I wanted to be the artist that Hollywood producers called when they needed artwork for their movies (as in, the lead character is an artist, but my artwork would be shown as theirs). I had no idea how that all worked--I really thought that was a specific job you could have ("What do I do for a living, you ask? Well, have you ever seen critically-acclaimed, box office smash Movie About an Artist? I was actually the artist behind the Artist.").

Alas, I'm not working for a studio, and my artwork doesn't appear in the movies. But, there IS hope. Check out Fauxgo, a Tumblr of logos of companies that exist only in the movies. Lots of Pixar love here, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Up and Wall-E are all represented; as well as huge pop culture icons Dunder Mifflin, Sterling Cooper and Oceanic Airlines.

I'm checking back regularly to see what else gets added. Who knows, maybe one day that will be my claim to fame.

(via swissmiss)

New work:

You know what's a really fun project for me? Anything that has to do with a wedding.

I LOVE weddings! They are such happy occasions--plus it usually gives me an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes :)

But seriously, anything wedding-based is alright by me; I'm actually working on some invitation designs for my brother in law and his fiancée, and just last night I found out that a good friend got engaged, and he asked if I would do their invitations, too. SQUEAL!!

But back to the project at hand. Lydia Ross Taplett hired me this winter for a new logo, and internet friends, I got excited. Lydia is a wedding planner, who just happens to have incredible taste. In our initial meeting, when I asked her about other logos that she liked, it was pretty much like talking to myself. How awesome is that?

First, I played around with her initials. But I didn't want to go the traditional monogram route, because I feel like for weddings, that's done a lot:




I love the font Fling so much that I want to marry it. I thought it would be the perfect fancy-but-fun script:




One of the things Lydia noted in our initial meeting was a love of Greek key patterns. I found inspiration there, while designing something that would also make for a nice icon:




A tiara! No wedding would be complete without a tiara!




These next 2 logos incorporate the very technical design term "swirlies." I love playing with swirlies, and thought that this was a good way to incorporate some "wedding" into the logo, without going full on church script:






I know owls are the big thing right now, but man, I think hummingbrids rock. Plus, if you think about it, a wedding planner is like a hummingbird, all moving so fast behind the scenes you can't even see her:




Finally, incorporating a little Martha into it. I love the icon, and the script was placement for something a little more custom-y handwriting:




And, the winner is...



Hummingbird!

I'm so glad Lydia chose this logo, as there is SO. MUCH. we can do with the swirlies (there's that very technical design term again). I've already done an ad for her for Westport Magazine, incorporating those swirlies into it, and it was so. much. fun! Plus, I not-so-secretly love the subtle gradation at the bottom of the swirlies. Next up: I'm working on a blog redesign for her--can we say swirlies on the web?!

Winning:

Logo Lounge Master Series Book 4: Typography and Enclosures.

See that book title up there? Yeah, I'm totally going to be in it.

I KNOW.

I can't even begin to tell you guys how totally thrilled I was when that email showed up. Aside from the fact that it is a HA-YOOOOOOGE honor to have one's work selected for inclusion in ANY of the books put out by Logo Lounge, the email was perfectly timed. Friday afternoon, a file that I had been struggling with all week long crashed, and--to add insult to injury--corrupted.

Yep, I was starting from scratch.

So Saturday morning, I locked myself in my office, and started working. When I heard the PING! of my email, I was so unfocused on the annoying task at hand that I immediately checked--and boy, am I glad I did. Because upon seeing the words

You are receiving this email because your logos have been selected to be in Master Book 4.

I immediately forgot all my woes and did the happiest of happy dances.

While there isn't a ton of info on this Master Library book, previous versions have included "...3,000 outstanding very focused logo designs from the LogoLounge.com database..."

Dude. Outstanding. Very focused.

OK, OK, enough of my rambling. Which logo was selected?



Well Written is a logo I did for a company started by an independent writer/editor.

I am so BEYOND psyched to be published in this book (in case you couldn't tell), I can't even begin to describe it. Time to start celebrating!

New work:

Peggy Garbus.

Peggy is a Wilton-based portrait photographer--her work is gorgeous. Sit with her for a few minutes, and you will be completely at ease--it's easy to see her subjects feeling the same way.

Anywho, Peggy had an identity already, and was originally looking to update it. After a round or two of updates, we decided to just start over (which was way more fun! :)

After I designed this version, it occurred to me that it looked like an eye. I totally mean that I had that in mind when I designed this version, not after! (nervous laughter).




One of the things that struck me on Peggy's old logo, was the descenders for the Gs and Y in Peggy. They were all very similar, and as a designer, I wanted to fix that. I had a lot of fun coming up with this font, and the swirlies. Oh, how I love the swirlies!




We had also talked about maybe incorporating an icon or something--something that could be used in maybe a pattern?




More fun shapes and swirlies. Actually, these swirlies began in a font called Brownstone (YUM)




Taking Peggy's initials, and making them into a bottle cap-like stamp:




And finally, playing with the P and the G:




Ultimately, Peggy chose version 5--but we went through a lot of different fonts before coming up with this, the final logo:



I love the thought of Peggy using the PG bottle cap icon as a watermark on her photos--I think this logo is so versatile, and so very HER. I can't wait to see it in action!

Go on with your bad self. No really, go on. You're bad.

So, a few weeks ago, iTunes 10 was released, along with a new icon. If you follow my twitter stream, the new icon may as well have been tarred and feathered. Actually, it was so reviled, that someone started an @itunes10icon twitter account defending the new design; and in the beginning, it was hilarious.



Then, last week, a new minor league hockey team was announced: the Connecticut Whale, which hinted at a throwback to the old Hartford Whalers team. Could the logo possibly be as cool? Me thinks not.



Finally, today. I get a fancy email saying I get an additional 30% off at the Gap, so I'm so there. But the logo is different--weird, even. There's this weird blue box... ? This can't be right. Can it? It is?? What???



What is going on here, people??? What is this logo badness that is going on??? The iTunes icon, to be honest, I'm kind of ambivalent about. It's not great, but eh. But that CT Whale logo--and now the Gap??? What is happening? And worse, who is letting this happen???

Thankful

I am thankful that I don't design logos like this:



On the flipside, I would like to get that paycheck, cause I'm willing to bet it's more than what I make in a year. But still.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More type, yummy, yummy

How gorgeous is this logo?

Launched just yesterday, Typedia is a wiki-type (sorry for that) site that allows registered users to log in and classify and edit fonts while educating other users. From the about page:

We love type, and we have a burning desire to learn as much as possible about typefaces: where they come from, who made them, and why they look the way they do. We want everyone to be able to share in that rich knowledge and enjoy the art and artists of type design. Over time, we think Typedia could grow into a great educational resource for people to learn about their favorite typefaces and discover new ones.

But let's get back to that delicious logo. Designed by John Langdon (you might know him as the fancy pants who designed all those Angels & Demons/DaVinci Code ambigrams), there is a mighty blog post about how this logo came to be. OK, I'm a type geek, I'll admit it, but Oh. My. God.

There's the initial "brief." The sketches. The feedback. More sketches. If you have any curiosities at all about how logos are created, I highly suggest reading this.

Amazing. Amazing logo, amazing type, amazing story.

New logos: refreshing, or no?

This weekend I was thumbing through the Week In Review, and what would have been a pretty decent article on some recent logo redesigns was completely ruined by the fact that the magenta plate was about 1/16 of an inch off on press, which meant that every image that had even the tiniest bit of magenta in it pretty much sucked.

Thank goodness the article is online.

Behold the new breed of corporate logo — non-threatening, reassuring, playful, even child-like. Not emblems of distant behemoths, but faces of friends.

Companies like Walmart, Stop and Shop, and even Cheer laundry detergent are going out with the old; in with the new, softer, more fun, wheeeeeeeeee, we're having a good time over here! I mean, lots more lowercase and swooshes (but not those late 90's/early millennium tech swooshes).

Check out the slideshow at the top of the page for some before and afters.

Design we can believe in

In honor of Barack Obama's inauguration tomorrow, I thought it appropriate to present the many ideas that could have been the official Barack Obama campaign logo; the other contenders, besides the iconic "O".

Personally, I think the logos (even the ones that weren't even presented)--much like the campaign itself--were a refreshing change from the norm. Sol Sender, the designer, apparently never worked on a campaign logo before--which I think worked to his advantage. So nice to see a portfolio of ideas that isn't "Candidate's Name/Running Mate's Name" on either a red or blue background, with some stars thrown in for good measure.

Much thanks goes out to David Airey, who compiled this post; and who's logodesignlove website I could not live without.

Whoops

In my haste to get my super-duper-blog-love post up yesterday, I completely (and foolishly) forgot to mention another blog that I absolutely love, love, love:

Logo Design Love

Logo designer David Airey's blog is right to the point, it's for those who love logo design (or just logos in general). From reader favorites, to logo redesigns, his is the site I consult first when I have a logo design project.

It's updated about once a week (the selfish graphic designer in me wishes it was updated daily, the graphic-designer-turned-blogger in me knows exactly how much time that would consume). One of the best things about the site, aside from the interesting logo designs, is the commenters. Some design blogs I read, the commenters can be downright mean; for whatever reason, the commenters on LDL are much more civilized. And, as an added bonus, David responds to just about every one.

So, Logo Design Love, I love your blog!