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Logo Design 101

17 Jun 2003 by LukeW

How to make a good logo:

1> Select a shade of Blue.
2> Add a swirl or two.
3> Make sure it communicates the right message about the company.
4> Bask in its radiance.

30 comments so far (Post a Comment)

17 Jun 2003 | mini-d said...

Lol, the logo is crapy, I would choose take away those pucky swooshes!...

17 Jun 2003 | LukeW said...

Seems to work for:
10) McData Corp.
"We're fast, and we're crappy!"

17 Jun 2003 | andrew said...

In the Worst Names Ever Dept: Power Gen Italia.

17 Jun 2003 | Don Schenck said...

My site is guilty!

17 Jun 2003 | Michael Spina said...

What ever happened to eNormicon? That was a pretty good spoof of modern corporate identity.

17 Jun 2003 | Mike said...

eNormicom

17 Jun 2003 | Chris said...

I knew I should have used blue. DAMN!

17 Jun 2003 | Jim Jones said...

Luke, the infographic on the logo colors is brilliant! There must be even more companies out there that use it, too. It would be interesting to do a similar graphic on the Fortune 200 or 500 or so to see the distribution.

17 Jun 2003 | Nel said...

Blues and greens rule, get over it.

17 Jun 2003 | MrAnonymous said...

I've thought about getting away from blue, but haven't found something else that I really like.

17 Jun 2003 | Darrel said...

Wow. That goodlogo site has some just horrid copywriting (and thin research, it seems)

17 Jun 2003 | nathan said...

"Hello, I work for Phartronics." really rolls off the, um, tongue.

17 Jun 2003 | fajalar said...

Why does it seem that new companies spend too much time and money creating a "memorable" logo, and not enough time and money creating a memorable business plan.

17 Jun 2003 | Don Schenck said...

fajalar -- I have a book I got from Harvard Business Review -- don't recall the author or title but will get it if you like -- but the basic premise, which is supported by facts and research, is that a Business Plan is not needed for success. Further, there's no correlation between a BP and success.

Go figure. All those SCORE classes and time I spent on my business plan, and here I sit with two -- count 'em, TWO -- clients. ARGH!

17 Jun 2003 | fajalar said...

I see a business plan as the requirements I need to stay in business given the parameters of what I offer and the constraints of the marketplace.

Essentially, many businesses have a hard time actually defining what it is they do/produce.

I don't know, maybe they just need a really nice vision statement and a groovy logo.

17 Jun 2003 | Krakow said...

Hey Luke... You post a note about logos and you don't reference 37signals' own eNormicom? Where's da respect?

17 Jun 2003 | LukeW said...

Where's da respect?

Where's the blue?

17 Jun 2003 | said...

I would really like to see a side-by-side test of a logo designed by an amateur and a pro design shop -- which does the client pick?

17 Jun 2003 | Steven Moussawer said...

The fact is the designer would most likely pick the one made by the Pro Design Shop, although it would be an interesting trial.

The Pro Design shop would most likely put the most detail and elegance into the logo, while the amatuer is trying to put together something fast for that $50.

17 Jun 2003 | Smooth_J said...

Did you know that Roy Lichtenstein, world famous artist, designed the logo for Dreamworks Records?

You can bet he didn't get paid $50 for that . . .

18 Jun 2003 | mark said...

You just gotta love this quote from the exxon case at goodlogo.com

I valued the double x for its neo-subliminal memory-retention value and also for a certain similarity to the two s's in Esso...

18 Jun 2003 | Krakow said...

Can someone show me facts that support that a blue logo is bad? So everyone is using blue, who cares? A bunch of designers talking about stuff that doesn't matter.

18 Jun 2003 | Darrel said...

I would really like to see a side-by-side test of a logo designed by an amateur and a pro design shop -- which does the client pick

Umm...probably whichever one can sell the client the solution.

You just gotta love this quote

There's some wonderfully corny copywriting on that site. Some of my favorites:

(macromedia) "the logo is superstrong"

(Nike) "printed in orange over the outline of a checkmark, the sign of positivity"

(ICI) "Wolff Olins introduced the clean, modern combination of white letters against a blue background"

While you have to give them credit for putting the site up, the writing seems, well, a little made-up at times.

18 Jun 2003 | huphtur said...

how to rip off a site:
1. http://www.amazon.com
result: http://www.goodlogo.com

18 Jun 2003 | huphtur said...

how to rip off a site:
1. http://www.amazon.com
result: http://www.goodlogo.com

18 Jun 2003 | said...

I would really like to see a side-by-side test of a logo designed by an amateur and a pro design shop -- which does the client pick?

The experience of NBC in the 1970s: they paid top dollar to a branding firm to develop a new logo (“N”) only to find that a painfully similar version was already in use at Nebraska public television station, NETV. As the story goes, NBC negotiated with NETV to be able to use the “N” for an additional huge sum of money.

NETV's logo? ...I heard they paid an intern $50.

11 Dec 2003 | Tinus Guichelaar said...

I guess I am also not too original..

29 Dec 2003 | billig Handy said...

funny

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27 Nov 2004 | halle berry picture down said...

halle berry picture down
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