Graham Smith
Updates
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Beautiful Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920s By Ale Paul http://t.co/bNXlDm0o
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@_colourspace American usage, BTW, does allow for apostrophes in dates. Not recommended for British audiences…
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@_colourspace oh please.
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Inside 80's Apple Photography By Bill Gallery - Inside 80’s Apple Photography By Bill Gallery http://t.co/Ruhtxr6I
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Free Adobe CS6 Vector Icons for Download: http://t.co/ntuBLLHV @iblend
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What A 17-inch PowerBook G5 Would Look Like http://t.co/q1mQ3RTa
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Beautiful Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920's By Ale Paul http://t.co/9IyK5GdZ
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@iA Not necessarily true. Think that's a little too simplistic. You can search/dig out info independent of SM & share that info by SM
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@iA No doubt, from an aesthetic view, social buttons are damn fugly and I would MUCH rather not have them. :)
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@iA Not sure I understand what you mean by 'logic traffic streams'?
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@iA firmly believe that it's beneficial to make it easy as possible for people to share 'on the move'. No buttons: less spontaneous share?
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@iA Depends if you care about low counts in the first place? Easy option then is to just not include those counts.
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@iA I do think that young/new websites benefits more from social media 'share/like' buttons far more than established sites?
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@iA But I do think it depends on the level of awareness and popularity 'your' site has. Not sure you need to worry, whereas some need help?
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Google bans, and delists, link buying suspect iAcquire http://t.co/vDyaUwBv via @rustybrick @glenn_ferrell @andykinsey #SEO #busted #karma
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The Tangram (Famous Logo Manipulations) Series By Vandana Jain http://t.co/HeePfZl6
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The Golden Grid - A complete grid system for super fast wireframing and visual design.: http://t.co/rqtbFgoV
Posts
Posts
Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s
This Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s immediately caught my eye.
The choice of font and colours matched with the Twitter brand name just makes this vintage Twitter logo sheet a rather beautiful specimen.
The font in question is called Storefront which can be found on Sudtipos: designed by Argentinian designer Ale Paul (@alepaul on Instagram). Definitely worth heading over to Ale’s Instagram account and giving this Twitter logo a good old favourite.
Found via DesignSoak & WeLoveTypography
No related posts.
Read Beautiful Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s By Ale Paul on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Tangram Series By Vandana Jain
Just when you thought you had seen the last of famous brand logo mash-up projects and studies, Vandana Jain has come up with these amazing brand logo deconstructions called Tangrams.
The brands that Vandana has Tangramed includes: HSBC, Total, Chase, Brita, Daewoo, NBC and Holiday Inn.
It’s a shame that there are not any larger digital versions of these posters as the originals are created by applying gouache on 30 x 22 paper.
Found on Quipsologies
No related posts.
Read The Tangram (Famous Logo Manipulations) Series By Vandana Jain on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
I love this story, by former Apple employee Joe Moreno, concerning the Apple’s iconic upside down logo on older laptop lids.
Many many years ago it would have been normal for a: passer by, admirer, stalker to have seen Apple’s logo upside down on the lid of my open Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop (see gorgeous photographs by Flickr user Damian Ward.)
I’m proud to state, here fore the record, that I liked seeing the Apple logo the right way up as I fondled my pride and joy. I didn’t concern myself with the notion that the Apple logo would now appear upside down to anyone looking over in my general vicinity.
All that mattered to me was this pure white Apple logo—remember that this was in the very early days of the monochromatic Apple logo—set against the wonderfully tactile finish of the Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop appeared the right way to me.
I don’t think Apple were so odd to have wanted the Apple logo in this way. I don’t think it was wrong at all, from a purely selfish don’t invade my personal space perspective, to want the iconic Apple logo to be the right way up when you opened your exceedingly expensive Apple laptop.
Also bear in mind this was the laptop evolution for Apple, and I was personally besotted with this horrendously heavy Macintosh. When you spend that/this sort of money I would rather have it look right for me, and not a nosy/admiring onlooker.
It goes without saying it’s not the best solution when considering how a brand identity looks to everyone else, but that’s not my problem
Whilst on the subject of what works for me, I would also like the NorthFace logo, on my new hoody, to look the right way up as well.
Seeing the Apple logo the right way up was all part of the Apple experience and pride of ownership of an Apple laptop. I do recall caressing the Lombard’s lid whilst simultaneously trying to wipe off my oily fingerprints with a t-shirt.
I don’t think my particular aesthetic would have allowed for an upside down Apple logo experience.
Skip a few centuries and I am now used to the purity of the monochrome Apple logo as well as not considering it to be so precious. Thus I am happy for the Apple logo to practice it’s siren ways on any admiring onlookers.
However, it is funny now seeing some older movies that have a Apple laptop with the upside down logo.
It totally looks silly.
Photo Credits
Found this gorgeous photographs of a Macintosh PowerBook G3 on Damian Ward’s Flickr stream.
Found on http://www.tuaw.com
Related posts:
- Apple Chasing Another Company Using An Apple In Their Logo
- Apple iPhone vs driPhone Brand Trademark
- “Don’t make it cute” said Steve
Read Apple’s Upside Down Downside Up Logo on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
It’s super nice when a previous client shows you some stunning new versions of a logo design you previously did for them. Ashely showed me these variations on the BrokersDirect (Process Post & Portfolio) I designed for them: InsureMyPlace, EasyInsure and EasyLet.
It’s great because these logo variations look really smart as well as effectively carry the original BrokersDirect identity. The colour selection is also super nice.
Her call to me was to just run these additional logo designs past me, and to check I was cool with them creating other versions of the original logo design. I’ll be first to say that I was initially a little concerned that the attachments to shoot over on email would be less than satisfactory, but the flip-side is that it’s her logo now and she can ultimately do as she pleases with them.
I love it because it’s all good.
Related posts:
- T-Shirt Express Logo Design Update
- Pure Storage Identity Design
- Recreated-Vintage VW Logo Specification Poster For Download
Read My BrokersDirect Logo Design Starts A Family on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Genuis Icon For Breastfeeding iOS App “Nursing Clock” By Marco Arment
This icon design for Marco Arment’s Nursing Clock iOS app is border line genius. I give 10/10 for sheer brilliance as well as simplistic execution. Came to my attention via a Tweet by John Siracusa (@siracusa).
Buy it for the icon alone: itunes.apple.com/us/app/nursing…
— John Siracusa (@siracusa) May 19, 2012
This would also be he same Marco who is the genius behind my favourite read it later app Instapaper.
Have to say I also saw a pair of hands grasping the nipple as well as the milk bottle teat, clock hands and of course breast. Am I missing anything?
Anyone know if Marco designed the icon himself?
Nursing App by Marco Arment
So be rude not to give a few details of the app itself. Details taken from the iTunes description.
A simple, easy-to-use breastfeeding timer.
- Keeps track of which breast was last used (indicated by the white diamond)
- Stopwatch displays the duration of the current feeding
- Shows the start time of the previous feeding
- Keeps the screen on so you can always glance at the time, hands-free
- Easy to read from a distance
- Keeps time even if you leave the app
With the simple three-button interface, you don’t need to learn how to use a complex app or sift through piles of screens. It’s just a simple timer designed for nursing mothers.
Buy on iTunes for 69p Nursing Clock
Related posts:
- Some iPhone & iTouch Application Icon Ideas
- Five Simple Steps – The Icon Handbook by Jon Hicks
- Sifter Macintosh Dock Application Icon Design
Read Genuis Icon For Breastfeeding iOS App Nursing Clock-By Marco Arment on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s
Oi Oi! The Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s is a stunning example of typographic postergraphy at it’s very bestest.
Ready! Go! The Letters Poster contains many original letter forms as well as being wonderfully presented via the 2-colour screenprint process in gloriously shiny metallic gold ink with each poster configured to the popular 18×24 inches size format meaning you can purchase this poster for only $25 if you can ring it up before the only 200 copies are sold out.
Found on The Fox is Black
No related posts.
Read Stunning Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Prolific Evolution Of The 3M Logo Design
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1978 (above)
Hey hey! We start this incredible logo evolution of the 3M brand with the most recent which was introduced back in 1978. This version also takes the prize for having the most longevity: spanning over three decades.
The evolution of the 3M logo looks like a successful exercise in yo-yo backwards-forwards brand logo design. We zip from round contained logo designs (1938) to plain typographic designs (1937), oval contained designs (1952) and frilly leave edged designs (1954). From this linear display it really does look a little random.
Some of the logos are clearly alternative lock-ups rather than different logo designs which I presume are the ones labeled: I, II, III & IV, as well providing alternative designs for other 3M sub brands? Need to research this more closely.
What’s interesting is to see how close they got to the current logo design back in 1937 & 1952 with a typographic solution. Some of the middle era designs are just rather odd when you compare to designs previously used as well as the actual technical accuracy of them.
And what the hell happened in 1961?
Found on Retronaut who provided this selection of 3M logos: Evolution of the 3M Logo
You might also like the Evolution Of The Batman Logo 1941-2007 by Rodrigo Rojas
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1961 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1961 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1960 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1960 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1958
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1957
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1956
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1955 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1955 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 IV
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 III
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1953
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 IV
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 III
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1951
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1950
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1948
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1944 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1944 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1942
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1938
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1937
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1926 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1926 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1906
Related posts:
- Evolution of the Herman Miller Logo 1905-2011
- Evolution Of The Batman Logo 1941-2007 by Rodrigo Rojas
- Submit Your Logo Design For Part 18 of Logo Design Round-Up
Read The Prolific Evolution Of The 3M Logo Design, 1906-2012 on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache.com
Hey hey! Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache is a remarkably concise list of typefaces, or called Font Clusters, that could be used as an alternative to Helvetica.
I have a number of the typefaces listed by Typecache in my own library, but there are quite a number here that are new to me. You may also be interested in my own, and far less impressive, list of Gotham typeface alternatives—which could do with updating thinking about it.
I found this Helvetica list by Typcache: 30 of the Best Alternatives to Helvetica, via an article on TheNextWeb. Here they interview Typecache co-founder Taro Yumiba on the creation of Typecache.
Via Typecache & TheNextWeb
Related posts:
- Helvetica Exploded Modular A2 Poster
- My Google RSS Feed Reading List
- Link: Does a large x-height make fonts more legible? by Ralf Herrmann
Read [Link] A Concise List Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache.com on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
A2 Helvetica Exploded Poster from PrintHandBook.com
Yo yo! Really digg’n this A2 Helvetica Exploded Poster from PrintHandBook.com For only £12 you get this wonderfully artsy Helvetica print that is separated into eight segments which should look rather cool on your design studio wall, or bathroom if you perv over things like this.
The Helvetica posters are printed using Pantone 899, silver metallic ink, on 250gsm Burgandy Keaykolour stock. Each poster, as mentioned above, is made up of eight A5 cards which when combined—ensure there is a 10mm gap between each one—produce a poster that is slightly larger than A2.
As well as the Helvetica Exploded Poster there is a Bodoni and Cooper Black Exploded version. You can buy all three for just £30.
No related posts.
Read Helvetica Exploded Modular A2 Poster on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Brand Fixer #1: Yahoo Gets Fixed—Fixing One Brand At A Time
The Brand Fixer Pledge
The Brand Fixer is on a mission to find & fix poorly functioning brands and/or logos of said brands.
In most cases the brand and/or logo is beyond help or recovery, so the Brand Fixer adopts, and practices, the most humane method of brand repair: Duct Tape.
The results are dramatic. See for yourself.
The Brand Fixer uses professional judgement in determining which brands and/or logos need to be fixed, as well as latching onto any hyped up media story of the hour.
The Brand Fixer pledges to be the first, or last, on the scene to assist and give appropriate aid, whenever and where ever it is needed. Your brand may be of a local geographical locality, but the Brand Fixer is global.
Why Yahoo?
Unless you really have been living under a boulder for the last few years, then it should come as no surprise that the Brand Fixer has to take immediate action on this long suffering—by suffering I don’t mean it’s own suffering, but the suffering it has impaled on the poor consumer—brand.
The Brand Fixer actually hates to see the actual logo design Duct Taped up as the Yahoo logo is not the problem in this case, but as we all know: a brand is more than the logo. Actually, in this case, the brand is far less than the logo.
Yahoo deserves little sympathy for the collective actions of the management, board and general lack of vision and self—if you haven’t logged onto Yahoo for a while, then just prepare yourself for that half-page horizontal advert! Yahoo has seen itself slowly eaten from the inside out with news topping crises’ like: Yahoo CEO lies about Computer Sciene Degree on CV & Yahoo bungles chance to make Flickr a leading force in social photography.
The Brand Fixer has a sworn duty to perform. Yahoo has done everything within it’s power to destroy itself from the inside-out.
The only course of action: Yahoo has to be fixed. Prepare the Duct Tape.
Related posts:
- Sony Vaio Brand Identity Book & Guidelines
- Logostack—Real World Logo & Brand Identity Inspiration
- Adobe Brand Identity Book and Guidelines
Read Brand Fixer #1—Yahoo Gets Fixed on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Type Hero #2: Fonts For Logos–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov
Hey hey! Only posted my first Type Hero yesterday and then saw Appetite, designed by Denis Serebryakov, which simply had to be mentioned. Denis has also designed a much thinner version called Appetite Contrast.
Just look at those sweet sweet letter forms, those ligatures, the multilingual glyphs. It all adds up to a scrummy lettering typeface which is pegged to be perfect for logo designs, and other less useful design stuff.
Think I’m going to enjoy finding typefaces and fonts to feature on Type Hero.
You can purchase Appetite for $49 per font: Regular and Italic. Webfont versions also available.
Related posts:
- Type Hero #1—Jocham By Hubert Jocham
- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- The Official Lost Type Co-Op Store Now Open
Read Type Hero #2–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
How to Rank #1 on Google for Logo Design By Matt Cutts
Hey hey! If you want to rank #1 for Logo Design on Google then all you need to do, urm, as stated by Matt Cutts, is to link out, urm, to porn sites and you’ll rank #1 for Logo Design.
So there we have it straight from the horses mouth: some targeted SEO advice if you are looking to rank #1 for Logo Design. All you have to do is, urm, link to porn sites and you’ll rank for #1 on Logo Design in Google.
You can also practice some keyword stuffing for Logo Design as well to, urm, help you rank for #1 for Logo Design… on, urm, Google.
You might also be therefore wondering where my links to porn sites are? So, urm, more useful advice is to hide these porn links by colouring, urm, the text white. That’s also really useful advice to, urm, rank #1 for Logo Design.
Please email if you want my list of porn site URL’s so you too can rank, urm, #1 on Google for Logo Design. Or try this for fun: try and find them on my website.
Disclaimer
Obviously you can’t rank #1 for Logo Design as I’ll be ranking #1 for Logo Design, but you can try for #2.
Related posts:
- Google Rewards High-Quality Sites Using White-Hat SEO
- Implementing Google Authorship Markup On Your Website
- Google Takes on Content Farms and black-hat SEO
Read How to Rank #1 on Google for… Logo Design By Matt Cutts on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Yo! New feature on imjustcreative: Type Hero—where I will, on occasion, highlight a font/typeface that catches my eye. I am always coming across typefaces and fonts that are just perfect for logo designing.
To launch Type Hero off in style here is the irresistible Jochan Family, designed by Hubert Jochan who started his own Type Foundy in 2007. These retro scripty style fonts are generally and adequately well provided for, but Jocham has that something I can’t quite put my finger on.
By the way, Hubert based Jochan on his own logotype.
Jochan comes in regular and italic and you can download Jochan Family for a reduced price of $39, usually $78, via MyFonts.
Related posts:
- Type Hero #2–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov
- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- The Official Lost Type Co-Op Store Now Open
Read Type Hero #1—Jocham By Hubert Jocham on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
RPM 45 – Free Condensed Font From Infamous Foundry
RPM 45 is a spivvy—I’m also quite partial to that particular hue of blue they have used for the graphics—free condensed font from the Infamous Foundry.
The uppercase set sets you on one course, but then look at the lowercase a, b, c etc and you’ll quickly see you are not getting a regular starched hard line condensed font. This font has taken inspiration from the French alphabets of the 1930′s period. It’s really smooth.
RPM 45 is certainly free, but it’s good for ones personal karma if one donates via the “Pay what you want” button. RPM 45 is well worthy of some of your cash, so ring it up buddy.
Download RPM 45 (and maybe donate?) http://cargocollective.com
Related posts:
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- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- Terminal Dosis Light – Free Font By @PabloImpallari
Read RPM 45 – Free Font by Infamous Foundry on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Here we go with Part 17 of the Logo Design Round-Up, and you can catch-up with Part 16 Logo Design Round-Up. As with Part 16 I am really chuffed to see so many designers submitting their own brand logo designs for this logo design round-up series. Read how I butchered Helvetica to create my own logo design.
Please note that all submissions are included as this series isn’t a best-of, or some elitist logo display. In this post the logos are displayed in alphabetical order.
If you have your own brand logo for your creative business then you are welcome to be part of this logo design series.
Take Part
If you would like to join the fun and have your own brand logo showcased with a written description then flick through this post: Submit Your Logo For Logo Design Round-Up Series
All there is to do now is present ten of your logo designs with some juicy descriptions to boot. Enjoy.
I have taken the liberty of pinning all the logos to Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/imjustcreative/logo-design-round-up as well as adding a Pin button to each and every logo design featured.
Logo Design Round-Up Part 16
Chris Beaumont: Beaumont Design: Logo & Brand Identity Design — http://dribbble.com/Beaumontdesign
This is my current logo to represent me as a freelance designer. I have recently finished a redesign of it which involved tweaking it’s proportions, adding the use of the golden ratio and softening the points making it easier on the eye. The result of changes also allowed it to look more balanced when combined with text as well as working better at smaller sizes.
The Mark is a combination of the tip of a pencil and the use of negative space to represent snowfall at the top of a mountain. The reason for this is that my surname, Beaumont, means ‘beautiful mountain’ in French.
The font I use is Novecento wide in both bold and normal weight. I chose this font as it is a very crisp font with a minimalist style that would transfer the information needed without drawing the attention away from the mark.
The colour scheme is a basic black and white to allow the negative space on the mark to really appear like crisp white snow and to conform with the minimalist style of the rest of the branding.
Constantinos Dobrovolski: cutdsgn — logo & brand identity design — http://cutdsgn.com
While still on my 3rd year as a Graphic & Advertising Design student, i was looking for a «cool» brand name (since my actual name is kinda difficult to be read/pronounced) that would be affiliated with simplicity and minimalism, as design styles. Since i love the process of subtraction in my work, i ended with the word «cut» & «dsgn», which brought me finally to «cutdsgn». The best part is that the initial letters of the two words, are the respectively initials of my full name.
The actual logo process lasted for a few months of brainstorming, sketching and design on my free time. I have to admit it although, if i would be my own client, i would tie a rock to my neck and i’d throw myself into the bottom of the sea. Yeah, the process hurt a lot since i didn’t put a deadline or any design restriction from the beginning.
After a long time, i decided that my goal would be to design a logo mark that would represent «cut» in a minimal way and on the other hand, it would combine the initials of the two words. Being a fan of the «Smith» style, i ended up with a square logo mark that contains in negative space the «c» & «d» characters, that stand from each other with the use of two «cuts». The typeface i used for the naming is a slightly edited Breuer Text Bold, which in my mind it could be the modern child of Helvetica & Din families.
For the moment, i use a neutral grayish color palette which to be honest, it suits me as a personality; although a new color scheme is not impossible to be developed, parallel with the actual website design. Concluding, i’m quite pleased and probably proud with myself as i managed to present an overview of my personality as a designer and as a character into such a simple logo.
David Bauer – David Bauer Photography Design
I love minimal and clean design so I knew from the start that my logo would have to reflect that. And since I’m using my name as the name of the company I wanted to include my initials into the design. It did not have to really say anything about what I’m doing but it would have to be usable as a standalone symbol and/or watermark.
I’ve gone trough like 10 different ideas in the last few months and finally this one grew on me. One day I just flipped my initials to the vertical and there it was! And I was quite surprised to see some things that go together well – a smiling face, ‘Victory’ sign and a computer mouse. And I’m sure I will find more things in this symbol over the time.
Searching for the right font took me even longer and I finally settled with one of the cleanest ones – Gotham (still have a possible runner up – Avenir). It was used for all the typography as well as for the symbol.
Everything is just black&white at the moment. I’m still working on my website so if there will be any colors, they can be also implemented into this logo.
Eric Coddington: Graphic Designer — http://ericcoddington.com
When it comes to designing for a client I am very focused, straight forward, and on target. Like every other designer I am definitely my own worst critic, which had lead me in the past to be very schizophrenic when designing for myself. Not knowing what aspects of my personality, or style to highlight. I’ve used so many personal logos over the past 10 years I’ve lost count.
When I recently moved to a new city (Portland, OR) I decided I need to start fresh again, but this time I needed to create a personal brand that really showed who I am. Not what I like to design, not what I want to be or become, but something that is just me.
Then it hit me, nothing is more me – than me! At that moment of realization I knew my logo was done, and I didn’t even design it, my mom did, with her Polaroid camera, in the early 80′s. Whether you know my logo Is a photo of me jumping off the living room chair or not, it doesn’t matter. You can feel that person in the logo. It’s someone you know, or more likely than not, it was you at some point in your life. And at my core, that’s who I am still today… just bigger.
Now, when handing out my business cards to potential clients, no previous logo has had the success at breaking the ice as this one has. It makes them not only want to know about what I do, but also who I am. It gives potential clients a sense of familiarity with me. It’s an instant relationship builder. And at its essence, isn’t that all a logo really is, a relationship builder.
Kelvin Farrell — kelvinwins: graphic/web designer — http://kelvinwins.com
I’ve found nothing more difficult than designing a logo to promote myself as a designer. I could never settle on anything that I felt truly portrayed me in the right light. To be honest, I hadn’t even settled on a name for a long time after I’d started designing – I was just using my personal name.
What kicked off my thinking was a jokey phrase that my then-housemate used to say; “I win at life”. I thought nothing of it at the time but eventually it creeped in to my vocabulary and I’d mix it up by saying things like “I win at cooking/football/watching TV etc.” One night I replied to someone by saying “I win at design”, and that’s how I initially came up with my brand and domain name, kelvinwins.
From there it was pretty simple to come up with my logo. The idea of playing on that ‘win’ phrase was all too tempting. I thought of a range of ways of doing it; trophies, medals, podium, but eventually settled on a ribbon/badge as it was a bit more understated. I didn’t want to come across as arrogant, which I felt some of the other ideas could have.
The logo has been through a bit of development and has evolved across it’s life. Recently I’ve refined it, given it a bolder font (Frutiger LT 95 Ultra Black) and made it single colour. I’m very happy with it in it’s current form. It’s cheeky, but more in a fun manner, rather than anything unprofessional.
Lisa Dale: Graphic Designer — http://lisamariedale.tumblr.com
My logo came about during an exercise on self promotion and I was having such a nightmare thinking of what to design for myself. Seems silly really when you cant think of how to design for yourself but when working with clients the job seems much more straight forward. I looked around me for inspiration at the time and decided that my logo had to say something about me and my personal style within design.
The idea came from my love for Typography which keeps growing, and my logo has a handwritten feel to it which was deliberate and inspired me at the time. The font I used is called Stars From Our Eyes. This font is perfect for my self promotion as my work has a more personal feel to it, like the hand rendered effect from the font.
I have a keen eye for colour and the colour I chose for the typeface is a pastel calm soothing colour. This does not mean to say I wont use vibrant bright colours in my design! My work has a consistent colour theme in terms of light shades and delicate colours. Each colour compliments the other and balances the type perfectly. The good thing about this logo is it works just as well reversed in black and white, and when I see this logo it may appear to be simple and not much thought has gone into the idea but for me its legible, adaptable on all media and professional.
These are the things I want my logo to say about myself. Altogether the logo probably took me a total of two months because I could not find my direction at first. The process was difficult and I found myself questioning at times whether this logo was really me but now it is a working logo I couldn’t be more happier with the outcome.
Mat Ranson & Izabella Bielawksa – Mandala Studio: Art Direction, Design & Branding – http://mandalastudio.net
As most designers can attest, branding yourself is difficult. It quickly becomes clear that you are the best and worst person to do it. You’re the best person because you know your business intimately and will spend as much time as necessary on it. You’re the worst person because without factors to ring-fence the process (namely self-discipline, a budget and a finite amount of time) it will never be finished. But, we knew this and so we tried hard not to fall into the trap.
So we went through a quick rejection process to arrive at the name and the logo:
• Instinctively, we both wanted to use a basic shape for the logo: either a square or a circle
• We wanted the word Labyrinth, so that was the original concept, and the shape could be square
• We’re based in Asia so ‘Labyrinth’ didn’t feel like a word people would be familiar with
• Mandalas feel like the Eastern equivalent of Labyrinths
If you are not familiar with mandalas – they are traditional Hindu and Buddhist images which depict the Wheel Of Life. A mandala is essentially a detailed decorative image and they come in many different designs. We weren’t personally concerned with the religious connotations so much, more the shape and the pattern potential. We referenced a lot of imagery to draw them – mostly mandala designs of course – but also pattern work from our huge copy of Owen Jones brilliant book ‘The Grammar Of Ornament’.
The type went through a few iterations. We wanted the mandala as the focus, with type that balanced it. Originally we had chosen Erik Spiekermann’s Officina Serif in caps at quite a small size. But it was dwarfed by the mandala and not a heavy enough weight. We settled on Clarendon because the serif decoration sits well with the vibrant symbols and it is a heavy typeface with a hint of nostalgia, which gives gravity to the two things together.
Mandala Studio is two people and one’s favourite colour is sky blue, the other’s is blood red. So that was a simple, but important decision on colour. It also means we have front-and-back business cards: one of us on the blue side, the other on the red and we use the blue for non-urgent correspondence like estimates and mail-outs, and the red, of course, for invoices.
Michael Warren: Design + Direction — http://makewithmichael.com
Born with a common name, I knew I would have to anchor my brand with a strong symbol. Not only did I want the design to be minimal, simple and easy to read, but I wanted it to reflect the type of work that I produce.
My initials – MW – have many interesting features that helped me glean design cues. Toying with shapes and pattern reflections, I wanted to convey my brand-mark using four simple triangles that would outline the “m” and “w”.
Offset for the quirkiness and creativity of my work, I managed to merge the triangular shapes into a stylized, yet easy to read, symbol of my initials. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for me during the design process. In seeing that the triangles were pointed, it made my design feel too aggressive, so I added subtle hints of rounded edges to help soften up the symbol.
I wanted to keep my brand in black & white to convey professionalism and minimalism, so the symbol stayed in it’s native conception color. The typeface I use to accompany my brand is Din, for it perfectly complements the modern feel of my symbol, with a nice touch of friendliness.
Rick Raby: Graphic Designer & Student — http://rickraby.tumblr.com
I came up with the logo when I first started my FdA, I was probably no more than 2 months into the course. I was sat in a contextual studies lecture and instead of taking notes I though I’d do some doodling. That night, I went back to my flat and made it in illustrator and I’ve stuck with it ever since.
The logo is just my initials (My full name is Richard Adam Raby) but it’s clean and I love that about it. At the time, I didn’t know much about fonts and all I really wanted was one with straight legs for the R’s, so I went for Akzidenz Grotesk. At the time that choice didn’t really mean to much to me but ever since I’ve had a tendency to use this type of modernist typeface – I use DinPro throughout my stationary and on every presentation I’ve made in the last year.
The colour of the logo is a bit of a funny one. When I first started putting work on my blog, it was all converted from CMYK to RGB, so the black was never a proper screen black but I always liked that for some reason. So ever since I’ve been using this 94% CMYK black in my logo and stationary. It also turns out that its the same colour as the default background in Acrobat Pro – and yes, I did have a mini panic when I found this out and wondered where half my PDF had gone.
Paul Attard: Graphic Design — http://wearegoat.com
Goat is a small design studio based in London, made up of myself and my Russian colleague.
I’ll first have to start out with the naming of the studio; to cut a long story short, my colleagues surname is Golev and mine is Attard. We started working on project while still studying at University and felt that we had a very good back and forth so decided to create a name for the collective. We chose to call it goat as a combination of the two surnames put together symbolising the connection of two halves joining together to create a whole entity.
With the name out of the way it was time to start the long process of self-branding, which somehow feels like the hardest job. We settled on the font LTC Twentieth Century which is basically Futura with some fancy alternatives thrown in. We were looking for this slight peculiarity in a font and LTC Twentieth Century just seemed to have something we both completely agreed upon.
We then wanted to include a feature to draw attention to the two separate halves, which later came in the form of the yellow line down the middle. It works in two ways; firstly the separation down the middle, which we then incorporated into all aspects of our brand. Secondly it was inspired by the peculiar pupils of a goat’s eye.
With everything put together the final touch was the yellow colour which was decided upon due to the vibrance of yellow. It is a nice contrast from the black and adds something small that stands out.
Wouter Buning: vormverteller —brand identity designer – http://wouterbuning.nl
As a young creative professional I believed working under one’s own name was a sign of uncreativity: a creative person should have a creative brand name. And I was convinced that potential clients would take a corporate brand more serious. I wanted to stay away from the ’21-year-old-working-from-mum-&-dad’s-attic’ image. So for many years I struggled in finding the brand name that suited me well.
I switched the name three or four times (once because of a pending lawsuit…). None of them endured. I never planned on expanding into a business (it always was going to be just me), so at some point I managed to let go of my former prejudices and finally decided using my own name as brand name. It’s been running for 5 years now and I’m still completely happy with it. Even now, my brand identity keeps growing on me.
Since my brand name wasn’t that creative there was room for a creative job description ;D So 2 years ago I invented the title vormverteller. That’s Dutch for ‘shapeteller’ derived from ‘storyteller’.
About the same time I added a few supporting colours to the existing pallet, enabeling me to promote different design services under separate colours. And in an identity project I always like to create a rich black and grey spectrum that fits the main colour, so each brand has it’s own black and greys. I guess that’s just an aspect of my design-lunaticness.
The logo mark is a typographical design solution. The idea was to create one strong shape for my initials, like a graphical/geometric signature, with an interesting balance between round and sharp edges. While I was sketching, I added a hint of 3D movement within a 2D shape. The rotation of the logo mark suggests looking upward and forward, adds some dynamic and I feel it makes the logo optimistic/future minded. I adjusted the ‘w’ to keep a solid base.
A little joke I implemented was a hint to the old ink dip-pens in the shape of the ‘b’. But the funniest thing happened a few months ago, when one of my students came up to me and said he thought the logo mark was a drawing hand: he never saw the initials. How is that for a bonus!
Andy Valde: Graphic Designer — http://StoneSoup3.com
Hi! My name is Andy Valde and I am a graphic designer for my company Stone Soup 3. Below is the description of our company and we can be found at StoneSoup3.com
“Stone Soup” originated as a French tale about 3 soldiers returning home from the Napoleonic Wars. They arrive at a village where they quickly learn that, because of war times, the villages are unwilling to share, trade or sell any food or supplied. So the Soldiers decide to bring an empty pot to the village square, fill it with water, place it over a fire and drop a large stone into the pot. One villager becomes curious and asks them what they are doing. They explain that they are making Stone Soup even though some potatoes would really make the soup taste much better. After hearing this, the villager decides they have some potatoes to spare. He brings the potatoes and drops them into the pot. As he does this, other villagers follow and contribute what they have.
This is a story of people coming together to reach an over all goal. This is exactly what our company Stone Soup 3 is. Each one of us contributes individually with our expertise to an overall goal. This way we help our clients, like the soldiers from the story, achieve success for their company. The number three at the end of our logo signifies our company trinity: Audience, Concept, Execution. Eric Lamkins, Heather Murray, and Andy Valde are the current contributors to the overall pot of creativity and execution. Learn more about us by visiting StoneSoup3.com.
Related posts:
- Logo Design Round-Up Part 16
- Submit Your Logo Design For Part 18 of Logo Design Round-Up
- Mindblowing Hypercompact Logo And Blinding Animation Thereof
Read Logo Design Round-Up Part 17 on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Profile
Summary
I left my last employer, Gemini Press Limited, some 6 years ago to pursue a more focused role in logo and brand identity design. The company I set up is imjustcreative and this is where I find myself today.
From my home based studio I dedicate my time to working with local and worldwide clients on various styles of logo and identity projects.
My general logo design style is clean, minimal and typographic although I extend out to more colourful and detailed designs when required and is appropriate for the project in hand.
As well as designing logos I also fully utilise the power of the internet and social media. I write frequent articles on logo and brand identity design which lead to three book publishers approaching me, within the last year, to author books on logo and identity design. Unfortunately I had to pass each off up due to ongoing client work.
My goal is to self publish a book on logo design by the end of 2012.
I will wrap this summary up by giving you my mobile phone number should you have any logo design questions you want to ask me: 07816 527 462.
Experience
- Jan 2007 - PresentLogo and Identity Designer / imjustcreativeA logo and identity designer with some 27 years experience behind him. Working from my home based studio I work with clients all over the world to help them achieve the best possible and most appropriate visual solutions to their logo and identity requirements. • I am passionate and motivated. • I obsess over details. • My logo designs lean towards the iconic and typographic with minimalist tendencies. • I favour clean, solid and type driven designs. • I only use commercial and high quality typefaces in my designs. • Love to brainstorm wonderful new company names and tag lines. • I have a solid online reputation. • I hate cliches in logo design. View my portfolio : http://imjustcreative.com
- Jul 1996 - PresentTechnical Manager, Senior Designer & Digital Press Operator / Gemini Press LimitedInitially employed as designer within the reprographics department I went on to become the IT and Design Manager for the department. This involved: looking after the companies email and web infrastructure, the studios server and network; maintaining each one of the 20 Apple Mac's and 2 PC's; ensuring staff were trained and kept up-to-date with software; trouble-shooting problem files, jobs, Mac and PC problems, meeting with clients off-site to advise on the optimum way to prepare and supply print-ready artwork and/or digital files as well as helping with design and artwork in general.
- Jun 1994 - PresentGraphic Designer / MGN Graphics
- Oct 1993 - PresentPre-Press Designer / RE Litho
- Jan 1993 - PresentGraphic Designer / Denton Advertising
- Sept 1989 - PresentPaste-Up Artist, Platemaker and Camera Operator / Manor Park Press
Education
- Eastbourne 6th Form
- Seaford Head
Posts
Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s
This Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s immediately caught my eye.
The choice of font and colours matched with the Twitter brand name just makes this vintage Twitter logo sheet a rather beautiful specimen.
The font in question is called Storefront which can be found on Sudtipos: designed by Argentinian designer Ale Paul (@alepaul on Instagram). Definitely worth heading over to Ale’s Instagram account and giving this Twitter logo a good old favourite.
Found via DesignSoak & WeLoveTypography
No related posts.
Read Beautiful Alternate Twitter Logo From The 1920′s By Ale Paul on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Tangram Series By Vandana Jain
Just when you thought you had seen the last of famous brand logo mash-up projects and studies, Vandana Jain has come up with these amazing brand logo deconstructions called Tangrams.
The brands that Vandana has Tangramed includes: HSBC, Total, Chase, Brita, Daewoo, NBC and Holiday Inn.
It’s a shame that there are not any larger digital versions of these posters as the originals are created by applying gouache on 30 x 22 paper.
Found on Quipsologies
No related posts.
Read The Tangram (Famous Logo Manipulations) Series By Vandana Jain on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
I love this story, by former Apple employee Joe Moreno, concerning the Apple’s iconic upside down logo on older laptop lids.
Many many years ago it would have been normal for a: passer by, admirer, stalker to have seen Apple’s logo upside down on the lid of my open Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop (see gorgeous photographs by Flickr user Damian Ward.)
I’m proud to state, here fore the record, that I liked seeing the Apple logo the right way up as I fondled my pride and joy. I didn’t concern myself with the notion that the Apple logo would now appear upside down to anyone looking over in my general vicinity.
All that mattered to me was this pure white Apple logo—remember that this was in the very early days of the monochromatic Apple logo—set against the wonderfully tactile finish of the Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop appeared the right way to me.
I don’t think Apple were so odd to have wanted the Apple logo in this way. I don’t think it was wrong at all, from a purely selfish don’t invade my personal space perspective, to want the iconic Apple logo to be the right way up when you opened your exceedingly expensive Apple laptop.
Also bear in mind this was the laptop evolution for Apple, and I was personally besotted with this horrendously heavy Macintosh. When you spend that/this sort of money I would rather have it look right for me, and not a nosy/admiring onlooker.
It goes without saying it’s not the best solution when considering how a brand identity looks to everyone else, but that’s not my problem
Whilst on the subject of what works for me, I would also like the NorthFace logo, on my new hoody, to look the right way up as well.
Seeing the Apple logo the right way up was all part of the Apple experience and pride of ownership of an Apple laptop. I do recall caressing the Lombard’s lid whilst simultaneously trying to wipe off my oily fingerprints with a t-shirt.
I don’t think my particular aesthetic would have allowed for an upside down Apple logo experience.
Skip a few centuries and I am now used to the purity of the monochrome Apple logo as well as not considering it to be so precious. Thus I am happy for the Apple logo to practice it’s siren ways on any admiring onlookers.
However, it is funny now seeing some older movies that have a Apple laptop with the upside down logo.
It totally looks silly.
Photo Credits
Found this gorgeous photographs of a Macintosh PowerBook G3 on Damian Ward’s Flickr stream.
Found on http://www.tuaw.com
Related posts:
- Apple Chasing Another Company Using An Apple In Their Logo
- Apple iPhone vs driPhone Brand Trademark
- “Don’t make it cute” said Steve
Read Apple’s Upside Down Downside Up Logo on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
It’s super nice when a previous client shows you some stunning new versions of a logo design you previously did for them. Ashely showed me these variations on the BrokersDirect (Process Post & Portfolio) I designed for them: InsureMyPlace, EasyInsure and EasyLet.
It’s great because these logo variations look really smart as well as effectively carry the original BrokersDirect identity. The colour selection is also super nice.
Her call to me was to just run these additional logo designs past me, and to check I was cool with them creating other versions of the original logo design. I’ll be first to say that I was initially a little concerned that the attachments to shoot over on email would be less than satisfactory, but the flip-side is that it’s her logo now and she can ultimately do as she pleases with them.
I love it because it’s all good.
Related posts:
- T-Shirt Express Logo Design Update
- Pure Storage Identity Design
- Recreated-Vintage VW Logo Specification Poster For Download
Read My BrokersDirect Logo Design Starts A Family on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Genuis Icon For Breastfeeding iOS App “Nursing Clock” By Marco Arment
This icon design for Marco Arment’s Nursing Clock iOS app is border line genius. I give 10/10 for sheer brilliance as well as simplistic execution. Came to my attention via a Tweet by John Siracusa (@siracusa).
Buy it for the icon alone: itunes.apple.com/us/app/nursing…
— John Siracusa (@siracusa) May 19, 2012
This would also be he same Marco who is the genius behind my favourite read it later app Instapaper.
Have to say I also saw a pair of hands grasping the nipple as well as the milk bottle teat, clock hands and of course breast. Am I missing anything?
Anyone know if Marco designed the icon himself?
Nursing App by Marco Arment
So be rude not to give a few details of the app itself. Details taken from the iTunes description.
A simple, easy-to-use breastfeeding timer.
- Keeps track of which breast was last used (indicated by the white diamond)
- Stopwatch displays the duration of the current feeding
- Shows the start time of the previous feeding
- Keeps the screen on so you can always glance at the time, hands-free
- Easy to read from a distance
- Keeps time even if you leave the app
With the simple three-button interface, you don’t need to learn how to use a complex app or sift through piles of screens. It’s just a simple timer designed for nursing mothers.
Buy on iTunes for 69p Nursing Clock
Related posts:
- Some iPhone & iTouch Application Icon Ideas
- Five Simple Steps – The Icon Handbook by Jon Hicks
- Sifter Macintosh Dock Application Icon Design
Read Genuis Icon For Breastfeeding iOS App Nursing Clock-By Marco Arment on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s
Oi Oi! The Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s is a stunning example of typographic postergraphy at it’s very bestest.
Ready! Go! The Letters Poster contains many original letter forms as well as being wonderfully presented via the 2-colour screenprint process in gloriously shiny metallic gold ink with each poster configured to the popular 18×24 inches size format meaning you can purchase this poster for only $25 if you can ring it up before the only 200 copies are sold out.
Found on The Fox is Black
No related posts.
Read Stunning Letters Typographic Poster by Skinny Ships & 55 Hi’s on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
The Prolific Evolution Of The 3M Logo Design
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1978 (above)
Hey hey! We start this incredible logo evolution of the 3M brand with the most recent which was introduced back in 1978. This version also takes the prize for having the most longevity: spanning over three decades.
The evolution of the 3M logo looks like a successful exercise in yo-yo backwards-forwards brand logo design. We zip from round contained logo designs (1938) to plain typographic designs (1937), oval contained designs (1952) and frilly leave edged designs (1954). From this linear display it really does look a little random.
Some of the logos are clearly alternative lock-ups rather than different logo designs which I presume are the ones labeled: I, II, III & IV, as well providing alternative designs for other 3M sub brands? Need to research this more closely.
What’s interesting is to see how close they got to the current logo design back in 1937 & 1952 with a typographic solution. Some of the middle era designs are just rather odd when you compare to designs previously used as well as the actual technical accuracy of them.
And what the hell happened in 1961?
Found on Retronaut who provided this selection of 3M logos: Evolution of the 3M Logo
You might also like the Evolution Of The Batman Logo 1941-2007 by Rodrigo Rojas
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1961 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1961 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1960 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1960 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1958
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1957
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1956
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1955 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1955 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 IV
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 III
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1954 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1953
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 IV
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 III
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1952 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1951
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1950
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1948
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1944 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1944 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1942
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1938
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1937
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1926 II
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1926 I
Evolution of the 3M Logo Design – 1906
Related posts:
- Evolution of the Herman Miller Logo 1905-2011
- Evolution Of The Batman Logo 1941-2007 by Rodrigo Rojas
- Submit Your Logo Design For Part 18 of Logo Design Round-Up
Read The Prolific Evolution Of The 3M Logo Design, 1906-2012 on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache.com
Hey hey! Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache is a remarkably concise list of typefaces, or called Font Clusters, that could be used as an alternative to Helvetica.
I have a number of the typefaces listed by Typecache in my own library, but there are quite a number here that are new to me. You may also be interested in my own, and far less impressive, list of Gotham typeface alternatives—which could do with updating thinking about it.
I found this Helvetica list by Typcache: 30 of the Best Alternatives to Helvetica, via an article on TheNextWeb. Here they interview Typecache co-founder Taro Yumiba on the creation of Typecache.
Via Typecache & TheNextWeb
Related posts:
- Helvetica Exploded Modular A2 Poster
- My Google RSS Feed Reading List
- Link: Does a large x-height make fonts more legible? by Ralf Herrmann
Read [Link] A Concise List Helvetica Alternatives From Typecache.com on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
A2 Helvetica Exploded Poster from PrintHandBook.com
Yo yo! Really digg’n this A2 Helvetica Exploded Poster from PrintHandBook.com For only £12 you get this wonderfully artsy Helvetica print that is separated into eight segments which should look rather cool on your design studio wall, or bathroom if you perv over things like this.
The Helvetica posters are printed using Pantone 899, silver metallic ink, on 250gsm Burgandy Keaykolour stock. Each poster, as mentioned above, is made up of eight A5 cards which when combined—ensure there is a 10mm gap between each one—produce a poster that is slightly larger than A2.
As well as the Helvetica Exploded Poster there is a Bodoni and Cooper Black Exploded version. You can buy all three for just £30.
No related posts.
Read Helvetica Exploded Modular A2 Poster on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Brand Fixer #1: Yahoo Gets Fixed—Fixing One Brand At A Time
The Brand Fixer Pledge
The Brand Fixer is on a mission to find & fix poorly functioning brands and/or logos of said brands.
In most cases the brand and/or logo is beyond help or recovery, so the Brand Fixer adopts, and practices, the most humane method of brand repair: Duct Tape.
The results are dramatic. See for yourself.
The Brand Fixer uses professional judgement in determining which brands and/or logos need to be fixed, as well as latching onto any hyped up media story of the hour.
The Brand Fixer pledges to be the first, or last, on the scene to assist and give appropriate aid, whenever and where ever it is needed. Your brand may be of a local geographical locality, but the Brand Fixer is global.
Why Yahoo?
Unless you really have been living under a boulder for the last few years, then it should come as no surprise that the Brand Fixer has to take immediate action on this long suffering—by suffering I don’t mean it’s own suffering, but the suffering it has impaled on the poor consumer—brand.
The Brand Fixer actually hates to see the actual logo design Duct Taped up as the Yahoo logo is not the problem in this case, but as we all know: a brand is more than the logo. Actually, in this case, the brand is far less than the logo.
Yahoo deserves little sympathy for the collective actions of the management, board and general lack of vision and self—if you haven’t logged onto Yahoo for a while, then just prepare yourself for that half-page horizontal advert! Yahoo has seen itself slowly eaten from the inside out with news topping crises’ like: Yahoo CEO lies about Computer Sciene Degree on CV & Yahoo bungles chance to make Flickr a leading force in social photography.
The Brand Fixer has a sworn duty to perform. Yahoo has done everything within it’s power to destroy itself from the inside-out.
The only course of action: Yahoo has to be fixed. Prepare the Duct Tape.
Related posts:
- Sony Vaio Brand Identity Book & Guidelines
- Logostack—Real World Logo & Brand Identity Inspiration
- Adobe Brand Identity Book and Guidelines
Read Brand Fixer #1—Yahoo Gets Fixed on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Type Hero #2: Fonts For Logos–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov
Hey hey! Only posted my first Type Hero yesterday and then saw Appetite, designed by Denis Serebryakov, which simply had to be mentioned. Denis has also designed a much thinner version called Appetite Contrast.
Just look at those sweet sweet letter forms, those ligatures, the multilingual glyphs. It all adds up to a scrummy lettering typeface which is pegged to be perfect for logo designs, and other less useful design stuff.
Think I’m going to enjoy finding typefaces and fonts to feature on Type Hero.
You can purchase Appetite for $49 per font: Regular and Italic. Webfont versions also available.
Related posts:
- Type Hero #1—Jocham By Hubert Jocham
- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- The Official Lost Type Co-Op Store Now Open
Read Type Hero #2–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
How to Rank #1 on Google for Logo Design By Matt Cutts
Hey hey! If you want to rank #1 for Logo Design on Google then all you need to do, urm, as stated by Matt Cutts, is to link out, urm, to porn sites and you’ll rank #1 for Logo Design.
So there we have it straight from the horses mouth: some targeted SEO advice if you are looking to rank #1 for Logo Design. All you have to do is, urm, link to porn sites and you’ll rank for #1 on Logo Design in Google.
You can also practice some keyword stuffing for Logo Design as well to, urm, help you rank for #1 for Logo Design… on, urm, Google.
You might also be therefore wondering where my links to porn sites are? So, urm, more useful advice is to hide these porn links by colouring, urm, the text white. That’s also really useful advice to, urm, rank #1 for Logo Design.
Please email if you want my list of porn site URL’s so you too can rank, urm, #1 on Google for Logo Design. Or try this for fun: try and find them on my website.
Disclaimer
Obviously you can’t rank #1 for Logo Design as I’ll be ranking #1 for Logo Design, but you can try for #2.
Related posts:
- Google Rewards High-Quality Sites Using White-Hat SEO
- Implementing Google Authorship Markup On Your Website
- Google Takes on Content Farms and black-hat SEO
Read How to Rank #1 on Google for… Logo Design By Matt Cutts on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Yo! New feature on imjustcreative: Type Hero—where I will, on occasion, highlight a font/typeface that catches my eye. I am always coming across typefaces and fonts that are just perfect for logo designing.
To launch Type Hero off in style here is the irresistible Jochan Family, designed by Hubert Jochan who started his own Type Foundy in 2007. These retro scripty style fonts are generally and adequately well provided for, but Jocham has that something I can’t quite put my finger on.
By the way, Hubert based Jochan on his own logotype.
Jochan comes in regular and italic and you can download Jochan Family for a reduced price of $39, usually $78, via MyFonts.
Related posts:
- Type Hero #2–Appetite By Denis Serebryakov
- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- The Official Lost Type Co-Op Store Now Open
Read Type Hero #1—Jocham By Hubert Jocham on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
RPM 45 – Free Condensed Font From Infamous Foundry
RPM 45 is a spivvy—I’m also quite partial to that particular hue of blue they have used for the graphics—free condensed font from the Infamous Foundry.
The uppercase set sets you on one course, but then look at the lowercase a, b, c etc and you’ll quickly see you are not getting a regular starched hard line condensed font. This font has taken inspiration from the French alphabets of the 1930′s period. It’s really smooth.
RPM 45 is certainly free, but it’s good for ones personal karma if one donates via the “Pay what you want” button. RPM 45 is well worthy of some of your cash, so ring it up buddy.
Download RPM 45 (and maybe donate?) http://cargocollective.com
Related posts:
- Updated 232MKSD Round – Free 3 Font Weights by @mksdsato
- Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
- Terminal Dosis Light – Free Font By @PabloImpallari
Read RPM 45 – Free Font by Infamous Foundry on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
Here we go with Part 17 of the Logo Design Round-Up, and you can catch-up with Part 16 Logo Design Round-Up. As with Part 16 I am really chuffed to see so many designers submitting their own brand logo designs for this logo design round-up series. Read how I butchered Helvetica to create my own logo design.
Please note that all submissions are included as this series isn’t a best-of, or some elitist logo display. In this post the logos are displayed in alphabetical order.
If you have your own brand logo for your creative business then you are welcome to be part of this logo design series.
Take Part
If you would like to join the fun and have your own brand logo showcased with a written description then flick through this post: Submit Your Logo For Logo Design Round-Up Series
All there is to do now is present ten of your logo designs with some juicy descriptions to boot. Enjoy.
I have taken the liberty of pinning all the logos to Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/imjustcreative/logo-design-round-up as well as adding a Pin button to each and every logo design featured.
Logo Design Round-Up Part 16
Chris Beaumont: Beaumont Design: Logo & Brand Identity Design — http://dribbble.com/Beaumontdesign
This is my current logo to represent me as a freelance designer. I have recently finished a redesign of it which involved tweaking it’s proportions, adding the use of the golden ratio and softening the points making it easier on the eye. The result of changes also allowed it to look more balanced when combined with text as well as working better at smaller sizes.
The Mark is a combination of the tip of a pencil and the use of negative space to represent snowfall at the top of a mountain. The reason for this is that my surname, Beaumont, means ‘beautiful mountain’ in French.
The font I use is Novecento wide in both bold and normal weight. I chose this font as it is a very crisp font with a minimalist style that would transfer the information needed without drawing the attention away from the mark.
The colour scheme is a basic black and white to allow the negative space on the mark to really appear like crisp white snow and to conform with the minimalist style of the rest of the branding.
Constantinos Dobrovolski: cutdsgn — logo & brand identity design — http://cutdsgn.com
While still on my 3rd year as a Graphic & Advertising Design student, i was looking for a «cool» brand name (since my actual name is kinda difficult to be read/pronounced) that would be affiliated with simplicity and minimalism, as design styles. Since i love the process of subtraction in my work, i ended with the word «cut» & «dsgn», which brought me finally to «cutdsgn». The best part is that the initial letters of the two words, are the respectively initials of my full name.
The actual logo process lasted for a few months of brainstorming, sketching and design on my free time. I have to admit it although, if i would be my own client, i would tie a rock to my neck and i’d throw myself into the bottom of the sea. Yeah, the process hurt a lot since i didn’t put a deadline or any design restriction from the beginning.
After a long time, i decided that my goal would be to design a logo mark that would represent «cut» in a minimal way and on the other hand, it would combine the initials of the two words. Being a fan of the «Smith» style, i ended up with a square logo mark that contains in negative space the «c» & «d» characters, that stand from each other with the use of two «cuts». The typeface i used for the naming is a slightly edited Breuer Text Bold, which in my mind it could be the modern child of Helvetica & Din families.
For the moment, i use a neutral grayish color palette which to be honest, it suits me as a personality; although a new color scheme is not impossible to be developed, parallel with the actual website design. Concluding, i’m quite pleased and probably proud with myself as i managed to present an overview of my personality as a designer and as a character into such a simple logo.
David Bauer – David Bauer Photography Design
I love minimal and clean design so I knew from the start that my logo would have to reflect that. And since I’m using my name as the name of the company I wanted to include my initials into the design. It did not have to really say anything about what I’m doing but it would have to be usable as a standalone symbol and/or watermark.
I’ve gone trough like 10 different ideas in the last few months and finally this one grew on me. One day I just flipped my initials to the vertical and there it was! And I was quite surprised to see some things that go together well – a smiling face, ‘Victory’ sign and a computer mouse. And I’m sure I will find more things in this symbol over the time.
Searching for the right font took me even longer and I finally settled with one of the cleanest ones – Gotham (still have a possible runner up – Avenir). It was used for all the typography as well as for the symbol.
Everything is just black&white at the moment. I’m still working on my website so if there will be any colors, they can be also implemented into this logo.
Eric Coddington: Graphic Designer — http://ericcoddington.com
When it comes to designing for a client I am very focused, straight forward, and on target. Like every other designer I am definitely my own worst critic, which had lead me in the past to be very schizophrenic when designing for myself. Not knowing what aspects of my personality, or style to highlight. I’ve used so many personal logos over the past 10 years I’ve lost count.
When I recently moved to a new city (Portland, OR) I decided I need to start fresh again, but this time I needed to create a personal brand that really showed who I am. Not what I like to design, not what I want to be or become, but something that is just me.
Then it hit me, nothing is more me – than me! At that moment of realization I knew my logo was done, and I didn’t even design it, my mom did, with her Polaroid camera, in the early 80′s. Whether you know my logo Is a photo of me jumping off the living room chair or not, it doesn’t matter. You can feel that person in the logo. It’s someone you know, or more likely than not, it was you at some point in your life. And at my core, that’s who I am still today… just bigger.
Now, when handing out my business cards to potential clients, no previous logo has had the success at breaking the ice as this one has. It makes them not only want to know about what I do, but also who I am. It gives potential clients a sense of familiarity with me. It’s an instant relationship builder. And at its essence, isn’t that all a logo really is, a relationship builder.
Kelvin Farrell — kelvinwins: graphic/web designer — http://kelvinwins.com
I’ve found nothing more difficult than designing a logo to promote myself as a designer. I could never settle on anything that I felt truly portrayed me in the right light. To be honest, I hadn’t even settled on a name for a long time after I’d started designing – I was just using my personal name.
What kicked off my thinking was a jokey phrase that my then-housemate used to say; “I win at life”. I thought nothing of it at the time but eventually it creeped in to my vocabulary and I’d mix it up by saying things like “I win at cooking/football/watching TV etc.” One night I replied to someone by saying “I win at design”, and that’s how I initially came up with my brand and domain name, kelvinwins.
From there it was pretty simple to come up with my logo. The idea of playing on that ‘win’ phrase was all too tempting. I thought of a range of ways of doing it; trophies, medals, podium, but eventually settled on a ribbon/badge as it was a bit more understated. I didn’t want to come across as arrogant, which I felt some of the other ideas could have.
The logo has been through a bit of development and has evolved across it’s life. Recently I’ve refined it, given it a bolder font (Frutiger LT 95 Ultra Black) and made it single colour. I’m very happy with it in it’s current form. It’s cheeky, but more in a fun manner, rather than anything unprofessional.
Lisa Dale: Graphic Designer — http://lisamariedale.tumblr.com
My logo came about during an exercise on self promotion and I was having such a nightmare thinking of what to design for myself. Seems silly really when you cant think of how to design for yourself but when working with clients the job seems much more straight forward. I looked around me for inspiration at the time and decided that my logo had to say something about me and my personal style within design.
The idea came from my love for Typography which keeps growing, and my logo has a handwritten feel to it which was deliberate and inspired me at the time. The font I used is called Stars From Our Eyes. This font is perfect for my self promotion as my work has a more personal feel to it, like the hand rendered effect from the font.
I have a keen eye for colour and the colour I chose for the typeface is a pastel calm soothing colour. This does not mean to say I wont use vibrant bright colours in my design! My work has a consistent colour theme in terms of light shades and delicate colours. Each colour compliments the other and balances the type perfectly. The good thing about this logo is it works just as well reversed in black and white, and when I see this logo it may appear to be simple and not much thought has gone into the idea but for me its legible, adaptable on all media and professional.
These are the things I want my logo to say about myself. Altogether the logo probably took me a total of two months because I could not find my direction at first. The process was difficult and I found myself questioning at times whether this logo was really me but now it is a working logo I couldn’t be more happier with the outcome.
Mat Ranson & Izabella Bielawksa – Mandala Studio: Art Direction, Design & Branding – http://mandalastudio.net
As most designers can attest, branding yourself is difficult. It quickly becomes clear that you are the best and worst person to do it. You’re the best person because you know your business intimately and will spend as much time as necessary on it. You’re the worst person because without factors to ring-fence the process (namely self-discipline, a budget and a finite amount of time) it will never be finished. But, we knew this and so we tried hard not to fall into the trap.
So we went through a quick rejection process to arrive at the name and the logo:
• Instinctively, we both wanted to use a basic shape for the logo: either a square or a circle
• We wanted the word Labyrinth, so that was the original concept, and the shape could be square
• We’re based in Asia so ‘Labyrinth’ didn’t feel like a word people would be familiar with
• Mandalas feel like the Eastern equivalent of Labyrinths
If you are not familiar with mandalas – they are traditional Hindu and Buddhist images which depict the Wheel Of Life. A mandala is essentially a detailed decorative image and they come in many different designs. We weren’t personally concerned with the religious connotations so much, more the shape and the pattern potential. We referenced a lot of imagery to draw them – mostly mandala designs of course – but also pattern work from our huge copy of Owen Jones brilliant book ‘The Grammar Of Ornament’.
The type went through a few iterations. We wanted the mandala as the focus, with type that balanced it. Originally we had chosen Erik Spiekermann’s Officina Serif in caps at quite a small size. But it was dwarfed by the mandala and not a heavy enough weight. We settled on Clarendon because the serif decoration sits well with the vibrant symbols and it is a heavy typeface with a hint of nostalgia, which gives gravity to the two things together.
Mandala Studio is two people and one’s favourite colour is sky blue, the other’s is blood red. So that was a simple, but important decision on colour. It also means we have front-and-back business cards: one of us on the blue side, the other on the red and we use the blue for non-urgent correspondence like estimates and mail-outs, and the red, of course, for invoices.
Michael Warren: Design + Direction — http://makewithmichael.com
Born with a common name, I knew I would have to anchor my brand with a strong symbol. Not only did I want the design to be minimal, simple and easy to read, but I wanted it to reflect the type of work that I produce.
My initials – MW – have many interesting features that helped me glean design cues. Toying with shapes and pattern reflections, I wanted to convey my brand-mark using four simple triangles that would outline the “m” and “w”.
Offset for the quirkiness and creativity of my work, I managed to merge the triangular shapes into a stylized, yet easy to read, symbol of my initials. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for me during the design process. In seeing that the triangles were pointed, it made my design feel too aggressive, so I added subtle hints of rounded edges to help soften up the symbol.
I wanted to keep my brand in black & white to convey professionalism and minimalism, so the symbol stayed in it’s native conception color. The typeface I use to accompany my brand is Din, for it perfectly complements the modern feel of my symbol, with a nice touch of friendliness.
Rick Raby: Graphic Designer & Student — http://rickraby.tumblr.com
I came up with the logo when I first started my FdA, I was probably no more than 2 months into the course. I was sat in a contextual studies lecture and instead of taking notes I though I’d do some doodling. That night, I went back to my flat and made it in illustrator and I’ve stuck with it ever since.
The logo is just my initials (My full name is Richard Adam Raby) but it’s clean and I love that about it. At the time, I didn’t know much about fonts and all I really wanted was one with straight legs for the R’s, so I went for Akzidenz Grotesk. At the time that choice didn’t really mean to much to me but ever since I’ve had a tendency to use this type of modernist typeface – I use DinPro throughout my stationary and on every presentation I’ve made in the last year.
The colour of the logo is a bit of a funny one. When I first started putting work on my blog, it was all converted from CMYK to RGB, so the black was never a proper screen black but I always liked that for some reason. So ever since I’ve been using this 94% CMYK black in my logo and stationary. It also turns out that its the same colour as the default background in Acrobat Pro – and yes, I did have a mini panic when I found this out and wondered where half my PDF had gone.
Paul Attard: Graphic Design — http://wearegoat.com
Goat is a small design studio based in London, made up of myself and my Russian colleague.
I’ll first have to start out with the naming of the studio; to cut a long story short, my colleagues surname is Golev and mine is Attard. We started working on project while still studying at University and felt that we had a very good back and forth so decided to create a name for the collective. We chose to call it goat as a combination of the two surnames put together symbolising the connection of two halves joining together to create a whole entity.
With the name out of the way it was time to start the long process of self-branding, which somehow feels like the hardest job. We settled on the font LTC Twentieth Century which is basically Futura with some fancy alternatives thrown in. We were looking for this slight peculiarity in a font and LTC Twentieth Century just seemed to have something we both completely agreed upon.
We then wanted to include a feature to draw attention to the two separate halves, which later came in the form of the yellow line down the middle. It works in two ways; firstly the separation down the middle, which we then incorporated into all aspects of our brand. Secondly it was inspired by the peculiar pupils of a goat’s eye.
With everything put together the final touch was the yellow colour which was decided upon due to the vibrance of yellow. It is a nice contrast from the black and adds something small that stands out.
Wouter Buning: vormverteller —brand identity designer – http://wouterbuning.nl
As a young creative professional I believed working under one’s own name was a sign of uncreativity: a creative person should have a creative brand name. And I was convinced that potential clients would take a corporate brand more serious. I wanted to stay away from the ’21-year-old-working-from-mum-&-dad’s-attic’ image. So for many years I struggled in finding the brand name that suited me well.
I switched the name three or four times (once because of a pending lawsuit…). None of them endured. I never planned on expanding into a business (it always was going to be just me), so at some point I managed to let go of my former prejudices and finally decided using my own name as brand name. It’s been running for 5 years now and I’m still completely happy with it. Even now, my brand identity keeps growing on me.
Since my brand name wasn’t that creative there was room for a creative job description ;D So 2 years ago I invented the title vormverteller. That’s Dutch for ‘shapeteller’ derived from ‘storyteller’.
About the same time I added a few supporting colours to the existing pallet, enabeling me to promote different design services under separate colours. And in an identity project I always like to create a rich black and grey spectrum that fits the main colour, so each brand has it’s own black and greys. I guess that’s just an aspect of my design-lunaticness.
The logo mark is a typographical design solution. The idea was to create one strong shape for my initials, like a graphical/geometric signature, with an interesting balance between round and sharp edges. While I was sketching, I added a hint of 3D movement within a 2D shape. The rotation of the logo mark suggests looking upward and forward, adds some dynamic and I feel it makes the logo optimistic/future minded. I adjusted the ‘w’ to keep a solid base.
A little joke I implemented was a hint to the old ink dip-pens in the shape of the ‘b’. But the funniest thing happened a few months ago, when one of my students came up to me and said he thought the logo mark was a drawing hand: he never saw the initials. How is that for a bonus!
Andy Valde: Graphic Designer — http://StoneSoup3.com
Hi! My name is Andy Valde and I am a graphic designer for my company Stone Soup 3. Below is the description of our company and we can be found at StoneSoup3.com
“Stone Soup” originated as a French tale about 3 soldiers returning home from the Napoleonic Wars. They arrive at a village where they quickly learn that, because of war times, the villages are unwilling to share, trade or sell any food or supplied. So the Soldiers decide to bring an empty pot to the village square, fill it with water, place it over a fire and drop a large stone into the pot. One villager becomes curious and asks them what they are doing. They explain that they are making Stone Soup even though some potatoes would really make the soup taste much better. After hearing this, the villager decides they have some potatoes to spare. He brings the potatoes and drops them into the pot. As he does this, other villagers follow and contribute what they have.
This is a story of people coming together to reach an over all goal. This is exactly what our company Stone Soup 3 is. Each one of us contributes individually with our expertise to an overall goal. This way we help our clients, like the soldiers from the story, achieve success for their company. The number three at the end of our logo signifies our company trinity: Audience, Concept, Execution. Eric Lamkins, Heather Murray, and Andy Valde are the current contributors to the overall pot of creativity and execution. Learn more about us by visiting StoneSoup3.com.
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Read Logo Design Round-Up Part 17 on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.
I am a freelance logo designer with over 25 years experience in typography, graphic design, reprographics, advertising, marketing, commercial print, and photography.
I am passionate and motivated. I obsess over details. I don't use free or poor quality fonts. I favour clean, solid and type driven designs. Love to brainstorm wonderful new company names and tag lines. I have a solid online reputation. I hate cliches in logo design.
I just don't design logos, I also like to write about it. ImJustCreative is a regularly updated freelance logo and brand identity blog and portfolio. Articles and resources on logo design, freelancing and typography.
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