While this watercolor inspired logo breaks a lot of so-called logo design rules, it illustrates quite graphically what’s possible, once we start thinking out of the box
Client:
Bridgetown Builders
About:
Highly illustrative logo for upscale home builder
Project notes:
The rules of logo design state it quite succinctly. For a logo to be successful, it has to be simple. Well, like most rules, logo design rules can often be broken as is the case with this watercolor styled logo for an upscale home builder. Here’s the thing – we should always design logos for the lowest common reproduction denominator. The absolutely worst, most artwork hostile media that the design is likely to be reproduced on. Think printing your logos on pens. The logo’s used very small. Very little, if any, color freedom. Low resolution on the screens used to print. If you plan to produce a lot of pens, a very simple logo is certainly the way to go. Using one color might help too. But what if you’re never, ever, going to reproduce your logo on a pen? Then it’s quite possible to up your game a little, adding a little complexity to your logo. See, that’s the thing about complex vs. simple logos.
A complex, illustrative logo is quite acceptable, if a complex, illustrative logo is what’s called for. As a lot of our logos tend to lean towards illustrative, we often receive criticism from other designers for overly complex logos, but in our defense, we’re also quite capable of developing simple text and iconic logos too. And while we often suggest clients work towards more simple designs (see a case for simple logos to see one should incident) it always depends on what the application calls for. There are some very real advantages of simple treatments, but improved printing technology has given us a lot more latitude into what we can, and can’t get away with. A little creative muscle flexing is certainly an option. Like most logo design rules, it comes down to common sense and appropriateness of the imagery you want to represent your company.
Unlike our main logo design blog, new Daily Logos are NOT announced on our Twitter feed, but exclusively via our Facebook fan page. For more examples of our work, see our logo design portfolio.
Similar logos:
Tags: bridge, Full color, Illustrative
