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Clip Art Logos
Are they ever appropriate for your company image?
 The term clip art generally refers to an image or design that can be found in clip art libraries and is available for use over-and-over again, by a multitude of people. The term ‘clip art’ doesn’t refer to the quality of the work - it’s not a matter of’ ‘how good it looks’ but rather ‘what it is’. There is, I’ll argue, some exceptionally good clip art available, and just because we don’t technically use scissors any more (that’s the ‘clip’ part) designers understand that downloading a pre-designed icon, image or illustration from some website doesn’t change the fact that such material is still defined as clip art. As long as we understand what it is, and the limitations thereof, there’s nothing particularly wrong with clip art. Clip art - even of the digital variety - has been the savior of many a designer in times of deadline crunch. With the exception, I might argue, when it comes to designing a logo.
What clip art means to clients.
Clients sometimes refer to something being ‘clip art’ (in the context of discarding a design concept - “that looks like clip art, I could have done that myself using XXX” ) as how the artwork appears to them. But what does clip art ‘look like’? If I was to try and define ‘clip art’, I’d probably point you towards the ubiquitous line-drawings of people performing various tasks around offices, featured in internal business flyers for eons. As these images have been around for decades, they’re exceptionally dated, in clothing style of the characters, and the office hardware depicted. Stylistically, the line weights are uniform (as opposed to varied line thicknesses which give any illustration a professional look). Even then, I’m probably attempting to define this clip art because I’ve seen it thousands of times, and because I’ve been around long enough to remember the huge books of clip art that these images were cut from. It certainly wouldn’t be because I’m a master at recognizing clip art-at-glance. So what do clients mean when they say “meh - that looks like clip art”? It generally means that, by their reckoning anyway, insufficient time has been spent on the design (failing to take into consideration the preliminary sketches, face time and other aspects) as compared to the amount of money that they've spent when 'signing up' for the project.
What clip art really means.
Having your work described as ‘clip art’ is one of the most disheartening comments a designer can ever hear. But that’s not really what client means, and probably involves some misconceptions about the logo design process itself. To a client, the term ‘clip art’ does refer to ‘how it looks’ and is usually a phrase that they will use when - in their mind - the design presented does not appear to have received the amount of time, and resultant, attention they feel their new corporate identity is due. Often, this criticism is due to a misunderstanding of what a logo design is, or rather, should be - the personality of the company pared down to a (relatively) simple graphic. It’s also due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘clip art’ is. I’ve often theorized that if we lived in an alternate universe, and the Apple and Nike logos were yet to be designed, and if I was to present either of these now-celebrated designs to a client, they’d quickly dismiss them out-of-hand, with the obligatory ‘looks like clip art’ comment. A complex logo ‘looks’ like it took time and effort . A simplistic, yet, eloquent logo ‘looks’ it it took a few minutes to pull together (without factoring in time involved in conceptualization, the roughs, the sketches and doodles). It’s all about perception of ‘value’. While complex logos appear to have taken an awfully long time to develop, simple logos ‘look’ like they could have been rendered quickly using desktop design software in a few mouse clicks. While desktop design software has become the designers best friend, in many ways it has become the enemy.
All this is unfortunate. It should be obvious that the amount of time spent on a logo shouldn’t be a factor in how effective it is. Alas, it isn't. I’ve seen great designs that took a few hours to conceptualize and render. I’ve been witness to atrocious logos that have drifted, over months, from one iteration to another without coming to a satisfactory conclusion before the project ultimately 'went south'. The phrase ‘clip art’ cannot be used to describe either instance. Clip art has always been, and remains, a phrase used to describe pre-designed artwork that is created with the sole purpose of being used by multiple people, either as a standalone piece, or incorporated into another piece with text and/or graphics. It is generally designed without any preconceived notion of what it will ultimately be used for (other than very vague parameters). Clip art fulfills this function regardless of how ‘cool’, ‘nifty’ or dynamic it might be.
Clip art in logos - Not if you want a professional image.
Now that we’ve sorted out what clip art is, we can now turn our attention to its use as, or part of, a logo design work-up and whether or not you should consider it. One word is needed. Don’t. Using clip art in a logo defeats the entire purpose of having a corporate identity in the first place. Nothing is less inspiring that a company that uses a logo that someone else is using, ironically in an attempt to scratch out a custom piece of the corporate landscape. Nothing. And using clip art in your logo is, for all intents and purposes, the same as copying someone else, without the legal hassles. Even then, you may not be in the legal clear. Many clip art collections have very stringent terms of usage (the End User License Agreement or EULA) and most preemptively nix the idea of using these wares as part of any logo or image that is to be trademarked. In fact, most clip art collections, while boasting to be ‘royalty free’, continue to hold the rights to their work and legally let you ‘borrow’ their material for a fairly limited range of uses.
Do it yourself logo design using clip art.
Which brings us to another form of clip art - the so-called ‘do-it-yourself’ logo design sites popping up all over the internet. Perform a ‘logo design’ search on any search engine and you’ll invariably bump into these flash-driven web sites, promising you variations of logo success (at cut rate pricing to boot). Here's a few that I've snagged from a Google search.
Make Your Own Logo - No clip art. Professionally Designed 1000s of unique logos.
Only $49!
You make your Logo. Custom symbols just $39
Nice. Design a logo for free, paying only $39, $49 or $99 to own it. On the surface, it certainly reads like a deal. But like the sage advice tells us, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. These sites aren’t selling ‘logo design’ per se - what they’re doing is making a library of clip-art (or even logo templates) available via a web site (as opposed to those cumbersome books of days gone by). How they work is this - you can add your company name using (usually) public domain (ie: free) fonts, and then download the so-called ‘customized’ design. Alas, changing the size of artwork is not customization. Neither is flipping, flopping or changing the colors. It’s using clip art with a funky web-based distribution system. These kind folks will exclaim that their services do not offer ‘clip art’, but by every definition of the word, they most certainly are. Let's take a look
Library of pre-fab designs. Check.
Offered to multiple people. Check.
They continue to hold the rights to the design so that other folks can purchase. Check.
That sounds awfully like clip art to me. One even goes on to describe their 'process'
Just five quick steps and you're done: 1) Choose an image (look), 2) Find your industry, 3) Select a symbol, 4) Add your company name, and 5) Create a layout.
That's the five steps you'd use if you were writing a 'how to use a clip art in your logo' feature for a website. Gets a lot worse too. If you read the fine print from several of these sites, you’ll see that they’re not even sure if the designs that they’re selling are theirs to sell, even when offered in the context of clip art. Accordingly, they’d like you to police the intellectual property rights of the artwork that they’re selling, and if you run into any legal issues, just drop them a line..
(3) Third Party Rights. If Users believe any content appearing on the Web Site infringes another party’s rights, please to notify us of this infringement.
Ouch! If one of these (supposedly 15,000) pre-fab icons just happen to infringe on someone else’s rights, could you be so kind as to let the good people know. Not a peep about what happens to anyone who’s already downloaded the ‘customized’ logo and are happily reproducing it on everything they own - stationery, web sites, T-shirts, etc. And just in case you were wondering about what responsibility these DIY sites have, the disclaimer of one clearly states what responsibility they'll fess up to…
…no obligation or duty to perform trade or service mark searches to validate the propriety or legality of the customized logo.
...does not represent or warrant that we have the exclusive right, title and interest in and to the products or services provided to you or that such products or services do not and will not infringe on the intellectual property or proprietary rights of any third party.
Legally, they have no obligation to make sure that any logos are original, or even legit to use. The ‘customized’ addition is a misnomer - you’re not actually ‘customizing’ the logo, you’re merely adding type to it. They're not even claiming that THEY own the icons in the first place. And when you buy one of these logos, how much of it do you actually own? Ahm. Not a scrap.
The rights for the image itself are retained by XXXXX. The symbols will remain on the database for possible further use.
'Possible use' is a legalese euphemism for retaining the rights to sell the logo you've purchased to someone else. A lot of someone else's. I guess what really ticks me off about these sites is that they treat the small business owner as a fool - you’re not supposed to realize that this method of ‘logo design’ is suspect, and you’re not supposed to realize that a logo is supposed to be original. They claim that they’re not selling clip art (which they very much are) and, as we've seen above, many clients aren’t even sure what clip art is, this probably works on 95% of their audience. They figure they’ve just saved $100s of dollars on their new logo using this new-fangled technology. On one of the FAQ sections on these sites, visitors have supposedly, and repeatedly (that's the frequently part), asked the question - "Can I trademark my logo?". The helpful people answer -
Yes. What makes a logo unique is the combination of the symbol with the company name, its colors, and their spatial relationship. Therefore, although XXXX retains the copyright to the symbol you choose, you can still trademark your logo.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but the last time I looked, 'spacial relationship' had very little to do with trademark (try telling the Trademark Office that it's okay for you to use the Apple icon because it's further away from the text than the original), color has absolutely nothing to do with it (most TM registration documents are in BW) and a trademark can be turned down if a design is even remotely similar to another. Then again, maybe these good folks are privy to some trademark info that I missed out on.
Penny wise. Pound short.
The trouble is that these savings are reflected in the fact that their logo is not original, not really your property, and may not even be kosher to start plastering over your letterheads, business cards and other marketing material. While saving a few hundred bucks in the development of your new logo is certainly a laudable goal, it may come with a very big downside. Imagine the thousands of dollars that you’d lose if you happened to plaster a 'infringing' logo on the side of trucks, buildings and web sites and you needed to do it all over again. From scrathch. And that, in a nutshell is why you should never use clip art as a logo. Regardless of where you get it from or how they try to convince you that it isn't.
Next Page: Free Logos
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Deciding if you need a logo
What makes a great logo
How do I design a logo
Do it yourself logo design
Clip art logos
Free logos
Logo Templates
Logo design contests
Online logo design
Selecting a designer
What's a logo worth?
Cheap logo design
Unlimited revisions
Working with our studio
How long does it take?
Getting started step-by-step
Logo design pointers
Logo design guidelines
Logo aspect ratios
Logo footprints
Common logo design mistakes
Logo design types
Illustration based logos
Text only logos
Icon driven logos
Cartoon logo design
Colors & your logo
RGB colors
Spot colors
CMYK colors
Pantone Matching System
Black & white logos
File formats
EPS file formats
JPG file formats
PNG file formats
GIF file formats
Your logo in a .PDF
Logo copyright
Poor man's copyright
Logo trademark
Stationery design basics
Business card design tips
Letterhead design tips
Envelope design tips
Design assets
Managing design assets
Having your logo printed
Print resolution
Gang run printing
Web friendly logos
Logo embroidery
Logos & signs
Uses for your new logo
Updating your logo
Logo repair or design
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