Thought this was kinda cool and worth a mention.
The 2016 Paralympic Games held in Rio, Brazil debuts its multi-sensory logo created by Tátil, a Brazilian design agency. The innovative logo is designed in full 3D, offering accessibility to everyone, regardless of a disability. Referencing the traditional olympic brand, the team devised an off-balance human heart formed from an infinity sign.
Nice little video too:
Rio 2016 Multisensory Paralympic Brand from Tátil Design de Ideias on Vimeo.
Read more here.
Notable rebrands and redesigns
Ditching their stylized mascot, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team rolled out a new logo that is a hybrid of the original Jay’s design launched back in 1977, with bits and pieces from a later version that was unveiled in 1997. See the National Post’s Jay’s logos throughout the years for the full genesis.
Sporting both a name and design change, the new Miami Marlin’s logo was designed to reflect the theme of the city they represent. The Marlin sorta remains, but in a much simplified form.
The new Stumble Upon logo reception wasn’t all wine and roses. In fact, some referred to the change as downright boneheaded.
The Comedy Network is the Canadian equivalent of Comedy Central and like its US cousin decided to roll-out a new logo. Gone are the child-like graphics that have been featured in the brand since the 90s, replaced with a stark, font only version.
Apparently TechCrunch picked this logo just to piss you off.
New logos that weren’t
A potential new HP (Hewlett Packard) logo did the rounds on several design blogs, complete with beautifully produced case studies and back-story videos. Reaction was mixed – some calling the new logo revolutionary while others remaining in the ‘meh’ camp, Turns out neither opinion mattered as the new logo was part of a 2008 ‘what if’ scenario pitched by Moving Brands and HP has no plans to change their logo just yet. On the other hand, some of the recommendations in the case study have already been adopted.
The new Home Depot logo is still showing up on year end lists as one of the ‘most notable logo redesigns of 2011′. Trouble is, the Home Depot logo was never changed, but simply an April Fool’s prank put together by Brand New.
The logo that really got to the point
And yes. It’s real.
The top 100 most valuable logos
At least according to Interbrand’s ‘Top 100 brands’ for 2011‘ list.
Logo design controversy of the year
Branded Logogate 2011 by some, this nasty little kerfuffle started when all sorts of designers started finding images that appeared to have been lifted from their portfolios (most seem to track back to portfolio site Logo Lounge) and put up for offer as templates on the Logo Garden do-it-yourself logo design site. To whit – designer Jeff Fisher writes about various instances of his work being cribbed, repackaged and offered for sale. Over at Rock Paper Ink, and without mincing too many words, Bill Gardner calls out the LogoGarden.com site with Love Thy Logo – charlatan, huckster, moron and thief. Logo Lounge has more. Apparently, most, if not all, of the offending images have been taken down and for their trouble, Logo Garden received $2M in funding from FCA Venture Partners
Speaking of funding
Spec site 99designs picked up $35 million in funding from Accel Partners. Another contest site DesignCrowd.com found their coffers $3 million heavier with an investment from Starfish Ventures (which they promptly used to acquire beleaguered ‘brand in a box’ site Brandstack).
Human RIghts gets its own logo
After four months and a global online campaign that netted 15,000 submissions, Serbian designer Predrag Stakic was announced as the winner of a design competition to find a logo for human rights. The logo, entitled “free as a man,” beat out over 15,000 other submissions and earned Stakic 5,000 Euros (about $6,500).
Best logo design blog of the year
For a logo design blog that showcases an unbridled love of logos and design we’d be remiss if we didn’t tip a hat to Graham Smith‘s I’m Just Creative site and blog of the same name
Love ‘m or hate ‘em , don’t think there’s a designer around that hasn’t heard about 99designs, named for the supposed average number of entries that a contest holder gets submitted to their contests. Well, as this crowdsourcing racket is all about the numbers, what’s better than 99designs? I suppose 110 designs would be better. Though I guess it was only a matter of time (cue clown graphic)
I’m somewhat loathe to write about this or that company going out of business, lest I appear to be gloating (and taking a ‘there but the grace of God go I’ position) so I let others write about the recent demise of Brandstack, the marketplace for pre-fab company logos, domains and what have you. Some were kinder than others in their write-ups about the closure, which supposedly involved a whack of credit card fraud, designers getting left out of pocket (Brandstack handled the purchasing end of the deal, took a cut and handed off the funds to the original designer) and the usual sadness that accompanies such a story. Designers were given until December 1 to remove their logos before the Brandstack website would be shuttered forever. Hours before the deadline, a new announcement was posted on the BS home page, outlining a deal under which Brandstack was to be ‘aquired’ by an as-of-yet unnamed company, the designers that were owed money would all be paid off, and that the future was once again rosey in Brandstackville. Yay. I suppose…
Wasn’t too long ago that we were (once again) illustrating why buying a logo template (including ones from those flashy do-it-yourself logo generators) is a very bad idea for any logo design project. Over at Logo Design Love, David Airey outlines how the MGM Grand Hotel logo lion was available (now removed) for a measly $29 bucks from stock photography site Shutterstock. Oddly, David received a threat from the MGM legal team regarding his use of the logo in his blog post (before cooler heads prevailed and the, ahm, misunderstanding was sorted out). Though it does make you wonder what’ll happen to the people who already paid for, and downloaded, the verboten lion? Even though the terms of service of most stock imagery sites forbids the use of any of their stock images as logos, can’t help but imagine that there are a few lion-themed logos knocking about somewhere.
Some random logo design tips for the designer and client
Easy on the number of fonts
More than two fonts in a a logo and you’re going to end up with a design that looks like a ransom note.
Keep it simple
While this isn’t as absolute as it used to be (modern day reproduction and hi-res monitors have helped) it’s still a good idea to keep you logo as simple as possible. Simple logos reproduce on the widest range of media and headaches increase exponentially the more complex your design is.
Do not copy
Pretty straightforward stuff. Don’t copy anyone else’s logo. Doing that, dear friends, is the polar opposite of what developing an original logo is supposed to be about. That goes for off-the-rack template logos and most of these so-called do-it-yourself logo makers that churn out the same icons for a multitude of different customers.
Golden mean
A logo that is too skinny and tall is going to cause all sorts of placement issues, especially on website headers. Take a look at the top 100 brand logos. Most are leaning towards horizontal, a golden mean aspect ratio (about the shape of a traditional business card – above) or a square layout. There’s a reason for that. See here for more on logos and aspect ratios.
Once again, it’s time to shake things up at the shop
We usually try to revamp our website every couple of years, just to shake things up a bit, or to fix things that may have been broken, or gummed up in the earlier version. Well, it’s that time again, and we’ve begun working with preliminary wireframes and mock-ups of what the 9th version of our site should look like when we trot it out in a couple of months (proposed home page above).
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