The Logo Factor Design Blog » branding

New logo for Gap?

Steve Douglas — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:47:55 +0000

Gap unveils their new logo to an internet firestorm, Twitter battles between the new and old and a lot of griping amongst the design community. Take our poll after the jump.

Visitors to the Gap website this morning were greeted by a new logo (above right) and critics were quick to jump on the new design. Replacing the retail chain’s famous blue box, which enclosed all upper-case “Gap” typography in a condensed serif is a graduated blend blue box slid under a bold sans serif font. The change isn’t universal, and the original logo remains on all Gap stores (as far as I know anyway).

The Gap chain is made up of over 1,200 stores in North America, 300 in Europe and in various parts of Asia. Interbrand values the Gap brand at almost $4 billion, the 84th most-valuable brand in the world. The internet reaction to the new logo was rapid – critics have spent most of the day bagging the new logo, and a poll in a feature about the switch on the Huffington Post was almost 80% negative at time of writing. “Gap logo” is also the 69th most popular search phrase on Google.

Two related, and dueling, Twitter accounts have shown up in the past few hours – @gaplogo and @oldgaplogo – though whether the accounts are official, or parody, is anyone’s guess. There’s still some question about whether the change is permanent or not. The new logo was rolled out on the hush-hush – no official press releases issued and media calls for comment have not been returned. So waddya think – an improvement or not (poll below)?

I’m leaning heavily towards not.

Update:

According to a new post on the Gap Facebook page:

Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.

Accordingly, I’ve added another choice to our poll below.

No related posts.

2010 Fortune 500: The top 10 most valuable corporate logo properties

Steve Douglas — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:16:16 +0000

Nothing illustrates success more than success itself. Accordingly, here’s a look at the corporate logos of the top 10 companies in the 2010 Fortune 500 lineup (plus a couple that dropped out this year). Let’s see what we can learn…

It’s been said that is the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail. The design corollary to that might be, if you’re a logo designer, everything starts looking like a logo. Or at least how things look through the prism of logo design. So, while running the risk of posting yet another worthless “Best Of” post, let’s do just that and take a look at the top ten companies in the 2010 Fortune 500. This was originally intended as a 2009 Fortune 500 corporate logo round-up, but minutes before I hit publish, I realized that the 2010 list was already out on the CNN Money website (the actual magazine version doesn’t hit the stands until May). Luckily, there were few changes (other than two companies getting ‘knocked out’) so after a few quick additions and edits, here is the 2010 version. We’ll try and interpret the design side of things after the jump.

10. Hewlett-Packard

Revenue (in $ millions) 114,552

9. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Revenue (in $ millions) 115,632

8. Ford Motor

Revenue (in $ millions) 118,308

7. AT&T

Revenue (in $ millions) 123,018

6. ConocoPhillips

Revenue (in $ millions) 139,515

5. Bank of America Corp.

Revenue (in $ millions) 150,450

4. General Electric

Revenue (in $ millions) 156,779

3. Chevron

Revenue (in $ millions) 163,527

2. Exxon Mobil

Revenue (in $ millions) 284,650

1. Wal Mart

Revenue (in $ millions) 408,214

Missing from last years Fortune 500 top 10:

15. General Motors

Revenue (in $ millions) 104,589 Dropped from #6 in 2009.

26. Valero Energy

Revenue (in $ millions) 70,035 Dropped from #10 in 2009.

What can we learn?

As it’s highly unlikely that the company logos featured above had anything to do with their rise, or fall, on the Fortune 500 list, we probably can’t garner too much ‘let’s do this on our logo’ kind of information. We can however, for interest’s sake, analyze the ten logos and present a completely unscientific set of data that may, or may not, be factored into your next design project. To whit:

• 80% use blue.
• 90% use a sans-serif font.
• Only 2 use an acronym of the full company name.
• 40% only use one color.
• 40% use two spot colors.
• Out of the four logos that employ spot colors, 3 of them use red.
• Only two (AT&T and Ford) are even vaguely realistic or Illustrative.
• Only two use a script font.
• 40% use iconic portions that can be ‘free standing’.
• Only one uses a text only approach.
• We’ve only designed logos for one of the top ten.
• Absolutely no cartoon characters. None.
• None of this overused crap either.
• One looks suspiciously like the symbol from The Empire in Star Wars.
• I have no idea what the ConocoPhillips red squiggly thing is (a plane?).
• Can’t say I’m sad to see the Valero logo get bumped out.

And thus concludes our completely meaningless look at the Top 10 Most Valuable Logo Properties of the Fortune 500 list. Sorry, but somebody had to do it.

Hall of Fame for the most used, abused & overdone approaches to designing a logo

Steve Douglas — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:05:05 +0000

This isn’t your typical “best logo design ever” Hall of Fame. Far from it. These logos haven’t been selected because they’re they’re the best, or even because they’re any good. Nope. These graphic elements and logos were hand-picked as being the most popular of all time. Not popular as in “I like that“. Popular as in “let’s use this“. Which when you get down to it, isn’t exactly a good thing, especially if we’re looking for an original logo. supposedly the point of the exercise itself. Accordingly, our version of a Hall of Fame features the most overused logos and graphic elements of all time. Designs that have been done to death, the most copied, knocked-off, reverse-engineered and generally abused so-called concepts in the history of ever. Without further ado, here’s the inductees:

Gold Ribbon: The Ubiquitous Swoosh

Granted, the Ubiquitous Swoosh logo has died down a little bit since they were outlawed just shortly after the dot com crash (bit of a “lemming thing“), but there’s still an occasional breakout here and there. Swooshes are a perennial fave because they’re all hi-techy and stuff. Designing swooshes is hard and take a whopping 1.5 seconds to create. Drop a circle, copy and drag, extrude. For its service to deadline crunched and concept-addled graphic designers the world over, we hoist a glass to the celebrate this life-saving graphic element. By the way, Saturn called. It wants its ring back.

Honorable mention: The Multiple Swoosh Extravaganza

Oscar Wilde once said “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” Accordingly, if one Swoosh will do ya, a whole bunch of Swooshes will do one, or several, better. Like its solo counterpart, the Multi-Swoosh extravaganza takes about 2.5 seconds of extremely taxing graphic design brilliance to create. Once we’ve created one Swoosh, it comes down to the incredibly complex art of Control-C copy. Then Control-V paste, paste, paste. Bonus points for anyone that manages to wrap a couple of Swooshes around the first letter of a company name. It’s not every day you see that kind of skill. Well, actually, it is. Every bloody day.

Overcoming Adversity: One-legged Pointy Man

Don’t know how this poor guy lost a leg, but lose a leg he did. Replaced with jabby shish kabob skewers, looks like he lost his hands too. Pointy gets the Hall of Fame nod for being adaptable to almost every design theme that requires a human figure, particularly in the sports categories. We can bend him, twist him and skew him (for motion doncha know) in soccer, hockey and football logos. Try to keep inflatable balls away from the pointy arms though. Lest we think that Pointy is but a mindless jock restricted to athletics, keep this in mind – he can dress himself in a Swoosh for more hi-tech and brainy themed logos. Can’t be easy either – hopping from logo to logo – and despite his decidedly non-bipedal nature, Pointy Man is a case study in true adaptability.

Team Spirt Award: Synchronized One-legged Pointy Men

It might have been a lonely existence for Pointy if it weren’t for other little one-legged guys who meet regularly for synchronized design events. Probably pretty carefully though, with all those jabby little arms. To showcase a community vibe, Pointy and his friends can be found in all sorts of configurations but they’re especially fond of half-circular and circular formations. These look really nice sitting on top of centered typography. Honorable mention too for the diverse nature of their group, which boasts Pointy Men of every color imaginable. Yeah, we went there.

Honorable mention: Swish Man

Despite having all his limbs, Swish Man is slightly less adaptable than Pointy, and is usually benched until a logo calls for some sort of human movement. Running, walking, even riding a bike, it’s all good. Swish doesn’t have any hands, or feet for that matter, but his arms and legs can be rotated into a large variety of positions for the appearance of more, or less, speediness. Alas, Swish Man is a solo player, as the introduction of others will leave any logo looking like a jumble of broken Saturn Rings. Which when you get right down to it, is exactly what he’s made from.

Best In Class: The Ubuntu Widget

If we could only pick one logo for induction into the Hall of Fame, the wonderful little Ubuntu logo would be it. Or rather, one of the three widgets that makes up the Ubuntu logo, originally developed for the open source operating system of the same name. Supposed to represent a birds-eye view of a little dude, complete with round head and out-stretched arms, the Ubuntu Widget presents a cornucopia of graphic possibilities. Community logo? Check. Communication logo? Check. Sports logo? Bit of a stretch, but okay, check that one off too. The Ubuntu Widget tends to travel in packs of three, but flocks of four (right) and even five have been spotted. The outstretched arms can be joined to indicate all sorts of community and network symbolism, the size of your community or network only restricted by number of widgets you can squeeze into a circle. The Ubuntu widget is probably one of the most cribbed, copied and bootlegged logos of all time, and wins our Best of Class hands down. It’s also the hardest working logo in our Hall of Fame and we’ve had to develop several new Ubuntu categories to celebrate how influential this little guy has become. To whit:

Kumbia Huggy Ubuntus

What says “kumbia” more than a bunch of Unbutu Widgets? How about a whole bunch of Ubuntu widgets hugging themselves rotten. This huggy version of the standard Ubuntu can usually be found in church, day-care center and support group logos throughout the known Universe (probably a few in the not-so-known Universe as well). Group hugs are favored but one-on-one variants can be found in their natural habitat, the community-care business card. While not technically Ubuntus, we’ve had to widen this category to include some pointy-handed hybrids as a runner-up. That’s okay, because nothing says “we care” more than a Huggy Ubuntu, pointy-handed or not.

Esther Williams Swimming Ubuntus

Some of you won’t know who Esther Williams is. This link will tell you, and you’ll quickly understand why we named this category after her. Think synchronized swimming. Birds eye view. You can almost hear the water splashing. Very similar to the Huggy, this logo can often been seen at gigs for day care, school and other community based groups. Lot of internet companies too. For additional ‘swirly’ goodness, the Swimming Ubuntus are often featured with alternating colors.

Fred Astaire Dancing Ubuntus

Even remembers Fred, right? Kay, then you’ll understand the reference. Nothing sez “fun, fun, fun” like a chorus of twinkle-toed Ubuntus tripping the light fantastic. Might be to that infernal “birdy dance” though. You know, that stupid tune that your Grandma insists you dance with her to, usually at your cousin’s wedding. Suffering from an “Achy Breaky Heart”? No problem. The Dancing Ubuntus have you covered. There are several versions of this approach in circulation, but most are a variation on three or four dancing partners, doing the “doh-see-doh”, as seen from above.

Joe Namath Late Quarter Huddle Ubuntus

If your logo is a brain trust kinda outfit. there ain’t anything that illustrates putting heads together more than the Late Quarter Huddle Ubuntu. Sort of a backwards version of the logo proper, these treatments combine the community theme of the original, with an added dose of “ain’t we smart” symbolism. Can be found in either solid or mixed colors. You know, that “diversity” thing. There’s been a recent outbreak of Quaterback Ubuntus featuring Joomla colors cause nothing speaks of interactivity more than red, green, orange and blue. Speaking about Joomla, that design gets a class all its own.

Best of Show: The Overlapping, Intlerlinking, Joomla Rings

With all of its intertlinked goodness, the Joomla logo symbolizes the open-source content management system (CMS) of the same name. The Joomla represents all sorts of wonderful connectivity, and its little intertwined people have been a source of inspiration for many would-be designers the world over. Let’s face it. The original rocks (right). But who needs original when we can crib the concept, tweak it to fit our needs, stopping only to figure out what artwork layer goes under, and what layer goes over. The Overlapping Joomla comes in all sorts of configurations. from circles, to elipses and Quasi-Ubuntus and has been spotted in threesomes, foursomes and moresomes. Many Joomlas still feature their native colors because as we’ve mentioned, nothing speaks of interactivity more than red, green, orange and blue. How much as the Joomla logo been ripped on, cribbed and bootlegged? Dunno, but it’s a lot. Cause a lot of companies need logos that scream co-operation and connectivity, and nothing screams that like this little puppy.

And there you have it. This year’s inductions into our weird little Hall of Fame. And like most Hall of Fames, (think hockey, basketball and football sweaters) once something’s been included, the bloody thing should be retired. As all of these logo concepts, save the originals, should be too.

Postscript:

All of the artwork and graphic elements above are made up (except the Ubuntu and Joomla logos – they’re real), thrown together to illustrate this post or sadly, taken from our Morgue Files. Any similarity to actual logos, living or dead, is purely coincidental. But if any look like yours, you have our apologies. And our sympathies.

Update:

This post was live for about three minutes when someone pointed me in the direction of this web page. Illustrates the point about the Ubuntu logo nicely methinks.

Epic BBC 2010 Winter Olympics commercial

Steve Douglas — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:31:38 +0000

As the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are grinding down to a finish in the next few days, we may be a tad late to the party with this brilliant BBC animated ad for The Winter Games. Still, it’s worth a looksee, as this is unlike any Olympics ad we’ve seen before For starters, it doesn’t feature any live clips from actual Olympic events. Most notably, the spot avoids the official day-glo Silly Putty logo while still tipping a hat to the real-life Inukshuk monument that stands at the top of Whistler Mountain. Quick overview: the ad features a bloody great bear that rips the Inukshuk’s head clean off and using almost every winter sport from The Games, our little hero dude has to get it back. Great stuff, all set to an epic soundtrack. For more on what an inukshuk is, and how it relates to the Olympic brand, see our bit on the Vancouver Winter Olympics logo from a few weeks ago.

[Hat tip: Designer's Couch]

A most awesome logo symbolism manifesto, bananas & some random logo design stuff edition

Steve Douglas — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:46:09 +0000

Speaking of logo porn, have to lift a pint to the good folks at the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute for the most over-the-top, unabashed logo symbolism manifesto in the history of logo symbolism manifestos. Usually these “what our logo means” diatribes fall into the “who writes this shit?” category, but not this one. While a “we kinda cribbed the triangle thingy from the dollar bill” might have sufficed for lesser mortals, the full-page explanation of their logo and the amount of symbolism they’ve managed to squeeze into one fairly innocuous icon (below) is nothing short of divinely inspired prose. Pretty much the stuff of legends. Lessee – the eye is supposed to conjure up ancient Egypt, Medieval cultures in both Europe and Asia, the Masons and of course, The Great Seal. It also represents “perspective” and a “mission to see what is as well as what can be, and our intent to apply wisdom and understanding to America’s challenges“. Ooooaah. The star (apparently The North Star) symbolizes “direction” and a “mission of finding a path to our solutions“. It also symbolizes “constancy, the diversity of our nation, and how keeping an eye on what’s important can guide us to new opportunities as well as guide us home, keeping us connected to our core principles and values“. Reaching for a cigarette yet? And oh yeah, the star’s also pinched from the USA flag and thus represents Every. State. In. The. Union. Nice one. As there’s a whole bunch of countries that also use red and blue in their flags, the color scheme represents pretty much the entire world (except those with flag colors other than red and blue I guess). Anyhoo, the manifesto goes on, and on, with more at the link. Lots more. [Hat tip: Panoply]

Speaking of pints (snark-free this time) gotta tip one towards the folks at Design Related for giving us a wonderful look behind the scenes of the recent Chiquita Banana brand ‘refresh’. For a designer, especially those interested in branding and all things logo, there’s nothing quite as inspiring at seeing, and reading, about a design gig that manages to fulfill its mandate so damn well. DR do just that with a terrific interview with the art director, DJ Neff, picking his brain about how he went about making bananas well, fun, fun, fun (’till Daddy takes the T-bird away). Go now and read it all. Lots of pics of the sticker-driven campaign, some cool links and some outtakes of the nifty characters that make up the rebranding, all nestled inside a great read. This one’s near and dear to my heart, with sliced bananas on toast (nothing less than three toast) just happening to be my fave breakfast food. In fact, I’m munching on some now. [Design Related]

Stock logo site Brandstack would like to clear the air about their upcoming service Upstack so they have. In a feature called, oddly enough, Clearing the air about Upstack. First of all, Upstack is not anything like what people are saying it is, especially when people say that it’s just another spec site or logo mill. In fact, Brandstack would like us to know that nothing has been done like Upstack in the history of ever. Even when Logoworks did it back in the day because they’re a logo mill and Upstack isn’t, only that Logoworks sez they’re not a logo mill either offering brochures, websites and other stuff that logo mills don’t. And oh yeah, this will all work out ’cause the people at Brandstack are “brilliant“. [Brandstack]

Looks like the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways are looking for a new logo. And like almost everyone looking for a new logo these days, they opted to go the old logo-design-contest-crowdsourcy route. Not gonna bitch though. This kind of participatory contest is actually a pretty cool way for actual Girl Scouts to toss their creative hats into the ring. You know, community vibe kinda deal. Confidence building and all that. Hell, as a Cub Scout (not now, back in the day) I’d have been thrilled to design a logo for my “pack”. Wassthat? The organization that’s running the contest wants everyone to know that it’s open to “non-Girl Scouts, girls and adults” as well? Spiffy. Guess that’s the “community vibe” out the window (not to mention telegraphing a lack of faith in honest-to-goodness Girl Scouts coming up with the design themselves). The goal of this contest is to develop a “unifying logo that can be used as a council patch, on print materials and (ahem) retail items“. So I suppose if this logo design contest is open to, well, everyone, and is going to be used on (ahem) “retail items“, there’s some sort of prize? You betcha. The winner of the design will receive a whopping $20 gift card to the Girl Scout Stores. Cue up Oliver… [News Channel 34]

Retro logo porn. Behind the scenes of HBO’s 1983 CGI-free intro sequence

Steve Douglas — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:56:35 +0000

Stumbled onto this over the weekend (hat tip: I Watch Stuff) and thought you might like a gander. This classic HBO 1980′s logo animation is full-blown logo porn that sees a detailed cityscape morphing into the famous TV network’s text logo. Many of you may be familiar with the spot, but HBO wasn’t available at all in Canada during the 1980s, and could only be viewed in the mid-nineties and early 2000s through technically illegal (though not enforced) Direct TV dishes using hacked cards (not that I’d know anything about such nefarious activities). Even those watching HBO illegally saw their satellite feeds go dark after the introduction of supposedly unhackable R4 cards (not that I’d know anything about this either). After that, Canada remained a completely HBO-free zone until October of 2008, when HBO Canada was launched (though that version is owned by Astral Media and Corus Entertainment, owners of The Movie Network and Movie Central respectively, not Time Warner as in the US). Anyhoo, even though the clip is over twenty five years old, that’s why it’s relatively new to me and hope you’ll understand why I think it’s so cool.

What’s even cooler is this behind-the-scenes video that illustrates how the spot was made, sans any CGI special FX, using itsty-bitsy models created with an almost pathological attention to detail. The documentary is a little dated, especially the cheesy music that would do any retro porn movie proud. It is, however, worth a looksee for the pure craftsmanship and love that went into a logo spot that lasts less than 30 seconds. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And if it’s a little old hat, please forgive me.

We don’t get out much up here.

Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, the most wondrous place in the Universe, gets a new logo.

Steve Douglas — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:39:52 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, The Chicago Museum of Science & Industry rolled out their new logo to mixed reactions (though if you read the comments on this article, the reaction’s none-too-mixed). Gone are the trademark bars with overlaid boxes, crowbarred into the design for the words ‘THE’ and ‘OF’ (trust me, doing that’s always a pain). In their place is a geometric linear treatment consisting of the museum’s acronym, wrestled into a 3D-ish icon. The old serif font’s been tossed too, replaced with type reminiscent of the Bauhaus school of thought. S’okay I guess. While it’s certainly an improvement over the old design, that’s not saying much, and from where I sit, the new design logo is a little too sterile for such a fun, wondrous and interactive environment. I was lucky enough to visit the museum several years ago when in Chi-Town for a conference with the Mrs (and will be able to go again next month under similar circumstances). The place is absolutely amazing, and demands a few days visit just to take it all in. As my time was limited, I had to rush through the last bits and pieces, so I’m looking forward to going again with a little more time set aside.

Planes, trains and other cool stuff

What needs to be said about a museum that has an honest-to-goodness-real-size 727 (United‘s first) hanging from the ceiling? If you’re an HO scale model train geek (guilty as charged) you’ll be equally blown away by the 3,500 square feet display The Story of Trains that sits underneath (Photograph: Interiority) That impressive setup includes 192 custom models of exquisitely detailed buildings and landmarks, nestled amongst some of the coolest model trains and accessories you’re ever likely to see. And…

New modern logo ignores heritage technology?

Sorry, forgot myself for a moment, but that’s the point of the museum I would think. And the new logo, while technically proficient from a design point-of-view, fails to capture any of that Willy Wonka, Alice in Wonderland vibe that’ll turn even the most cynical (guilty as charged) into a small child once inside the giant bronze doors. The new logo ignores the heritage of the museum (been around since 1933 – see here for more of the museum’s history and landmark exhibits) and seems to reflect more of the modern day silicon chip industry rather than the gears, cogs and grease of much of the historical technology on display. If ever a logo cried out for a bloody rocket ship treatment, this design might be it. Not that the logo is completely disassociated with the museum – the upright columns in the ‘W’ are supposed to represent the columns of the building (similarities to the old Enron logo have been noted). The new logo was designed by FutureBrand of New York, leading some to gripe that there were many Chicago-based agencies more than up to the task, and that the budget for the work might have been better spent locally.

Logo introduced during Winter Olympics’ TV spots

In any case, the new logo is but part of a “massive rebranding campaign” that saw the new logo unveiled in TV spots (below) booked during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a $205 million dollar, multi-year facelift called Science Rediscovered that began in 2008.

The ‘meh’ factor notwithstanding, it’ll be interesting to see how the new brand design pans out (the museum has already ported the new logo onto their website with a nifty transformation animation). Maybe I’ll post a first-hand update from the museum in a few weeks.

If I’m not too busy playing with the trains that is.

2014 Sochi. Russian Winter Olympics games logo

Steve Douglas — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:40:53 +0000

Speaking about Olympic logos (oh yes we where), and even though the Vancouver Winter Olympics are just getting underway, this is probably a good time to take a look at the logo design for the 2014 Winter Olympics, to be held in Sochi, Russia. Unveiled just before Christmas, the logo is a fairly radical departure from the traditional Olympic Games imagery, featuring a text only design, rather than the more orthodox iconic treatment of most. A co-project between Interbrand and Sochi’s own design team, the logo is the first Olympic brand art to feature a web address, signaling the IOC‘s embrace of social media and the internet, as well as an attempt to reach a younger, web-saavy generation. A nice touch of this design is the reflective aspect of the 2014 type, mirroring the Sochi typography and symbolizing the city’s proximity to the Black Sea.

At least it’s not 2012

As with most Olympic roll-outs, reaction has been mixed, with some digging the new direction and others pining for a more traditional approach. Others aren’t terribly fussed one way or another, but are thankful that “at least it’s not 2012“, referring to the heavily criticized rollout of the 2012 London Olympics logo a few years ago, when that design came under fire from designers, the general public and journalists the world over.

A logo design as part of ‘the big picture’

Personally, I like it, especially when viewed in context of the larger branding picture, something often overlooked in the early development stages of a logo. Obviously, this new direction was carefully thought out. I’ve included one of the rejected designs (above left), a wonderful icon in its own right and certainly a more traditional Olympic logo approach. If I had to decide in a vacuum, I’d probably go with the iconic treatment, but once viewed in a larger context, the simple typography treatment becomes a very strong choice.

You can view more images of the logo in use on the official Sochi Flcker page.
Hat tip: Idsgn blog.

Snippets: Images Without Borders, MSU Spartan logo to stay, AIGA speaks out & the $15 logo design contest

Steve Douglas — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:26:35 +0000

We lift a pint to the good people at Images Without Borders, a fund raising campaign for one of my favorite relief organizations, Doctors Without Borders, a non-political and non-denominational medical group that usually hits the ground long their more high-profile compatriots. You can now lend financial assistance to Doctors Without Borders through a web-based initiative and get yourself a beautiful custom photographic print into the bargain. Images Without Borders provides stunning pictures from world class photographers working around the globe and are offered to the public at a special price. Profits go directly to DWB (less only the cost of printing). The project was originally launched as a response to the earthquake crisis in Haiti, but will remain in operation for the foreseeable future “as crises emerge” and to provide day-to-day support for DWB ongoing work in troubled regions throughout the world. [Images Without Borders]

According to a recent survey at Leeds University, published in the Psychopathology journal, too much web surfing can make you depressed. The study also found that twice as many people are addicted to the internet as there are to gambling. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to drown my sorrows in chocolate milk and gummi bears. [Mirror UK]

Couple of days ago, we told you about the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) holding a spec-work-driven design contest for their new Art Works logo. Many in the design community flipped out, pointing out the irony of an unpaid logo contest for a project that was supposed to remind foks that artists were “real workers“, ran real businesses and injected real money into the economy. Graphic arts organization AIGA, in a strongly-worded letter, tried to take the NEA out to the woodshed, as much as strongly-worded letters take anyone out to the woodshed, telling them that design contests like this ran “against the global professional standards and practices for graphic design” and violated “a tacit ethical standard that has long standing in the communication design professions worldwide.” The NEA response was a politely worded “get bent” that told us they “looked forward to announcing the selected image in the near future.” Hooray for strongly-worded letters. [AIGA]

When word leaked out that Michigan State University were working on a new direction for their Spartans logo, coaches figured that everyone would be cool with the news. Alas, folks weren’t very cool with it at all. In fact, when people found our that the university had applied for a new trademark (the slightly more pissed-off looking helmet at right), people lost their ever-loving minds, setting up no less than 8 Facebook pages (with almost 20k members) and writing all sorts of, ahm, creative stuff on related Wiki pages. Blogs and local radio talk shows were similarly afire with protest. According to an internal memo, the helmet redesign was “the result of a two-year collaboration between MSU Athletics and a team of top designers from Nike.” Well, that wasn’t too cool either, and led to claims of ‘sellout’ to corporate interests. After a brave defense of their position, MSU officials relented, telling fans that the old logo would stay. [Detroit News]

Snooty graphic designers are always going on about how logo design contests devalue design, designers, the creative process, the client-designer relationship and threaten the graphic design industry itself. People who insist on holding design contests claim that designers are elitist fucktards who need to get with the program. So far, the pro design contest people seem to be winning, which leads to all sorts of wonderful business opportunities like this one – a $15 logo design contest for some wonderful outfit called RHC Visa Services. Yep, a princely fifteen smackeroos. The job posting, written in Full Metal caps lock mode, kindly advises interested designers “DO NOT BID IF YOU DONT SHOW US A MOCKUP… WHO MAKES THE BEST DESIGN GETS THE MONEY” and “YOU WILL NOT BE PICKED AS WINNER IF YOU DONT MAKE A SAMPLE DESIGN FOR US AND SHOW US BEFORE HAND.” Let’s hear it for the democratization of design. [Dynamik Design]

EURO 2012 soccer logo: A wonderful exercise in graphic design excess

Steve Douglas — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:14:47 +0000

Little bit late to the party on this one (this logo was released December 15 and I sorta neglected it courtesy the Christmas and New Year hubbub) but despite my tardiness, the UEFA Euro 2012 scoccer logo is still worth a mention and a looksee. So let’s.

Developed by Portuguese design group Brandia Central, the design will represent the 14th UEFA European Football (soccer) Championship, scheduled to be held in Poland and Ukraine in July 2012. For what it’s worth, this is only the third time that the championship hosted jointly by two countries, a fact that was an integral factor in the creation of the logo. And while the announcement was ignored in North America (we tend to like the other version of football), the championships are an awfully big deal in Europe, with a predicted 1.4 millions fans taking in the matches at the various stadiums and the TV coverage broadcast to 200 markets. From a personal POV, I absolutely love the logo (while many others are decrying its complexity) and think the development video (below) to be brilliant – a must-see for any graphic designer, particularly those interested in the logo design niche. It explains, in exquisite graphic detail, the thought processes behind the logo; concept, execution and color choices. If only more logo design projects were this thought out.

There’s a lot going on in this logo, both stylistically and symbolically, but there’s not one piece of the design that doesn’t have a reason for being there. Typically, and despite being quite cool with illustrative logos, I’m not a big fan of extraneous War-and-Peace extravaganzas, but I’m more than willing to make an exception here. The font work is lovely too.

Logo described as “a bunch of flowers” and “too girly”

Will the design resonate with soccer fans? Who knows. Reception has been mixed. “Too girly” seems to be one of the main beefs, with some fans carping that a “bunch of flowers” has no place in the presumably masculine world of European soccer. Some graphic designers were quick to jump on the logo, criticizing as “too complex” with some claiming that the logo wouldn’t effectively convert to black and white (not true – see below).

I’m glad to see sports organizations pushing the envelope back a bit (I think we can all agree that this is a much better example of an unorthodox sports logo than the arguably disastrous London Olympics logo trotted out a few years back). Also, and as mentioned earlier, I tend to lean towards more illustrative logos myself so perhaps I’m a little biased on what is, and isn’t effective for this particular design. What about you? You like or no like? Too complex or a decent visual exercise? Have at it in the comment section if you’re so inclined.

Hat tip: David Airey‘s Logo Design Love