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Tip o’ the Pint design snippets. September edition

Steve Douglas — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:30:45 +0000

The bitter-free, September wrap-up, Tip o’ the Pint, weekend edition of our regular snippets feature. Throwing a little link love to blogs, websites, logos and logo design articles we kinda dug.

To David Airey. Actually, that should be two pints to UK designer David, author of Logo Design Love (book review here). The first is for NOT selling his Logo Design Love website as originally planned. That’s a fab resource for designers and clients alike so it would be really sad to have seen it go. Perhaps to somebody that didn’t feel ‘The Love’ for logos as Airey so obviously does. The second would be for the launch of his new site Identity Designed a new venture that explores brands from around the world. I’d also like to thank David for publishing my guest blog, The Designer and The Tech Guy on LDL. Holdonaminnit. That would be three pints.

To Logo Design Guru. Even though we’ve had some pretty weird issues with Logo Design Guru over the years, I’d like to take this opportunity to hoist a few jars in their general direction. The first round is for removing our artwork from their review sites as we had asked. That’s awfully sporting of them. The second is for removing themselves from the logo design pool and going full-metal spec work with their main site. Anyone now hitting the LDG site will be faced with a bunch of design contests, identical to their other contest site Mycroburst (and LogoGuru.co.uk, et al). More competition for the crowdspecking set I guess. Oddly, despite the fact that ‘design portal’ LogoDesignBlog.org has absolutely nothing (wink, wink) to do with LDG (while ‘reviewing’ them as the best logo design company on the web), that site published a “spec work is the future of the graphic industry” article the day that LDG turned on their design contest format. Even weirder, Mycroburst was then dropped out of the top ten (they had been number two since the site’s launch) and were replaced by David Airey, ‘officially’ making him the second best logo design company in the world. Guess a forth pint should be sent Airey’s way for this achievement too.

To Crowdspring. At times I’ve been a pretty caustic critic of crowdsourcing, design contests and the sites that host them, so it’s only fair that when they do something groovy, I mention that too. Accordingly, I’d like to send a pint the way of Ross Kimbarovsky and Crowdspring for launching their 1-on-1 design service. Unlike their design contest format, these 1-on-1 projects allow design buyers to work with designers in a more traditional designer and client relationship. Of course, I could be a wag and point out that this flies in the face of a good chunk of the ‘crowdsourcing’ meme, and that this is pretty well the way every other design company works (without the upsell), but as this is the bitter-free edition, I won’t. I’d also like to thank Ross for being a good sport about the Darth Vader book cover pictured here. So what’s with the 99designs Borg Cube? Nuttin really. Just figured if I’m gonna show Ross as a central Star Wars character, I needed to doll up the 99designs logo as a fave Star Trek icon.

Bitter-free fairness and all that…

To Printing For Less: For offering clients of The Logo Factory (and readers of this blog I suppose) a ten percent discount on ANY first printing services order. Printing For Less are the preferred printing partner of our shop (after working with loads of online print shops, over the years, with varying degress ot success). To learn why, you can read this.

The Design Contest Factory

Steve Douglas — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:16:02 +0000

It’s cheap and it’s easy to get something designed at The Design Contest Factory. Just hurry up, before people start catching on

Getting something designed at The Design Contest Factory is real easy. Even though you could totally do it yourself, we’ll help you run a “design contest”, using something everyone’s calling “crowdsourcing”. That’s where a whole bunch of anonymous designers compete to create the best possible design to meet your needs. All you really need is a clear idea of what you want designed and how much you’re willing to pay. Don’t fret over the amount you promise to pay either, cause if you want, you can always ask us for your money back, and you won’t have to pay any stupid prize. You can even help yourself to the ideas that our zany designers have uploaded, and get someone else to render it, before asking for a refund. That’s a lot cheaper than awarding the prize. We’ll keep your $29 ‘listing fee’ if that’s all the same with you. We’ll also keep the money you paid for all those contest listing upsells – bold titles, screened boxes and a link on our front page – ’cause that’s only fair. Running a spec work website is hard, and while designers might be willing to work for free (yeah, we find it hard to believe too) we certainly aren’t. Appreciate if you’d keep that little nugget between us though, as someday, a whole bunch of designers are going to wise up to this whole working for free deal, and then we’re pretty well finished. Torches and pitchforks kinda thing. Obviously, we’d like to put off that day as long as possible, so for the time being, here’s how The Design Contest Factory works…

Step 1: Set Your Budget

We will ask you how much you’re willing to pay the winning designer to purchase their design. This is called the prize. Designers like prizes and stuff. Sometimes we call them awards. Sometimes we call them projects. Let’s just call it all sorts of free. It’s simpler that way. Prize amounts generally range from $100 to $600 depending on the type of design you require. Logo design is probably best. Oh hell, make it a $1,000 if you like. You don’t really have to worry about that figure ’cause if you want, you can cancel the contest for whatever reason that enters your head, whenever you like, and after as many contest entries as you feel is necessary to make your thirty bucks seem well spent. We did mention we keep your listing fee, though, right? And all those upsells. Good. Sometimes, designers will ask you to ‘guarantee’ a contest before they’ll submit anything. Guarantee away. See, here’s the thing. A guaranteed contest isn’t really guaranteed, because you can always dispute the charge with your credit card company. They’re not sure about this crowdsourcing stuff so they’ll probably give you your money back with little hassle. We’d lose our fee, and we can’t have that. Just ask for a refund and all will be peachy.

Step 2: Create Your Design Brief

We will ask you a few simple questions that will form your design brief. Not being designers ourselves, we have absolutely no idea what all the questions mean, but apparently (according to the website we, ahm, borrowed the questionnaire from), a design brief is just a summary of what you need designed. Don’t worry about it right now. Leave the thing blank for all we care. Just click on the submit payment button.

Click it!

After a few designers have uploaded their ideas you can let things pretty well take their course. Don’t worry about wasting the time of the designers fumbling about trying to figure out what it is you want. Designers love designing. A lot. And they’ll gladly design a ton of stuff for nothing (yeah, we still find it hard to believe). As our design community is uber cool, and we don’t want to make you feel fenced in, change your brief at will. As often as you like. Change the name. Change the industry. We’re all cool. The designers aren’t getting paid anything, so what are they gonna do anyway? Not enter your contest and not stand a chance of getting paid? Hah! Remember, designers like ‘guaranteed’ contests. So just guarantee it. And all will be awesome. Remember, it only costs around thirty bucks to post your brief on The Design Contest Factory.

That’s chicken feed.

Step 3: Work with our Designers

Contests usually involve submitting something and then waiting till it gets judged. Or picked at random. Or picked according to some snooty rules and regulations. Not here. For some reason, designers are down with entering contests a whole bunch of times. New versions. Revisions. Edits. (LOL – yeah, we can’t figure it out either). But that’s okay, because once your design brief has been posted to The Design Contest Factory, designers from around the globe will submit design concepts to compete for your prize. It’s your job to rate the designs and provide feedback to help them deliver your groovy vision. Even if you have no idea what that vision is. Use them. Abuse them. Ask for as many revisions and edits as you like. Have a ball. As you’re not paying for any of this, you have absolutely no reason whatsoever to show any restraint. And you know what that is. Awesome! Here’s the thing though. Contest designers need feedback. Even more than a pay check. We realize that it’s a bit much to give every single design feedback (especially that stinkeroo on page four), so we’ve give you feedback tools to use. Stars. Red hearts. Blue hearts. Little trophies. Lightning bolts. The works. Just click on stuff. See, when you click on a lot of stuff, we have contest health indicators that calculate your random hearts and stars into smiley faces. Smiley faces mean your contest is ‘healthy’. That’s good. Because designers like entering ‘healthy’ contests. They look for smiley faces. And by getting stars and hearts and little JPG trophies, designers become better designers. OMG. That is so awesome.

Step 4: Choose Your Favorite Design

At the completion of the design contest (which is typically 7 days, or 14 days, or how ever long you’d like to drag your squirrel fight out, ask for extensions at will) you should choose a winning design and pay the designer the prize amount. Or not. The designer will send you their completed design along with copyright to the original art work. That is, if it’s original, because sadly, as we’ll tell you in a minute, we have no idea if it is. Or isn’t. Because figuring out if something you bought from The Design Contest Factory is original just ain’t our bag.

That’s all there is to it. Except for…

Terms & Conditions

In order to keep The Design Contest Factory as streamlined and democratic as possible, we don’t have much in the way of snooty, elitist terms and conditions. Here’s the important parts: none of these designers actually work for us, so don’t hassle us if things go wrong. And oh yeah, we’re not really responsible for anything that people upload into your contest, cause we don’t know too much about the designers entering, their names, how old they are, where they live or any other pesky details that typically gum up the works. Bottom line, ain’t our problem. And even if we wanted to make it our problem, which we don’t, we couldn’t, because we have no idea who anyone is. Other than some IP number that seems to lead to something called a ‘proxy’ at some dial-up in Uzbekistan.

Copyright claims

If you’re a designer, and one of our designers uploads something that was inspired by stuff you designed, tough titty. Or if they knocked it off completely. If they’re using a free vector from your blog, well, you shouldn’t have given it away for free now, should you? Bottom line. We’re not responsible. We’re not responsible because we say we’re not responsible. We might get around to removing your work if you ask nicely. Or maybe we won’t. Though if you’d keep these little copyright infringement issues on the D/L we’d be forever in your debt. Rather not let contest holders know that a lot of the designs we promised them are copied from someone else. That would only upset them and that’s not what we’re all about. We’re about being a groovy community. And the fun. And keeping bad shit that happens quiet. And we have to tell you that we take stuff down, because if we didn’t tell you we will, we’d be responsible for copyright infringement every time an ‘inspired’ design hits our server. And Lordy, nobody wants that.

Welcome aboard. Click here to launch a contest. Click here to join our community.

Footnote

This article was originally supposed to run as part of our April Fool’s Day prank this spring, but it was nixed as being far too long for that purpose. Reading it again this weekend, figured it was strong enough to run as a stand-alone blog.

Snippets: Battling logos, a couple of Pint Tips, just like 99designs & the IRS logo scam edition

Steve Douglas — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:30:25 +0000

To effectively describe a website concept in a few lines of type, summing it up in concisely and succinctly, is an art form all of itself. Ain’t easy either, so I positively loved this description of a new World of Warcraft inspired, medieval role-playing website:

“We provide you the battlefield and weaponry to conquer the creative world. Creative soldiers have the opportunity to battle their enemies for monetary prizes, develop a reputation by climbing the ranks, construct professional profiles and meet new creative allies. Enlist and prepare your artistic weaponry. Victory can be yours!”

Oh wait. Sorry, that’s from the about us page from Guerra Creativa, another one of these design contest sites, when describing their services to designers. [Guerra Creativa]

Several Pint Tips I should get out of the way before we get too much further. Anyone who’s been following the logo design game, especially as it relates to the internet, is probably aware of the shenanigans some people get up to in order to place well in search engine result pages (we’ve touched on it before in our logo wars post from a few years back). Looks like designers are starting to notice, which is good, and starting to tell folks about it, which is even better. UK based logo designer Graham Smith takes a look at what’s going on in a great post on his ImJustCreative blog, delving into some of the questionable (and sometimes downright unethical) approaches some logo design companies are taking. In a similar vein, Australia based designer Duane Kinsey opines that Google doesn’t understand professional logo design on his Logobird site. If that weren’t enough, Logo Design Love reveals the folly of logo design SEO in a post by UK based David Airey. All three articles are excellent summaries of the minefield that anyone’s presented with when they type in the words “logo + design” into a Google search bar.

Speaking of design contest sites (oh yes, we were) there’s yet another game in town. Calling themselves White Label Design Contest, this outfit has a newer angle than most of the others now plying their trade all over the interwebs. Their home page asks us tantalizingly “Want to create a website that works like 99designs?” and then goes on to describe how they can help you “set up your own design contest site with [their] hassle-free application. Our platform has the same functionality as 99designs, you can use it to create a website based on the concept of designers submitting their work to design projects (“contests”)“. Oh, that sounds just peachy. The money bit? Don’t worry your pretty little head: “Our business model is based on revenue sharing, which means that the revenue generated by your site is shared between us and you, and you only have to pay us once your business starts making money“. No mention how designers get paid, though if it’s like most design contest sites, that’s not part of the equation. As they won’t be. [White Label Contests].

Best selling author John Winsor is gung-ho about crowdsourcing and what have you, but as he’s one of the founders of Victors & Spoils, billed as “the worlds first advertising agency built on crowdsourcing principles” can’t really blame him. Brimming with enthusiasm, John’s just published a blog post entitled “It’s only the beginning”, in which he tells us that the current buzz around crowdsourcing is, well, only the beginning. Standard pro spec work and crowdsourcing fare, except for one notable exception. John tells us about the future of the genre which includes “the expectation of transparency, the further digitization of the workforce and the rise of the curator class“. Rise of the curator class? Jeezus, that doesn’t sound snooty at all. John mustn’t have got the memo. [John Winsor]

Crowdsourcing: Opportunity or Time Suck? That’s the question asked by Entrepreneur magazine in a website article published last week. I’m thinking time suck, but then again, no-one’s ever accused me of being the most unbiased cat on the subject. Unlike most rah-rah design contest and crowdsourcing puff pieces, author Michelle Goodman takes a decent, level-headed look at the issue, outlining the generally accepted pros and cons of the practice (unfortunately falling for the crowdsourcing numbers game used by most of the outfits mentioned in the piece). Her overall conclusion? Crowdsourcing may not be for everyone, but it’s here to stay. Alas, she’s probably right on both counts. [Entrepreneur]

Looks like AT&T is messing around with their logo. If the video at the link is any indication, they’re not rebranding completely, but simply removing the AT&T typography that’s been featured below and at the right of their little death starish icon. The people at Gizmodo are less than impressed, wondering if the phone company could focus their funds on addressing dropped calls first. Fair criticism I suppose. [Gizmodo]

Speaking of logo design and video games (we sorta were, alluding to it in the War or Warcraft bit) seems there’s now a company that will design logos for people to use in the Second Life universe. According to this post on the Second Life blog pages, your design will be tackled by someone with “in-game experience so that you receive the highest standards of design“. They also tell us that a logo is important to “establish brand Identity”, “retain loyalty”, “gain more clients” and “increase sales”. Whether this is in the real world, or the make believe world of Second Life is anyone’s guess, but hats off for these cats finding a niche that no-one had even though about. [Second Life blogs]

Designers are always going on about how a logo adds an air of legitimacy to any business offering (guilty as charged). Looks like spammers have now caught on to this principle, using the IRS logo to legitimize a fairly cynical phishing scam to try and score personal information. As this is tax time, the spammers are trying to fool people using subject headers like “You’ve Overpaid” and offering fast-tracked tax refunds. The official looking e-mail will take you to a website that also looks legit, asking you to provide personal information goodies which can then be used for identity theft, or to drain your bank account. To counter the scam, the IRS has put out an official statement that explains they’ll never ask for your personal information over the phone or online so, if you get one of these e-mails either just hit delete or forward it on to phishing@IRS.gov. We got a ton of these last week, pretty well to every mail account at our domain, but while the IRS has a long arm indeed, it probably doesn’t stretch across the 49th. [Channel 9 News Syracuse]

Happy Tax Day.

Have an interesting blog piece, logo or ‘different’ take on the graphic design industry that might make interesting fodder for an upcoming Snippet feature? Feel free to drop us a line. You can also hit us up on Twitter.

Snippets: Rolling Stone logo, Hindu Gods, Twitter copyright angst & crowdsourcing blog content edition

Steve Douglas — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:16:28 +0000

Rolling Stone LA, a 10,000-square feet blend of restaurant, bar, and private event space slated to open later this summer in Los Angeles, needed a new logo. And who better to tap for the gig than Jim Parkinson, the renowned designer of the original Rolling Stone magazine version. Parkinson has been designing logos and letterforms for over four decades, beginning his career as a lettering artist for Hallmark Cards before redesigning the Rolling Stone logo in 1977, and designing lettering for bands such as Creedence Clearwater, Taj Mahal, The Doobie Brothers and Kansas. We’re not talking about the Rolling Stones band logo here but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if we did for a bit. It’s often claimed that the famous lips design was created by Andy Warhol (I was told this in an art school class, by a teacher no less), the “tongue and lips” motif was actually created by British graphic artist John Pasche back in 1970. While it’s true the logo was inspired by Mick Jagger‘s famous mouth, it also owes a little inspiration from the Hindu goddess Kali (photo: Piyal Kundu). What’s her story? She’s a ferocious form of the Divine Mother and Goddess of time and change. From Rolling Stone restaurants to Hindu Gods in one paragraph. The kind of stuff you don’t get on just any design blog, huh? [PR Newswire]

While we still grapple with what exactly crowdsourcing is, whether it’s the evolution of the creative industries or The Devil incarnate, more and more websites are jumping on the term to take advantage of the phrase that everyone’s using, but many don’t have the foggiest about what it means. Next to the increasingly crowded table is Grogger, a web platform that claims you can “crowdsource your content” by allowing blog readers to post their shiznet alongside yours. I recall liking this a few years back. When they were called forums. [Grogger]

Presumably in keeping with his “Hope & Change” vibe, President Obama wants to hear from artists regarding copyright protections for said artists’ work. If you Hope to have your work protected, and would like Barry to Change some of the legislation, here’s a chance for you to pipe up. Or forever hold you peace and all that. Tara Reed tells you how. [Art Licensing Blog]

Speaking about content (yes, we were), and copyright (that too) seems some folks are wondering about the ramifications about copyright as it applies to Twitter. While “tweets” (gawd, still I hate using that word, feel like a seven-year-old every time I do) consist of a scant 140 characters or less, are they still protected by typical intellectual property provisions like copyright and what have you? Do Twitter aggregators infringe on copyright by the very nature of their, ahm, aggregating? If you post someone’s twatter on a blog, are you treading on copyright toes? I have absolutely no idea, and this intellectual topic is way too, well, intellectual for us to sort out in a snippets edition. Luckily, the good folks at The Blog Herald do an excellent job at trying to answer the question. [The Blog Herald]

Speaking about Obama, and logos (hey, we’re always talking about logos) seems some folks on Twitter (and purveyors of some right wing blogs) need to bit struck with a clue stick very, very hard. Almost a month after the story broke, and later retracted by the people who broke it, some people are still claiming that “Obama’s Missile Defense Department” logo features an Islamic Crescent, is cribbed from Barry’s campaign logo, or a combination thereof. Just a couple of things. The logo isn’t a logo, was created during the Bush administration, before Obama’s campaign logo and doesn’t feature a crescent, Islamic or otherwise. For the rationally impaired, we’ve included an airline safety card version of what probably went down below. {Twitter]

A collective “hooray” was heard throughout the graphic design community last month when the animated short Logorama won an Oscar. Almost like it legitimized logos somehow, or design, or something to do with graphic designers (gotta admit, it was pretty cool and I did feel kinda, well, validated). The creators of the flick aren’t resting on their laurels though, hopping on another gig for video game maker Ubisoft. Producers Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy have signed on to a 20-minute live-action film for Ubisoft’s uber successful series Ghost Recon, based on the work of uber successful author Tom Clancy. The movie, tentatively entitled Future Soldier, is due out, shortly before the Christmas holidays, no doubt to encourage the kiddies to add the shoot-em-up game to their lists for Santa. [Reuters]

Speaking about sports logos (oh wait, we weren’t), and now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are behind us (we are now), and the 2014 Russian Winter Olympics logo has been introduced, we need another sports logo to carp about. No sooner said than done, as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games logo has just been unveiled in, well, Glasgow. Created by design agency Marquee, the project is rumored to have set back organizers 95,000 quid. Before you get all “could’ve had a two hundred dollar logo design contest for that” the price tag included brand guidelines, animated work, visual language, typography, photographic style, and art direction. You know, the stuff that you don’t get with a $200 logo design contest. [Logo Design Love]

Snippets: The Stock logos on Crowdspring, logo tattoos & Doodle 4 Google flag flap edition

Steve Douglas — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:14:23 +0000

Chicago-based Crowdspring have taken a new ‘nuke on sight‘ policy on members who insist on entering stock images into their logo contests. In case you didn’t know, most stock image licenses strictly prohibit the use of their artwork in ANY logo (or trademark) and can cause all sorts of legal hassles if, or when, it happens. While I still disagree with the spec work business model in general, this is a nice move by Ross Kimbarovsky & Co. and I have to applaud them with a Lift o’ The Pint. The new policy addresses one of the main beefs many designers have with the spec work business model and something many have been carping about relentlessly (guilty as charged). While most design spec work sites claim that officially, stock art is frowned upon on their platforms, it’s usually buried w-a-a-a-y down in their terms and conditions and not generally enforced unless people really kick up a fuss (guilty as charged). Crowdspring’s new stock art policy, which claims a ‘zero tolerance’ stance and will see guilty participants banned on first offense, is the most serious, and aggressive to date on any site. Listen up little Crowdspeckers, you’ve been warned. Yeah, I said Crowdspeckers (more on that in a few weeks) [Crowdspring]

Speaking about Chicago and Ross Kimbarovsky (yeah we were, he’s the Crowdspring dude pictured above with the pirate eyepatch), looking forward to having dinner with him middle of the week when the Mrs. and I travel to Chi-town. While it’s more social than business, hope to knock out a short video interview and/or discussion about the industry, spec work and maybe a little about Crowdspring too. Got a new little HD video camera I’m itching to flex my directorial skills with. Also want to check out how the new Chicago Museum of Science & Industry logo is panning out.

Speaking about traveling, Grant Burton of Melbourne, Australia wanted to give his parents a trip to Germany for their 40th wedding anniversary, but came up a little short in the financing department. His idea? He’d tattoo the rail company’s logo design across his back and they’d toss in some free passes for his folks. Amazingly, the company, european based Eurail, agreed. As part of the “tattoo for tickets” deal, he had to attract 5,000 people to a Facebook fan page outlining the plan. Which he did. Said Burton of his parents: “They’ve done so much for me. Being a human billboard is a small price to pay“. Meanwhile, Eurail liked Burton’s idea so much they’ve started a “What would you do” contest that features the tattooed lad as one of the judges and asks “fans” to do whatever crazy shit they can dream up. For free tickets. [UPI]

Speaking about logos and tattoos, kinda reminds us about this item from last year when a Russian porn star was paid $500,000 to tattoo some website logo and URL on her DD Breasts. According to the press release, My MMO Shop, a World of Warcraft commercial website thinks “the link between porn, the internet, and online gaming is as strong as the pairing of peanut butter and jelly, making this an excellent fit“. As part of the half-a-mill deal, Anna Morgan (right) has agreed to not alter the tattoo for at least two years. Like I always say, the internet is serious business. [News Guide]

Speaking of logos, Google is famous for swapping theirs with various illustrations, doodles and iterations to celebrate specific days, birthdays and dates of note. A lot of the artwork that replaces, or adorns, the Google font logo comes from ongoing Doodle 4 Google competitions in which students submit their ideas to the search engine giant. Usually goes off without a hitch. Emphasis on usually. Take for example, the verision featured on the home page for Australia Day (January 26) that was conspicuously missing the Aboriginal flag, the result of a copyright skirmish.

Originally, Jessie Du, an 11 year old student from Rydalmere East Public School, created a logo using Australian specific imagery of a kangaroo, koala and emu. The central “O” in the original design used the Aboriginal flag as a backdrop (above left) but it was nuked from the version that managed to find its way onto Google’s home page (above right). As they often do, people freaked out about the omission on Twitter, and an official explanation had to be issued by big ‘G’ to explain the perceived slight. Seems the designer of and copyright owner of the flag, Harold Thomas, refused to give Google permission to reproduce the design on its website. Because Google didn’t ask nicely. And when they finally got around to asking, they didn’t offer to pay. [Sydney Morning Herald]

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.

Logo design schadenfreude. Missile Defense Agency ‘Logogate’ goes mainstream on CNN & FOX

Steve Douglas — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:59:44 +0000

Couple of days ago, we told you about the internet flap about the Missile Defense Agency logo, in which conservative blogs found an Islamic crescent, (or stripes from the Barack Obama campaign logo) on an obscure National Defense website and staged a collective freakout. Some even claimed that the MDA design cribbed the Iranian Space Agency’s logo too. You thought this thing was over? Hardly. Bloody thing’s gone mainstream now. Fox News is now referring to this as ‘Logogate“. Yeah, like Watergate, only with logo design. Slipping on the tin-foil hat, CNN is now looking into the issue too. And some poor sap at the Missile Defense Agency has to keep telling people it ain’t a logo, was designed under the George W. Bush Administration (back in 2007, before the introduction of the Obama campaign logo) and doesn’t feature a crescent. In fact, the design was picked because, in a rare case of government watching the spendatude, it was cheaper to reproduce than other presented designs. Liberal-leaning TV host Rachel Maddow gives a great account of this nonsense in the MSNBC video upstairs. If you’re in a rush, we can always take a look at the comic book version of how Logogate – A Vast Logo Conspiracy, took shape…:

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]

Snippets: The crowdsourcing, writing on spec & design contest follies edition

Steve Douglas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:40:17 +0000

In announcing their newly launched spec-work writing contests on Twitter, Chicago-based Crowdspring repeatedly twattered a quote from Mark Twain that goes something like this – “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.*” Granted, that sorta IS the business model Crowdspring are launching, but wasn’t sure that the literary giant was cool with his words being used to justify unpaid writing contests. So we asked him. His response?

“Gawdammit it all. When I said that, I meant to write because you love it, and to write about what you want. I wasn’t referring to writing copy for a Tampon brochure, on spec, for some company on the internet.**”

He also told us his thoughts on folks using his quotes on Twitter to promote their services. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.*” Dude’s got a point. His thoughts on writers working without pay? “Prosperity is the best protector of principle.*” Words to live by.
*real Twain quotes. **not so much [Twitter]

Speaking of crowdsourcing, writing and the interwebs, seems there’s this company that plans to fill the search engines with all sorts of how-to goodness, so that when you search for, say, anything, you’ll find one of their pages filled with helpful pay-per-click ads and clicky-on-the-linky banners. Demand Media is another of these “let’s democratize the creative industries by paying everyone peanuts” crowdsourcing outfits eager to cash in on tough economic times and out-of-work creatives. According to The New York Times, this outfit is supposedly worth between one and two billion smackeroos. Yeah, that’s with a ‘B’. And like most crowdsourcing outfits they like to boast about the size of their “community” (about 7,000 eager beavers). Pay for articles? Princely sum of $20. If you’re a skilled word mechanic, fret not. Enthusiastic copy-editors can pick up $3.50 a pop for editing articles to pass an “automated plagiarism checker“. What can possibly go wrong there? Of course, the snooty, elitist New York Times writer has an issue with this, preferring to make more than the estimated $1.00 per hour it would have netted him for writing the article for Demand Media [New York Times]

Speaking about crowdsourcing, seems Wired columnist and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University Jeff Howe might have an itty-bitty issue about design contest sites bogarting the word, and the concept, of crowdsourcing to market their services to the business world. In a Twitter missive on the weekend, Howe twattered that sites like Crowdspring (and one supposes, 99designs, Logo My Way et al) “short-circuited the promise of crowdsourcing” itself. Another whiny, snooty designer carping about the evolution of the design industry? Hardly. Howe’s the dude that coined Crowdsourcing the word. And wrote Crowdsourcing the book. And runs Crowdsourcing the website. And Twitters by the handle Crowdsourcing. Ahhh, what does he know? [Twitter]

Speaking about spec work and design contests (we sorta were), the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce is looking to help local businesses improve their commerce. You know, selling stuff and services, as most local Chambers of Commerce are supposed to do. In order to help local businesses sell their stuff and services, the helpful folks at Ann Arbor decided that they needed a new logo. Which is cool. So they’re hosting an unpaid logo design contest. Which, if you consider that designers are supposed to be taking part in this commerce stuff too, isn’t. [Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce]

Speaking of spec work, told you last week about a whole bunch of Belgian ad agencies who took part in a virtual strike against spec work. That’s the ongoing, and flourishing practice of “gimme some free shit” that many in the design profession despise with a passion usually reserved for hating really bad stuff. Some in the design community, including yours truly, were impressed that a whole bunch of design and advertising companies had managed to put their competitive differences aside and do something together. You know, in a cool “all in for the better good” kind of vibe. Looks like we were a little premature, as no sooner had the anti-spec folks shuttered their websites, than some upstart decided to hoover on the campaign, telling people that unlike the large agencies, they would certainly be interested in pitching on spec. And that the big agencies could suck it cause they were big and mean. Munich-based ad agency Three View, claiming that the “rules are different now“, hoisted a home page that was identical to the original virtual strike artwork, with their version (above) proudly proclaiming that they had ‘punked’ the major agencies even “if it does ruffle a few feathers“. Kinda reminded me of the People’s Front of Judea skit from Monty Python‘s classic flick The Life of Brian. If you’re a fan of Monty Python you’ll get the “splitters!” reference and find it as amusing as I did. If you’re not, this video (NSFW) might help. [Three View GMBH]

Get ‘em while they’re hot. The secrets to your Freelance Dreams…

Steve Douglas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:46:17 +0000

For graphic designers, the internet is awash in free information. Some of it good. Some of it, well, not so good. Some information is so valuable, that it’s worth plonking down your hard earned cash for. Take this example. Seems there’s this book out for freelance designers. Called Freelance Dream, it’s available here. Visually, the page looks like every other kooky get-rich-quick scheme on the internet, but this one advertises a freelance design book that promises all sorts of career enhancing knowledge. The web page claims that the book has been featured in Entrepeneur Magazine and offers all sorts of glowing testimonials about how full of awesomeness it really is.

Written by top freelance professionals you say? That certainly sounds interesting. Learn from the best? Why, that would be wonderful. And what freelance designer wouldn’t want to be the best that they could be. Surely, such wisdom would cost hundreds, if not thousands to tap into. No?

Only $49? That is a steal. And imagine, the book regularly costs $99. All sorts of bonuses too (as long as you order by 11:59pm on Thursday, June 18). What graphic designer worth their mettle can resist such a deal? Hell, I’m reaching into my wallet right now. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know about such hot button topics as “Simple steps to make sure you’re covered with Trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property”. Every designer needs to know that kind of stuff.

So who’s the author of this brilliant treatise? According to the Freelance Dream webpage, it’s some designer called Jon Engle. Anyone remember him?

The layout of the page is so barmy that I’m ready to call bullshit on the whole thing. Perhaps this is some direct marketers idea of using a high-profile name to sell their product (without doing much research into why the name is high profile in the first place). Or it may be some cockamamy affiliate program. Though there is the “© Jonathan Engle | Relevant Studio 2007. All rights reserved” at the bottom of the page which makes me wonder.

Far be it for me to harp on about something, but the little juggling dude in the logo for Freelance Dream looks awfully like a Hugh Aaron image from Stock Art. And in case you don’t remember, that’s how we first got to know Jon in the first place. Now, this could be legitimately licensed artwork – I’ve contacted the legal firm that represents Stock Art to see if they’ll tell me – but even if it is, it’s one of the most unwise artwork decisions I’ve seen in a long time. Okay, ever.

Hat tip to Mark who pointed this out in the comment section of the original article.

Update: Shortly after this post was published, the Freelance Dreams website went dark. Probably sold out. Or something.