In case you were wondering, the music is also an internal work – a little piece I composed a couple of years ago (with just over a minute-and-a-half worth of video, most of the five minute track had to be snipped. You can listen to the full thing below).

Related posts:

1. Logo design demo reel
2. Not-so-random music track for Monday
3. It’s Tunage Time Again!

After an extended summer hiatus, The Daily Logo has returned

A favorite feature of our legacy site, The Daily Logo is back, starting off with an oldie-but-goodie, Soupy’s Tequila Shack. Keep in mind that unlike our main design blog, new Daily Logos features are NOT announced on our Twitter feed, but exclusively via our Facebook fan page.

Related posts:

1. And now, onto the website design
2. Twitter! We’re on Twitter! Now what?
3. Google removes Olympic luge logo over concerns it exploited Vancouver tragedy?

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.

Related posts:

1. Logorama. Short film featuring corporate brands as villains and heroes gets Oscar nod.
2. 2010 World Cup logo protest
3. Famous corporate logos & design contests?

In the cut-throat game of online logo design marketing, some companies are using logo raiding, a tactic that creeps closer and closer to the boundaries of ethics, and perhaps treads over copyright itself.

Latest trend in the online logo design game? Logo Raiding. Never heard of it? You have now. That’s when blog publishers (often producing the blog as an SEO ‘booster’ for another target site), raid logo galleries or portfolio sites (the popular Logo Pond is a favored source, Brandstack is another) for dozens of logo examples from other designers. These logos are then assembled in a keyword drenched post that’s only purpose is to score high ranking in search engines, usually wrapped around some weirdly nebulous logo ‘theme’. Say ’50 emotional logos’, ’20 logos with movement’ or ’60 really cool coffee logos’. Or strange thematic battles that feature ‘This Type of Logos’ versus ‘These Types of Logos’. When people are looking for say, ‘emotional’, ‘movement’, or ‘coffee’ logos in Google or Yahoo!, they’ll find these pages. Like any kind of search engine marketing, this is to get eyeballs on a page. And convert those eyeballs to paying customers.

No credit, no link, no gain

Trouble is, the designs are usually presented without credit or linkage, and any benefit goes solely to the blog hosting the logos, and then onto the target site, either directly via a link, or indirectly through inbound link love. And while the site, or company, using the logos to boost their search engine rankings don’t exactly claim that they designed the logos, they don’t exactly ‘fess up that they didn’t. A perfectly reasonable person might assume they did, so guess who they’re going to ask to “design a logo like this one”? The site hosting the raided logo, or one of their linked ‘partners’, usually a universe, and often a continent, removed from the designer that actually designed it. Usually the company that actually owns, and operates, the blog in the first place.

In use corporate logos vs. concept designs

It’s not like these sites are using the marks of giant corporations (something which we’re all cool with I suppose). Designers write tons of blog posts that critique corporate logos, often quite savagely. So, what’s the difference with logo raiding? That’s the easy part. Most of the logos raided from online logo galleries are ‘concept’ logos, and as such, still the property of the designer. Bottom line, designers’ ‘raw’ work is being used, without credit, permission or link love, to promote another website and the logo design company that’s behind it. I don’t imagine ‘Fair Use’ would cover the practice either. From what I understand, uncredited use of others’ work, for commercial gain, remains taboo, DMCA or not. And from were I sit, this use ain’t very fair at all.

Using competitor’s work to compete against them?

While I get the whole design community ‘we’re in this together vibe’ these sites try to germinate (usually by going to extraordinary lengths to hide their true ownership), the naked truth is most of these blogs are run by cut-throat bastards who are using the work of their competition to promote themselves via search engines. They’re not trying to promote the designers presented, nor send link love or actual business their way. You know, in a quid pro quo hat tip for use of the work. And while sites like Logo Pond and Brandstack feature profiles and links and contact methods for potential clients, on these “40 best logo” posts, the designers aren’t even mentioned.

Displaying design work is for promotion

Oddly, I’ve read comments from some designers stating they’re “honored” to be featured in these spurious gallery pages. Not sure why anyone would be honored by a potential competitor using their logo design work, especially when the designers aren’t credited, nor their sites linked to. Their profiles on the page, save the logos themselves, are non-existent. As far as I understand this internet marketing thing, promotion is the main purpose of showing logo design examples in the first place. More often than not, the designers featured have no idea of the real purpose of the post their work is presented on. Or who’s really doing the presenting. And while it may be cool to see one’s logo ‘in lights’, the promotional gain for the use is zero. Even weirder, the copyright notices on these blogs, usually blanket statements at the bottom of each page, technically claim copyright for the logos presented above it.

Nature of the web

Am I being nit-picky or absolutist? Perhaps. I must admit I do like control of my work. And yes, like many design blogs, I sometimes feature logos that I really like, but I always try to ask permission first, and if that’s not possible, try to track down the designer so that I can at least credit them. Maybe send a little business their way. That’s the ebb and flow nature of the internet and online design marketing. We all pinch a little, stitching various bits and pieces of other people’s work into our own, unique posts and articles, presumably with credit via a mention or link. The designs used in logo raider posts are the post. It’s simply a cynical ploy to pepper search engines using other designers’ work. Without asking to use that work. Or to credit for it. So why would supposedly legitimate logo design companies lift, en masse, other people’s work to feature as wonky galleries on their blog? For the answer to that, we need to understand why these companies hide their identities in the first place.

Why all the subterfuge?

Before spec work and logo design contests started taking some of the heat, many graphic designers were fundamentally opposed to online logo companies. Hated ‘em all. Yes, even our humble shop, referring to the genre as “logo mills” and “logo factories” (the latter one’s unfortunate, especially when your company name is The Logo Factory). It’s something that we’ve kinda put up with over the years, but other than a couple of flame wars here and there, we’ve nestled into our own little niche in the design community. Other companies think, perhaps with some validity, that designers opposed to the business model wouldn’t engage their main sites, and thus they’d miss out on all the benefits of such engagement. No comments, no inbound links and in the era of Twitter and Facebook, no social media love. Solution? Create a pseudo-entity (or entities) that while hiding all ties with the mothership, aim the SEO benefits towards it. Designers, none the wiser, link to the blog, join in the comments and ‘retweet’ posts they like around Twitter. It’s pretty cynical, but it works. Pragmatically speaking, these disguised blogs aren’t supposed to belong to the target company, so they can’t use their own work ’cause If they did, the jig would be up. Trouble is, a blog needs content, multiple blogs need lots of content and producing original material is extremely time consuming (one of the reasons for blog content scraping, which some of these sites also engage in). Raiding other logo gallery sites is so much easier. Taking minutes vs. hours, it’s cheaper too. These 20, 30, and 40 best logo posts all follow the same format. An somewhat oddly worded introductory paragraph that pitches the supposed ‘theme’. Then 30 raided logos plastered over the page. It is an exceptionally effective way to produce blog content and in this era of ROI (Return on Investment), the ROI on these posts is phenomenal, especially when it comes down to search engine penetration, the primary purpose of the activity. Accordingly, logo raiding is starting to be used by a lot of pseudo design blogs (belonging to other companies, they’re more splogs than not) and I’m not the only one who’s noticed. David Airey wrote an excellent post about the practice last week.

I don’t think it’s the last we’re going to hear about it either.

Related posts:

1. Do you know who’s designing your logo?
2. Publish a blog? Here’s why websites that scrape content are a pain. Why you shouldn’t do it.
3. Again with the design contests

I understand how this happened Sam. That logo is in the number one or two spot when you search for the keywords pizza and logo on Google. Does pretty well for “pizzeria logo” too. Bottom line, it’s a decent design and it’s really easy to find. That didn’t happen by accident Sam. Far from it. We had to write some nice copy about pizza logos and feature some examples from our portfolio on one of our web pages. We even gave some tips on how to design a pizzeria logo. Hopefully, people who were looking for design firms, especially those that were good at designing pizza logos, might find our site when using their favorite search engine. Maybe even hire us to design a logo for their restaurant. And if they wanted to try designing one themselves, we gave a few tips that might help.

Here’s the thing Sam. Our portfolio and website is our advertising, very similar to the website you’re building for your pizza parlor. And like the mailers you send to people in your neighborhood, hoping that they’ll order pizza and wings by phone. Or visit your fine establishment when they want to dine out. Trouble is Sam, when you wanted to add a logo to your website and mailers, you decided to nick the design you liked so much right off our website. You, or some designer you hired, took the image, removed the name of the client we originally designed the logo for, and put in your restaurant’s name. Pretty badly too Sam, because this design wasn’t built for the name of your restaurant, it was built for the original client’s name. But that’s neither here nor there. This letter isn’t about good or bad logo design. It’s about intellectual property.

See Sam, I didn’t think I’d have to tell you this. I thought you’d understand, being a small business owner like myself, that our companies represent a way of making a living to the people who work for us. Our designers and admin staff. Just like your servers and chefs. Our logos and design work are just like your pizza and chicken wings Sam. You know, product. The things we sell to keep the lights on, the doors open and the paychecks signed. Or in your case, the doors to your pizza pub restaurant open, your wait staff smiling and your pizza ovens nice and hot.

Maybe we’re too expensive for your budget Sam, and that’s okay. Just like your pizza may be more expensive than the Domino’s and Pizza Pizza chains across the street from your shop. You’ll tell your customers that your pizzas and wings are more expensive because they’re better than those other guys. Better, fresher ingredients. Home made pie crust. Hand mixed sauces. That’s kind of our position on our pricing too, Sam. We only present custom work, no templates or clip art here, and we have to price our design services in order to maintain that level of quality. We try to have great customer service and warm, knowledgeable bodies answering phones when clients need help with their logos. There are cheaper solutions to be sure, and you’re welcome to use those guys too. Free market and all that. Just like the people in your area are welcome to buy their wings and pizzas from those large chains that don’t take as much pride in their menu items as you do. You have breaded shrimps too? That’s awesome.

But here’s the thing Sam. When you decided that we were too rich for your tastes, or your budget, you didn’t go to the other, cheaper guys. You just took our artwork, property that belongs to someone else, and made it yours. You didn’t pay for it. You didn’t even ask. It would be like me breaking into your restaurant and taking your pizza (I’m partial to pepperoni, mushroom and pineapple) without asking you, because I thought you were charging too much. Or taking your pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapples and home made pie dough, right out of your fridge, so that I could try and make my own pizza. Pizza that, hopefully, would taste just like yours. You might think artwork on the internet is different Sam, but it’s not really. You’re taking something that doesn’t belong to you. And using it for your own benefit. Without asking the rightful owner, or the creator, if they’re okay with you using it.

Judging by the way your website is set up (5.7 MBs for your about page is a bit heavy Sam) you may be new to the internet and not know this. While it’s cool to find all sorts of stuff, logo design examples let’s say, the internet is also a weird place. A very weird place indeed. I’ve never heard of your pizza parlor, nor did I know about your new website. Trouble is, someone from your neighborhood, perhaps even a customer of yours, knows about us. They seem to be quite familiar with our site too, being able to find a very old contact form that’s not easy to find on our new site. I think they might be a graphic designer Sam, because they were really, really unhappy to see our client’s logo being used to promote your restaurant. So unhappy that they took some time out of their busy day to tell us. And just like you used the internet search machine to find examples of pizza logos, we used the internet search machine to find you. Now, whether you really want to or not, you’re going to have to have a new logo designed. You won’t hire us because after all this, you probably think I’m not a very nice person. That bad blood is sad really, because we didn’t do anything wrong. Other than advertise our services on the internet. Just like you advertise your pizzas and wings on the internet. But you’re going to have to hire somebody I suppose. Here’s a few tips on selecting a logo designer. And if you’ve printed our work on business cards, letterheads or heaven forbid, your menus, it’s going to cost a lot more than the couple of hundred bucks you saved by not hiring us. The sad footnote to this is that you’ve probably lost a customer too. Remember the designer that told us about this little incident? Apparently, they don’t want to support a business that appears to think so little about theirs. The big chains across the street are cheaper too.

I want to keep this quiet Sam, because I’m sure you’re a nice guy who may not have understood that this kind of thing is wrong. Many people seem to think that once something is on the internet, it’s available for use by anyone. It isn’t. There’s this little wrinkle to that called copyright. Trademark works too. Some may feel that pinching artwork off the internet is just like downloading MP3s or movies via a file-sharing network. It’s not. MP3s and bootleg movies are downloaded into a private stash on a hard drive that no-one else sees. While it’s still very illegal, it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever get caught. By their nature, logos are very, very public. That’s the point in the first place. And when you use a logo how it’s supposed to be used, plastered over your advertising, you run a very real risk of the owner finding out. In many different and wondrous ways. If they don’t find it themselves, it could come down to some graphic designer who reads a website, or a logo design blog like this one, dropping into your shop for an undoubtedly wonderful slice of pizza. And then half the internet will be raging about yet another example of someone knocking off someone else’s design work. Funny thing, I wrote about that kind of thing just a few days ago. They’re called Twitter Storms and they can get really, really nasty. That won’t happen this time Sam, because I’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure the search engine machines don’t connect this post with your restaurant. See, I just wanted you to stop using our work. And to leave our client’s logo alone. And who knows. Maybe if the Mrs. and I ever plan a road trip down your way, we’ll drop in for a slice or two. Or maybe some of those lovely looking shrimps.

The preceding was based on an actual event. Sam is not the actual name of the restaurant owner addressed. So it doesn’t get picked up by search engines, we’ve left the name of his restaurant out of the article too. Also should mention that after being contacted, the logo was removed from Sam’s website.

Related posts:

1. Copying logos a thing of the past?
2. Copying logos is not cool
3. Someone copying your website?

Wonky pipes and a stubborn designer

A couple of weeks ago, our kitchen sink started to back up. This was on top of the persistent leak that had started a few years ago under the counter. Not a deluge or anything, but a consistent drip, drip, drip that every couple of weeks, filled up the plastic bowl that the Mrs. had to put under the pipes to catch it. Anyhoo, now the damn pipes were backing up too. When we ran the dishwasher, a sudsy gelatinous goo burbled up through the drain. As it was, and even though we have two sinks, we were already down to one, the result of the aforementioned leak. Now, we were down to none. “Why didn’t you fix the leak?” you might ask. “But I did” would be my answer. On numerous occasions since it first started, I had journeyed to our local Home Depot store, picking up wrenches, plumber’s tape and some really messy glue that insisted on ruining shirts every time I used it. Not being terribly handy, my do-it-yourself solutions hadn’t been terribly effective is all. Embarrassingly, my wife is much more of a handyman than I’ll ever be, and after getting tired of my “yeah, yeah, I’ll get to it in a bit” answers when she pointed out the leak, for the umpteenth time, she’d had a few goes herself. Will similar results. Despite my meager efforts, and her herculean ones, the sink continued to leak. And now, the bloody thing was starting to back up too, the result of some blockage deep in the pipes, and a blockage that was no doubt evolving into a new life form. What’s this got to do with do-it-yourself design, logos or designing? Bear with me for a bit and it should become apparent.

The joy of the do-it-yourself solution?

It’s not that I don’t understand the basics of plumbing. I do. Water goes in, travels down some PVC tubes and ends up somewhere out ‘there’. The pipes need to be watertight, or they’ll leak. And if something blocks the pipes, the water can’t travel out ‘there’ and will back up to whence it came, in this case, our aluminum sink. I even had a moderate understanding of the tools involved. A pipe wrench, plumber’s tape, plunger, PVC glue and this spinny, snakey thing I had picked up at Home Depot for sixty bucks. Trouble is, I couldn’t make them do what they’re, well, supposed to do. And despite being a professional services provider for almost thirty years as a graphic designer, I didn’t want to hire a professional service provider when it came to fixing my wonky plumbing. You know, a plumber. My reasoning was typical. They’re too expensive. Too much of a hassle. Don’t know who to ask. “I’m quite capable of fixing this myself, thank you very much“, even though after numerous attempts, spending a few hundred dollars of do-it-yourself tools and wrecking my knees on the tiled floor of our kitchen every time I tried, the pipe continued to taunt me by dribbling water down its side. I also never seemed to have the time to attempt to fix the problem, as I was always busy doing other things. Things that I am good at.

The “that’s good enough” attitude

Granted, I had toned the dribbles down a bit, and the amount of errant water had been lessened a little after each subsequent attempt. Overall, I had taken a “that’s good enough” attitude towards the entire thing while Sue, my wife, wasn’t so thrilled with my do-it-yourself plumbing efforts though thankfully, she didn’t grumble too much (not wanting to crush my he-man super-plumber vibe I suppose). But now that our one functioning sink had now begun to back up, it was time to roll up the sleeves because our entire kitchen had been rendered unusable. Here’s the funny thing – while I hadn’t managed to fix the original leak, I didn’t “need” the professional services of a plumber for this task either. It was simply a matter of running some snakey thing down the drain, spinning the handle a few times and all would be well. As a professional services provider, you’d think I’d know better, but I didn’t. And as with most things that ‘should be’, this one wasn’t either. After getting the snake stuck, not before dragging up bits and pieces of the most horrible pipe blocking matter you can imagine, the backed up water began to rise up the sides of our sink, treacherously close to the lip. “Can we just get someone in?” Sue finally suggested,  a little perplexed at my refusal to bring in a professional. Finally giving in, I told her “oh, all right“, accepting the notion that this problem was far beyond whatever do-it-yourself plumbing skills I had managed to absorb over the years. Turns out this absorption hadn’t actually amounted to much in the way of plumbing ‘skills’ at all.

Bringing in a professional

I found a plumber in about ten seconds flat on Google. They served our area, and offered a same-day service call. I gave them a shout on the phone, explaining our situation and a plumber’s van was at my doorstep four or five hours later. The plumber, we’ll call him Roger, took a look under the sink and assessed our problem instantly. The leaking sink was faulty, always had been (that got me off the hook a little). The blockage in the pipes was hardcore, having nestled itself into a ‘U’ bend somewhere under the floor boards. Roger laughed at my sixty dollar snakey-thing, comparing it to the one he brought in that was almost 5 times larger in diameter, and hooked up to a motor that looked like it could power a small city. The cost to fix everything? Just under $300. Yikes. Despite the nagging “you can do this yourself and save the $300” voice in my head, I agreed. I had spent almost as much as that on my do-it-yourself supplies, hours upon hours of my time, and I hadn’t really gotten anywhere. If Roger could fix all my problems for three hundred bones, it would be money well spent. And besides, if I didn’t get this sink fixed el pronto, there was a real risk that I’d be walking the streets that night as Sue’s patience finally evaporated.

Hiring a pro vs. doing it yourself

When I gave him the green light, Roger went to work and after about two hours of banging and bashing about, he had fixed the original leak, cleared the blockage and given the remaining pipes a once over. Any stuff that was starting to clog the drains wouldn’t grow into a new water-jamming lump. And while we often joke about plumber’s ass cracks and what have you, Roger was professional, pleasant and remarkably well-dressed for a person who’s often dealing with other people’s sewage. Sue was delighted, “my hero” (thankfully me, not Roger) and finally, after a few years of relentless dripping, we had two sinks, clean pipes and the infernal leak had ceased. And despite having to pony up on the better part of $300 bucks, my only real regret was “why didn’t I call these guys two years ago?” And as Roger drove away, I realized that there was quite a lot we can learn from my experience. So, as promised earlier, and four paragraphs later (told you it was “too long to read“) here’s what plumbing and plumbers can teach us about do-it-yourself design, designing logos and designers. The analogy goes something like this: Roger is the designer, I am the client, my kitchen is my company, and the pipes are my marketing. All set? Let’s go.

It’s not about the stupid. It’s about the level of experience

Whenever a designer suggests that a business owner, potential client, or design buyer shouldn’t try to create their own graphic design material, particularly their own logo, or that they should hire a professional, they run the risk of coming across as, or being labeled as, a snooty designer. Worse, it might even appear that they’re calling the client stupid. They’re guilty of neither. See, I’m not a stupid guy (though some might disagree) and I’m capable of all sorts of things on varying degrees of hobbyist levels. I’m a relative expert in several things, mostly related to graphic design. When it comes to plumbing (and several other household and mechanical chores that we’ll leave for another day) I am a complete,and utter bonehead. I can have the same tools as a plumber, just as a design buyer can have the same tools as a designer. But as I discovered, some of my tools aren’t up to professional snuff, analogous to clients having some rudimentary design software that’s not quite up to the snuff of real design gear. And even if my plumbing tools are the same, in my hands they’re not capable of producing the potential magic as they are in the hands of someone that actually knows what they’re doing. See, I now realize that a professional plumber has better tools, more experience, and more ‘tricks of the trade’ that I could ever imagine. He’s better at plumbing than I am, not because he’s smarter, but because he’s better at plumbing. This, by the way, does not make him a snobby plumber. It makes him a professional plumber. Alas, only in the graphic design industry does one risk being labeled as an elitist snooty twerp by pointing out our skill sets, our experience and our talents.

But I know how to plumb!

“Aha!” you might tell me, “I know how to fix plumbing, so your analogy is stupid!” Granted, my analogy may be stupid, but the fact that you know everything about plumbing helps make my point, not destroy it. See, if a potential design client is good at designing stuff, logos let’s say, then by all means they should design it themselves. Do it yourself logos can be pretty cool. If you know what you’re doing. But don’t think that a little knowledge, or access to design software, is going to make anyone a designer. Or someone that can produce professional level design work. See, I thought I had all the tools to be a plumber. Turns out I didn’t, but even the ones that I did possess, didn’t do plumbing stuff very well when I tried to use them. Because I know very little about pipes and I’m not much of a plumber. Just as most business owners aren’t designers either. That doesn’t mean that I’m a talentless dope. It just means that my skill set lies outside the realm of plumbing, as most business owners expertise lies outside the realm of graphic design. This isn’t snobbery or elitism. Just one of those “truthisms” that just are. And just like my “that’s good enough” attitude to my pedestrian plumbing repair efforts, someone designing their own stuff because it’s cheaper, or less hassle than dealing with a professional, runs the risk of having a “that’s good enough” logo. And just like my dripping pipes, it sometimes isn’t good enough at all. Took me almost two years to learn that lesson. Hopefully, this ramble with save somebody some time. Bottom line, if you’re good at something, do it. If you’re not good at something, let a professional take care of it.

Voodoo economics. Do-it-yourself saves money?

Naturally, using a professional designer (or a plumber) is going to set you back a few shekels. That’s the professional bit. But does doing it yourself really save money? Sometimes, sure. But let’s take my little analogy. Since the dripping had first started, I had spent hours and hours of my life trying to fix it. I had bought all sorts of tools and plumbing supplies (some multiple times as the original versions disappeared into the recesses of my garage). I had also put up with the relentless dripping, my wife’s grumbles and hadn’t used one of our sinks in almost two years. All to save what, $300? That makes me a gold medal winner in the “penny wise, pound foolish” Olympics. In fact, it was extraordinarily stupid for someone who doesn’t like to think of themselves as extraordinarily stupid. Similarly, while hiring a professional designer does cost, and a logo can run you anything from several hundred dollars to a couple of grand, isn’t it worth doling out a few bucks to insure that your company has an effective brand from the hop? I’m not suggesting that a small business has to break the bank either. They don’t, relatively speaking, especially when viewed through the value vs. cost prism. I’m not even suggesting that our shop is the only game in town. We aren’t. In the graphic design community, there’s lots of Rogers, all more than capable of hooking you up.

What designers can learn from Roger

As this was my first dealing with a professional plumber, I have to admit to harboring a preconceived notion of what plumbers were, how they acted and even how they looked. I was wrong. Roger was professional, polite and listened patiently as I blathered on about my drainage grief, using terms and phrases that probably didn’t have anything to do with plumbing. He showed up on time, itemized the invoice nicely and didn’t leave a mess after he left. We can all learn from Roger. Graphic designers complain about being labeled as ‘flaky’ or ‘unreliable’. I get it. Pisses me off too, but perhaps we shoulder some of the blame, just as a few plumbers shoulder the blame for their ‘hairy ass crack’ image. As designers, we’ve probably let our customer service slip a little once in a while. You know, being late on a project deadline and letting the phone go to voice mail when the client called, wondering what’s up. I know I have. If you’re guilty too, we  should probably work on changing that. If we want to be treated like professionals, then we certainly need to act like professionals. All the time. Cause that’s good for business. If ever my pipes start to leak again, I know who to call. Roger. And if designers act like professionals, our clients will know who to call when they run into their particular design hurdles. In this ever increasingly crowded marketplace we all inhabit, we need to understand that competition isn’t just about doing things cheaper than the next guy. It’s about doing it better. And being nicer when we do it.

The crowdsourcing & logo design contest footnote

As this is supposed to be a logo design blog, we run a logo design studio and crowdsourcing is supposed to be the issue de jour in the industry (though some might argue it isn’t), I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t at least try to crowbar it into our little analogy. So let’s. Say I wanted to get my pipes fixed, but didn’t want to hire a snooty professional plumber. They’re too expensive. I want more choices. To democratize plumbing. Whatever raison d’être people use to explain why they host logo contests. In this “fix my bloody pipes” instance, I could always pin a notice to my front door. Something along the lines of “Help us fix our plumbing. We’ll pay $100 to the plumber who gets it right. Come on in!“. Seems rather obvious, break and enter risks notwithstanding, that this would be a very risky proposition. Firstly, it’s safe to assume that our sign would attract all sorts of people who despite being very eager for the $100 prize, wouldn’t know very much about plumbing. Probably even less than I do. Most professional plumbers that did see our sign, but knowing that the gig is worth $300, would probably ignore our pitch completely (no doubt grimacing at the potential calamity that I was begging for). And while it’s true that our sign might, repeat might, attract a plumber with professional level skills, the chances that he (or she) would take us up on our offer, before someone mucked up everything, are long at best. And besides, rather than anonymous would-be plumbers from God knows where, I kinda like the idea of having an expert who knows me and my house personally, on speed dial.

Someone who’s quite intimate with my pipes.

Related posts:

1. Hmm. “Design – too important for designers”?
2. Children designers on design contest & crowdsourcing sites?
3. Why designers can be their own worst enemy

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]

Related posts:

1. Snippets: More logo tattoos, photographers sue Google & yet another plagiarism freak out
2. Snippets: Crowdspring to offer spec writing, NEA holds a spec work contest & other news
3. Doodle 4 Google logos

We first wrote about this classic logo porn by French electro-pop duo Justice on The Factor! a few years back when it was first released. While taking care of some blog house-cleaning a few days ago, I discovered the original YouTube link for the DVNO video had gone dark, so I spent a bit looking for another. Found a good one too and figured it might be worth a revisit for folks who either haven’t seen the video before, or weren’t readers back then. So what’s the deal with DVNO? I was finally able to grab a quote (not that it clears much up):

”DVNO stands for ‘Divino’,’ states Justice‘s Xavier de Rosnay. ‘In every suburb of the world, in every city, there’s always a nightclub called El Divino… Clubs where you have to wear like a white shirt to get in.’

Probably lost something in the translation I suppose. Anyhoo, if you’ve been in the logo design game for a while, you’ll recognize a lot of the logo ‘styles’ used, everything from 20th Century Fox to HBO, NBC to Carolco, Cannon to CBS, all done up in the style of 70s and 80s TV CGI ‘bumper’ animations. Even a nice little homage to the SEGA logo about a third of the way in.

Enjoy.

Update:

If you’re interested in the various logo font treatments and typefaces, The Font Feed serves up an awesome dissection of the various styles, identifying most of the typography used. Worth a look if you’re into such things. Steven Van Vaerenbergh gives us a list of all the original logos and corporate idents from which the inspiration was drawn.

Related posts:

1. DVNO – 70′s & 80′s Classic logo video by Justice
2. HD video logo animations using Flash
3. Turning Flash logo animations into HD video intros

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.

Related posts:

1. A swoosh in your logo? Wasn’t a bad idea in ’98
2. Snippets: The Oscar weekend, Logorama, Blog Fail & new Ubuntu logo edition
3. DIY design vs. hiring a pro. What plumbers & plumbing can teach us about designers & designing

“The response to date has been overwhelmingly positive, and it has also engendered a lively dialogue about the structure of the RFP itself, in particular around the issue of “work for spec” in the graphic design community.”

Taking a gander at some of the comments on the blog, not sure I’m on side with the “overwhelmingly positive” vibe but no mind. Bottom line, anti spec work crusaders could get bent, and the contest would go on as scheduled. Well, maybe not exactly as scheduled, with the deadline being postponed from February 26 to March 5, this Friday, due to snow storms that crippled the Nation’s capital. People who had tried to enter the contest ($25K is a lot of bones) were glad of the extension, not because they needed time to polish their logos, or the three-page logo symbolism treatise, or the basic biography that’s supposed to accompany the design proposals. Nope. It was because, like most things in the government, it was incredibly difficult to figure out the damn submission process. From the helpful:

“Might it be possible to offer an EZ-application form, Application-lite or Application for Dummies option for those who are interested in entering but don’t speak government language.”

To the exasperated:

“I am a graphic designer with (IMHO) a great completed design idea. However, I have found the submission process to be a such a frustrating labyrinth of links, forms, etc. that I have given up. I am NOT a business- no DUNS#, TIP# etc. The e-mail requirements for submissions are straightforward enough until you get to the forms and ORCA stuff. Why isn’t there a simple way for individuals to submit ideas?”

To the incredulous:

“I am so dumbfounded by the application process (do we scan in our completed paperwork to submit electronically in addition to our logo files?) Someone needs to explain this!!”

In response to the criticism, and just 4 days before contest close, the NEA posted a “thorough FAQ that supposedly “covers every aspect of the Art Works logo design RFP and submission process“. Trouble is the PDF download is still filled with so much legal gobbledygook that if you can decipher it, you probably deserve the 25 grand prize. Hooray for government spec work.

Related posts:

1. Snippets: Crowdspring to offer spec writing, NEA holds a spec work contest & other news
2. Spec work hackery redux. More of our work copied & entered into 99designs logo design contest
3. New! Spec work. Schmeck work. Proudly announcing our groovy new design contest factory!