Comments on: Logos: the fossil fuel of design?

By: David Airey

David Airey — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:21:29 +0000

Hi Robert, the answer depends on your websites, and what they focus on. You didn’t say if they’re all based upon senior citizen topics, or just your flagship site. But I guess all the topics are related, otherwise there’d be no need to tie them together. My answer? It depends. On the name of each, on the different topics, on the future direction, and on the need to be related.

By: Robert McCluskey

Robert McCluskey — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:57:36 +0000

When I “retired” from higher education and teaching several years I decided to develop my academic interest in aging into a web brand. I’ve been thrashing around without a lot of direction related to branding, although I have started up several sites with some decent content. My flagship site is called Going Strong Seniors (http://www.going-strong-seniors.com) and was intended to become an authority site for senior citizen topics.

I would now like to start tying the sites together with a brand identity. My first question is: What is the best kind of image to put “up front” to represent this theme? I am still using a stock image because I just didn’t know where to go. Should I incorporate a graphic logo, find an exclusive photo, focus on typography, or all of the above? Thanks!

By: Steve - Eightyone Design

Steve - Eightyone Design — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:32:05 +0000

Something one of one my Professors at University said to me many years ago stuck with me – he said ‘there are no new ideas, only new takes of an old idea’ which I guess applies here!

By: Tessa Carroll

Tessa Carroll — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:23:11 +0000

Graphic designers continue to get more and more creative as time progresses. If this trend continues, there’s certainly nothing to worry about. True, we’ll eventually run out of “classic” designs, but who’s to say that someone isn’t going to come around and create the new classic design tomorrow?

By: David Airey

David Airey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:31:40 +0000

The eyeballs are classic, Doug. Here’s hoping it arrives okay—a second national postal strike in two years is on the cards in the UK.

Thanks a lot for the continued chat, folks. Some points worthy of republishing in a “focus on reader comments” feature.

By: Douglas Bonneville

Douglas Bonneville — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:18:23 +0000

Brandon: There was an experimental image comparison engine release to the public a couple years back. I can’t think of the name, but it’s only a matter of time before that technology is refined, and maybe custom-focused on logomarks. I can see it not only functioning in a legal sense, to help us avoid trademark infringement, but also as a source of inspiration. You could put in some kind of basic shape and get all kinds of composition ideas related to that…

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:55:36 +0000

This always haunts me when I’m designing a new logo.”Have I seen this design somewhere before?” Followed by a bunch of Google Image searches to put me at ease. As for now, I feel I can still whipping up original ideas, but I could see this being a problem in the future. Maybe someday there will be some sort of logo upload site that scans your designs across all the world’s trademarked designs and proves my designs are a bunch of rip offs. Till then…

By: James Kurtz III

James Kurtz III — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:16:21 +0000

Impossible. A “new” idea is simply a combination of two (or more) old ideas. So actually the more ideas out there the more possibilities there become, not the other way around. It’s like saying “there are only 26 letters in the alphabet so won’t we eventually run out of words and have nothing left to say.”

By: Carson Shold

Carson Shold — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:13:38 +0000

I’ve thought the same a few times, but incredibly creative, yet simple logos continue to pop up.

The same issue comes up in regards to new inventions. You see some things come out and you wonder, “How has no one thought of that before?” One answer can be technology, but that isn’t always the case.

I don’t think the ideas are going to run short anytime soon, even in any of our lifetimes. Different trends will arise and those trends will in turn effect the logos we design.

Cheers.

By: Rob Cubbon

Rob Cubbon — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:32:33 +0000

An interesting discussion. My instinctive belief is that there is no end in sight for excellent logo creation although people have been making valid comments about our propensity to copy and imitate. It’s interesting that people are talking a lot about music and maybe it’s because popular music just recently seems only capable of endless regurgitation. I also sometimes think that the noughties have been particularly lacking in creative trends in music in particular and in popular culture in general. Or maybe I’m just getting old.