Let’s talk logos
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been featuring a third-party ‘logo of the month’. Designs are chosen according to my thoughts on what makes a good logo, and the conversation generated has brought about a change of mind on more than one occasion. Here’s a roundup with 10 of my personal favourites alongside a small sample of the discussion.
In no particular order…
#1: Sinkit logo
I’m always happy when a logo is workable in a variety of circumstances. This one can readily be used on the company’s products, on their website, and in even very small settings (such as the golf ball) and still remain usable.
Eric, of ideasonideas
I also like how the negative space on the “i” prevents the logo from being read as “sin kit,” which is a problem with a lot of the sketches.
Christian, of The Montoya Herald
#2: Eight logo
I’ve seen it before, but everytime I come across it I smile a little. It truely is a “why didn’t I think of that?” moment. Using the numerical representation of the brand in every single letter of brand’s logotype is, for lack of a better term; awesome.
Eric, of Eric Eriksson
…impact, originality, creativity, stickiness. A very good choice of the month, probably the best so far.
Mihaela Lica, of Online Public Relations
#3: Production Department logo
I read the ‘d’ before the ‘p’ and honestly I dont see how it reflects what they do and who they are.
Raul, of Electronic Intermedia
It doesnt have to (reflect what they do). It has to be memorable. Nike doesnt say sports shoe, Apple doesnt say ipod or computer, Shell doesn’t say oil, Tesco doesn’t say supermarket.
Whether you read the ‘p’ or ‘d’ first doesnt matter. It’s a simple, memorable logo. I can draw it, describe it, it looks nice.
Lee, of P&W
Love the old Hartford Whalers logo. Another one that has the same hidden initials is the old Milwaukee Brewers “ball in glove” logo.
Dave, of Does your business…experience design?
#5: Alliance for Climate Protection logo
I thought of a funky mu at first, and then I thought of the ABC logo. Generally it’s ok when one logo reminds us of another, but in this case I really don’t think it works. And if you have to think too hard to get it, or if “outsiders” wouldn’t understand (like me), it’s probably not a good idea, unless you are only trying to appeal to the ones in-the-know.
Lauren, of Creative Curio
The purpose of the logo is to brand, differentiate and become a symbol of their agenda. While it may have been easy to use many of the other “green” or “environment” symbols we see a million times (Leaf, light bulb, cloud, sun), they chose to stand alone a bit. I’m fine with that. I’m not going to confuse them with another outfit.
Aaron, of Five Technology
I like it but can’t explain why. Maybe it just reminds me of a Henry Moore sculpture. Very soft, very elegant.
Ed, of The Branding Experts
Another great simple, clear, modern logo. Nice idea, again I wish it was part of my portfolio.
Lee, of P&W
#7: Egg-n-Spoon logo
Eggstraordinary.
Anon, of Just the Gritty
I found it too eggsasperating to formulate a word play comment.
Regan, of Bullfrog Music
Thats a cracking design.
Mike, of Mike Ingham
Eggceptional!
Justin, of Justin Lilly
Clearly the designers are no spring chickens.
Tracey, of Tracey Grady Design
All yokes aside, very nice!
Michael, of That’s Right
#8: Guild of Food Writers logo
I really like the logo mark too (subtle spoon and nib—very nice), though the web site is a disaster. The colour, the outlined text, too little room for the logo mark to breathe, and … I’ll stop there.
Johno, of I Love Typography
Great logo without the text and gradient. Seems to me that the client wanted to accompany the text and the design agency lost the fight! I, too, have worked on many designs that I was initially happy with until the client choose to make “some” changes. In the end, I choose the initial design I was satisfied with to show in my portfolio. Anyone else do the same?
Brian, of The Design Cubicle
#9: The Mill logo
…a logo doesn’t necessarily have to be readable right away, it all depends on where it will be used, how the company interacts with it’s clients, etc. For an already well established media company such as The Mill it can work perfectly, and in fact is probably better for being enigmatic.
Steve, with portfolio on Coroflot
I’m not keen on this at all, I think when you have to look that hard to make out the company name it’s not a good design.
I don’t think being ‘clever’ is all that is required of a logo design — being clever is all well and good as a designer, and it’s impressive to think of something clever like this, but just because you have thought of something super clever, it doesn’t mean you should use it simply by it’s virtue of it’s cleverness.
This designer has essentially provided a logo design that is a puzzle.
Amanda, of Truly Ace
#10: Human logo
Like it, but personally I find the ascender of ‘h’ not tall enough. As I see the logo, they have kept the spacing but widened the letter a, so it doesnt fit anymore.
Sander, of DesignWorkPlan
Logos like this are why I love graphic design.
James, of James Kurtz III
Thanks for keeping the chat flowing, and for making me look more closely at the logos I choose to feature.
Does one design stand out more than the others?
Related posts on David Airey dot com
36 appreciated comments to “Let’s talk logos”
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My favourite are Sinkit, Eight & Guild of Food Writers and yeah, I agree with Eric on that Eight logo, it’s like “why didn’t I think of that?”. Nice roundup.
My faves on the list are: human, sinkit, and eight.
Great source of inspiration David, thanks!
Some great logo’s in there. I always find it interesting listening (or reading) what people think a logo’s function is, and the comments you’ve chosen certainly emphasise the array of opinions out there. Personally I don’t believe there are a fixed set of rules that MUST apply to every logo. It’s all about context.
I’ve really never liked the egg n spoon logo. The idea is very clever but the form of the logo looks too much like the internet explorer logo for me to have any affection for it.
The guild of food writers, on the other hand, is fabulous.
I agree with Rich Samuels about the egg and spoon logo, it’s been blamished by the IE logo (Egg n Spoon in space?).
Thanks for showing/reminding me/us this logo’s. I just wish I was better in that particular area of graphic design.
Great list David, I always enjoy collections of innovative wordmarks and motifs, even if they lead to continuous “why didn’t I think of that?” moments.
Keep up the good work, great identity inspiration!
Clever stuff. I like the Eight logo, seems like such a simple idea although not sure I would’ve thought of it. Definitely a “I wish I…” moment. I also thought of IE first when I saw the Egg N Spoon logo which is a shame becasue it’s a great logo. I’ve still got lots to learn in logo design, but love looking at these great examples.
On another note, David this is a great blog. I’ve just got into reading design blogs and have found yours very interesting and inspirational, I’m even recommending it to non-designers.
Great post David. I’ve been talking about logos over at The Naked Idea as well and why they don’t cost $50 to design – and these sorts of logos show why. Take a look at my posts part one and two. It’s slanted more towards working with charities but I still think is appropriate to your post. Thanks a lot!
Completely agree with Johno’s comments on the Guild of Food Writers logo. Excellent, “simple” use of positive and negative space—as I believe the best logos do. It is such a shame when a logo masterpiece like this gets butchered as soon as it is out of the designer’s hands. That website really hurts my eyes! Somebody get me some eye drops!!!
I wonder how long it took to get to some of these final logo designs. It would be interesting to see all the previous drafts and ideas.
Jacob,
I’d like to agree with Eric when he says, “Why didn’t I think of that?”, but I’m not sure I’d have produced such a unique design. Love it.
Steve O,
I think you’re right. The context of a logo plays a huge part of its success or failure, and this is increasingly important as millions more designs can be viewed / compared online.
Rich, Tjeerd,
Yep, I know the problems many web developers have catering to Internet Explorer won’t help the Egg-n-Spoon design. Shame, but a great idea nonetheless.
Wes,
Thanks very much for the recommendation. Glad you’re finding some content of interest here.
John,
Heading over for a look now.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
2, 8 and 10 are great!
Apart from reading your blog and your views, reading everyone elses is just as rewarding!
Definitely some clever logos here. The Mill logo, however, borrows heavily (enough to be a rip-off? I don’t know) from the MIT Press logo, which has been around for decades.
My favourite out the bunch you’ve selected here are the Mill logo and the Guild of Food Writers logo.
I remember when you first posted the Mill logo and the discussion was great on it. I’m a big fan of almost to simplistic design, verging on the, “my four old niece could do that” to “it’s so clever, a genius must of conceived that concept.”
All in all, there is a very fine line between achieving a great simple looking logo that will stand the test of time, to achieving a sub-standard, pre school drawing, consigned to be forgotten and ridiculed but it’s amazing when it works.
very excited to see this article, smart logos – I like that simple genius in logos!
Thanks!
Very cool logo designs. All are memorable logos and work for that company and that is what makes them successful. I think a logo for a small business needs to have some identifying element about their business, because they won’t achieve brand recognition on a large scale and they need to identify themselves the first time someone glances at the logo. Larger company’s can advertise the heck out of any memorable symbol and as long as it’s not a plain circle or square, people will remember it and it does it’s job.
The varied styles show the amount of variety we are all capable of as designers and the endless amount of opinions we designers have!
Thanks for the post!
Calvin
No more terrible puns in a blog comment, I promise …!
I like them all. I love the clever combination of the W, the H and the whale’s tail in the Hartford Whaler’s logo. The Guild of Food Writers logo also has a clever combination of elements in the one symbol.
I don’t know if you placed the human logo at the end because it’s one of your particular favourites in the group (I do that all the time in blog posts – my favourites in a collection go first and last) but it’s definitely one of my favourites. The use of negative space to depict the sperm is nice, and it softens (or humanises?) the type. Great impact.
My favourite is “Eight:”. Nice collection and discussion, especially about “why a logo doesnt have to reflect what they do.”
Thank you David.
To be totally honest – I never really saw the Whalers & Brewers logos for what they had.
I always thought the Nordiques logo was clever even though it played upon the notion that all Canadians live in igloos.
http://www.sportslogos.net/team.php?id=354
That ’s not true – we have summer in Canada too. Last year Summer happened on a Tuesday.
Regan
Hello,
Nice logos btw, my favorite would have to be the “Sink it” and the “eight” they just seem to be very original and not something that you might find somewhere else.
Great job, love the post and love how you share your collection and information.
For me the two that stand out the most are the Guild of Food writers and the eight logo. The use of the number 8 in every letter is inspired, much, much cleverer than just using a number 8.
What do you think of logos that aren’t immediately readable though – like the Mill logo – personally I think that particular logo works because it is a puzzle as Amanda said, but what are your feelings on it David?
The Guild of Food Writers logo is brilliant, although how they’ve used it on their website is attrocious.
http://www.gfw.co.uk
Get ready for a shock.
I absolutely LOVE The Mill and still can’t get over how clever Egg-n-Spoon is…
Nice round-up, David. I would love to claim any of these in my portfolio.
I like the Guild of Food Writers logo. It’s so simple I almost missed the concept.
I tend to agree with Calvin about how the size of the company can effect the simplicity of the logo.
All of these logo’s show great creativity! It’s inspiring to think that most of these work so well without any color or huge graphic. Every logo designer should strive for this kind of consistency.
All of them are pretty cool, but I think the e logo (egg n spoon ) looks too much like the “Internet Explorer” logo (actually they are almost identical) and since the explorer is already well known I think its not very distinguishable.
I was trying to think of something to say that is good about about these logo’s as a non- designer I look for something that stands out and makes me take notice. There is one that did appeal to me and that is the Human logo with the flame coming out of the ‘a’. It reminds me of the concrete poets work of the 80′.
The Eight logo to me defines the standard of the creative thought we all need to harness. ‘Simple’, ‘inspirational’, ‘professional’, ‘fresh’, ‘unique’. It’s a graphic designers masterpiece, which we all wish we’d done lol
David, I salute you, and thank you for a very inspiring and interesting blogs.. designers are getting to interact with one another in a very civilized & professional manner;
apart from that, every logo posted in this blog has its own unique charm | creativity is sparkling in here.. sinkit, eight & humans are my favorites, mind-blowing work
cheers
Julie,
You’re not the first to mention the MIT logo. Some others brought it up on the original Mill logo post.
Mark,
The discussion was healthy, no doubt. Lots of differing opinions, particularly around the legibility of the mark, and whether or not it would be shown alongside actual text for ‘Mill’ or ‘The Mill’.
Tracey,
No more puns? That’s a shame. I enjoyed those (cheesy as they were). As for showing the first and last as the strongest, I definitely favour the Sinkit logo (which is first), but think I’d place the ‘eight’ and ‘food writers’ logos before the ‘human’ one (though I appreciate them all).
Regan,
I hope you had a great summer that Tuesday! I was quite lucky last year, because summer in Scotland was on a Thursday, and it didn’t happen in Northern Ireland until one Sunday after I’d moved across.
Thanks for the link to that Nordiques design. I’d not seen it before.
Amelia,
I also like the puzzle aspect of the Mill mark. Amanda made a good point, however, about legibility, and how the marketing collateral shows actual text alongside the symbol.
Abbas,
It’s a wonder the website hasn’t been changed already, but perhaps the organisation isn’t very active.
Lara,
Good of you to comment, and you’re very welcome for the content here. My readers continually keep me inspired.
Cheers everybody.
Egg N Spoon – I haven’t seen that before, I really like it, it reminds me the same sort of idea as the Guild of Food Writers logo, which I also like a lot.
I also like Sink It .. I haven’t seen that one before either.
I wish we could see more of the great logos you show ‘in context’, for instance I just tried to find the Egg N Spoon website and couldn’t find it. It would be nice to see that concept ‘in use’.
Unfortunately sometimes designers create wonderful logos and then they placed on dreadful websites. For instance Guild of Food Writers website is pretty horrible despite having been provided with a solid logo.
Amanda,
I’m not sure if the Egg n Spoon logo was actually brought into use, but you’ll find some nice contextual images of the Sinkit logo on the smashLAB website. Oh, actually, I just followed my old link there to find that the page no longer exists, and I can’t find it in the portfolio. Hmmm. Glad I captured a few on my original post.
Excelente blog David. Saludos desde Puerto Montt, Chile.
I like all, but here are my top three:
sinkit
eight
hartford whalers
I’m a senior graphic design student and I found it amusing that one of my classmates brought in the ‘Eight’ logo for our “Good vs. Bad Logo” meeting (this one being the good one) and my professor exclaimed that indeed it was NOT a good logo and we should never do anything like that. Yet here it is- and I think it’s brilliant.
Hi Laura, I do hope you pick up some valuable lessons from your professor, and I’m glad you chose to disregard the comments about the “eight” logo.