Comments on: What makes a good logo design?

By: mehmet

mehmet — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:15:17 +0000

thanks for the great tips.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:31:20 +0000

Thanks for letting me know, Margot.

Oh god, did they really, Lee? Sorry about that. I couldn’t remember where I originally learned those pointers. I’ve inserted a little addition in the post, and if you want me to list your job title or link to your agency website, by all means let me know and I’ll update straight away.

I enjoyed those old days in the graphic design forum. Learned quite a lot.

By: Lee newham

Lee newham — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:22:18 +0000

Er, and didn’t the original ‘describable, memorable’ bit come from a certain post on myspace David? nudge nudge wink wink?

:-)

By: Margot

Margot — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:53:12 +0000

I don’t know if you noticed, but this site has copied your your criteria (”describable,” “memorable”) near-verbatim without crediting you:
http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/01/08/how-to-design-a-logo.

By: Lee Newham

Lee Newham — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:00:54 +0000

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘proprietary visual space’ but I think you have used about 2000 words to say ‘I think it’s important that you don’t just use generic shapes or symbols, you have to make your brand marque unique to your business’!

By: Steve Naegele

Steve Naegele — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:57:10 +0000

One other element I think is important is the logo should give the client a proprietary visual space. One example that I would use to illustrate this is a national company that adapted the “ enso” for their logo. The enso, a brush stroke circle, has been a common graphic image in Buddhism for hundreds of years and in general use as a visual element in Japanese society probably as long. I have a tea bowl with an enso on it which is over 100 years old.

Now I do not think it is necessarily wrong to visually borrow, and the example I use is solely to present an example with a visual we all know. Tthe following incident prompted me think about logos, their proprietary visual space and responsibility of the designer to the client.

One day at my son’s aikido dojo, which had a brush stroke circle for a logo (and had it long before the company) the mother sitting beside me asked me why the aikido dojo had used the same logo as the company. On further talking with her I found that she could not visually distinguish between the two, and at that time she was looking at an ad with company’s logo on it.
I could distinguish but they were very similar and I have seen hundreds of ensos and drawn hundreds with a brush myself.

What bothered me about this concerns the visual role of the logo in establishing and maintaining brand, which is the proprietary visual space I am talking about.

It occured to me than that behavior by individuals from the aikido dojo who might be wearing a shirt with the dojo logo on it might be ascribed to the company, and vice versa.

Again, I am not being critical of the company or their logo, this is just an example of what prompted me to think about this subject of proprietary visual space and the repsonsibility of the designer to the client.

This is different from creativity, not seperate but something in addition. When the designer creates something it can appear to be visually unique to the creator, to the friends, to the client—this is in the act of creation. But the professional logo designer needs to go beyond that and be aware of the outside world, do some homework, etc. If the logo cannot give the client a proprietary space it cannot correctly do the work of establishing and maintaining the client’s brand. If the audience experiences a logo and thinks its a different company than the designer has not created a proprietary visual space for the client.

By: Mack

Mack — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:07:34 +0000

Thanks for the article.

I came upon this by accident. The list of elements of a great logo design stuck to my head.

Definitely bookmarked.

Thanks!

By: A Look at Art & Design

A Look at Art & Design — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:13:41 +0000

The nature of your logo and what it means for you…

What is a logo? This may seem like a silly question, but I’m finding a good many people don’t really understand the elements which make up a logo or what that unique little graphic can mean to a business. Why is it so important? Some might even ask…

By: Chandra Wijaya

Chandra Wijaya — Sun, 24 May 2009 12:36:05 +0000

Its interesting.. i assume simplicity is the best factor that you need to consider when creating a logo.

Regards

By: Dzamira

Dzamira — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:06:02 +0000

I’m a first year in college, and were required to redesign a logo the lecturer picked for us.

Mine is for a Video store. Your website, i found while googling logos. And I got to say you have great information, and your website is just plain awesome!!!

hey, it would be great if you can give me some pointers on what to do for redesigning video store logos.

<3 dza