Comments on: Yellow Pages logo refinement part II

By: Aiden Rosedale

Aiden Rosedale — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:25:01 +0000

To be honest i love the logo. Who else remembers the yellow pages catchphrase “let your fingers do the walking”. Timeless.

By: Julie Simmonds

Julie Simmonds — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:12:10 +0000

P.S. it does look a little like a computer mouse though and I only use the yellowpages.ca online!

By: Julie Simmonds

Julie Simmonds — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:11:15 +0000

Reference to the pebble…

well, it’s amazing how a little stumble turns into a major company’s brand identity! The pebble really doesn’t communicate (to me), what they are trying to communicate – connectivity. Yes, Buddhist concepts are becoming more popular in North American but we don’t have the ancient stories circulating through our culture for someone in North America to connect a pebble symbol to the concept of “connectivity.” I agree that it looks more like a guitar pick. In the end it comes down to pleasing the client and that’s what Taxi did. Did the Yellowpages do any kind of focus group to see how if this new logo really met their communication goals? or did they just go for it?

By: David Airey

David Airey — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:41:57 +0000

Hello JP, I was paid everything I was owed by Yellow Pages, but yes, my work was given to Taxi some time afterward.

By: JP

JP — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:42:15 +0000

I’m late to the party so excuse me if this has already been answered. It looks like they contacted you to start the design, you did work, presented stuff to them, they put you on hold. I’m assuming that you didn’t get full payment because they chose not to complete the job with you? Also, did they take the work you’d done and give it to Taxi and say “finish this up?” I’m curious as a freelancer who’s had this happen before.

By: Fraser Rennie

Fraser Rennie — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:37:17 +0000

Like others, thanks for the education, and to both designers involved, Kudos. My observation is that the pebble doesn’t offer a base line and so the modified hand looks less like a hand (a chicken leg, a funnel?) For me YP missed the point in trying to hold on too rigidly to the icon. We are no longer letting our fingers do the walking, but rather they are pointing us to were we want to go. The exploration (middle row 2nd from end) that showed the bent middle finger holds reference to the old icon, presents both an “OK” sign and a check mark, all while pointing or button pushing.
The great debate goes on, after listening properly; how responsible is the designer for how the client behaves. At what point do you say, I led the horse to the water, I can’t make them drink it.
Again, Thanks for this great article!

By: Dan Warner

Dan Warner — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:02:08 +0000

As echoed by others, the pebble / guitar pick conceptual link to the yellow pages is not very…direct.

Milton Glaser often talks of the “Hippocratic oath” of design—have the client’s harmed themselves with this choice?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:32:38 +0000

I actually prefer many of the presented concepts to the the concept actually chose, but have to say that removing the bulge was a stroke of genius.

I didn’t even notice how clunky and unnecessary the bulge is until seeing it without. Also the thumb tip, yes much much better like that.

Great work !

By: Lewis

Lewis — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:28:42 +0000

The new icon’s not bad for this new popular style of giving logos 3D effects.

The typography i don’t think is great.. the “g” is distracting for me and doesn’t fit with the attempts to make it more modern.. i like the middle-right on the typography exploration.

The pebble concept is a real stretch.. this is where they could have truly went another direction.. there’s a lot there to explore and this just seems way too abstract.. i probably would’ve given them more credit had they not explained the shape or maybe attributed it to a suggestion of a computer mouse (for the new focus on the online game).

By: Tyler Borders

Tyler Borders — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:10:32 +0000

I’d be interested to see the Brand Attributes driving the creative process. Cool stuff. I won’t hate on the pebble, because at least there’s justification driving it (which is sadly so often neglected), and I won’t hate on the emboss, but I will add these 2 cents: Black and Yellow were absolutely the two strongest elements tied to brand for Yellow Pages, and now black is gone (at least in this option) and I think that’s a big mistake. When black goes away, the color tie is weakened, and contrast is diminished. At least make the fingers black! Tell Yellow Pages I said so :)