All posts from Logo Design Love

“I had a great idea,” said Tim. “It’s called Landfit. I match people who have gardens that they don’t use with people who don’t have gardens who want to use that space to grow flowers, herbs, and vegetables.”

“If it’s about getting people to use unused spaces, why not grow vegetables in the unused spaces in the logo?”

Nice idea, by Good People.
Published on Logo Design Love

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Dan Johnson is a producer and motion artist at Panda Motion. As part of a promotion for Panda Motion’s sister company, Spin My Logo, Dan took two of my past projects and set to work animating the designs.
The results offer a nice accompaniment to the static brandmarks.
Miskeeto

“I made a rippled pulse with varying degrees of opacity. This was then set as the alpha layer to the text in order to reveal it. The wings were made 3d and rotated on the y axis.”
— DAN JOHNSON
Giacom

“All the pie wedges were parented to a null object. I applied an expression to the rotation that drives the rotation based on the circumference of the circle.”
— DAN JOHNSON
You can see how these animations relate to the static logos here in my portfolio: the Miskeeto portfolio entry, and that for Giacom.
Email subscribers may need to view the short clips on Vimeo.
Spin My Logo Contest 2010
Dan’s offering a free HD logo animation to nine of you. Here’s the info.
Three logos will be chosen each month for the next three months (on September 30th, October 31st, and November 30th). All you have to do to enter is become a fan of Spin My Logo on Facebook, and upload your logo(s) on the wall.*
There are three winning categories each month:

Random Win: Anyone can win, and random means random.
Staff Pick: The logo that most inspires us.
Popular Vote: The logo with the most “likes.” (Votes have to be on the Spin My Logo Facebook page and not on your personal profile in order to count.)

Full contest rules on the Spin My Logo website.
Published on Logo Design Love

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The following article is by Giulietta “Julie” Nardone of Fearless Design.
——
I read lots of freelance blog posts about handling difficult clients. They all seem to gloss over the most difficult client of all.
YOU.
The way you feel about yourself and your talent sets the tone for all your client interactions. Think of your clients as mirrors. If you complain they don’t treat you well it’s probably because you’ve taught them not to treat you well. If you complain they don’t pay you on time, it’s probably because you’ve taught them not to pay you on time. If you complain they expect you to do work you didn’t agree to, it’s probably because you’ve taught them give you work you didn’t agree to.
Most of us learn this wimpy behavior early in life and it gets reinforced as we march into adulthood. I was taught to defer to parents, teachers, lovers, bosses and government leaders. Rumor had it that if I stood up for myself something awful would happen – I’d get punished, dumped, fired or thrown in jail. Is it any surprise that I deferred to clients too?
When I toiled in a cubicle for a larger corporation, my submissive behavior appeared to be expected, applauded and rewarded. When I opened my own business, the same submissive behavior had me working like a dog for wages even a dog couldn’t live on.
It took quite a bit of mental strength training, but I finally told my toughest client – the wimpy me – to take a hike. This allowed my greatest client — the powerful me — to advocate on my behalf. Now I set and maintain clear boundaries and decide how I wish to be treated. The result? My clients get a more confident designer, a far better design product, and a partnership grounded in honesty rather than fear.
Some aspects of the working relationship bring out the wimpy you more than others.
Sales conversation
The sales conversation is just that — a compassionate time for you and your potential client to get to know each other. You try to help the client figure out what his or her real problem is and whether you’re the best one to help them solve it. Sometimes you are, sometimes you’re not. Be brave enough to ask all the questions you need in order to make an informed decision.
Don’t be afraid to walk away from a client if you get funny vibes, request for a ludicrous deadline or a balk at your fee. Better to find out now than halfway through the project that the client has a history of being indecisive or controlling. Remember, desperation is only real if you give it life.
Pricing
Don’t sweat the fee. It isn’t up to you to decide how much the client can pay. Nothing worse than undercharging a client who told you a sob story and later discovering they live in a 2 million dollar mansion while you’ve got a leaking shower and no kitchen cabinets.
The bulk of your fee needs to be determined by how you feel about your work and the benefit it provides. If a client wants to haggle price with you, simply tell them you don’t haggle. They can either pay your price or look for someone who doesn’t believe in his or her own work. I actually found it easier to sell more expensive design solutions than bottom-of-the-barrel ones.
Contract
Make sure every client — even if it’s a family member or friend — signs a contract or a memo of understanding. This document outlines what the client will and will not get. If the client asks you to do something beyond the scope of what you’ve agreed to, that’s considered a change order. Tell them it will be extra. They do it in engineering firms. You need to do it in your design business. And beware of phony deadlines and phony decision-makers. Tight deadlines, if you choose to take one on, need to cost extra. Nothing more disheartening than working day and night, weekday and weekend, to find your design stalled for three months because the real person making the decision suddenly stepped out from behind the corporate curtain.
Indecision
Some clients start the design process with a lot of energy. Everything’s going great and then BOOM, they hit the indecision wall and disappear for weeks/months at a time. You call them and don’t get a return call. You email them and don’t get a return email. If this goes on for more than one month, bill them for anything they owe you and be prepared to move on. Make sure you have a progress payments/cancelled projects section written into your contract in the event this happens.
Standing up to your wimpy-client self may be hard at first. The whining, blaming and excuses circulating through your brain may get to you. Remember, that’s just fear yakking in your ear! Stay the scary course. Soon you’ll build enough courage to give your business-defeating behavior the boot.
——
Giulietta “Julie” Nardone, of Fearless Design, offers branding and graphic design services to small/medium-size companies and non-profits. Julie is based in Ashland, Massachusetts, and you can read more encouraging articles through the Fearless Design resources page.
Published on Logo Design Love

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The following article is by Tim Lapetino, a principal at brand design firm Hexanine.
——
For designers, it’s never enough to merely follow the design brief a client gives you. In identity design, we view our projects as opportunities to dig deep, mining the best parts of an organization to get at the heart of what makes each client unique. It’s these nuggets that are essential when attempting to distill a company’s essence into a logo.
Gathering these insights requires a crucial bit of give-and-take — not as easy as it sounds. Like being a good investigative reporter, a great designer is dogged and determined, yet pleasant, empathetic, and challenging. I’ve come to believe that the best creatives are equal parts artist, therapist, and journalist: generating ideas, giving and receiving feedback, and communicating the results well.
The client interview (which is a part of the larger creative brief) is a necessary piece of every successful project. This is especially true when crafting identity systems, as few projects hinge so directly on the ability to listen, ask questions, and process the answers. The info a designer gathers will be boiled-down (hopefully) into a single sentence that guides all design decisions throughout the process.
Whether this interviewing process happens in-person (the most effective), on the phone, or via Skype, getting a client to talk freely and helpfully about their organization is more art than science. So here are a handful of ways to get the best from this mutual exploration with your client.
It’s about listening
As obvious as it sounds, few people are truly great listeners. The words that one person utters may mean something vastly different another. Without realizing it, most of us get distracted, focus on what we’ll say next, or add our own feelings and associations to what we hear.
Use “active listening skills” to avoid such communication breakdown.
Often employed in counseling settings, this is a simple process of rephrasing another person’s words as a clarifying question, in order to develop more accurate understanding. After you rephrase an important point, the client has the opportunity to make corrections or clarifications. An example might look like this:
Client: “We really want our new logo to be bold and attention-grabbing.”
Designer: “So, it sounds like you want this logo to have bright, strong colors to catch the eye. Is that right?”
Client: “Well, not necessarily. I guess what I really meant is that I’d like it to stand out within our industry.”
Ask the right questions
As you listen, be on the lookout for key words and phrases. What are the main goals of the project? Are there points your client keeps repeating? Those are probably important. As you gather data, ask yourself questions about what you’ve heard. What is the narrative thread of the organization? Is there some story or big picture that emerges from everything you’ve gathered? Is there a way to tell this story using metaphors and symbols that could make their way into your designs?
Be sure to get these crucial questions answered. Start by covering the elements of any good design brief (goals, audience, parameters, content needs, etc.) and then venture into the more intangible aspects like feelings, emotions, “personality” of the company, and the like. But remain focused on your goal. Guiding an interviewee isn’t about confirming your own beliefs or agenda, but truly seeking to get at the story of the organization.
“True contentment comes with empathy.”
Finally, any interviewer worth their salt needs to step into the client’s shoes. How do things look from the other side of the table? Seek to see the person as they see themselves — crucial when you’re trying to translate an organization’s essence into something visual. It’s essential to find out what drives your client and their company.
What is their reason for being? How will you take that mission and turn it into a great mark or identity system?
Only by asking and answering these questions will you be able to find out.
——
Tim Lapetino is a principal of the brand design firm Hexanine. A strategist, designer and writer, his work has been featured in LogoLounge books, Logoliscious, and Los Logos. He serves as adjunct faculty at the Chicago Portfolio School and writes regularly on the Hexanine blog, Zeroside. Follow Tim on Twitter.
Published on Logo Design Love

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“Justify color selections by pairing them with similarly hued images from the destination.”
Sound advice from Clinton Duncan, a contributor over on Brand New.
Published on Logo Design Love

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Here Nick Carter from The Influence of Marketing™ tells us that, where emails are concerned, you must end the love affair with your logo.
——
I still get excited when I hear the soft chime of Outlook telling me I have a new message. Receiving email makes me feel important. But, as we have all experienced, there’s too much spam. In fact, in this technology age where spam is so prevalent, we as humans have begun to learn a few subconscious ways of visually filtering spam. In a fraction of a second, our highly critical eyes run all emails through a simple test: is it designed, or was it typed?
When my preview pane shows me a beautifully crafted message with a logoed banner-image spanning the top and a brand-consistent color scheme… delete — and often without even thinking. But, just as any spam filter often does, this test can sometimes create false positives. For example, I deleted the email below twice before the sender finally called asking: “didn’t you get my email?”

Outlook, in all its wonders, has actually served to propagate this problem. By use of their “themes” and “stationery” features, they have encouraged users to over-design their emails. After a rebranding project for an old client, he then tasked me with developing such a tool so that every email would show-off his new logo. The result: less responses, more confusion, and a communication breakdown — quite the opposite of the desired impact for a rebrand, wouldn’t you say?
When it comes to email design, minimalism is much more than an aesthetic principal, it’s a functional requirement. In order to get past the subconscious spam filter, you must end your love affair with your logo. In the hierarchy of the message layout, your logo doesn’t come first. Graphics don’t come first. The first thing the eye must see is a simple, unassuming text-based message.
Ironically, the most heinous spammers in the world were actually among the first to figure this out. In order to dupe our well-trained subconscious spam filters, unscrupulous email marketers would have us believe that this message was personal by appealing to the same simple test: make it look typed, not designed. There is a lesson to learn, however, even for legitimate email marketers seeking higher open and click rates: maybe branding isn’t the point? Maybe, just maybe, you’re sending that email to thousands of subscribers to communicate a message, not just imprint your logo on the reader’s memory. Design with that objective in mind and avoid the devastatingly branded email.
——
Nick Carter is the creator of the database marketing methodology called The Influence of Marketing which focuses on effective list-building and email marketing practices.
Become a guest author
If you want to write for Logo Design Love, get in touch with a sample headline and intro paragraph. We can take it from there.
Top image courtesy of Thinkstock
Published on Logo Design Love

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Johnson Banks published a fun series of logo mash-ups.
And I couldn’t resist joining in.

For the record, I can’t stand Glee.

Here’s one from the Johnson Banks blog (below).

More here.
Published on Logo Design Love

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Australia-based customer experience and marketing consultant, Bernadette Jiwa, talks about discovering exactly what your edge is and doing something remarkable.
——


“Put your products, service, website, signage, business cards… every touch point to a simple test. Stand in your customers’ shoes and answer one question: what are three things that compel you to say, ‘I love this?’”
— KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO, SAATCHI & SAATCHI

A logo is the conversation starter, the tool that communicates the essence of a brand to the audience. Consider what a powerful tool it is. Designers are commissioned with the responsibility of creating the identity of the organisation. The visual hook on which everything else hangs. We’re not just talking colours and clever layouts here. The designer literally has the task of communicating the DNA of the business and more importantly evoking an emotional connection with the customers of that business.
The thing is your client really isn’t your client at all. They may be the one paying the design fee but ultimately you are working to please your client’s customers.
You can’t go wrong with your designs or marketing if you truly are putting your real customer’s feelings (not just your paying client’s) front and centre.


So think about taking the opportunity to practice a little Edgecraft.
 To find, as Seth Godin describes in Free Prize Inside, “the element that transcends the utility of the original idea and adds a special, unique element, worth paying extra for, worth commenting on.”
 You then have the freedom to use your creativity to stand out, discover exactly what your edge is, and do something remarkable.


“Going all the way to the edge is the only way to jolt the user into noticing what you’ve done. If they notice you, they’re one step closer to talking about you.”
— SETH GODIN

Put your energy into creating something that changes the way people feel. Something people want to buy into. 

Think about using these metrics…
Did she love it?
Will she talk about it?
Why?
Why not?
…and creating not just logos, but some “I love this!” moments.
——
Visit Bernadette Jiwa’s website.
Image courtesy of Thinkstock
Published on Logo Design Love

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The following is a guest post by Philip Brunner, a freelance graphic designer who, for the past seven years, has specialised in brand creation and restructuring.
——
Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems.
Have you ever watched children use their imagination? Children have the most amazing creative powers. They can utilize the most unusual things and make a kingdom out of it. So, what happened to us? Why did we stop being so creative? Some of the principal differences between us and children are that they haven’t yet been inhibited by family, institutions or society.
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.“
— EDWARD DE BONO
I am going to deal with the most common problem in creativity. Our thinking!
We tend to see only the obvious way of looking at a problem—the same comfortable way we always think about it. Our standard way of thinking has gotten us nowhere creatively.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
Psychologists call this “functional fixedness.” Finding a solution to this problem is the beginning of creativity. We need to shift our thinking from standard to radical. We need a paradigm shift.
A paradigm is an organized belief structure that dictates your thoughts and actions. Each paradigm holds particular beliefs about what is true, what is effective, valuable, etc. It significantly affects your perception of reality. We need to challenge the beliefs that affect our involvement in the level of creativity we have. We need to confront the beliefs that cause the resistance. There is only one authority over what we believe, and that’s us. To start finding out what has been stopping us, here are a couple of open-ended statements. Complete them as honestly as you can.
i. I don’t believe I can be creative because…
ii. I don’t believe I can change because…
Now find as many reasons as you can to counter those beliefs.
Try to find at least 10-15 reasons for each statement.
You will begin to see that you have no logical justification for not being creative. Our irrational beliefs have been the culprit all along. We don’t need to overturn every stone in our attempt to find that one perfectly written article about creativity that will cause it to instantly manifest in us. We just need to make some changes in our thought process and use the creative tools already at our disposal. (See link below)
The change towards creativity can and should be continually nurtured and enhanced through deliberate habituation for chance of success. We need to be in the habit of being creative or cognitive atrophy will set in. We should enforce our creative progression by spending at least 15 minutes a day, or more, generating or recognizing ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that can be useful in solving problems.

Mind-mapping is a great tool for stimulating all the senses. It’s a method of storing, organizing, prioritizing, learning, reviewing, and memorizing information. It effectively presents an overview and summary of a body of knowledge that fuses words and pictures; helping simulate logic and creativity for proficient and effective thinking practices involving the five senses. Mind-mapping and brainstorming with colleagues during the design process has been successful for many designers.
There’s a chapter in the book Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities that deals specifically with mind-mapping. It’s available to you as a free download.
After a while of aggressively applying creative techniques to our everyday problems it will become more natural and intuitive. Our subconscious will begin to do most of the heavy lifting. When we are faced with a more complex problem in the future, we will be able to spend most of our time in deliberation, confidently expecting the subconscious part of our mind to finally collaborate with our consciousness.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
Some of the benefits and exciting motivational factors of being creative include having the intuitive sense that knowledge is not subject to the lineation of time, that all solutions have pre-existed, and the next generation of solutions is readily available for those who don’t stop looking.
I found that when making behavioral and/or cognitive modifications, I tell my family and colleagues along with keeping a journal for better observation and accountability.
Here’s an exhaustive list of creative tools from creatingminds.
For further discussion about creativity or cognitive issues you can contact me on Facebook.
——
Following my call for guest authors, Philip’s the first in a series of new faces here. I do hope you’ll make him (and the others) feel at home. Huge thanks for the interest shown so far.
Philip Brunner’s website.
Philip Brunner on Twitter.
Images courtesy of Thinkstock.
Published on Logo Design Love

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“Creative, versatile and reliable Art Director / Graphic designer with over 8 years commercial experience in design for print, web design and identity development.”
Matt Earnshaw’s portfolio…

My portfolio…

I guess Matt thought no-one would notice. I wonder who owns the rest of his portfolio.
Thanks for the tip, Robert.
Published on Logo Design Love

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Many of you will know I considered selling Logo Design Love. But following your valued feedback I changed my mind, and unless an offer I can’t refuse comes along, I’ll either open the blog to a number of guest authors and continue in some editorial capacity, or keep it as an online archive. If the latter, it probably won’t happen just yet, but that’s the plan.
If you’re interested in becoming a guest author, leave a comment or send a message. As much as I want to, I can’t offer anything in the way of cash, but you’ll be very welcome to show a byline that promotes your website/services. Your post will be read by the 25,000+ subscribers via RSS and email, as well as the 10,000+ daily visitors.
Image courtesy of Thinkstock.
Published on Logo Design Love

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High-end French furniture manufacturer/distributor Ligne Roset celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010.
The family business is currently under the leadership of the fourth generation of Rosets, brothers Pierre and Michel, recently joined by their sons Antoine and Olivier. Today Ligne Roset does business in 71 countries.

Here’s the evolution of the company logo through the decades.

“Our first logo, before the days of modern branding and marketing. Circa 1930, as we began to establish our upholstery collection pre-WWII.”

“Moving towards the mid-century, our logo evolved to reflect our product; ‘sieges’ as in seats.”

“Our logo in the ’60s.”

“Moving into the ’70s, clearly; ‘the best moment of the day!’ was our tag for a period of time.”

“Later in the ’70s we expanded back to the full Ligne Roset name, adding in the smaller LR mark. As you’ll notice, moving into the ’70s as most other businesses, our logo and branding became more of a focal point, seeing more revisions.”

“Moving past the ’80s, we used this particular logo from 1990 up until very recently in 2007.”

“And our most contemporary logo, which we’ve stuck with through the ’90s and ’10s.”

Looking at the variations, and how they stack-up against today’s logotype, I’m glad the boxed-surround of 1990 onward was ditched. It was restricting, and didn’t benefit the design. It’s good that brand equity has been kept with the use of the same type-style for the past 40 years, and if there was to be a switch from the current iteration, I’d like to see experiments with the original script from back in the 30s. It shows a personal touch that says “high-end” more than the current logotype, and the handwritten style would also suit the family-run nature of the business.
Tip from Molly Washam of Attention.
Published on Logo Design Love

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