Simplifying Logos

Simplifying logos can make them immediately more impressive. I often found when struggling with logo design, to strip it back to the bare minimum and see if the extra bits were really needed. As a brand and the logo becomes more well known, removing the name or any text can be beneficial in giving the look of the company a bit of a facelift.

More recently the Starbucks logo was stripped back, but so have these other examples (image taken from logo design love)

AT&T Hand Art Adverts

Just amazing! Adverts that give make you double take, and then look a while longer are really well worked and successful.

Kerning Game

This game is a really good test to see how good you are at kerning. I got 96/100..was a little wonky on one but got 100% on most! Give it a try!

Kerning game crafted by Mark MacKay for Method of Action

Barcode Design

As a designer it's important to think about the whole experience for whoever's viewing, buying, selling or doing whatever with a designed item. Barcodes are generally a necessity for packaging, however they don't have to look so square and boring. They can be made so much more interesting by just giving them a little thought. Even though the style of barcode won't sell the product, as a consumer, I would feel more confident in buying it if I could see that it had time spent on it to make it appeal to me, and the company felt it was worth going that little bit further in the design.

Designboom

Came across this website today. Quite a few 3D related articles but a good read all the same. It's a good source of current and past design competitions (with photos of the winning entries).

All found at designboom.

La Presse new logo

La Presse is a french newspaper based in Montreal and have recently updated their logo.

The new square logo has replaced the previous rounder version, and I've noticed a trend recently in angular shapes in logo design. Squares work really well as they give a frame for other items to be placed around them, both in print and digitally.

With newspapers generally declining as people read the news online, it's important to have a non-cluttered web page where people can find the article they are interested in quickly and without hassle. Some of the websites I find most annoying are the ones which have too much useless tat taking up valuable space! A good grid is essential in all cases.

Image taken from newseum.org

Branding Article

I've been reading articles refreshing my graphic design brain and came across this interesting one from Fatima Mekkaoui at sixrevisions.com. It's good to read something that is well written and doesn't bulk up the article with useless babble.