AMEN. this is exactly what i face every. single. day.
The problem is that if you use one, youâre undistinguished from all the others who use a similar one. The other problem is that if you use one which is out of the ordinary then = as pointed out earlier:
Which means, I suppose, that logos canât really work at all. Brand names still do though. So clearly all logos should just be the brand names in (altogether now) Comic Sans.
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Truth is, I do graphic design / web design for the money, not higher ideals or aesthetic virtue. Itâs the dollars. If my clients are pleasant to deal with, and they pay their invoices, what do I care if the art is less than the platonic ideal of graphic design. Perhaps I would feel differently if I was a rock star designer raking in the dough, but Iâm just glad that I donât have to punch a clock anymore.
Yep yep.
You want a rainbow of poorly kerned comic sans? I might roll my eyes where you canât see, but Iâll build it and be happy, as long as I get paid.
Most small time, small town, small business owners want to spend as little as possible, and get their marketing materials done as quickly as possible. Iâd be laughed at if I wanted to conceptualize and wank for a week. Most of the time, they just need their business cards in time for the marketing opportunity on Saturday, and can it be done or not? This says a lot about my location, but I like living in the boonies.
When I make something for myself, thatâs a horse of a different color. I have a poetry chapbook with a kick-ass cover, because I worked on that for about 10-15 hours. I love it, and get lots of compliments, but I donât have the kind of customers who will pay for that kind of time. This is not a complaint, because hey, I have customers!
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I like when there are local cliches. In Tucson AZ, it seems like every company has a saguaro cactus or a sunrise/sunset over a mountain. In State College PA everyone gravitates towards the Imperial Blue + White color scheme. Speaking of which, the avatar I made is Imperial Blue and WhiteâŚcrap.
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Sometimes itâs the designer that doesnât âgetâ the company. Many years ago I did mechanical effects for commercials, and went to the design firm of my sisterâs friend for cards and letterhead. I told them what I did, but emphasized it was NOT hi tech, and suggested a rube goldberg sketch like a fist hitting a spoon launching an egg that popped a parachute. What did I get? Not a handful of sketches to choose from like I had been taught in design school, but one finished ink drawing, of a robot hand holding a card with my company name. I walked out.
This. Also, I do not comment and polish code I simply write for myself.
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Your designer suggested a banana in a tophat? Can I have their name and contact info please?
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Oh, not this beauty, this was my own creation. Because spats are classy.
As evidenced by Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold.
We ainât got no pants but the spats really complete the ensemble.
Completely sincere question: How should you shop for a logo?
Letâs say I have a small business. Price does matter. Also, while I donât have skills, I still have opinions. I happen to think that many (presumably professionally designed) logos out there are crap. So I am not really comfortable with just letting you do your thing without any input and accepting whatever you come up with.
How should I do that?
The critique is from the side of the line that says your logo should be unique so when they see it matched with a product, they recognize who itâs from, and will bring business to it.
So lets e.g. this shit:
Youâre a realtor, you sell houses, and you put your big logo out in all the sold places. Options:
- Get a comfortably clicheâd logo
- Get a less comfortable but uniquely recognizable logo
Option 1, given our assumption above, would end up providing indistinguishablity with your competition in the market place. So everytime you put your nice logo in a front yard, thereâs X% chance that your competition make get credit because your logo is a cliche.
Option 2 corners the market, and is unmistakable for anything other than you.
So the critique is, if a logo is suppose to intrinsically represent you it should not be easy to confuse with them.
EDIT: There are other reasons to follow cliches in design, as others have pointed from the design side. From the customer side:
- People donât want to stand out
- Less genuine companies want purposeful confusion (undercutter/low baller)
- Donât think itâs a worthwhile investment.
Thatâs why realtors have to put their photograph on everything, so there is something to distinguish them from everybody elseâŚ
Where are the bean people? I want to see me some bean people!
To be honest, I canât really tell the difference between these and good logos. In fact, surely one of them started as a good logo and got relentlessly copied. Did that turn it into a bad idea?
Precisely. Thatâs why you literally canât afford to hire a design company that does all the work for you, with extended interviews about what you expect, what your company stands for, if or what philosophy there is in place.
If the purpose of a logo is to be recognizably unique, then yes.
Of course, the only way to prevent that is to trademark your logo. Currently, that means paying the government around $400. It also involves the willingness to litigate infringements and that is far more expensive.This is why nothing is ever trademarked except by large companies (youâll never see the AT&T logo copied) or valuable properties (youâll never see another Gone With The Wind).
I believe this issue was addressed in a recent episode of Silicon Valley . . . . . . . .
Sometimes clients donât want their logo to be too unique. They want it to be âin fashionâ with others in their business, or just âin businessâ, because they honestly believe that people wonât find them if their logo is different.
@waterloonie asked about an optometrist design that doesnât use an eye. I actually did find a designer who worked through sample designs for an optometrist, and some incorporate an eye, some donât. Two logos use the initials to make abstract versions of either an eye or a pair of glasses. One design includes a phoropter, the multi-lensed device used to check your eyes. In total, the designer provided 5 fully original designs plus variations on two of the designs.
At the bottom of the page, youâll see that the designer was ready with back up designs - standards if the client wasnât feeling adventurous (and they werenât). The one provided happens to be the very first example of a crap logo design âThe companyâs acronym cut in two colors by an arc (usually Trajan font)â. People get used to seeing whatâs âin styleâ and they falsely believe thatâs what they should do too.
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Thereâs the Manka Bros. Ox from the 1920s:
http://mankabros.com/blogs/chairman/2013/11/22/the-manka-bros-iconic-ox-logo-is-back/
That one I like a lot. I would go into optometry to use that logo.
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