Logos

[Pet]

This seems to be the most troublesome subject for people to understand. This can in part be due to sort teams using crests, and calling them logos. When we look at the NHL, NFL, NBA etc, those organizations use a logo. They are quite simple, and easily recognized, but the teams themselves use crests, that which is worn by every team member. Although there are a small few that could actually be a logo, like the Vancouver Canucks, which I thought was the NHL logo for a bit.

Are you confused about the difference? Simply put, a logo is for a corporate identity. You see them on store signage, law offices, business firms etc. They use these as a way to be easily recognized in the business world, and bring in clientele. If you saw were driving down the street to pick up something, and past 2 stores were all you saw was the logo, you would know what they are, and which you preferred. A lot of the time, they have to be easily recognized when seeing them for a short period of time.

Now for crests, they were initially used back in medieval times on the helmets of knights and kings to show the family lineage they belonged too. It is how they were listed at competitions, and in battles. They often had a shield, with their coat of arms, and some animal companion on the sides, I am going for the basics here. If you took a quite glans at 2 crests, chances are you wouldn't know which is which, but once you took the time to see it, you would know. Now look at sport teams, sure they are unique, and people can recognize them well enough, but they are more crest related as they are for a sport event, and all members of the team wear it. They also like to use some form of animal, often native to were they come from, as a small intimidation factor.

I wrote all that up so people start to understand the difference, and not call anything they think is a logo, a logo, if in fact it is a crest, which is what most people are making on here. Now lets get onto logo specifics.

KISS Keep It Simple Stupid.

Before you try to do any fancy logos, start with basics. Simple and clean look more elegant than throwing every effect you can fathom at your text. I keep seeing people throwing a lot of effects at what their logo attempt. Please stop that, it just makes it cluttered. If you want to create a logo for your team, start with the name, a lot of logos are typography in nature. From there, you can add the initials of the team, or use a simple representative of the team. I want to stress simple representative. Let me use GFX Legion as an example. When Sirenzo was coming up with names, and he seemed to like this one, though I would have used "graphic" rather than "GFX", I right away gave him the idea of using something Romanesque as a logo idea for it. At first I said a romans shield, but then said their crown of leaves that the caesars wear. He went with it, and made it super simple, just the crown of leaves and the name below it. The 2 tone of colours don't even look that bad, and if he just wrote "GFX Legion" under it in simple black would look quite nice, a little better than the "GL" in the middle. If anyone knows anything about roman history, they will easily associate the things together, which is perfect, as well as the simplicity of it.

Now lets look at External Expressions logo. The EE aspect of it doesn't actually jump out at you, so you begin to question, what is the shape? These are reasons why I say simplicity is better. If we don't know what were are looking at, when there is something in there, it needs to be looked at again. Another thing to think about when making logos is it's flow. Making something organic in nature, is much more pleasing to the eye, as apposed to only strait lines, and sharp angles. Now, you can use some sharp angles, and strait lines within a logo, but it has to be balanced with smooth curves.

Last thing I want to get through is the text. Don't try to overly dress it up. A simple font is better. You want the name to be simple, legible, and elegant at the same time. Look around at all the fonts used throughout city street signs, shops, and corporate buildings, Helvetica is the most used. It has been around for over 50 years, and still us a strong font. Occasionally you will see an artist use his signature as his "logo" which is a good idea, as long as it isn't just a scribble, and people can read his name from it.

Once you can make a nice, simple logo, then you can experiment with some fancier effects, but don't over do it. A logo is like a soufflé, it is very easy to ruin it.

[sirenzo]

wow i almost got my blanket and pillow half way through this :P but good cnc on making a logo you got right down into full detail and it makes since so ty and i will try again on other logos and team crest :P make it look more simple :P

[van Zeben]

Very nice post and LOL at the KISS.... graphics seems to be a universal language that they teach ^_^

[shiv96]

Awesome thread Pet, explains alot.

[TRUeLM]

Nice post pet. I didn't want to read it at first because of all the pink text. It's REALLY bright on my monitor, but I read it anyways.

It's a nice read, but one thing seemed to strike out at me more than anything else. Roughly at the start of "Let me use GFX Legion as an example." it became very opinionated from that point on.

While I do tend to agree with mostly everything in this post, nothing about that logo is appealing to me in any way. In fact, it might have been a little too simple, because I don't notice it at all when I see it, and the most eye catching thing about it is the text.

And most of what you said about EE's logo (though which one your talking about is lost on me. There's so many of them @_@) can be easily applied to most of the other team logo's. There are plenty of companies that use complex designs, like the intel i5 logo. And while the company logo might be quite simple, it was their i5 logo that appealed to me the most.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, while a simple logo might be nice and all, it sure isn't that memorable. If your only ever going to look at a logo and understand what it is a first glance, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having a logo to begin with. Just put a word there instead.

Overall, very nice read. I might try to make a logo one day, I'll be sure to put your advice to good use.

[Pet]

Yes, it is a lot of per opinions on things, but that is how most things are.


I know there are a lot of complex logos out there, but for someone starting out, I find it best to start simple, and then when you have the basics down, then move on. And as for simple being washed out by the complex, I think not. Look at Apple and Windows. They all have simple logos, and easily recognized. Again, this thread is more about helping people get started on creating an actual logo, from there on out is up to them.

[TRUeLM]

I didn't mean to indicate that simple is being "washed out" by the complex, I was simply stating that complex logo's catch my attention more often than not. Sorry if I conveyed the wrong message D:

[DJFX]

Thanks for the update I guess...

[Pet]

Technically, if you ask a car salesman what he sells, he will say cars, trucks, and SUVs. I know, I have been to a dealership before. Car has started to include all the forms of vehicles because human beings are lazy. And this laziness is why there is a lot of confusion between proper word usage.


Anyways, no more arguing in this thread. I made this to help people out with logos, anyone else who starts to argue in here will have their posts deleted, and name recommended to Dark Method and Nutter.

[AdamParore]

regarding logos it is very right that one should try to start with the basic and then try some hard things to do, according to me logo should be as simple as any one can understand the theme of logo.
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