Logo design used to be more fun: back when MTV was invented, and it was the only music video channel on the planet, they could have tons of fun with their logo, and make it work just as well on a grey t-shirt as on a white page. Are the days of “messy” logos gone forever? Steve talks about his experience with brand identity from inside a big media company, then in webmaster 101 Christine gives some tips and websites where you can get your logo designed real cheap, as long as you’re willing to write up a decent creative brief.
Resources
Here is a peek at Steve’s standing studio setup. Nothing to do with logo design but cool:
Steve’s Standing Studio
Here are some of the online marketplaces that Christine has used to get creative work done in her business:
1) Odesk is good for developers; we have had an iOS app coded, called Learning Binary, through a vendor we met on Odesk. Often the biggest challenge is project management of offshore talent, given some extreme time difference.
2) Fiverr is a good place to get quick jobs done but beware: the quality of work you will get for five dollars will usually be worth about five dollars. We did get our logo designed on fiverr, and it was a great experience because we found a designer whose work was already in the range of styles that we were looking for and we gave the designer a detailed creative brief and lots of visual style references.
3) People per hour has been a great place for us for things like admin help, transcription, and infographics. The prices are more realistic than fiverr.
4) 99 Designs and Elance are also great places to find talent but we haven’t used them yet!
For some fantastic, stunning logo inspiration, David Airey’s book and blog titled “Logo Design Love” is the best. Airey also has a blog called “ID” where he posts case studies of brand identity design, it is filled with beautiful work and some background information on how it came about. Finally, Airey has a blog where we found this fantastic “How to write a creative brief” article.
For a great “How-to” on DIY logo design courtesy of special guest Lucas Lemmonier, check out Marketing Rebellion episode 003
Look closely at the Fedex logo: see the arrow?
Fedex Logo
Leave a reply: what’s your favourite logo? Where did your logo come from?
Sorry for the long reply, but it I think it’s relevant! An unlikely place where logos are very prominent is in the world of Irish dance! Every dance school has their own logo, usually consisting of Celtic knotwork and designs from the Book of Kells. These logos and colors are used in the design of each school’s team dresses. These dresses are worn at competitions for team dancing, or for solo dancing by beginner dancers. I can look at any dancer’s team dress at a competition and know what school they are from, even if I have never seen them before. As a dancer advances in solo dancing, they can buy their own solo dress, which is completely unique to them.
Our school’s logo is a shield with 4 Irish symbols: The cross for Faith, a heart for Love, an anchor for Loyalty, and a Swan in memory of our mentor, Peter Smith. (Interestingly, the 4 swans from the Irish folktale “The Children of Lir” was his school logo, so we incorporated it into our school’s new one!) And yes, it is VERY expensive for clothing and bags with that embroidered logo on it!
This is a great example, Melissa. Alot of organisations with a lot of tradition (I’m thinking Ivey League Schools, Law Societies, etc) have brand identities and therefore logos that are very complex. I think also of Scottish Tartans! But I love this example, cuz as you know, I am Irish 🙂
Thanks! Yes, Irish culture has a lot of symbolism! I think the Scottish tartans identify what clan someone is from. I’ve also heard something similar with patterns on Irish sweaters. But my question is, Can Moose dance a jig? 😀