IlikeLogos.com Blog

Some of our designers have been drawing ever since they were kids.  They would copy logo designs of sports teams and even create their own.  Some of them studied arts, design and other careers that implied an aesthetic taste and the development of various techniques.

These guys are amazing on their craft, but there’s one tiny little problem:

Due to the volume of work and the constant nagging of other departments, these guys cannot afford to spend more than an hour discussing a project with a customer.

That’s almost like driving a F1 car blindfolded.

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Aside of EXTREMELY CLEVER marketing, I don’t understand how on earth the Dolce & Gabanna logo design became so popular.  Craved by many, copied by the dozen… care to tell me what’s the big deal about it?

It’s not as luscious as the Yves St. Laurent logo nor as refreshingly simple as the Armani logotype.  It conveys nothing and it looks bland, like a blatant ripoff of Chanel’s anagram.

In my opinion, it is a bland logo… but, damn… you can’t help but associating it to this nouveau-riche opulence that characterizes certain celebrities and artists.  Tacky, yet expensive.

You know that logo’s worth gold and praise.  How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to get such fame and power?

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If your logo is so ugly its reflection on a mirror ducks, you should probably re-think its design.  There’s no other way around.  However, there are some situations on which you might have the prettiest logo ever, but it’s not the most functional in terms of reproduction and resizing.  That’s a rare situation, but it happens.

It’s amazing to see how people’s egos are bigger than their need to promote their products.  There’s always a self-appointed designer that wants to cut some corners and thinks it’s possible to make a logo on PowerPoint.  Sadly, the results are hideous.

You need to change your logo when it no longer serves its purpose: to identify properly your company, its products and services.

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Logo designs are powerful tools of expression.  Creating brand awareness relies on how much of an impact these logotypes might have.

Yet, somewhere along the line, people completely forgot some basics about colors and ignored whatever technology and designers achieved in the last years.  It’s amazing to see how… um… liberal the use of colors became.  While some results are interesting, most of them look flimsy and amateur-like.  There’s got to be a method to this madness.

So here we’ll briefly discuss color, so we all can catch up.

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Ah, Christmas… time to gather, share and hope for better days.  TV’s playing the same four or five seasonal movies they’ve been playing for 20 years now, neighbors pimp their cribs with christmasy bling bling and there’s a vibe of sheer joy like those carrols everyone remembers but only partially.

Christmas: time to wish and hope.  Considering that I LOVE logos, I have my own wishlist.  There are some things that I hope to see more often not only when it comes to logo design.  The industry must open their eyes and realize that conditions, due to the advances of technology and the oscillating economy, have changed.

This is my wishlist.  Hey, a boy can dream.

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There are custom logo designs that simply HURT!  Much to our dismay, we are at our clients’ command.

There are rare cases on which we establish the perfect mental connection with a customer:  he knows what he wants and we know how to make it better.  We make the first drafts, they LOVE us.  Our customers deliver the information we need to design their logo on time, we LOVE them when they do that.  We meet our deadline with the logotype equivalent of a DaVinci (or, at least, one mean Lautrec) and everything between them and us is pure magic.

But, well: when love is in the air, there’s always someone with a BB gun ready for a hunt. Read the rest of this entry »

Custom logo designs to die for.  The kind of logo I would gladly have tattooed on my forehead, THAT ideal logo that embeds in my head as a loop of thought I can’t get through.  Not a Rembrandt, not a Picasso: just a smart, simple, compelling design that’s appealing and easy to remember, crafted yet easy to reproduce.

Oh, to dream…

Sadly, that’s all the comfort we have.  As much as I’ve found astonishing designs, some tendencies and trades leave me, to say the least, frustrated.  Forget commercial concerns:  I just want something that doesn’t look like it comes from Goya’s nightmares after a few pints of sangría.

“What is it”, you ask?  My friends… I’ve got a wishlist of seven items I want to share with you! Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to logo designs, no one has the last word.  And, heck, I know I don’t have it!

I love graphic design, at least from the perspective of a viewer, and I LOVE logos.  They are part of our contemporary cryptography and they’re full of sociological meaning.  Logos encompass the values and urges of our time.

My own taste is kind of set when it comes to logotypes (retro, elegant, simple, stylized, quirky…) and I wish we had more of those in our catalog. On that department, my hands are tied behind my back and I’m typing this with my nose.

However, I’ve noticed that there are some things we all can learn.  It’s never too late, is it? Read the rest of this entry »

Okay.  Time for a break from the October madness.  It’s been a great month, so far, but I really wanted to discuss a certain topic before it slips my mind.  I’ve had a blast, but I’ve been procrastinating this article for a while.  One of the first things I wanted to write about.  So, without further ado…

One of my favorite logos of all times (the Yves Saint-Laurent one) is an elegant design based on the initials of this famous designer.  As simple as it can get, this logo is elegant, easily recognizable.  However…

Giving it a second glance, it’s kind of lame.  While intelligent marketing and a great product development made us idealize the logo, it looks like it was done in haste.  Y? S? L? … crammed together?  Sometimes it feels like a lucky shot and not crafty design what made the YSL logo so famous.

I can’t make up my mind when it comes to monograms. Read the rest of this entry »

I think you’ve noticed that I have a personal stance when it comes to custom logo designs:  I choose timelessness over trendiness.  I have a love/hate relationship with logo fads.  As much as I like how intricate and subliminal logotypes became lately, sometimes I think they are taking a more artsy and a less commercial turn.  They make the world prettier, but I think some of the basic notions of communication, advertising and iconic quality should always be observed.

That’s why I still don’t know what to think about skulls. Read the rest of this entry »