This is the way logo factories work:

1- They send you 3 proposals.
2- You pick one.
3- You pay for it.
4- They have 2 proposals left to offer to another prospect.
5- Big deal.

Let´s suppose you´re invited to a very important party, so you´re searching for that special suit for you (your company). Are you going to hire a taylor or do you think you can buy the best one because you saw it on a catalog?

Budget? Ok, you don´t need the best of the world. The best in town could be enough.

Let´s put it this way: you are able to speak with the taylor and tell him what you need because his work is to create exclusively for you. He thinks about YOU. He looks at you and then, he can give his advice and best designs for you.

Do you think a shop is appropiated for this occasion?

I’m actually currently searching for a logo design site offering professional logos at an affordable price. There are many sites out there but I’m not so sure which to choose. Has anyone heard of LogoDesignCreation.com (http://www.logodesigncreation.com)? I’m planning on using one of their services but still haven’t decided yet. Do you have any other suggestions? I heard logoismdesign.com is also good. Does anyones here has experience in using online design services? I’ll like to know what you guys would suggest.

I think this is one of the reasons he points. If I had a billion brand and it’s poorly executed, why bother? Who cares? E.G. Coca-cola (designed by an accountant), Google, Yahoo!, Ebay, etc.
The difference is behind the business idea, that’s why they are so popular. But it doesn’t mean they are good identities for a big brand.

I still remember Paul Rand’s story of his Next logo presentation. “I know I’ve done a great work once my client ask me for a hug”. Genius.

I recently read a post of his wherein he stated that there are only two types of advertising, rational and glamorous. I thought that he was so far off base that it lit a fire under me to write my own post that tells people a lot more about advertising than did his post.

His logo post is another clear case of him making an outrageous statement to support his own causes. The man is clearly not an idiot. He is extremely successful, and he stays that way by saying things like this. He has a huge audience of dedicated readers, and a lot of those people treat his words like godsend. Heck, I find some of his stuff inspiring.

Ultimately, all he is doing is asking professional designers to throw down the gauntlet and do an exceptional job of designing logos that have true meaning and that personify the companies for whom they are designed. If he is not doing that, then I am.

All three of his examples were totally off base.

By the way, all three of the logos he cited do have quite a lot of meaning, in spite of his statement to the opposite:

1. The Nike swoosh has speed and power, which is exactly what Nike customers want. It is also suggestive of a road. Nike started out making running shoes, so the road reference was perfect.

2. The Apple logo is a reference to Sir Isaac Newton, who was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist, regarded by many as one of the greatest figures in the history of science (source: Wikipedia), and the bite out of the apple immediately engages people on an emotional level.

3. The Starbucks logo made coffee, a murky brown, gritty, often burnt stimulant (not sourced from Wikipedia) sexy. People are willing to pay more for sexy goods than ugly goods. How do you sell a ten cent cup of coffee for four bucks? Make it sexy. Job well done.

Thank you, Adrian, for bringing his original logo post to my attention. I would not have otherwise seen it.

You all have good things to say. Nate Voss: your posting on getting used to the 3D look of New Identity Design is spot on. He not busy being born is busy dying, indeed. Adrian Hanft: Your posts on Godin are a scrappy, if somewhat overzealous, defense of design. I’d like being on your side in a fight. But is picking fights with each other what we should be doing in a design blog?

You two guys might want to keep your personal insults out in the alley behind a bar where they belong. It is embarasses me as a fellow designer to read posts with insults and profanity on a professional site. Please play nice and continue educating the wider community with thoughtful posts and comments.

There are several logos of mine on that site. The Up, Up & Away mark, the typographic treatment on the side of that locomotive, The AIGA Summer Seminar Series‚Ķ I mean, it’s there. I have not built a career around logos, I have built a career around design. I’m not a specialist, and you won’t hear me profess to be the end-all-be-all of knowledge. At least, not today. But not practicing a speciality on a daily basis does not exclude one from understanding its fundamentals.

Nice website, by the way.

Seriously dude, wtf.

The objective is that the logo represents and complements the message and is further communicated and strengthened through advertising and other media.

For example: Sprint’s new logo. What is that a wing, a tire mark? The logo meant nothing to most people I spoke to about it at first, but I think slowly, people are beginning to realize that it’s the pindrop, because of communicative marketing.

I do this stuff for a living and I missed it the first time. Just seeing the static image, I didn’t know what I was looking at. However, as soon as I saw the FIRST Sprint commercial I happened across while channel surfing and saw the animation of the logo, it hit me immediately.

They complemented one another. The designer knew what it was and it had been thought out, the marketing only strengthened and further explained what was there.

If they had just flipped through a clipart book and slammed their finger down with their eyes closed, we may have a Sprint Green Bean instead…which would be ridiculous. I’m sure marketing and design could have MADE UP some neato stuff that Green Bean could stand for, but that’s not really how it works. The logo is an iconic representation of the companies mission and beliefs, a holistic image for everything they do… It’s a cart before the horse problem.

The logo DOES need to be calculated and thought out because, ordinarily, a LONG, EXPENSIVE journey of marketing and advertising follows the seemingly random mark to connect experience and branding…not create it.

2 cents.

But I didn’t know that the rings represented 6 continents *blush*!!