Ten logo design tips from the field....

1. A logo doesn’t need to say what a company does



Restaurant logos don’t need to show food, dentist logos don’t need to show teeth, furniture store logos don’t need to show furniture. Just because it’s relevant, doesn’t mean you can’t do better.

The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an aeroplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer. Etc. Etc.

2. Not every logo needs a mark



Sometimes a client just needs a professional logotype to identify their business. Don’t be afraid to ask what they think.

3. Two-way process



Remember, things might not always pan out as you hope. Your client might request something you disagree with. If that happens, try giving them what they want, then show them what you believe is an improvement, and why. They’re less likely to be so resistant if they already see how their thoughts pan out.

4. Picasso started somewhere



You don’t need to be an artist to realise the benefits of logo sketching. Ideas can flow much faster between a pen and paper than they can a mouse and monitor.

5. Under-promise, over-deliver



If you’re unsure how long a task will take to complete, estimate longer. Design projects are like construction work — you piece lots of little elements together to form a greater whole, and setbacks can crop up at any time.

6. Leave trends to the fashion industry



Trends come and go, and when you’re talking about changing a pair of jeans, or buying a new dress, that’s fine, but where your brand identity is concerned, longevity is key.



Don’t follow the pack.


Stand out.

7. Work in black first

By leaving colour to the end of the process, you focus on the idea. No amount of gradient or colour will rescue a poorly designed mark.

8. Keep it appropriate



Designing for a lawyer? Ditch the fun approach. Designing for a kid’s TV show? Nothing too serious. I could go on, but you get the picture.

9. A simple logo aids recognition



Keeping the design simple allows for flexibility in size. Ideally, your design should work at a minimum of around one inch without loss of detail. Look at the logos of large corporations like Mitsubishi, Samsung, FedEx, BBC etc. Their logos look simple and are easier to recognise because of it.

10. One thing to remember



That’s it. Leave your client with just one thing to remember about the design. All strong logos have one single feature to help them stand out.



Not two, three, or four.



One.

http://www.logodesignlove.com/logo-design-tips

Brendan Stuart Burns - As Well As Being 2002

'As Well As Being' was painted Brendan Stuart Burns in 2002. Brendan attended Faculty of Art and Design in Cardiff where he gained a ‘First Class BA Honours Degree’ in Fine Art between 1981 and 85. In 1987 he gained a Postgraduate Painting from the Slade School of Art in University College London.

His favorite materials to use in his work are oil, wax, graphite on board and using perspex to help create these layers. Using the Perspex allowed him to paint not only above painting but the underside, so the painting has three layers in which allows him to create his abstracts. The French Composer Claude Debussy inspires this piece of work.

Claude is one of the great impressionist composer’s. Impressionist composers would focus on suggestion and atmosphere rather than strong emotion. They did this by using the piano using dramatic use of major and minor scales. La Cathedrale Engloutie that Brendan Stuart Burns created this piece of art to, the music is based on myth of the Cathedral of Y’s.

This says on a calm clear morning it is said that a creature would rise from the sea, with bells chiming, monks singing and sunlight streaming through the window, however Claude Debussy created his own musical interpretation.

Across the room Carl Richards own abstract painting gives his own interpretation actually based on the myth, whilst Brendan listens to the music. He says “Painting is thinking; it is a presentation of what you do not know as well as what you do know. ‘Touch’ within these paintings is crucial.

Each of the tiles he has created have been created whilst listening to the same prelude over and over again until the image was complete, in other words he listened to the same bit of the song over and over again until he was happy with it. La Cathedrale Engloutie music he listened to is quite calm and relaxing really, but the impression I get from the music and the painting as an item together is the typical Welsh weather. The colours he has used are quite natural colours in a sense they are the colours you would find on rocks that had been eroded by the rain. How the rain generally starts of slow, picks up a bit more and slowly fades out.

David Alston review on the Brendan Stuart Burns painting suggests that Brendan is influenced by the welsh landscape and has many pictures and sketches of the coastal foreshores and Headlands.

Brendan’s paintings are generally created using the same mediums although scale can range from something as large as this to hand to elbow sized canvases.

His work has made him one of Wales’ most renowned and prolific painters.

I chose this painting as someone once told some thing along the lines "to me painting is not painting if your recreating something photographic, but something that gives someone's own imagination on the subject, now that’s painting".

www.brendanstuartburns.co.uk/home.htm

Psychedelic Phenomenon

“The ‘Art Nouveau’ revival dates from 1952, when London's Victoria and Albert Museum organized a great retrospective exhibit. In Germany, where the sway of the Jugendstil (as art nouveau was called there and in Austria) had been total and the counterblow of the 1920s most radical, rediscovery began in 1958 with a big show at Munich's Haus der Kunst. In the U.S. the comprehensive 1960 "Art Nouveau" exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art launched the rediscovery”.

And…

“Partly, the European "revival is a sign of tiredness and nostalgia for calmer times," says Milan Architect Gio Ponti. Hugh G. Wakefield of the Victoria and Albert Museum attributes the renewal to the cyclical rhythm in art taste: "Art nouveau is easily recognizable; yet it is now sufficiently far away from us so it has lost the connotation of old-fashioned." But others think the revival of interest in craftsmanship, the elegant and refined, is no Proustian search to relive things past. Rather, it constitutes a revolt against the grim, stark, formless, spiritless expression of much abstract art and modern architecture”.

Full article found on;

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876046,00.html

So it was seen as a rebellion against traditional values. Many people where inspired by the music at the time, music from legends such as; The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd etc. These bands used this ‘Psychedelic’ phenomenon to help sell albums and concerts.

The ‘Hippie’ era had began; long flowing hair, bright tie and dye t-shirts, experimentation with drugs, sex and religion. They also found using a gorgeous woman to help promote events, sold ‘sex sells’.

From the images at the top of the page, the left is a poster for Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman from 1999 by Frank Kozik. On the right is a ‘Ted Baker’ top I own brought recently this year. This shows the ‘Art Nouveau’ can still be found today in prints and fashion.

Images where generally found to be;

• brightly coloured although desaturated.

• Had floral patterns inspired by nature.

• Hindu gods were present on many.

• Ornate lettering.

• Symmetrical Positioning.

• Brightly coloured smoke, to give the impression of being stoned.

DesignWeek Review

DesignWeek was launched in 1986 in the United Kingdom; from 2007 Centaur Media PLC has published it and it is still the world’s only weekly design magazine that is released 

every Friday.

From 1989 Lynda Relph-Kinght has been the Editor of DesignWeek, her previous experience was working 

for The Architect (a now-defunct monthly) and Building Design an architectural weekly.

The website is generally updated everyday, with all the latest issues and articles available to read online. Using networking site Twitter you are able to follow all the latest news and reviews.

A weekly cost of this magazine would be £2.80 subscription but through the website you can require this magazine; £85 for one year, £162 two years and finally £223 for three years, so you could save up to 53% which would allow you to receive an exclusive package with benefits.

Audience of this magazine generally tends to be people within the design industry such as; Furniture, Graphic, Interior and Product Designers, although it would be quite relevant to students who are learning the trade through colleges or universities.

Design Week sets an innovative tone to how we browse useful links within our broad range of creative design. Utilizing a basic viewing approach keeping the viewer in mind to how we process information and linking that to an appropriate layout built around pure white colours, sustaining interest to its target audience, the creative community, making navigation into your chosen design area simple and effective which no hassle of unwanted distractions.

Design Week hosts a broad range of useful articles that both relate to struggle, techniques and reason used at a professional level giving you insight into contemporary design, the professionals work we see on a daily basis, that can aid young aspiring designers today with examples from top artists, ranging from recent awards, to early stages of design and planning from the developers themselves. With the mass of information, Design Week still continues to capture audiences and deliver the necessary knowledge, which is only relevant to the subject, keeping it easy to read, and continuing interest, which is effective design in its own rights.

One of Design Weeks most recent article is on England's new branding for the Commonwealth Games. Demonstrating the project aim towards a logo that represents the English team at the games in Delhi, which will be printed on the teams kits and communications, showing England's identity through a visual form, which carefully highlights the struggle to design a new brand, keeping the previous symbol and its competitive sprit alive.

www.designweek.co.uk