Interesting insights about what one should look for in a logo designer. Or, inversely, some things that you, as a logo designer, may want to keep in mind.

How To Choose A Logo Designer

Killing Off Five Design Myths

Some good point counterpoint between Jason Fried of 37 Signals and Andy Budd of clear:left. Jason argues that creating personas for development of products or concepts is bad. Andy has other opinions.

In case you’re wondering, this has root back in what we did for assignment 2. And, I might add, direct relationship to the creative process.

So give both sides a read. What think ye?

Nichelle Narcisi’s discusses her final entry during a competition held at AIGA’s Next Conference.

The last of the three challenges was the most serious: propose a strategy to raise the turnout of voters between 18 and 24. With less than 24 hours to work, each of the finalists came up with a provocative response. But it was Nichelle Narcisi’s all-text solution that caught the enthusiasm of the visually-biased 2000-plus audience, gaining her the only standing ovation of the entire three-day conference.

Have a read here.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses…

The process is simple, says Massimo. “It’s a matter of discipline, and it starts by looking at the problem and collecting all the available information about it. If you understand the problem, you have the solution. It’s really more about logic than imagination.” (emphasis added)

This is a super quick article but well worth the read:
The Vignellis (via)

A great quote to start the week from the latest Airbag post:

All of my best employees were the best not because of where they went to school or because they had a lot of prior experience. They were the best because they had the ambition to learn new skills, methods, applications, etc.

Hear hear.

Whilst surfing the ol’ interwebs today, I ran across an interesting article that tackles the topic of dealing with client concerns. A snippet from their conclusion:

Start meetings with a review of the problems you’ve solved and the steps you went through to do so. This sets the stage for you to unveil the work and orients the clients in your process.

As you read through the article, note how many times they point back to the origins of the project. In other words, notice how they call on the client needs and initial project specifications identified early on in the creative process to justify and explain the “whys.”

How to disarm 10 difficult client observations/requests (via)

When we talked about the creative process, we started at the end discussing the importance of the presentation. In short, I emphasized the need to sell all the logic and reasoning that went into your creative process. By allowing your client to know how you arrived where you did, you help them fully understand the solution you are presenting. And, in so doing, you hopefully stand a better chance of them accepting your work.

A fine example of this can be seen via Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction. His latest post deals with the creation of title cards for an online exhibits of documentary photography. Let’s peek in, shall we:

…I had the idea that distorted letterforms on crumpled paper, photographed tightly and dramatically lit, would be an interesting visual metaphor for the content of both series of photos. So I typeset the title of each in Illustrator, printed them out on my laser printer, and photographed them quickly. Both were done inside of a few hours…

By giving us a glimpse into his process, Khoi allows us to buy into his solution. Without that, all we might see is crumpled paper. He also got a bonus –his solution for this one problem led to the outcome of another need.

* why the quotes around the word sell? Because in Utah, it seems, the general population is unable to hear the difference between the words “sell” and “sale.” They are, in fact, different words and have specific instances where they should and should not be used. When one sells one’s car, one should put up a sign that reads “For Sale” but more often than not it reads “For Sell.” By adding quotes, I wanted to emphasis that we were selling something and not putting an object on sale. Oh, and yes I’ve seen it written “sail” as well. Sigh.

Brand New has a writeup on the redesign of the LPGA logo. The part that was most interesting, however, deals with logo reproduction:

Speaking of reproduction issues, one of the goals of the new brand, according to Bill Susetka, the LPGA’s chief marketing officer, was to create “a logo that we could easily reproduce on merchandise, billboards and signage” — and judging from the amount of stuff in the newly minted LPGA Pro Shop (do note the These Girls Rock badge there) — then I think they picked a very difficult one (anyone who has ever sent a multicolor job like this to an embroiderer can tell you that this is no picnic to stitch onto hats, polos, etc. and if anyone is into hats, polos, etc. it’s golfers).

Give the post a read for Brand New’s insights into the new mark.

You may find Brand New an interesting source as you delve into your own logo designs. You may even want to add them to your feed reader. However, a word of caution: I don’t want you reading them word for word as gospel. Sometimes I agree with their breakdown. Sometimes I don’t. Take a look at the work and form your own opinions.

nice.