Designing a logo

**pauland** · 19 October 2006, 01:45 PM

I'm afraid for me the colour or shininess isn't going to raise those designs at all. I'm dumbfounded that the cresent variations could win out against some of the ideas mentioned here. Andy the contrast between your own logo and that for ACT Storage is immense. I think it's time I bow out of this thread. Good luck.

**ankhor** · 19 October 2006, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

I'm afraid for me the colour or shininess isn't going to raise those designs at all. I'm dumbfounded that the cresent variations could win out against some of the ideas mentioned here. Andy the contrast between your own logo and that for ACT Storage is immense. I think it's time I bow out of this thread. Good luck.

Come on, it wasn`t a contest, it was firing idears for a logo.
And if the customer is satisfied, who are we to argue?
I see a lot of people with hairdoes (don`ts?) or clothes
where I really think, what were they thinking, but it is their choice.
If I had any say in the design of human kind I would have had
some pointers to mention too, but I didn`t design it and had no choice.

(except not to multiply the design myself)

**pauland** · 19 October 2006, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by ankhor

Come on, it wasn`t a contest, it was firing idears for a logo.
And if the customer is satisfied, who are we to argue?

I'm not arguing - even if it were a contest, I didn't submit any entries, so there was no chance for me to win.

AndyD: which designs did you offer to your friend?

AndyDs friend can choose whichever design they wish,as can AndyD choose which designs to put forward. I just think it's spectacularly the wrong choice!

Anyway, that's life as they say.

Paul

**ankhor** · 19 October 2006, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

I'm not arguing - even if it were a contest, I didn't submit any entries, so there was no chance for me to win.

AndyD: which designs did you offer to your friend?

AndyDs friend can choose whichever design they wish,as can AndyD choose which designs to put forward. I just think it's spectacularly the wrong choice!

Anyway, that's life as they say.

Paul

I forgot that option, still, even if he proposed just that option
the other party still could have refused it, they didn`t, as far as I know.
And I did participate I couldn`t win because there was nothing to win.
(except some good URL`s from BF with some very good advices on the subject)

**pauland** · 19 October 2006, 02:26 PM

I think that most of us are winners on the thread. I've certainly taken notice of the advice given here and will bear it in mind for the future. It has been entertaining and informative.

Happy customers: I was once asked to complete an "almost complete" business website for an aquaintance. The site had been built by a family member (for free) who no longer had time to complete it. I said I would, but when I saw it I was pretty shocked that anyone would be happy to represent the business with what had been built.

I offered to complete the original website for free, provided nobody was ever told I had anything to do with it; alternatively I offered a different design (shown as a mockup) that I could do and they would be charged for it. They chose the alternative despite it costing them money.

So that's an instance of a 'happy' customer deciding he really wasn't happy one he'd been given an alternative.

I wasn't entirely happy with the completed website since it had (at my clients insistence) to incorporate a lot of (tedious, boring) content from the old site, but that was their choice.

Paul

**Thatch** · 19 October 2006, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by ankhor

And if the customer is satisfied, who are we to argue?

The answer to this at least for a few of the people here is "a professional designer".

I've worked a number of jobs in the digital realm, from designer to programmer to multiple levels of manager but the greatest difference I experienced was in my move from designer to developer.

As a designer I would sit in a meeting with a client and they would tell me what they wanted. I would show them options and they would make suggestions to "improve" my work; suggestions that more often than not were asinine and detrimental to the design. I would try to explain why that was a bad course of action and after some work would usually steer them back where they needed to be. Sometimes this took me making the changes they asked for and then putting the design into a mock-up environment that would reveal the problem I was attempting to avoid. If I didn't push for what was right most of those clients would of chosen inferior designs.

As a developer I would sit in meetings with a client, show them the product they were having built and they would make suggestions to "improve" the work and (depending on what it was) would get a reason why that would or would not work and they would generally reply. "OK".

The point to this is, EVERYONE thinks they can design. EVERYONE thinks they know what looks good. They don't. As a designer you should be thinking of much more than just "this looks good" or "I like that color" You should be considering printing, reproduction at different sizes, limited color printing, what does it look like on the side of a truck, what does it look like on business card, will it grow with the company, does the logo convey the spirit of the company either in what it produces, who it's target market is or the personality of the company (a big win is when it does all three). If your not considering these things I'd argue you're not a designer but a graphics producer.

It is imperative that you do not show a client ANY design that you yourself don't think is good enough. Never take a bad design. They will choose it. Never give a client more than 3 designs to choose from. They will pick the weakest. Some designers will go up to 5 but I feel it is my job to weed out the chaff for my client and to read the needs of the client better than that. Don't use the shotgun approach with a client, you won't like what you hit.

"Who are we to argue?" people that do (or should) know better. While not speaking to the logo's visual merit either way, try and fit that design on a business card and the side of a truck. Put it on a page footer and a website. Look at it in a full color and black and white. Try and make a newspaper help wanted ad with the logo at the bottom..... That will be a very difficult logo to work with and that alone is reason to "argue".

J

**ankhor** · 19 October 2006, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Skeesick

The answer to this at least for a few of the people here is "a professional designer".

Fine, but he didn't hire one to begin with.
I he did that person would have argued, but
it is at is is now.

**Thatch** · 19 October 2006, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by ankhor

Fine, but he didn't hire one to begin with.
I he did that person would have argued, but
it is at is is now.

Ah but this is a discussion board that had this particular project presented to them and so they discuss.

You're right in that "it is what it is" however there are many people that can learn from this process, the good and the bad. Truth is you should always run your contract through a postmortem and find out what you did well and what you can improve on. If you stop at "it is what it is", it will be that way next time as well and the time after that and the time after that...

------

Wolf,

I understand what your saying. However, I find it ultimately deleterious to accept contracts on work that I am not fully behind. Word of mouth is the way this business works more than any other. Work I'm less than happy with begets more work I'm less than happy with. I've made more money refusing jobs I wasn't behind than I have by taking ones I couldn't ultimately be proud of.

------------------

I do hope my comments are being taken as general comments on the business of design. The project at the center of this discussion is only the catalyst for my comments not the target.

**ankhor** · 19 October 2006, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Skeesick

Ah but this is a discussion board that had this particular project presented to them and so they discuss.

I do hope my comments are being taken as general comments on the business of design. The project at the center of this discussion is only the catalyst for my comments not the target.

Yes it is here for discussion.you are right, but it was more and endline for the
thread to me, but it started a whole new one

(Like, ah well, thread is closed, decison made, lets go look for a new challenge)

And yes I have learned a lot, even bought some books on logo`s
(and some on graveyard symbolism on design there, but that is a different subject, I am very into symbolism, and logo`s are a kind of symbolism
too, so there my intrest)

**WolfMoonHP** · 19 October 2006, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Skeesick

Wolf,

I understand what your saying. However, I find it ultimately deleterious to accept contracts on work that I am not fully behind. Word of mouth is the way this business works more than any other. Work I'm less than happy with begets more work I'm less than happy with. I've made more money refusing jobs I wasn't behind than I have by taking ones I couldn't ultimately be proud of.

I have to admit to the logic of what you are saying. And at this stage of my life, I can certainly afford to turn down jobs. I reject far more offers than I accept, as a matter of fact. In the case of the website I mentioned, by the way, the woman just called and is willing to do it my way.

In the logo for this thread, according to several design textbooks, the crescent shape connotes progressive thinking...not sure how that relates to a storage company, but what the heck...