Brand “Frags

The following quiz is taken from an article found @ Issue Magazine. (@ Issue. The Journal of Business & Design. Volume 8 no. 1)

Brand “Frags”

In 1984 design planner and theorist Jay Doblin of the respected Doblin Group noticed how brands have become paramount to corporate identity in the minds of consumers. To illustrate the power of effective brands, Doblin created a quiz out of fragments of national and global logos, which he flashed on a screen a few seconds at a time. Doblin called the quiz “Frags.” Here we’ve updated Doblin’s 28-year-old quiz with some contemporary logos. See if you can name the brands based on the close-up portions shown. You will probably be surprised by how many you can identity — a compelling argument for why distinctive graphic branding, applied often and consistently is key to a strong identity program.

Note: I have updated some of the logos found on the @ Issue “Frags” quiz. Also, if you do not have copies of @ Issue Magazine, I strongly suggest you get some. Extremely informative and very well designed.

To get a larger view of this quiz, click on the image.

Go bananas

Chiquita banana brand identity has gone through some changes. Check out this interview done by the folks over at Design Related. UPDATE! Steve Stevenson alerted me to this. Happy now?

Logo history

Here’s an interesting website about the history of some of the most famous logos. Good read.  www.logoorange.com

Symbols in visual communication

Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication is wonderful book written by Maggie Macnab. In it, she aims to shed light to the hidden meanings and symbols found in corporate logos and everyday designs.

From the Amazon website: “The relevance of shapes, numbers and symbols in communication is timeless. Designers and others who need to know the symbolism behind the shape and symbols they use will find this book indispensable. Decoding Design integrates design with other disciplines and genres, such as philosophy, math and physics, for a holistic and worldly presentation of ideas.

Our complex world is comprised of a handful of some very simple patterns. Patterns are made of basic shapes. These shapes have found their way into human design since the beginning of our time because they tell an eternal tale in a glimpse and their structure instructs about our connection to the universe. Symbols are intuitive and immediate. Design that references these symbols creates an immediate relationship with the viewer and that is what this book is all about.

Decoding Design reveals how common symbols resonate at a gut level. Readers will find deconstructions of famous logos and examples of variety of different designs that effectively use symbols, patterns and shapes to convey greater meaning.”

If you are at all interested in symbolism and graphic design, I urge you to pick up with book.

I *heart* NY and Milton Glaser

The great Milton Glaser talks about his iconic, ubiquitous I LOVE NEW YORK logo. Click here to view the full video.

Thanks to LogoDesignLove for the post and to bigthink for the vid.

Logos

This website is in Russian (I presume) so good luck navigating through it. Still, browse around it and look at some of his logo work. Stefam Kachev. Thanks to SwissMiss for the post.

Floating Logos

I find this series of photos very interesting. It’s funny how often we take some of these signs for granted, letting them blend themselves into the every-day landscape. Photographer Matt Siber has captured something very familiar to us, yet extremely peculiar.

Thanks LOGO DESIGN LOVE for the post and much thanks to photographer Matt Siber for this unique look

mmmm…logos…

I love to design logos. Mind you, these little guys are not easy to do and if you find a designer that tells you they are, please run away from him/her as fast as you can. So why are logos so hard to create/design/come up with? They seem simple enough. And therein lies the brilliance of a logo. Simplicity. They have to be simple, yet the message they convey is a complicated one. A logo needs to explain what a company/business does, what the philosophy is, what it stands for, who its audience is, etc… There’s so much information that goes into a logo. It’s hard, hard work, but still, I love designing logos. Next time you see a logo (hint: they are every where!) stop and take a look at it. Study it. Understand it.

If you are interested in logos, take a look at this video created by Chermayeff & Geismar. I saw this video a couple of years back at a DSVC presentation. It’s stunning. To view it in a cleaner version, log onto their website and under portfolio>motion graphics click on the logomotion detail links. This is well done kids. Enjoy.

My work.

Is there anything they can’t do?

Monkeys. Gorillas, Baboons, Orangutans. Simians.

As some of you may know, I’m fascinated by monkeys, all things simians. They’re funny, they’re powerful, they get angry and they can sell/move products.

A few years ago, I had a company called MonkeyThoughts. I didn’t do anything with this so called company except create a logo. I thought it was funny and clever. You can be the judge of that. Couple of years later,  it morphed into a more robust endeavor; SimianSoul. Again, it had a monkey for a logo. See for yourself.

My latest fascination with these mammals is an ad done by the folks at Fallon UK. Hope you enjoy. Check out the other ad. Funny stuff.