Not at all, I find everything you've posted interesting. I've always wanted to take this approach to it but the only way I'm getting customers is by contests. I've spent months of earnings on SEO and a website redesign and such, yet not a single order come directly through the website . I'm looking into offline promotion, but that's going to be expensive and difficult. I'd really like to be able to 'sketch out logo concepts', and I do try. I print the company name onto sketching paper, but my pencil/paper drawing skills are terrible. I'd love to be able to be a logo designer as a profession, I love the creativity and subtlty of it. Sparked off by the genius FedEx logo, as I'm sure has done to others too . Lucky you!
Most designs pencil skills are terrible, especially nowadays, but the beauty of it is they're meant to be - they're rough quick sketches so do not worry about it. If you're a new young web designer like yourself, the WORST place to start marketing is the internet - you make fuck all on contests like you're doing, working your butt off for no return, and you can't compete against the big boys with having your own business website as they've been doing it years. I never actually had my own business website until 3 months ago either, I just had a static page with my name, number and slogan on 100% of my marketing was done offline, and didn't cost me a penny either. If you REALLY want to make money, go out and ask people, speak to business owners etc, you'll get 19 no's for every yes, but when you can charge 5-10x DP prices for that yes, it suddenly makes it worth while. As for looking after your clients (the offline ones), remember every business owner knows approximately another 5 quite well, so I personally bend over backwards to help my early clients as word of mouth is a very powerful tool. When someone reccommends you for a job and you get it, send them a box of chocolates etc to say thankyou, whats a fiver when they've just earnt you another 250+? If you're fairly young, it might be worth making deals with small business owners for websites, i.e products / clothes for a website - they love this as it doesn't cost them as much, and you get loads of gear too. It's about having the nerve to ask in the offline world, plenty of people put up posts asking here, but 99% haven't got the bottle to ask people face to face in the real world, yet here is where a lot of the easy money is In the real world, a lot of business owners don't think about a logo until they come to getting their shop front signage made up, then usually just let the muppets at the sign company make them one. So if I wanted to purely do logos, my first port of call would be to drop in every sign company in the area and explain what you do, and drop off some samples and explain what you do. Hell, even offer to knock up a couple of free ones to show your working process with them and how you can handle deadlines. (I am actually against spec work, i.e "competitions", however this is building up a business relationship) If you can afford it, get some flyers and business cards made out, places like the local chippys usually have a pin board up where you can pin your card / flyer up for everyone to see Do some charitable work for churches, fetes etc, design their logos, banners and such like, THEN get the local paper involved as this is how your charitable work then becomes free advertising Also, diversify, you'll struggle initially JUST making logo's, you'll ideally want to offer flyers, adverts, business cards, letterheads and so forth. If you plan on doing a lot of web stuff, I highly reccommend you get a private server as soon as you've saved up enough for a years worth (and put it in a separate account so you can't accidently spend it), as you can then charge clients for hosting as well, or if they're unsure about your prices, chuck in "free" hosting for a year If you're doing that though, manage your finances CAREFULLY as you'll be in a lot of shit if you don't pay your bills and you loose 10 businesses websites because of it
good logos are hard to come by. I find myself daily travelling down the motorway looking at truck and vehicle livery thinking there are so few good logos around. check out http://logopond.com/gallery
I agree with you. As long as it's clean (not complete,unbalanced,mismatched,etc) a logo can be incredibly simple. Some of the companies you mentioned have been around for ages when the logo design bar wasn't set as high as it is now, so if they were to deviate too far from their original logo..it would cost them millions im sure. However, I think a company could still have a pretty simple logo because it's not always about the logo, it's about the product/services. Myself, I'm all about great designs. And sometimes I see these poorly designed websites that are doing extremely well because of their content.
On the other hand, the product of most of these big companies success is probably the products, service and marketing rather than just the logo, I dare say if anyone like Nike etc. changed their logo tomorrow, they wouldn't really see much of a drop in profits as the actual name is so widely recognised now As for the bar being higher now with complex logos? Do your history, there once was a time where one considered a good logo being an oil painting, then people went simple for a reason - instant recognisability, and the ability to reproduce in any medium without extortionate costs, for instance, cutting out of vinyl to put on company vans and ability to stitch into company uniforms, how many of these overly complex Web 2.0 logos can you do that with? Like I've said before, you need to consider who the company you're working for is, and what they do, and design a logo to suit. If they're a web company, then a Web 2.0 glossy logo will suit, but if they're based offline and want the logo on their vans in 1 colour vinyl, suddenly that logo isn't too appropriate.
Very good post's and point's Kye. Really enjoyed reading your post. Great ideas by the way. Thanks a ton.
JSB Morse definition about good logo : A great logo must follow basic design principles A great logo must be functional A great logo must represent the company A great logo must be unique
I think you are right, simplicity is the best policy. I agree logos should be simple but you seem to be quiet impressed from these logos of big brands. Just see to it that the logo you create is inspired from these logos but not a copy of it, as there is an article at graphicdesignblog.org about logo inspiration.
Sorry, but that's bull It's like saying "A good car is drivable. A good car has 4 wheels. A good car must take you from point A to point B". That's just stating the point and function of a concept, not what makes it good. Sure, all those statements are valid, a logo's purpose is to represent the company, be functional, unique and follow basic design principles. How you get to these values is what's important though.