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Open-Sourced Logos

logodust.com

21–30 of 74 posts

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#21

They're all just geometric shapes that anyone could throw together. Really, you're pretty damn lazy or uninspired if you can't put together a stop sign outline with 2 circles on either side of it!

This form of criticism is along the lines of "The Gettysburg Address is just words anyone could write." The important part of creative work is not the potential but actually doing it. There's no such thing as "a design in my head."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming that the logos are cultural artifacts of high calibre. But that what they share with such works is actuality. Their creator can get better in ways that everyone who could but doesn't can't.

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#22

The pharmacy logo is more or less the logo of Lloyds Pharmacy in the UK. Close enough that it could be deemed to be infringing their TM IMO (it's tricky though with generic imagery).

Very similar indeed although it looks like they're in the process of rebranding anyway? http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#23
post #20

You, too, can have a generic logo that doesn't actually reflect your individual company, message, or values! Simply pair it with a font of your choosing (font and logo need not match), and you have yourself a brand. These kinds of things devalue the actual work that goes into real branding, like crowdsourcing your logo or Marissa Mayer popping out something that she thinks "looks nice" over a weekend. It also has the…

No. I'm bootstrapping a product startup, and the only thing I care about now is whether it works and whether people find _value_ in it. Its logo doesn't matter, the copy doesn't matter, glossy startuppy pictures don't matter. The only thing that matters now is whether it is materially useful - whether someone thinks that their life is easier because this tool exist in this world. So when this site came up a long time…

Well said, it's the product and the execution what matters, not the product logo and name. Heck, you could probably use a ridiculous name with a logo designed in MS Paint and as long as the product delivered amazing value people would just get used to it.

That's not to say there's no value in well made branding, but it's just not something that an early startup should care about much.

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#24
These logos aren't good. A logo should have some degree of symmetry, simple enough to draw, original, and not readily resembling something in real life or a prior logo.

this is an umbrella plus tear drop: http://www.logodust.com/img/logo18.png

paperclip http://www.logodust.com/img/logo20.png

too complicated to be effective:

http://www.logodust.com/img/logo9.png

ripoff of star trek and anarchy circle

http://www.logodust.com/img/logo2.png

this was the only good one http://www.logodust.com/img/logo1.png

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#27

These logos aren't good. A logo should have some degree of symmetry, simple enough to draw, original, and not readily resembling something in real life or a prior logo. this is an umbrella plus tear drop: http://www.logodust.com/img/logo18.png paperclip http://www.logodust.com/img/logo20.png too complicated to be effective: http://www.logodust.com/img/logo9.png ripoff of star trek and anarchy circle http://www.logodu…

> A logo should ...

Why?

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#28
post #20

You, too, can have a generic logo that doesn't actually reflect your individual company, message, or values! Simply pair it with a font of your choosing (font and logo need not match), and you have yourself a brand. These kinds of things devalue the actual work that goes into real branding, like crowdsourcing your logo or Marissa Mayer popping out something that she thinks "looks nice" over a weekend. It also has the…

No. I'm bootstrapping a product startup, and the only thing I care about now is whether it works and whether people find _value_ in it. Its logo doesn't matter, the copy doesn't matter, glossy startuppy pictures don't matter. The only thing that matters now is whether it is materially useful - whether someone thinks that their life is easier because this tool exist in this world. So when this site came up a long time…

I appreciate your dedication to delivering value, however it's also worth considering the emotional connection people make with your product. A logo is essentially a mental shortcut to your offering, your story, and your value proposition. A distinct logo compresses all the meaning behind what you do into a simple reminder, a mental shortcut. Great logos are unique and memorable.

Your pitch is important, and tone of your copy is important in framing and expressing this. For example, if you're asking me to download an executable you need to gain a certain degree of trust on behalf of the user. Trust is an emotion. Good art & copy can go a long way to building trust.

Branding is really the emotional connection you make with your user base, and emotional connections aren't rational things. This is why excellent products sometimes lose to less functionally valuable products - because we've distilled the rational meaning down to something which is irrational.

To "like" Apples products, for example, is not rational - it's emotional. The meaning behind Apples brand is more than the functional value of it's products. It represents something different to each of us, even though we're all using the same product. For some people, Apples brand represents a part of their own identity - this is about as emotional as it gets. Apples brand communication has touched these people in a strong way. Do you think Apple could have built such a loyal following with a MS Paint logo and terrible copy?

To put it another way, branding could also be thought of as packaging - and it's well known that packaging is extremely important to product success.

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#29

These logos aren't good. A logo should have some degree of symmetry, simple enough to draw, original, and not readily resembling something in real life or a prior logo. this is an umbrella plus tear drop: http://www.logodust.com/img/logo18.png paperclip http://www.logodust.com/img/logo20.png too complicated to be effective: http://www.logodust.com/img/logo9.png ripoff of star trek and anarchy circle http://www.logodu…

> These logos aren't good.

For a Fortune 500? Sure not.

For someone with problems much bigger than slick branding they are good enough.

Re: Open-Sourced Logos

#30

You, too, can have a generic logo that doesn't actually reflect your individual company, message, or values! Simply pair it with a font of your choosing (font and logo need not match), and you have yourself a brand. These kinds of things devalue the actual work that goes into real branding, like crowdsourcing your logo or Marissa Mayer popping out something that she thinks "looks nice" over a weekend. It also has the…

Heard the same sort of refrain about PHP, WordPress, jQuery, Bootstrap, etc. as they were gaining popularity. Each of them somehow devalued something or made people think they were experts...
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