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Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

kalzumeus.com

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Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#21

Post by watmough »

The old logo may be cheesy looking, but in this situation, it's a hundred times better than the crappy generic one, and it is strong enough to balance the awful text set to its right.

With the generic logo, the ugly text dominates.

If the text was fixed up, perhaps the generic logo might stand a chance, but with the shown pages, it's way too weak.

When I did my app site at femcalapp.com, I cribbed the basic design from something else, but I've worked steadily to refine it, albeit without any metrics, just my own metric of does it look better or not.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#22

Post by tptacek »

k33n wrote: post #16

Every time I see this product referenced or talked about, I consider spending 3 days creating something better, with a better website, and undercutting their price.

Try. But before you do: are you sure you know what Patrick's business actually is? It looks like "Hello world" hooked up to a random number generator... but it isn't.

Here's a tip: when you've figured out what it is Patrick is actually doing, you'll see why it's kind of silly to consider competing directly with him.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#23

Post by patio11 »

nollidge wrote: post #11

> I’m very, very open to the notion that there exist circumstances under which this test would have come down the other way. There almost certainly are circumstances in which result would have been reversed. Testing the hypothesis that logo A is better than logo B, he did get a significant result (n = 17,000, p < 0.01). But if he was attempting to test the hypothesis that logos from population A (custom-designed) are…

OK, quick stats 101:

The hypothesis isn't that A > B, it is that A = B (the null hypothesis). 99% certainty is to reject the null hypothesis, leading to the conclusion that A is better.

The second experiment you've outlined is gibberish, which involves a series of words spelled similar to ones you can find in a stats book, connected in a manner which leads to nowhere.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#24

Post by arthurdent »

k33n wrote: post #16

Every time I see this product referenced or talked about, I consider spending 3 days creating something better, with a better website, and undercutting their price.

do it.

bcc was one of the steps on the way to me realizing that building the site is almost none of the business.

as a friendly and encouraging wager, i submit that you can't or won't get a bcc clone business with >$500 revenues/mo.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#25

Post by rewind »

k33n wrote: post #16

Every time I see this product referenced or talked about, I consider spending 3 days creating something better, with a better website, and undercutting their price.

If you can do a better job in three days than he has over the entire history of his business, then you definitely should.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#26

Post by tptacek »

I think I actually "chose" this logo (in that it was one of 5 logos I suggested to Patrick when we started this bet). My hypothesis was that any professionally-designed logo, generic or otherwise, would outdo Patrick's bespoke logo, which positively screams "April 19th, 2002!".

... and I was wrong. Teach For America an acceptable charity, Patrick?

Someone in this thread suggested that this shows-t'-go-ya that geeks shouldn't pick logos. It says the exact opposite to me: that no matter what your eye for design is, engineering will always beat aesthetics. No pro designer would come up with what Patrick has now, and yet it works.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#27

Post by patio11 »

tptacek wrote: post #26

I think I actually "chose" this logo (in that it was one of 5 logos I suggested to Patrick when we started this bet). My hypothesis was that any professionally-designed logo, generic or otherwise, would outdo Patrick's bespoke logo, which positively screams "April 19th, 2002!". ... and I was wrong. Teach For America an acceptable charity, Patrick? Someone in this thread suggested that this shows-t'-go-ya that geeks s…

I love Teach for America.

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#28

Post by nollidge »

patio11 wrote: post #23
nollidge wrote: post #11

> I’m very, very open to the notion that there exist circumstances under which this test would have come down the other way. There almost certainly are circumstances in which result would have been reversed. Testing the hypothesis that logo A is better than logo B, he did get a significant result (n = 17,000, p < 0.01). But if he was attempting to test the hypothesis that logos from population A (custom-designed) are…

OK, quick stats 101: The hypothesis isn't that A > B, it is that A = B (the null hypothesis). 99% certainty is to reject the null hypothesis, leading to the conclusion that A is better. The second experiment you've outlined is gibberish, which involves a series of words spelled similar to ones you can find in a stats book, connected in a manner which leads to nowhere.

What's gibberish about it? I'm saying if you want to know if off-the-rack logos are, on average, better than custom-designed ones, you have to compare lots of them, not just one example of each. What's the problem with that?

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#29

Post by patio11 »

tptacek wrote: post #22
k33n wrote: post #16

Every time I see this product referenced or talked about, I consider spending 3 days creating something better, with a better website, and undercutting their price.

Try. But before you do: are you sure you know what Patrick's business actually is ? It looks like "Hello world" hooked up to a random number generator... but it isn't. Here's a tip: when you've figured out what it is Patrick is actually doing, you'll see why it's kind of silly to consider competing directly with him.

Thomas is presumably artfully phrasing "If you can do organic SEO and AdWords well, you can make a lot of money, so why the heck would you enter bingo cards" to avoid hurting my feelings. He isn't wrong about the money, though my feelings are pretty much impervious. I mean, I sell bingo cards to elementary schoolteachers: it is highly unlikely you're going to say something I haven't heard in the last four years.

(Though if you want to compete, can you do picture bingo cards? I'll send you customers. They don't know what files are and they'll need to crop the images they want to use. If you want to teach them how to do that, they're yours.)

Re: Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

#30

Post by tptacek »

patio11 wrote: post #27
tptacek wrote: post #26

I think I actually "chose" this logo (in that it was one of 5 logos I suggested to Patrick when we started this bet). My hypothesis was that any professionally-designed logo, generic or otherwise, would outdo Patrick's bespoke logo, which positively screams "April 19th, 2002!". ... and I was wrong. Teach For America an acceptable charity, Patrick? Someone in this thread suggested that this shows-t'-go-ya that geeks s…

I love Teach for America.

Done; you'll get your notification letter as soon as I figure out how to mail things to Japan.

I'll get you next time, Patrick McKenzie. Next time!

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