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Negative space logos and symbols

briandelaney.me

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Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#12

Post by bmuon »

cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

And perhaps the greatest of them all... FedEx. (see http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671067/the-story-behind-the-fam... )

That article deserves a submission of its own! It's incredibly interesting and it touches something that most software developers value: simplicity and clarity. We're used to saying that naming things is the hardest problem in coding, and that matches completely with a philosophy of simplicity in design. A must read.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#13

Post by martinced »

hartror wrote: post #9
cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

And perhaps the greatest of them all... FedEx. (see http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671067/the-story-behind-the-fam... )

I have never noticed the arrow!

IMHO that is one of the main benefit of negative spaces (I didn't know the term but knew the technique): you actually hardly notice that there's "something else" and yet the logos somehow look nice. I'd say they look "soft", without knowing why.

Once you focus too much on "what's inside", it gets a bit confusing because you're seeing conflicting things (like the tree leave that is also people): but it's not a problem because it's not meant for people to really focus on.

And somehow it just works. I find several of these logos really very simple and great.

Now that this has been posted on HN I expect lots of startups to come up with similar logos ; )

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#15

Post by rmckayfleming »

Foomandoonian wrote: post #5

The Wired PR one is too much. I read WIR :D PR. I quite like the idea of having a smiley in a company name actually…

Reminds me of the old Ontario Hydro logo a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Hydro

The D with the E looks like a power plug.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#16

Post by ben1040 »

cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

And perhaps the greatest of them all... FedEx. (see http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671067/the-story-behind-the-fam... )

They even made sure to include the arrow in their Arabic translation (including having it point in an appropriate direction if you read right to left):

http://i.imgur.com/8PTzYjW.jpg

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#19

Post by utopkara »

AnthonBerg wrote: post #11

I'd get tired of someof those, but the Locknet one is great. Very good. Almost alarmingly simple execution, and conveys the sense of locking something. And authority. Big subtle message.

It is far too subtle for me. It lacks the call for curiosity, because the simplicity is just too well executed. Could have been made a tad more obvious, or more puzzling, at the cost of losing some of the simplicity.
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