Negative space logos and symbols • Hacker News Board

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#41

Post by TylerE » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 12:03 PM UTC

cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

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

No, you're wrong. That would be the old Hartford Whalers logo:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/70/Hartford...

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#42

Post by dhimes » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 12:04 PM UTC

cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

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

Man, I just don't get design. The FedEx logo does nothing for me. The arrow doesn't really mean anything (an airplane would have been cool, given that their big differentiator was speed when they started).

But that this logo won 40 awards? (Note that I'm automatically assuming that the awards are meaningful.) I'm definitely someone who has to pay for design, because I just don't get it.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#43

Post by dhimes » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 12:08 PM UTC

bingobangobongo wrote: post #10

pcurve wrote: post #2

Fantastic collection, thanks for sharing. WiredPR, Oak Bro, Fingers, Giraffe... these are all excellent. Makes me very envious of the creator's talent and creativity!

The Oak Bro logo is very subtle. You immediately see the leaf, but not the negative space line of busts on bottom and line of asses on top.

Do you think the line of asses was because the designer found the brothers difficult to work with :-) ?

Very interesting, as I'm about to shell out some cash for a logo designer.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#44

Post by Ntrails » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 1:10 PM UTC

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!

I looked, scanned the article looking for this arrow, came back to the comments, read this, went back again, finally saw it.

The Giraffe one from the OP was super cool though :)

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#45

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:00 PM UTC

fbdf87cd wrote: post #39

Are women under represented in the logo design industry? I only see two recognizably female names.

I had the same thought as I went back to append the names of the artists in the collection. I have seen lots of great logos designed by women as I've scoured Dribbble, just not so many using the negative space technique. What does that say? Maybe men and women perceive design differently? This would be an interesting topic to explore.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#46

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:06 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #38

Honestly? I don't think these are great examples. They are 'school' examples maybe, but some of these look amateurish For example, the 4x (Fox) breaks the left-to-right convention, you can't identify it as such until you see it all. Some others haven't gotten the gist of the idea (forgot the word, sorry) and do things just because.

The article is meant to present the concept and provide inspiration for other artists; it's not a treatise on the history of the technique. I plan to update it as I find more clever examples.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#47

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:32 PM UTC

cocoflunchy wrote: post #7

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

The FedEx logo is the first time I noticed the negative space technique and really sparked my interest in branding. It's amazing how such a simple mark can represent so much.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#48

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:36 PM UTC

martinced wrote: post #13

hartror wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I hope we see lots of these from startups. The technique produces simple, meaningful, and memorable logos which also look really good.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#49

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:38 PM UTC

Ntrails wrote: post #44

hartror wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never noticed the arrow!

I looked, scanned the article looking for this arrow, came back to the comments, read this, went back again, finally saw it. The Giraffe one from the OP was super cool though :)

The Oak Bros. logo took me awhile to figure out. Also, did you notice all of the hidden symbols in the "in woods" logo? There are 4 in there.

Re: Negative space logos and symbols

#50

Post by maxmzd_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 2:42 PM UTC

pcurve wrote: post #2

Fantastic collection, thanks for sharing. WiredPR, Oak Bro, Fingers, Giraffe... these are all excellent. Makes me very envious of the creator's talent and creativity!

In Dog Dental I really like how the bottom of the D forms the dog's neck.