danielalb's blog

I've just seen a Chinese movie last night called The Promise and I was impressed on how differently asian cultures appreciate and use symbols. Everything was allegorical. There were lots of colors, music, flying and blossomed cherry trees. Lots of red, speed and fighting for honor and love in a totally different way from something that you'd see in a western culture movie. If you think about it, a logo design has to be allegorical sometimes, a melange of symbols and colors, but the interesting fact is how these symbols are interpreted so differently in different cultures.

Back in the day when education was not for everyone and the majority of people didn't know how to write, people were using their fingerprint to seal a contract or to sign documents. I assume it was a common knowledge that a fingerprint was different for each individual and thus it became the ultimate symbol of uniqueness.

Here we are at our second logo of the month selection. Each month we strive to appreciate the logo designers work posted on The Logo Mix Inspiration Gallery based on our visitors votes, the comments posted and our team input. The logo designs that made the selection this month detached themselves through minute attention to detail, simplicity and character. Unlike last month when the winner detached itself very clearly, this month the runner ups were very much on the same level and we had a hard time deciding the winner.

Its just crazy this time of year with all the brands, stores and malls throwing their best deals at us. How could you resist to such an assault and why should you actually. For the Black Friday the price tag seems to be more important than the brand tag. Shoppers seem to care less about the logos on the tag and more about the deals. For those who care about the logos despite the trend of the day we propose a series of cool black logos just to celebrate in our own style.

It is all about love isn't it? The heart is probably one of the first things we've learned to draw, one of the easiest things that we could draw and one of the things that has become a self explanatory symbol and has so little to do with the actual organ which the word depicts. Have you seen an actual heart? It looks nothing like the symbol we design, draw, paint or even imagine. But it seems to have everything to do with how we feel, think or act. When designing a logo, every designer hopes that maybe some day that symbol will stand for a memorable brand, that it would ignite passions, that it would make people talk about it. When designing a logo, every designer hopes that someday it would turn into a love mark.

Starbucks is probably one of the most recognized and loved brands around the globe. But you've probably looked at Starbucks logo and wondered – I know I did – who was that lady with the wavy hair and what does she stands for. To better understand the symbolism lets start with the beginning.

Does a logo design function as a mask? I would say that in most of the cases it surely does. If you think about it, a mask would always emphasize certain characteristics, usually the strong ones that no one could overlook and leave aside other characteristics that most of us wouldn't notice. A logo design would do exactly the same for a company, organization or individual. It would take the best features and point them out so that everyone could see and appreciate them. A mask would use symbolism and color to transmit a certain feeling and a logo design would not be far behind in that area. A mask would not always emphasize the best features though, while a logo design would always strive to do just that.

Energy, movement, action, sweat put into a type of art that almost everyone enjoys in a form or another and at different levels. Yes, it can only be dancing. Male and female, young and old, if you feel the vibe you need to express it and let it come out of yourself into beautiful arches and pirouettes, for the connoisseurs, or weird and strange poses for the dance newbies. Being a three dimensional act and implying movement and energy it can only be so difficult to express dancing at a two dimensional graphic level. The challenge of designing a logo for a dance crew or institution only starts with the issue of transposing energy and movement into two dimensional static graphic shapes.

A couple of days ago I was in search of some sketchy fonts for a project and I was especially after some fonts that looked hand-drawn. I was working on some illustration that needed to look like pencil colored and I was in need of a font type that would go along that line. I surfed through some resource websites that I had saved in my browser's bookmarks and then, being unable to find anything suitable there, I turned to the ultimate free font resource dafont.com I've also found a couple of promissing fonts on Fonts2U via Webdesignerwall. The search led me to a handfull of very nice sketchy free fonts out of which I finally selected the winner for my project, Handvetica. Here is my selection of free hand-drawn sketchy fonts. If you're in need of a typeface along these lines, it might save you precious time.

The art for art or designing for designers are just a few words that we could use to describe the process of creating a fashion logo design. Fashion is a key element for anyone with a sense of style and elegance and, in today's competitive world, fashion brands compete to get their clients attention. Even if we're not looking at the world known and famous fashion designers that have global recognition and set the trends in fashion, there are a certain characteristics that are common to fashion logo designs. Simplicity, glamour and style are the key features of fashion logo designs, and beyond everything they need to express, represent and differentiate the fashion artists and their creations.

We initiate with this post our Logo of the Month selection which is to give credit and appreciate the value of the best logo designs posted on The Logo Mix gallery each month. We strive to appreciate through this selection the logo designers work based on our visitors votes, the comments posted and The Logo Mix team input. We had many very good logo designs posted this month and we thought it was difficult enough to short list five logo designs out of over 100 designs. Even so, the winner logo design detached itself pretty easily from the rest of the short listed ones and became our first Logo of the Month.

Halloween is just around the corner and every big brand out there is decorating their logo. Google has done an excellent job in decorating their logo over the years, so I can't wait to see what they have in the bag for us this time. We didn't decorate our logo, didn't carve any pumpkins, but instead, we made a selection of creepy logo designs for you this Halloween. We were impressed by the extensive imagination and the high level of details and we just thought that these logos were excellently executed. Have a look and maybe these creepy logo designs will inspire you for your Halloween costume this year. Boohoo!

Let's say you've just received the agreement for a logo design project from your client, you've received your down payment and your client is ready to start the project. Now what? First of all you need information. A logo design project means expressing graphically the essence of what your client's company is all about. Before you start designing, what type of information should you ask for? Here is a list of data you should never start you logo design project without.

What is a logo? Well, this might seem a redundant question. "I create logo designs on a daily basis, you might say... I know what a logo is!" But even so, sometimes it seems hard to put it in words and give a compelling definition. We can define a logo as being a distinctive symbol, unique, with character, that belongs and visually defines a company, object, person or service. But then, we have all those other words as mark, trademark, signature, identity, brand... What should we do with those and where do they fit, as sometimes those words are used to describe a logo?

Being a professional logo designer means that you have to take into account the different media that the logo will be used for. This is especially important when designing the logo, but also when delivering the final product. Before designing the logo, make sure you understand exactly the media destination you are designing for, or if the logo is intended to be used on several different media, make sure you include a  special file type for each media when you deliver the final product. What types of files should you include when delivering a logo design kit?