Tag: design

Throwing shade on a designer’s work is as toothless as a heckler to a seasoned comedian. Show five logos and one gets picked. At best we have an 80% rejection rate. No doubt the seeds that make us so resilient and inventive. Tiring of the expected, this year our lot has crafted a new way […]

If you’ve met the person that groans when food on their plate touches, you’ve met the individual that will wince at these marks. Not only have designers removed any pretense of separation of elements, they’ve flaunted this layering of graphic components and even doubled down here and there to cloudy results. The majority of these […]

Shadow as an element in logo design is critical in so many ways. I’ve created full chapters discussing how shadow came about as such an important component to designers. It foretells events or gives a sense of place. They can display aspirations or other yet-to-be-determined assets. They identify the direction of light and tell if […]

An enthusiastic generation of designers are reinventing the wheel but with a whole new vengeance. In pre-digital years, any desire to lay stripes, dots, mezzotints, woodgrain or other exotic half-tones into an illustration first required a trip to your local commercial arts supply store. Sticky backed sheets of film under the names Zipatone or Letratone […]

Somewhere geographically between Zip Tone and Highlights, lays the Isle of Dots. These oversized fields of dots are reminiscent of placing a bit of gnarly halftone screen into a mark because they actually represent an element of the icon and not just a foundation in the background. I picture Jay Fletcher selecting the dots on […]

It’s easily argued there are no new tricks in the field of calling attention to ourselves. Apes beat their chest, peacocks spread their plumage, and humans post to social media. Then there’s a small subset of identity designers that reach for a highlighter and start embellishing their work. Or at least that’s what this year’s […]

A continuation of theme from the last two years has been the move to simplification of design or purity of mark. This homage to clarity of structure and image from prior generations is proof of designers’ inventive nature as they noodle out solutions rearranging the same geometric parts and pieces that have been in play […]

I’ll confess, the first impression of these marks left me wondering if a few designers have a crush on JK Rowling. The stone, the wand, and the cloak, incarnate from the Deathly Hallows. If these logo talismans have nearly as strong a tale to tell, they will serve their masters impeccably. One simply cannot look […]

Imagine that pale virgin square on a weathered apartment wall, signaling an inspector that evidence has been removed from a crime scene. It’s not what’s hanging there that informs us, it’s what’s not there that alerts us to a critical message. Whether the hole or shape in question is unceremoniously carved from the guts of […]

Anyone who has ever tried to illustrate with markers recalls that uncontrollable moment at the end of a stroke. Before you can lift the pen or if you’re indecisive and pause, the marker tip suddenly becomes generous and bleeds out a pool of ink you could drown in. I know that’s not the way a […]

Adopting the broad use of gradient color in logo design has been one of the most polarizing trends our industry has witnessed over the last decade. There are still designers that abhor the use of transitioning color, as it runs counter to so many of the early precepts of logo design developed pre-digital age. It […]

Stripes continue to dominate the field of potential trend contenders, but there have been so many marks anchored in this aesthetic it’s become more challenging to spot where this trend evolves forward. Taking a look, we finally see a cohesive group that takes stripes into a warped dimension. Still big bold salute the flag type […]

As I contemplated this trend, I was forced to choose between periods and colons that have both been breeding like rabbits on thoughtful designers’ minds. Last year’s report addressed the use of punctuation associated with wordmarks in clever renditions, and as is usually the case, it was only the initial volley that turned to critical […]

In the grand tradition of refinement, designers continue to boil down the essence of flight beyond the fluid beauty of a set of feathered wings. Stripping back the essence even further to the point that aerodynamics don’t vaguely register as an afterthought. As impeccably bereft as these marks are of any semblance of flight, I […]

Portals to another world, time, or at least another frame of mind have become a literal manifestation in this year’s trends. Doors and windows allow us the ability to peer into that other dimension while staying firmly rooted to our here and now. They serve to invite us to become a voyeur or a participant, […]