Heading Northe

It was difficult for me to take myself seriously as a logo designer without having my own logo. Logo work requires a step back, examining the business and the goal from an outsider’s perspective. It’s simpler to design a logo for a company that is not mine, as I discovered in this long process.

The first thing I did was take a good look at what I wanted from my business and what my business represented. When I originally came up with the idea and brand of “True Northe” it was older, more traditional, with a spinning compass that represented finding the right design direction. Continue reading

When I tell clients that a logo is important, one of two things happen: they’re completely on board and excited to get started on creating a graphical representation of their company or organization, or there’s head-scratching and ho humming.

This post is for both types of clients. Continue reading

No decision is arbitrary. When it comes to design, there’s a reason for it, and if one can’t explain why an element is there, then it shouldn’t be. Recently I have been designing a billboard for a group in Texas. I have been working remotely with the group, and everything has been done over email. After sending my concepts for the project, I received a list of changes, with an attached jpeg of my altered design. But rather than make the changes requested, I replied with a courteous email explaining why I had made the original design they way I had made it, defending my work. Continue reading

“You should never judge a book by its cover.”

Why? Because it’s what’s on the inside that counts. We all know that’s true, but the reason we’re told never to judge on appearances is because we do. All the time. Can’t help it.

Tell Angelina Jolie or Hugh Jackman that looks don’t matter.

It’s not a bad thing, we just use our eyes and trust our first impressions. We like things to be pretty, or edgy, cool, whatever mood we’re in, we like something that looks good. Continue reading

Why do some firms still use old methods for web site design?

Most people do not know about XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, etc. They’re not aware of what is better for searching, what a title tag is, or how to submit a site to Yahoo! and Google. That’s why they hire a web designer, so they don’t have to know about those things. They want to hand over the project to an expert.

CSS is awesome. It has been around for a few years now and has opened up the web design doors and allows creativity and flexibility to pour in. CSS is powerful, takes up much less space, and is the latest and greatest method to style a web site. Like all technology, it evolves and changes to serve everyone better.

But some firms still build sites using tables, which is an archaic method. To use a medical analogy, constructing a web site with tables is like curing an infection by bleeding the patient. CSS is like prescribing antibiotics. It’s that different.

A design firm in my area still insists on designing with tables. My guess is they take advantage of the fact that most lay people don’t know the difference between a CSS site and a Table site. They just roll over links, click, and go to a new page. The problem is, web design is all about what’s new, what works best, and what works fast.

Table design is slow, cumbersome, and all sites look remarkably similar. It’s especially difficult for search engine robots to crawl through and pull out keywords. Because images are nested in several columns and rows, with text buried inside with them.

If a design firm advertises web design as a service it offers, it should be current on development methods. If you are considering having your site redesigned, make sure it’s with a designer who is on top of the best ways to construct a web site. Ask how they build the site. If they use a “tried and true way that’s been around for years because it works” run away. If they answer “We build with HTML 5, or XHTML and CSS” you have a winner.

If a designer is unwilling to move ahead with new development skills, where else are they lagging behind?

Welcome to Free Advice Tuesdays.

Article One: The Flier

There you are, sitting in your executive chair or cubicle, and you need to put together a flier to advertise something new, or to solicit responses from your customer base. All you have at your disposal is Word or Publisher, some clip art (so dashing!) and an endless supply of super cool fonts. This is going to be fun.

You take it upon yourself to use all the spiffy fonts at your disposal. Old English, Papyrus, Comic Sans, they all find a place into your flier. Old English finds its way to the top as the header, and because it’s an important point, you type it in ALL CAPS and bold it too. And for the heck of it, you center it. Papyrus is used as the sub head, and because it’s a friendly flier, you use Comic Sans as the body text.

Yowzers.

If only I was exaggerating. For some reason, when people are confronted with a blank page and too many fonts, they go crazy and have a lot of fun. And there’s nothing wrong with having fun, but don’t subject others to it.

What happens when you use those kinds of fonts is anxiety overload. It does not look cool. It does not look antique, or weathered, or “friendly.” It’s chaos and it should not be inflicted upon the world.

So what do you do when you’re assigned a flier?

KISS it! Keep it simple, stupid.

Pick two fonts tops. A sans serif will work nicely for the headers, such as Helvetica, Arial, or another font that isn’t so common, but refreshingly simple. For the body text, chose a serif font, like Garamond, Times, Georgia, or Arno Pro (my personal favorite). If you can, add space between the lines of text (leading). If you must center the header, that’s fine, but don’t bold, underline, italicize and all caps it. Just make it a little larger, put some space between it and the body text, and leave it at that. Do not go crazy with colors. Pick something dark and easy to read. Black is awesome.

Don’t use clip art unless the life of your first born child or beloved pet is threatened (goldfish do not count). If you have to use photos, pick the best one and use that. Do not overlay text onto the photo. Do not mess with the photo’s transparency.

You may think this method of flier design is boring, but trust me, it’s not. It’s soothing and will actually work much better than using Comic Sans. Never, ever, use Comic Sans.

Last year I met a guy through my business networking group who competed in logo design contests. I had heard of these online contests before, but he was the first person I met who participated in them. Let’s call him Linus for the sake of simplicity and privacy. Linus is a real nice guy and a hard worker. For his main profession he uses a lot of vector programs, and in his spare time likes to compete for logo prizes. To my knowledge he has never won a contest.

He bragged to me about how he went about submitting logos. He said that he “threw some stuff up there” and pretty soon the other “designers” were copying him. So he added an element and “threw it up there” and soon, once again, other people were emulating his work.

It was then that I told him logos weren’t meant to be thrown together. It’s a huge fallacy that because effective logos look simple, they are simple. Wrong-o. It’s not about throwing something together. It’s about coming up with a good design that a client will like, and one which will be effective. I’m mulling over and conceptualizing a couple logos as I type this. It’s not an exact science or something that can be rushed.

What happens when you’re working on speculation? It’s a gamble. Why put a lot of time into a design if there’s only a slight chance you’re going to get paid? What results from design contests is minimal effort. And design is not about minimal effort.

Call me a snob, but I think a design should be thought out, simmered, and cooked to perfection, not thrown together and stored under a heating lamp. It’s the difference between a instant cake, and one baked from scratch.

Speculative work, done by “aspiring” designers, or who are underage, have no reason to invest the time into researching who they are designing for, the industry that client is in, or the best way to go about executing the design. They just “throw up” a graphic that they think will win. Just because people have some fancy software, doesn’t make them a designer.

To find a real logo designer, find one who works on logos in their spare time for practice, not for contests, working to better their skills. There are many talented logo designers over at Logo Pond.