Rules of Logo Design | Hacker News Reader

Rules of Logo Design

tannersite.com

35 pointsjwilliams12 comments

Every successful design breaks at least one "rule". Because information is retained when it's distinct from the norm. Talent in design consists not in following rules but knowing when and how a rule can be broken.

IBM's logo is way too busy. Apple's original logo has too many colors and isn't serious enough. GE is almost antique. UPS has that dull brown.

Hmm .. let's see .. rules demand logo to be recognizable, unique, timeless, bold, confident, surprising in presentation, solid, simple, not distracting and balanced visually.

If you are having trouble with memorizing all these cool adverbs, just stick to the rule #42 .. ready ? ..

  It should be honest in it's representation.

A list that is perfect in its complete and utter uselessness.

Pedantry Corner: They're adjectives, not adverbs.

Damn right they are :)

His logos suck. A good logo should be recognized from it's outline - like BMW, IBM, Apple, Mercedes, the Nazi Party. Using a nice font and adding a butterfly is not a good logo.

So I prefer not to take advice from someone who is not even particularly good.

Too many rules. Examples would work better than a list of rules.

I'm sure you are supposed to assume he follows his own rules and that examples are in his portfolio. That being said, after looking at his portfolio, I was not impressed. Some of the logos he created did not seem memorable at all, had unnecessary detail, etc.

You can't just follow a set of rules to come up with a nice logo. You kind of need to have talent and an eye for colors, typography, etc.

Nevertheless, give him credit for listing out some helpful things to keep in mind for designing things.

The one thing I would say differently is that if you really like a certain logo's style, it isn't a crime to adopt similar styles for your own. All art is influenced by others in some way, and don't stick with something that sucks merely because it's 'original'.

Yeah. The most interesting ones were ones of practice rather than design - check it in b&w, scale it, mirror it, etc. All perhaps obvious to many.

IMHO, being "memorable" is something objective. Even badly designed logos can become very memorable over time.

"Use sharp lines for sharp businesses, smooth lines for smooth businesses."

What is that supposed to mean?

use vague descriptions for va...

... blog articles.

Was I the only one who read this as "Rules of Lego Design" only to have my excitement crushed into a fine powder?

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