Staying true to the recognisable image of a mountain peak jutting from the horizon, Devastudios, Inc have redesigned the logo which has far greater detail than some of the earlier uses of the familiar setting. Paramount first started using a logo in 1914, which has always featured the same snow covered peaks of Wastach. The original, as shown below was designed by William Wadsworth Hodkinson:

As is often the case with logos of a grand age, legend has it that Hodkinson made of doodle of the peaks on a napkin during a business meeting. Remarkably, the typography has remained almost untouched from the original, with only minor adjustments made to the joinings of the characters. That’s if you were to be generous and ignore the bevel effect on todays version, which is forgiveable seen as the logo is in effect an indent for the company’s productions as well as the official identity.

However, the new logo seems to have lost 2 stars over the years, sporting just 22 now instead of the original 24. It’s definitely an iconic image and I have to say the panoramic landscape is quite breathtaking. You can watch the full use of the anniversary logo in the video here.

What’s this first thing you notice about your car? Is it the leather interior? Or maybe it’s the shiny alloy wheels? One design aspect which is overlooked completely is the logotype. Each car model is unique and the lettering used to market the product to the consumer reflects this, displaying the personality of the car. Whilst some manufacturers employ a custom designed font for each new model, others prefer to keep them in line with the whole product range, in effect creating a bespoke font family. Next time your sat in traffic take a look to see if you can notice any of the following 85 Automotive Logotypes that I have featured below:

Maybe you’re wondering why we haven’t featured the likes of Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari or Lamborghini? Well, during our research we found that the more lucrative and expensive vehicles mades by car manufacturers such as those just mentioned, do not feature stylised typography and in most cases have shorter model names. For example, the Audi have the TT, BMW manufacturer the Z3, and Mercedes have the C-Class. Is this a coincidence that such luxurious vehicles have been branded in such a way?

Books

Star Wars The Blueprints

I’m not a Star Wars fan myself, but I know a lot of you design geeks are so this could be the ideal gift for you. It’s very pricey for a book, starting from $500 but that is to be expected for a limited edition. It details all of the original blueprint drawings for the original movie plus more.

Idn magazine Logographic

A great little magazine that features the opinions of 17 leading designers on the art and practice of logo design. Comes with a bonus DVD.

Brand Identity Essentials

The fourth in a series of books that studies different disciplines of design, 100 Branding Essentials offers an in depth list of rules, tips and know-how during the branding process. A great read and well worth it for the price.

365 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers

This book would be perfect for a student or anyone who is looking to make a career of graphic design. Learn the habits of the pros with this hefty list of helpful tips.

Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer & Typographer

I cannot praise this man highly enough. Herb Lubalin is possibly my most favourite designer ever. I don’t have this book as it is no longer in production, but I have had the privilege of reading it in a library once. All I can say is, if you can get a used copy via Amazon or eBay, you won’t be disappointed.

Pictoplasma – The Character Encyclopedia

Also no longer in print but a beaut of a book. It’s very pricey now but you should be able to pick up a copy for under £200. Get one now and it could be worth even more than that at a later date. Or it might end up being a very expensive door stop.

Jon Burgerman – Pens are my friends

Jon Burgerman is a superb illustrator hailing from the United Kingdom. His artwork and this book is packed full of colour and creativity to help get those creative juices overflowing nicely.

Threadless – Ten years of t-shirts

It will probably make you feel old knowing that Threadless is over 10 years old. This book features some of their greatest submissions during that period.

Doyald Young – Logotypes & Letterforms

Sadly, one of the greatest typography masters, Doyald Young passed away this year. I strongly recommend his books, which are absolutely stunning and very insightful into the craft of drawing letters.

Typomag

Anyone who is passionate about typography should really get their hands (& eyes) on this beautiful book. Packed full of examples, this is typographical retina candy at its best.

Smashing Logo Design

A shameful plug I know, but this would be the ideal gift for anyone who has the slightest bit of interest in logo design.

Accessories

Pencil Sharpener Desk Tidy

It’s a giant pencil sharpener shaped pencil holder desk tidy thing. Need I say any more?

Pantone iPhone & iPad Case

Not a fan of Apple’s uncolourful products? Spice them up with some Pantone covers. Many colours available.

Drumstick Pencils

Anyone would love this gift, designer or not. Would be perfect for those video conference calls where you want to get yourself noticed or just annoy the hell out of your co-workers.

Lightbox

This may seem like a strange entry to some, and it’s understandable to assume that tracing is for copycats and plagiarists! Well, the design process can often involve a laborious revision process and so to save time it is often handy to have equipment that helps to easily refine your sketches. Say goodbye to windows and tape and pick up one of these little fellas.

Iron Ampersand

If you know someone who wants to add some weight to their typography collection then why not pick up (or try to!) this great object by the House Industries type foundry. Be wary of postage though, it weighs in at a hefty 8kg! Plus it ain’t cheap.

Dodo Case

Is it a book or an iPad? If you have a loved one who wants to take extra special care of their iPad then this is the case for them. The Dodo Case is dead good (pun intended).

Icon Watch by & Design

A very unique and understated watch design by ‘& design’ based in Japan. It would perfect for knowing when it is time to design, especially if you love retro memorabilia.

Logo – The Board Game

Christmas isn’t complete without a friendly argument over a board game. If you’re a designer, why not get one step ahead and purchase one completely dedicated to logos and brands! You’ll be surprised how much non-designers will love this game too.

DVDs

Helvetica

Love it or hate it, Helvetica is everywhere. You know a typeface has made a massive impact upon the world when a documentary has been made about it! Surprisingly, it is very very entertaining.

Objectifigied

If you’ve ever been curious about how every day objects are designed this is the perfect DVD for you.

Genius of Design

A lovely series that documents the history of design from the Industrial Revolution right up the present day.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Any graffiti fan would love to own this documentary about the illusive graf artist, Banksy. The question is, is it real or not? Watch and make up your own mind.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

With the recent passing of Steve Jobs still fresh in the mind, why not give that Apple fan a great insight into the man himself. This lesser known title that delves into the relationship he had with his notorious competitor, Bill Gates.

I hope your wallet/credit card doesn’t hurt too much after reading this post. Fin

Last season’s logo, when the tournament was sponsored by eon is super simple, with the silhouette of the trophy being the main focal point.

This season, the tournament has been completed rebranded due to the new sponsorship deal with Budweiser. What do you think of the design?

I personally think that the artwork is executed brilliantly but can’t help but notice that the style seems to be very Americanised, kind of something you would expect for the Super Bowl Would that have something to do with the location of the new sponsors, and whether they had some input on the aesthetics? Hopefully, one of England’s greatest and oldest national competitions doesn’t lose it’s identity completely.

This is the logo that I created towards the end of last year:

And here is an example of the logo in use, on my watch that I picked up from Selfridges in Birmingham, UK:

If you are interested in purchasing one of these limited edition timepieces you can do so here. I’ll be publishing a detailed case study of this project on the new dwd website which will (finally!) be launching in the new year.

The Halloween season is over and now another issue has resurfaced that scares designers worldwide. Unfortunately, Brandstack, a website which sold community submitted logo designs for three years, has closed it’s doors once and for all. I’m not one to put the boot in as I will be sad to see people lose their jobs, but the fact that another stock logo outfit has gone out of business is technically a good thing in terms of preserving the integrity of the graphic design profession and more specifically, logo designers.

From a Spring to a Tsunami

I’m not going to lie & pretend that I have never sold what is technically a ‘stock logo’. I’ve been on both sides of the fence, which is why I think I can give a balanced viewpoint. A stock logo, is a logo design that was created for the purpose of being in a shop window (website) for a potential buyer to purchase, as opposed to the more common practice of designing under a contractual agreement between a designer and a client. The practice of partaking in stock logo design differs from crowdsourcing as there isn’t yet a client, the designer sits and waits hoping for someone to catch the bait.

I became aware of Brandstack back in 2008 when it very first started (it was known as Incspring in those days). Advertisements sold ‘Incspring’ as a place for designers to sell their unused logo design concepts. Obviously, I was drawn to this as I take on a lot of logo design projects each year, which results in a lot of designs not seeing the light of day. So I thought, ‘what harm could it do to earn a little extra money for work I’ve already completed’? Looking back I was naive in my judgement and didn’t have the foresight to see what could potentially happen.

The Incspring community in the early days was primarily made up of highly skilled designers who had made a name for themselves through the logo design inspiration website, Logopond. Back then (as far as I know) ‘unused designs’ we’re exactly that, concepts that were originally created for a real creative brief that were rejected by the client. If someone else can use it, that can only be a good thing, right?

Unfortunately, a select few members of the community, decided to try and increase their own sales by poaching available domains names and designing logos as a packaged product, which means the designs were no longer ‘unused’ by a previous intended buyer. This trend really caught on which saw masses of users signing up to doodle in their favourite vector program, slap a name next to it, call it a logo and hope that it sells. In my own opinion, this is not a professional logo design service. When I noticed that this practice became more prominent I decided to take down all of my unused logos for sale and remove all previously sold stock from my portfolio as it went against my morals as a designer, and more importantly the type of service that I wanted to provide to people.

This post is not a dig at Brandstack (though I still don’t understand the name choice since they were never technically selling brands let alone stacking them), and it is not the only place where you can buy stock logos, there are still many out there unfortunately. It’s also not the first outlet of a similar type of service to go out of business. A company as large as Istockphoto (the name gives it away) had to drop stock logos from their online services.

If one business owner who is thinking of buying a stock logo, or one designer who is thinking of selling one reads this post then I will be delighted as hopefully it will make them think carefully before doing so.

As a summary, here are my reasons why I am against the practice of stock logo design:

How stock logo design harms business owners:

• No real way of identifying if the design they have purchased is a product of piracy (yet this could also apply to contractual agreements)
• reduces chances of a real brand message. Logo design is not just a clever trick or a pretty picture

How stock logo design harms designers:

• devalues their own worth
• clouds their understanding of a creative process
• reduces amount of respect gained from within the design community

How stock logo design harms the design industry:

• devalues the profession of designing logos, as stock sellers set really low prices to make a sale
• cuts out important elements of a valid creative process which in turn confuses potential clients of how they should set about getting a logo designed for themselves
• increases piracy as ‘criminals’ see it as an easy way to make money through stealing existing logos in use by real clients only to sell them via a stock proprietor

Hopefully, the closure of Brandstack, will make people reassess whether stock logo design is the best route to go down, for their business or their career. I just hope that the designers who primarily made a living from selling through Brandstack don’t just jump ship to another stockist and continue to sell ‘fake’ logos. I understand that not everyone is privileged to get real requests for proposals from clients but there are many other ways to build up a portfolio of work, which I will give advice on in my next post.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of the pumpkin carving bonanza that has been taking part at DWD over the last week or so. Have a great halloween.

I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and do one of those annoying competitions to allow anyone the chance at winning a copy of my book, Smashing Logo Design.

To enter, all you have to do is send a public tweet or to @downwithdesign explaining why you are ‘down with design’. It can be positive or negative, it’s entirely up to you but be sure to include the hashtag #downwithdesignbook. You can send tweets from 12pm – 12am GMT on Monday 3rd October 2011. Well, you could send them after that if you like but they won’t count.

To find out more about the book that you could win visit www.smashinglogodesign.net. Good Luck!

I’m pleased to say that my book, Smashing Logo Design, will go on sale in both the UK & US on Friday 10th June 2011. Pre-orders are now being taken from all of the large book retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones.

To find out more about the book please visit: www.smashinglogodesign.net

It got me thinking that in a sense logos have been around much longer than the first ever registered trademark, and that logos are not just for us mere commoners, even royalty has a use for them. Below I’ve compiled and listed the familiar logos, crests & emblems used by the British Royal Family.

Royal Coat of Arms

The Royal Coat of Arms is the official coat of arms of the reigning head of the British Monarchy, who is currently Queen Elizabeth II. It may only be used by the Queen.
The three lions are also used in a variety of logos relating to english sports teams as explained in this previous article that I have written, History of the English Three Lions.

Badge of the House of Windsor

The badge of the House of Windsor is used to represent the ruling house of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms. It was first used in 1930 when King George IV changed the family name to Windsor for fear that the Royal Family was perceived as being too “German rather than English”. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was therefore changed to the rather English sounding Windsor.

Buckingham Palace

Yes, even Buckingham Palace has it’s own logo which features a one-colour version of the Royal Coat of Arms matched with a very modern looking uppercase sans-serif font. This is found on all documents (including official letterheads) issued by the palace.

Prince Charles Coat of Arms

I can’t get over the tremendous amount of detail that goes into the design of these Royal Coat of Arms. The Prince of Wales. One interesting fact is that it includes the German phrase ‘Ich Dien’ which translates ‘I serve’ which also hints towards the German links tied to the British Royal Family.

Prince of Wales’ Feathers

Technically referred to as a heraldic badge, The Prince of Wale’s Feathers are used by Prince Charles during all of his official activites and is also commonly used by the Welsh Rugby Union team. Again, the phrase ‘Ich Dien’ is taken from Prince Charles’ own Royal Coat of Arms.

Royal Insignia

Queen’s Personal Flag

Personal flag of Queen Elizabeth II is used to symbolise the Queen’s rank and dignity. It does have a European Union vibe to it, maybe it’s the circular form and colours.

The Royal Parks

Yep, even The Royal Parks have a logo, designed by London based 300 million.

Royal Mail

Although it is no longer an official ‘Royal Service’, the Royal Mail still carries the crown emblem to symbolise it’s history. Founded in 1516, it was initially only used by Royalty until it was made a public service over 100 years later. You will see this logo, or variations on it on traditional red postboxes all over the United Kingdom.