What Makes A Truly Great Logo?
Logo design is something I like to play with as part of the creative branch of knowledge here at Deadbeat. I enjoy trying to interpret someone's thoughts and feelings through typography, illustration and design to create strong identity. It's challenging and rewarding and in my experience it's about give and take. I feel there should be an element of collaboration, striking a balance to arrive at a visual identity the client and designer feels best represents their brand, band or business. Of course as a professional, you might find most clients don't know what they want until you serve it to them on the plate.
Initially that plate might be hidden amongst a buffet of different approaches, styles and interpretations. Sometimes you strike lucky first time round and more often than not (for me) it's about pages and pages of sketching, drawn type and collating imagery. A lot of it remains unseen but that's where the value of good design stems from. Working and reworking until it's right.
I'm a big fan of typography now. Hilariously, I detested it during my first year of study in Visual Communications at university but now I see its worth. Leading, kerning, hierarchy and negative space are all considerations when designing a quality word mark. As much as I like to practice that, drawn type is where it's at for me, as shown through the plethora of work on the site. You can sort of contort and subvert all of these letters with little nuances and anomalies that wouldn't normally exist. Again, this isn't for everyone, but it's most enjoyable for me.
My own logo for example, could definitely be tightened up but I want that drawn element, that hint to the fact I tried to imperfectly create a typeface. The boxing gloves, as referred to in the Vox piece are the iconography that represent Dead Beat. I was attempting to show strength in the face of adversity whilst staying minimal. Hopefully that message is becoming synonymous with the readership, as well as becoming a platform for creatives. I'd love this site to be a spot for conversation and inspiration and hopefully that's what I'm building.
Michael's quick blitz through each design component gives a little insight into how it all works and his portfolio speaks of his insane ability when it comes to marrying all of these elements together. His work for Hilary Clinton shows "The Logo System" in full effect. It's smart, simplistic, relatable and can tell a thousand stories at once. Michael suggests that a “great logo” can be almost anything,
On a side note, it's cool that Nike's logo designer earned $35 for simply doing her part extremely well, the brand later honouring the impact of the swoosh design with (probably a metric shit tonne of) stocks just over a decade later.
If you're interested in getting some branding, logo work, content or illustration done, head on over to the "Work With Us" section and drop a message with how we can help you. Thanks for reading.