Graphic design humour: naked logos

Iconic brand logos are so installed in our visual language that sometimes just a colour or a font is the immediate recognizable element of a brand. We’ve already seen a version of honest logos that put into a funny manner the reality behind them. Well this time, myHOTjuly came up with a logo series that they have called naked logos, which has the same principal concept. It has a slightly different take on the honesty behind the brand, referring more to what we probably think or unconsciously know about the brand itself.

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Graphic design news: Liechtenstein votes for their new logo

The small Principality of Liechtenstein is currently having a voting contest to choose the country’s new visual identity. Every citizen over 14 years old is allowed to choose between five proposals that were made by agencies from all over Europe. The basic guidelines of the logos are based on the national’s colours -red and blue- and some of them refer to the royalty condition of the nation using dashes of gold. The logo should also take in consideration the fundamental principles and values of the little country, such as its independence, national security, self-determination, etc. Here are the contestants:

I’d have to say that this is proposal falls short in the sense of creating a consistent brand. The use of gradients and different triangular shapes look carelessly put, which makes a weird combination and not a very recognizable or strong logo.

In this proposal we can see again the use of polygonal shapes that use the 2 national colours plus the gold that refers to the Principality character. Unlike the previous logo, this one has a more consistent look relying on its simplicity. Considering Liechtenstein is known for its independence and overall neutrality amidst Europe, the sober look of this logo might live up to the intended spirit.

The third proposal focuses more on the flag’s colours, applied onto polygons (we might see a pattern here) with a light use of gradients to give a sense of volume. It certainly has a youthful look, specially considering the rounded type choice. This is a consistent logo, but I personally think it might fall into a more generic look. Besides, that spacing between Liechten and Stein looks kinda weird.

The next logo proposal refers directly to the royalty character of the country. It has a sober look that mixes the national colours with a gold crown and, although a bit more literal,  has a lot more character and recognizability potential than the previous proposals. The letter L is beautifully constructed, it has that Fraktur look to it that evokes to the germanic heritage of the country. The font chosen for this logo matches perfectly the literal look, given its clean strong character. It’s definitely a unique logo.

And last but not least, the fifth proposal goes in a different way than the previous ones. This logo also uses the red-blue-gold combination as well as the use of the crown. For a change they’ve gone with the use of coloured dots to create a diamond shape with an also dot-constructed crown. It’s paired up with a rounded typography, which makes this logo look a bit childish- I’m not quite sure if this logo would work as a nation’s identity though.

So what do you think? Which of these logos suites Liechenstein’s identity the most ? I’d have to go for the 4th proposal, it certainly has a distinct look and lots of recognizability.

Via

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Amazing findings: Wire Sculptures

Gavin Worth is a designer/illustrator/artist based in El Cairo, Egypt. His work in both design and art is very cool and even more impressive considering he’s a self-taught artist and designer all around. This time I’d like to refer to his amazing work with wire sculptures that combines both manual skills and drawing abilities. According to him:

By bending black wire into something of freestanding line drawings, I create sculptures that engage the viewer by involving them in their subtle changes. When the light in the room shifts, so does the mood of the piece. A breeze might softly move an arm. My wire sculptures tell stories of simple human moments: a woman adjusting her hair, a face gazing from behind tightly wrapped arms, a mother gently cradling her baby. The honest, unguarded moments are the ones that I find to be the most beautiful.

His work has this non-chalant look, like he just draws a line onto paper and they sort of remind me of Picasso’s sketches. Check out his other amazing pieces as an artist and also his adventures as a designer, he sure has some great stuff under the sleeve.

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Funny illustrations: Superheroes in simple math

There have been various great examples of the minimalistic trend of pop culture characters and illustrator Matt Cowen’s work doesn’t fall short. It’s a pretty basic idea but it’s quite funny and clever as he takes various fictional characters and disects them into their basic parts (I can’t find a more accurate word for it). Some of them are quite easy to recognize but others might take some work to figure out. Give it a try and enjoy these brilliant illustrations of which you can find t-shirts of in this site.

Bruce Willis

Captains

Zombies

Johnny Depp

Via

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Interesting findings: visualized bird migrations

Data visualization is a complicated matter for us designers. Many times an outstanding amount of info can be difficult to translate into a readable, easy and hopefully beautiful design/infography/edition/etc. But as in every other aspect in life, the simplest solutions might be the most accurate. This is the case of this brilliant project by e-bird, a project which collects all the data of the migrating birds in the US in a year and transform them into animated gifs. The gifs are sorted out by bird species and I have to admit that they have kind of a poetic look to them, like the birds take over a vast territory, moving back and forth sort of like a moving flame (I guess the orange shades of the animation are the cause of that). The animations are classified by species and they cover the period of a whole year, it’s actually very interesting to see how the different species take over specific territories. It’s definitely some pretty amazing work that’s worth taking a look at.

Via, featured image

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Pixellogo template review: Logo-2467

Today’s Pixellogo template review features Logo-2467, a colourful and elegant design with a classic look. This logo design consists of three overlapping feathers, each one in a different colour gradient that converge at the base. The feathers are slightly crooked to the right giving the overall design a dynamic feel. The colours chosen vary from dark and earthy to light shades of blue, and although they might not seem to combine by their own, in this case they make a cohesive look.

The overall design is completed with a serif font, in this particular case in italic which works for the classic look of the logo template. The combination of this font style and the inclination of the feathers make up for the dynamic feel of this logo and for the elegant style of it. This logo design would work well with communication related companies, editorial brands or magazines, newspapers. The colours translate really well in print and this is what this logo would look like in a business card. Make sure to visit our catalog for more logo templates!

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Detailed Signs

I fear I am boring everyone I know with talk and information about the aurora borealis phenomenon. Ever since I first saw the highly detailednorthern lights here in Iowa back in November of 2004, I have found them fascinating. But because I figured they were pretty

Digital Artwork for Custom Signs

rare here I didn’t really get into being an aurora follower back then. Then just this past October, I saw them again here in Iowa. Again, I was completely fascinated but figured it would be a long time, if ever, that I would see them again. So again, I didn’t become an aurora follower (I just hoped that I would get lucky enough to see them again at a later date if they ever happened to be visible down this way again). Then just last week, the northern hemisphere was treated to an amazing aurora show. And although I personally didn’t get to witness them, I have been astounded by the photos I’ve been finding online showing the beauty that was seen. As a result, NOW I have become an aurora follower. It turns out that it is possible that I might have been able to see a bit of the aurora on the northern horizon last week if the skies had been clear (which they weren’t). So along with signing up to receive text alerts when the aurora activity level is high enough that I might be able to see something, I have also been perusing space/science websites learning all about them. And of course, being the talker that I am, I have been regurgitating a vast majority of the information that I have learned to my family and friends. The only problem is that they are not nearly as interested as I am, so I think it’s time to cool it a bit with the aurora talk, so I don’t bore them all into a stupor. I should just wear a sign that says, “I love the auroras. Got questions? Just ask. I may or may not be able to give you an answer.”

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Amazing findings: carved book landscapes

Montreal based artist Guy Laramée has some outstanding work both in painting and book carving among other various disciplines and, as he states in his website, his work focuses mainly on the concept of spirituality and the consciousness of being. His pieces are really interesting and if you dig up a bit into his work you can find yourself admiring beautiful, almost ethereal landscapes that can put you in this state of mind he presents through his work.

But this time I’d like to refer to his carved book landscapes which are sort of dug up sculptures he carves from bound books with such amazing detail that can leave you speechless. Whether you know of his conceptual background or not, this breathtaking works of art are an amazing tribute to all landscapes you could imagine. His inspiration varies from wild landscapes (very Lord of the Rings locations look if I might say) to zen gardens and even the Great Wall of China. But enough words, here are the pictures:

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Pixellogo template review: Logo-2473

Today’s logo review features Logo-2473, one of our newly released logo templates. This logo design has a retro looking style with its font picks that combine old school chunky type with a sign style font that has a nice flow to it. The retro character of this logo is due its little details, such as the little stars and striped line at the bottom. The types chosen are very bold and they go well with the pint’s design, that has also a combination of bright shades of orange and completes the logo template with its bold strokes and simple shape.

It’s definitely a cute design, very modern and in the lines of the retro style trend for which it would be perfect for a new bar or a re-branding of one. The round shape that surrounds the design encloses the whole logo template to give it a more finished look. It would look great on badges, signs or even coasters. With this logo template you can also choose to get the business card, and here you can find more logo templates in this style.

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Awesome type: topographic alphabet

We’ve seen already some examples of 3D typographies which are digital based. The folks at Synoptic Office have brought up the concept of 3D type to another level. In their website they have 2 beautiful examples of different applications of type, the most eye-catching one being the project Alphabet Topography, which as the name states, consists of embossed letters in different levels, as in the topographic maquettes. The result is an abstract looking typeface that can only be fully seen at a certain angle and plays with the various heights of each letter.

Their next project that I want to mention plays with the same concept of the curved lines that give the illusion of volume. They called it Swell: A Typeface. Basically it consists of a bunch of straight lines that are distorted in curves for this ‘swell’ effect. Pretty brilliant if I might say, and maybe also a wink to the Joy Division fans out there?

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