Can colour be owned?

In one word, yes. If you have ever taken a look at a colour swatch book you will know there are seemingly endless amounts of options, but those options are quickly becoming limited. For example:

The colour magenta is fully owned by T-mobile. Is this for real? Yes. Deutsche Telekom, parent company to T-mobile, has the full rights to the colour and has taken legal action against a book-on-demand publisher, and the above logo, engadget mobile for the use of it.

What’s Next?

Think about some of the great brands of the world. Think about the colours associated with them. What happens if all of these colours get trademarked? Forget about coming up with new ideas, how are designers supposed to come up with new colours? Their hands will be tied in almost everything they do.

Copyrighting colour is as futile as the copyrighting of a celebrity’s names.

I’ll leave you with a quote from an article on Six Revisions.com (be sure to check out the Six Revisions for a more in-depth analysis on color in design):

Marketing research has found 80% of visual information is related to color. It’s not just a green, a red, a blue, or a magenta. It’s “Starbucks Green”, “Coke Red”, “Gap Blue”, and “T-Mobile Magenta.”

Browse. Buy. Download.

That is Brandstack’s idea of a perfect logo design process. People can go to this popular site to browse logos that are for sale by designers. Many people use this site as a place to put up logos that they have completed for fun or on a whim when an idea came into their heads, while others design for the purpose of selling designs on the site.

Why hire a single freelance logo designer when you can search through thousands of pre-made ones online? Pricing start as low as $250, a very reasonable budget for a new company looking for an image and top out at $210,000. I can only image that people willing to spend that type of money on a logo will be looking elsewhere, but alas, they do exist.

Fellow blogger Selvin Ortiz has compiled a handful of reasons why he cannot stand this logo-sourcing giant in his article, Why I Hate Brandstack. In it, Selvin’s first two arguments are quality control and target market.

Quality Control

Browse through a few pages on Brandstack and you’ll see what Selvin is talking about. Without a doubt there are some fantastic concepts on the site, such as these 20 Great Logos From Brandstack, but there are also a lot that should not have made the cut.

Take the below logos for example:

$29,000

$30,000

Do these prices really justify the design, let alone the thought that went into them?

Crowd-Sourcing

Wes Wilson, founder of Brandstack, has this to say regarding his site’s comparison with other crowd-sourcing websites:

The biggest difference with crowd sourcing models and Brandstack is that all participating designers can benefit from Brandstack’s model. With most crowd sourcing efforts there is one “client” and several “contributors”. That normally leads to one “winner” and several “losers”. With Brandstack there isn’t an open or close date, so your work can be purchased at anytime. If it works as planned, everyone’s designs will sell and everyone will “win”. – via interview at Little Box of Ideas

In theory it is much better, but what about in reality?

Copyright?

Since these logos do not exist as part of a company and most likely have no legal representation behind them, what is stopping these designs and concepts to be ripped off? There have been many horror stories of this happening, leading to a number of former users to withdraw from using the service.

This is not how logo design should be.

Time, research, thought and individuality should all be things considered when creating a new logo. A logo should say something about the company, and how can these logos have anything to say without even knowing its potential buyer?

Look at the logo process of respected designers Jacob Cass or David Airey and you can literally see how much they put into their simple, yet effective logos. Brandstack offers nothing remotely close.

What do you think?

Could this tool be used for good? Should designers continue to use sites like this to sell their work?

Below are 25 of the most famous and most inspiring logos that make use of a square. Some of these logos use a stylized square as a graphical element, some use it as a simple square to enforce dominance.

The simplicity of these logos is what makes them memorable. If you come across any more that you think are exceptional, please link to them in the comments.

Take a look at 50 Excellent Circular Logos at Web Designer Depot, the inspiration for this post.

I have collected the following logos that have been done in honor of some major professional sports teams – these logos are not in use, although some of them definitely should be.

I will also say, without a doubt, this Vancouver Canucks logo is probably the best sports logo I have ever seen – see the discussions about it here.

Vancouver Canucks

New Jersey Devils

Dallas Stars

Tampa Bay Lightning

Toronto Maple Leafs

Colorado Avalanche

Florida Panthers

Nashville Predators

Detroit Red Wings

Philadelphia Flyers

Buffalo Sabers

Chicago Blackhawks

Detroit Lions

Oakland Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Timberwolves

New York Mets

Take a look at some more hockey logos at PuckDrawn.com – some of you Leaf fans may be surprised by how good these options look.

Image Cred - http://icanhascheezburger.com/

#1 LogoPond

LogoPond is probably my favorite place when looking for constructive criticism. You can create a profile with some information about yourself and include as many logos as you wish. Every month LogoPond will showcase a specific showcase, or user, that gets you tons of exposure. You are able to select which logos you want feedback on, which are in use and which are just for fun. To top things off, LogoPond gives you the option to showcase logos that are for sale.

#2 Logo Lounge

Similar to LogoPond, Logo Lounge offers a community of peers that can evaluate and criticize your designs. On top of that, has three very informative blog categories: Logos in the news, current logo trends, and guest editorials. You can find these on the home page. Logo Lounge also displays a featured member, along with a featured logo designer for your inspirational needs.

#3 How Magazine

A great site all-around, How Magazine has a wonderful forum that allows users to upload images of their designs and ask for active feedback. Its ‘Critiques’ section has over 29,000 posts alone. The resources for freelancers, resume help, general business and more listed on this site are almost limitless as well.

#4 Graphic Design Forum

This is the forum I use the most. It is so popular that you can get feedback within minutes from a diverse group of fellow designers. ‘The Crit Pit’ has over 84,000 posts and is only one of many popular threads on the site. Many categories also exist to help with printing problems, web design help, and basic questions about programs such as Adobe, Quark, Corel and more.

#5 deviantART

deviantART is an often forgotten about place to find feedback. Not only can you seek criticism for logos, but you can use it for nearly every other form of media as well. This is one of my favorite places for inspiration.

Conclusion

Whether it is for a school project or for a client, constructive criticism is always a good idea and these sites will get you on the right track.

For you other logo design needs, inspiration or general questions, I recommend taking a look at Logo Design Love.

Am I missing a site that you think should be on this list? Leave a comment below and let us know.

As I mentioned in my last post, The Worst Client and Innovative Thinking, creativity may have it’s limits. Either way, logos can look very similar. Some of this may happen by accident and some on purpose, but how similar is too similar?

Apple has taken legal actions to try and prevent Australian retailer Woolworths from using its new logo because it is too similar to Apple’s. The Brisbane Times has more on the story.

Where is the line drawn on the issue of logo similarity? If Apple can prevent any type of apple-esque symbol in a logo, it is as if Apple trademarked the concept behind its logo rather than the logo itself.

Are legal actions too extreme in this case? What do you think?

Take a look at this article on Logo Design Love to see more examples of When Logos Look Alike.

Alex Gould (of Rhyme With Orange Creative) wrote a note on Facebook late last night while working on some work for himself. It was a brief note, but brought up some great points. Branding for yourself calls for your most creative ideas, ideas which can sometimes take months to come up with. This got me thinking about another design anomaly.

People in the creative industry are always looking for something new and fresh. With so many designers out there now, how many new concepts can we come up with? Will there ever come a point where there are no ideas left when wanting to design a simple yet powerful logo?

David Airey has posted a fantastic comment by one of his readers, Douglas Bonneville, about how logos might be viewed as the fossil fuel of the design industry. Is there a limit on our creativity? Will different trends be the root of new and innovative ideas? Take a look at Logos: the fossil fuel of design? and to read more about it, or leave your comment below.

It seems to be a consensus that the new Pepsi logo is awful. Is it because change is bad, and people liked the old one? Maybe. Or is it just a poorly put together logo with a bad concept? I admit, the concept seems absolutely ridiculous, calling on inspiration ranging from 3000 BC to the present. It includes such notables as the Hindu Tradition of numerical harmony as a spatial organizer, the Parthenon, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the Vitruvian Man, along with hand proportions and head rotations.

If by now you haven’t downloaded the pdf, here is the link again. I strongly encourage anyone that is interested in design, carbonated beverages, or the crazy disarray of advertising to check it out.

My Interpretation

When reading the numerous blogs associated with the new Pepsi logo, I couldn’t help but recall a line from the HBO series, Mad Men. First off, it’s a great series that shows you the world of advertising from a completely different perspective, especially to those who were not around during that time. Secondly, as mentioned in the show, advertising is not based on how appealing something is, nor how functional it is, and not even where the inspiration came from. Effective advertising is something that keeps people talking. Don Draper (from Mad Men) and his associates are discussing a Volkswagen magazine ad in Playboy, and while the majority of people are laughing at how bad it is, Don says, “Well there must be something about it. We’ve been discussing it for fifteen minutes, and this [holds up the magazine] is Playboy.”

So there you have it, Don Draper agrees that it is not about the design, the catch phrase, or anything else. It is about how effective it is. And from my point of view, the new Pepsi logo is doing exactly what it wanted to do – create buzz around the product.