About: Logo created for the James Bond movie series.

Designer: Joseph Caroff

What I like about this design: This logo is as action-packed as the movie series it represents! The slant of the text is reminiscent of the chase scenes and speeding bullets often associated with James Bond. I love how the designer cleverly blended the number 7 with the barrel of the gun. The entire logo creates a feeling of movement, energy and excitement– a perfect fit for the James Bond series, wouldn’t you say?

The ancient Egyptians often used symbols to communicate. The earliest of these symbols, known as hieroglphys, consisted of pictorial characters called pictographs or ideograms. These characters were literal representations of ideas. If, for example, someone wanted to express the idea of a woman, they drew a picture of a woman.

Much like the ancient Egyptians, modern man uses symbols to express ideas as well. When we wish to express the idea of love, we draw a picture of a heart. When we wish to express the idea of fire, we draw a picture of flames. And when we wish to express the idea of the sun, we draw a picture of the sun. Logo designers often employ this same process when creating brand identities for their clients, often using images to represent words and sounds used in everyday language.

OnStar

Energy Star

Little Foot Children’s Footwear

I Love New York

IBM

Name: Bing

About: Microsoft’s new search engine

Designer: ? (If anyone knows who designed this logo, please let me know)

What I dislike about this logo: My immediate reaction upon first seeing this logo was that it was missing something– it was too “Plain Jane”, so to speak. And while there are plenty of text-based logos in existence, they all should have some element that makes them stand out. Even the font for this logo isn’t unique. Upon visiting the bing.com website, I noticed that the logo changes colors, depending upon the random background shown each time you perform a new search– not a particularly wise strategic move when it comes to brand identity.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
Do you think this logo will work or do you think more time, care and effort should have been taken in the creation of the Bing logo?

Ever remember watching your favorite TV shows as a kid in the 60s, 70s and 80s and being scared to death when they showed the production company logo at the end? No? Well, I do. Although, it wasn’t so much the logos themselves as it was the creepy music that often accompanied them. And while some of you may not agree, or care to admit that these logos were scary, I am definitely not alone in my feelings.

I got the idea to do this blog post from The Closing Logo Group, a Yahoo! Group that got its start back in 1999, whose members frequently post messages about logos that frightened them when they were kids — affectionately referring to the Viacom and Screen Gems logos as the Viacom “V of Doom” and the Screen Gems “S from Hell.” In my quest for more information, I came across two YouTube videos, 10 Scariest TV Logos Of All Time and Scariest TV Logos From Our Childhood, that really capture the creepiness of it all. If you’re still using a dial up connection, here’s a simple trick you can try that’ll have you watching these YouTube videos in no time. Enjoy!

Paramount

Viacom

Screen Gems

Rankin-Bass

Simitar

(Part 2 of a 3-part series. Next week’s post, and part 3 of the series: Using Images To Convey Words)

Last week, we looked at how images can be created from text. Today we’re going to talk about the opposite– creating text from images.

Many times, a designer will get inspiration from the everyday objects they see. From the plate of bacon and eggs they had that morning for breakfast to the rapid spinning of the dryers at the local laundromat, designers often find inspiration in the most unusual ways. As we saw in the Jamba Juice logo a couple of weeks ago, a smoothie swirling in a blender was the inspiration behind the logo’s look.

In the 2talk logo below, the designer was inspired by twirling the phone cord around his finger while speaking with the client. At first glance, the Golf Channel logo just looks like the letter ‘G’ in a unique font. But if you look closer, you can see that the ‘G’ is actually formed by combining an arc swing and a golf tee. Of course not all text created from shapes has to be this elaborate. It can be something as simple as arranging geometric shapes in a way that spells out letters and words, as in the Adobe logo below, or the Brand Union logo we talked about a few weeks ago.

Take a look at the logos below and see if you can guess what inspired each designer.

Woolworths Supermarkets (Supermarket chain based in Australia)

Yoast (Logo of Dutch WordPress developer and online marketer Joost de Valk)

Golf Channel

Adobe

Motorola

2talk (New Zealand-based VoIP broadband phone service)

Bluetooth

Mangia Pasta Bar