logo mashups [article]

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/interesting-logo-mash-ups/ Who says graphic design isn’t fun? On the contrary, being a graphic and logo designer is quite a thrilling and entertaining profession in itself. Just last week, I managed to find some leisure time and decided on playing with famous corporate identities. The Idea came up when I thought of some major corporate mergers this year. I thought…why not visualize some other famous corporate mergers myself.

In under an hour of Photoshop manipulation and with some quick wit, I managed to create 20 side-splitting logo mash-ups. Besides the humorous aspect of my endeavor, these logo mergers will demonstrate how famous corporate identities would look after a merger. So, come along guys and enjoy these 20 imaginative logo mash-ups:

1. Audi + Disney = Audisney

2. 3M + McDonalds = 3McDonalds

3. BBC + CNN = BBCNN

4. Cadillac + Lacoste = Cadillacoste

5. CISCO + Colgate = CisColgate

6. FedEx + Exxon = FedExxon

7. Daihatsu + Subway = Daihatsubway

8. GAP + Apple = Gapple

9. L’oreal + Real Player = L’oreal Player

10. Google + Lego = Googlego

11. Mac + Accenture = Maccenture

12. Pepsi + Siemenes = Pepsiemens

13. Michelin + Intel = Michelintel

14. Nintendo + Dockers = Nintendockers

15. Nissan + Sayno = Nissanyo

16. Oracle + Levi’s = Oraclevis

17. Rolex + XBOX = RolexBOX

18. Shell + Shleter = Shelter

19. Twitter + Terminator = Twitterminator

20. Visa + SAP = VISAP

In the end, I also tried to experiment with my own GDB logo and found Blogger logo to be the best choice for the mash-up…I am sure you’ll like this one too:

Graphic Design Blog + Blogger = Graphic Design Blogger

independent project : South Akron Kraken baseball team uniform/logos

I have always had a large interest in sports teams logos and uniforms, as you can see by some of my blog posts. Finally I get the opportunity to start from scratch (name, logo, colors, uniforms) and design everything myself. I am in the Northeast Ohio Roy Hobbs Baseball League in Akron, and starting this year me and my friend will be player coaches for a new team in which we named the South Akron Kraken. We have decided to go with black/silver/blue/white (just like Toronto Blue Jays from 2010) So far I have come up with the design at bottom, but it needs a lot of tweaking. The SA logo will be on the hats. Actual uniform designs will be coming during Christmas break when I have time. Looking forward for this team to take shape.

10 mistakes graphic designers should not be making [article]

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/worst-graphic-designers-mistakes/

The most common way for a graphic designer to learn is through trial and error. Especially for young and aspiring graphic designers, who keep on committing mistakes because of lack of experience. You must have heard of the old adage “To err is human”. So the next time you make a mistake, don’t fret over it…instead learn from your blunders. Having learnt from my mistakes, which I encountered in my career, I wish to educate my fellow designers about some of the errors, which they should avoid in any case. Following are 10 of the most common mistakes that most graphic designers commit in their graphic design careers:

1. Working without a Design Brief:

In any graphic design project, the details are necessary to guide a designer through the entire process. Some graphic designers have a bad habit of being overly confident and start the project without acquiring a detailed design brief.  A design brief helps you collect all the information about your clients’ design project. Without knowing your client’s requirements, you simply cannot work on a logo design project.

2. Ignoring the Target Audience: The purpose of graphic design is to visually aid companies in expressing their message to their target market. Hence, if the graphic designers ignore the target audience, they will never be able to create the right design. In order to create relevant designs, you must first analyze the intended customers for which it is aimed at. Overlooking the target will lead to a weak and aimless design.

3. Not maintaining a Contract:

In a graphic designer’s career, salary and payments issues are frequent. When you don’t maintain a contract with your clients, you are likely to be swindled of your hard earned money. I don’t wish to imply that every client has ill-intentions. But some clients have a habit of getting the work done and running away with it without paying the designer.

4. Avoiding Contact with the Client: Some graphic designers feel shy while some are completely ignorant when it comes to staying in touch with the client. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your professional life is not communicating with your clients properly. By not staying in touch with clients during the project, you make them feel ignored and unwanted. You must take feedbacks from them to avoid any client criticisms in the end.

5. Procrastinating:

In any profession, deadlines are extremely crucial to meet. By completing your work on time, you exhibit your determination and sincerity to commitments. Some graphic designers tend to procrastinate on their projects. When they end up falling short of their deadline, they pass off a mediocre design asminimalism design trend. Procrastination will make your clients go away since they expect you to be efficient.

6. Not Staying up-to-date: In this cut-throat competition, it is essential for graphic designers to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field of graphic design. As technology upgrades every day, newer and better ways of graphic designing are evolving. Those who fail to catch-up in graphic designing eventually lose the race.

7. Not Starting in Black and White: Some graphic designers fail to understand the importance of starting in black and white. They directly create the colored version of the design. This is a big mistake as one should know how the design looks in black and white because some promotional mediums don’t allow for colors. Hence, what you create in color might not look good in black and white.

8. Pass off Plagiarism as Inspiration:

One of the prime qualities of a graphic designer is their ability to be original. Another big blunder you could make as designers is to copy others work. Some designers have a bad habit of passing off what they plagiarize as merely inspiration. While you may get away with it sometimes, but in the long run, your credibility as a genuine and original designer will be badly affected.

9. Neglecting the Power of Simplicity: Some graphic designers believe that if they add more effects in design, it will become attractive. But the reality is otherwise. Adding too many elements to a design makes it complicated and messy to look at. They often neglect the power and significance of simplicity. Instead of making intricate and difficult to comprehend designs, designers must prefer simple concept that the target audience will remember.

10. Lose Confidence:

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one. Be it graphic designing or any other profession, confidence is crucial in the success of your career. One of the gravest mistake you can make as a graphic designer is to lose hope in the middle of a project. There will be times when you will get tired of working on a project or be unsatisfied with the results. But never give up and carry on until you achieve your desired results.

How Clients Deceive Graphic Designers [article]

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/clients-decieve-graphic-designers/

Graphic designing is not just about using design skills and aesthetics. In order to succeed as professional graphic designers, you must also possess business sense and interpersonal skills to deal with clients. Those designers who are devoid of these skills are usually bullied around by clients. Being in the professional world, you cannot afford to be a pushover. Most of us generally assume clients to be harmless and unknowledgeable people who can cause no trouble for graphic designers. But there are some bad client types that have the ability to take undue advantage of graphic designers who are vulnerable to client trickery. Hence, you must be aware of how to avoid being ripped off by shrewd clients. Here are some common ways that clients try to dupe designers into going the extra mile. Also explained are the ways to avoid them.

1. Asks for Excessive Revisions:

Some clients use a shrewd approach to take designers for a ride. After having completed the final work, they will ask you to “Make Slight Adjustments”. Design revisions are acceptable to a certain extent, but when these requests keep piling up, you can be sure that you’re being ripped off your time and energy. The time that you could have spent in making money elsewhere is exhausted by the client who takes you for granted.

2. Demands Outright Plagiarism:

Copying someone else’s work is one thing, but to be forced by a client to implement an exactly similar design is downright wrong. Some would find it hard to believe, but I have myself encountered some clients who provide a sample design (mostly a famous one) and demand that I imitate it with slight modifications. Believe it or not, this happens and if you don’t stand up against this, you might end up creating a copied design that will eventually stain your graphic design portfolio.

3. Stipulates Unreasonable Deadline:

Another shrewd technique employed by clients is to give unreasonable deadlines to designers. Their trick here is that they will pay for a day’s worth and get work done for a month’s worth. Some designers who are subdued comply with this unreasonable demand and end up messing up their work. You simply cannot let the designer set an unrealistic and unfeasible cut-off date for the project.

4. Reluctant to Pay:

Some swindling clients tend to delay the payments with lame excuses. This happens mostly withnewbie graphic designers who are desperate on earning from a design project. These clients take undue advantage of the designers who are pushovers and eventually end up absconding away with the design work without paying a cent.

5. Unwarranted Threats:

Blackmailing is one of the most despicable and contemptible acts by a client. When a dispute or serious issue arrives and it is the client’s fault, he will resort to hurling unwarranted threats at graphic designers. They would also threaten to take legal actions and demand that whatever they say be done. Those designers who are not aware of how to do business dealings bow down in front of these scheming clients.

Tip: How to Avoid Being Ripped Off by Clients

Some designers have a soft corner for clients and just cannot refuse the endless revisions. Others are simply inexperienced with the trade of business dealings and legal documentations. In order to save designers from being taken for a ride by these deceiving clients, a simple solution is to lay the ground rules before taking on a graphic design project. Sign a contract that stipulates the design brief, time, budget and number of revisions on the project. This will spare you time and energy trying to refuse the client for undue revisions. Moreover, it will also protect you from any legal complications with the clients.

Miami Marlins new logo/uniforms....colorful & distinctive

The Miami Marlins will be colorful. They will be distinctive.

Different, not only from the rest of Major League Baseball but from their past as the Florida Marlins. They made that clear Friday night with a gala unveiling of their new look, logo and uniforms at the yet-to-be-named retractable-roof ballpark in Little Havana.

How bold of a direction the new-look franchise is headed will ultimately depend on who wears the uniforms -- they reportedly have extended offers to Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes.

Friday was about style. Gone is the familiar marlin wrapped around an F they wore on their caps since 1993. The name change from Florida to Miami Marlins brings the multicolored M accented by an abstract marlin that has been rumored since September.

Toronto Blue Jays go back to the Joe Carter days with new(old) Logo & Uniforms

The Blue Jays are bringing back uniforms with a more vintage look, tweaking its old-school logo, tinkered with the lettering and given the bird head a more stylized look.

Players will wear blue hats and blue shoes for all games next season, the team announced Friday. Black jerseys have been shelved in favor of white uniforms at home, light gray on the road and a royal blue alternate jersey.

The scripted lettering is gone. The uniforms resemble a version of the jerseys worn when the team won consecutive World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.

“Blue Jays” is spelled out on the home and alternate uniforms, while “Toronto” appears on the road jersey.

Great quote by Ira Glass for graphic designers

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass