Whether you're rebranding what you've got or starting up a new company or organization from scratch, here are 4 logo trends to avoid.
Everyone wants their logo to be unique, and it's certainly valuable to stand out from the crowd. However, if you're thinking that chopping up the letterforms in your logo is going to accomplish the goal of looking unique, think again. Not only is it not unique, but you will succeed in planting yourself firmly amongst company that you don't want to keep, namely other organizations that wanted to look unique and failed spectacularly.
The spaces around letters are there for a reason—don't get rid of them unless you 1) have very good reason to do so and 2) can maintain readability. Redbox got crushed for their logo update after they squashed all of the letters in their logo together and people couldn't read it. Realbox? Redbax? They even had to go so far as to update the update by spreading out the 'o' and the 'x.' The poor guy who goes around painting Redbox machines* probably died a little inside, kinda like this guy.
Great googly moogly.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a logo containing no uppercase letters. But when giant conglomerates go all-lowercase to seem more accessible, that's no bueno. Look, I get it. When you're an enormous company trying to appeal to everyday folks, you figure you need to do something. However, going all-lowercase "cuz txting lol" is not great. Let's look at colors, let's look at typography, let's look at imagery. Let's look at the tone of our ads. Putting the ban on capital letters because they're impersonal is just lazy.
"Since 2010, 8 million dots have needlessly lost their lives in corporate logo dot explosions. We need your help."
Cue Sarah McLachlan.
Oh, those poor dots. What did those dots ever do to you, anyway? Nothing. The madness needs to stop. No more blowing up dots in and around your logo. It's not fun. It's not cool. Don't do it.
Check out the video for more detail on each of these as well as my thoughts on overwrought corporatese memos about your logo (spoiler: they're the worst) and whether you should run a design contest to acquire your logo (spoiler again: no).
That's it for this one! Peace!
* Note: Fully aware there is no such guy.