Ilfracombe—the small coastal town in Devon, England

Ilfracombe photo from me’nthedogs on Flickr

Ilfracombe’s new logo, reported to have cost £40,000 with a guidelines document

Tessa Martin of consultancy Fresh Bread Marketing said:

“Ilfracombe is a fresh, intriguing place to visit with an impressive landscape. It is steeped in and continues to offer a maritime experience and has a strong cultural theme with a fascinating Victorian heritage.

“The new Ilfracombe logo, with its idiosyncratic ‘swirl’ above the ‘i’ indicates intrigue, mystery and drama expressed with a spot of humour and fun too. It also reflects the twists and turns of the landscape and can conjure up thoughts of the seaside, sea, an ice-cream, the harbour and fish.”

Designers need to be good salespeople. No doubt. But as with all things in life, some of us are better than others.

Via Lee Newham.

Published on Logo Design Love

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Here is a small selection of its identity design projects.

Leaf Street

“An environmentally friendly housing association in northern England with a name that can prove its credentials. A leaf becomes a row of houses, becomes a logo.”

Keycutters

“An identity for… go on have a guess.”

3CV

“Ethical marketing company with three core values.”

Layezee Beds

“Part of the Silentnight group. The mark uses a cap L turned 90 degrees to make a bed. The flexible mark uses photography of people to add a human touch, and was also used for diagrams to show product benefits.”

Conception

“A marketing business that’s trusted for fertilising brands with its strategic thinking.”

Great Room

“The logo for the Great Room, Preston North End Football Club’s dining room.”

Hostage

“An identity for a film production company specialising in commercials. The answer was in the name, which we followed to the letter.”

What do you think? Clever stuff, eh?

More logos and symbols on The Chase website.

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Tom Geismar is a founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar and widely considered a pioneer of American graphic design. During the past four decades he has designed more than 100 corporate identity programs.

Mobil Oil Corporation logo, 1964

His designs for Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank, PBS, National Geographic, Gemini Consulting, Univision, Rockefeller Center and, most notably, Mobil Oil have received worldwide acclaim.

Chase Bank logo, 1961

He has received all the major awards in the field, including one of the first Presidential Design Awards for helping to establish a national system of standardized transportation symbols.

National Geographic logo, 2002

Tom has kindly agreed to be interviewed for Logo Design Love readers. He has a wealth of experience within the design profession, and I know we can all learn something from him.

What would you ask Tom Geismar?

Leave your question(s) as a comment (or let me know via email) and I’ll pose them to Tom. It could be about pricing design, dealing with clients, a specific project, his design process, etc. The interview will be published here on Logo Design Love.

More about Tom Geismar

• The Chermayeff & Geismar studio website
• All about Chermayeff & Geismar
• Iconic logo designers
• AIGA Medalists: Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar

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• Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.

You won’t search for the latest fads.

You will produce logos that don’t rely on what every one else is doing.

The focus will be solely on your client, and what is most suitable for her.

If the client needs a swoosh, deliver a swoosh. But you must first determine that need through comprehensive research and brainstorming.

You will not feel compelled to “fit in” with your peers. If someone else is doing it, that’s one more reason to set yourself apart.

Your competition will be your portfolio, with the aim of delivering the client with your most distinctive yet relevant design to-date.

Trends will be left to the fashion industry.

Wishful thinking?

For more, read these logo design tips from the field.

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Design consultancy B&W Studio, based in Leeds, UK, created this brand identity design for Seven back in 2007.

I saw it today for the first time. Liked it. Thought you would, too.

As with many brand identities, the logo in isolation isn’t what makes it work, and what I enjoy most is consistency of implementation across both print and web, giving a strong and professional unity.

View more work on the brand spanking B&W Studio website.

Or visit the Seven website to view the identity in context.

Photography by Matt Wright.
Via Grafikcache.

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Given that I’ve been back in Northern Ireland for a little over a year now, I thought it appropriate to put some focus on local design studios. Belfast-based McCadden Design has been working with organisations in the UK and Ireland for more than 25 years. Here’s a small selection of its brandmarks.

Titanic Quarter

“Currently the largest waterfront development in Europe, Titanic Quarter is a massive yet dynamic undertaking which takes its name from the part of the site where the Titanic was built. The four funnels of the iconic ship play a key role in our identity – a decision that was recognised as “hugely distinctive” by brand expert Wally Ollins (On Brand, 2005).”

FOLD

“One of the best-known names in the local social housing sector, FOLD is a brand that rests upon a fundamental central value – protection. Protection of the elderly, the infirm, the disadvantaged. Our brandmark balances contemporary typography with an abstract icon that exudes qualities of embracing, encompassing, surrounding; protecting.”

MAG

“Charged with encouraging government to embrace creativity and innovation within the spheres of architecture and urban planning, MAG is a brand that deliberately aims to challenge the mundane.”

Origin

“First known as the Belfast Fertility Clinic, we renamed Northern Ireland’s only private IVF facility as Origin, a brandname that sums up the entire essence of the brand. Friendly, contemporary type and a simple graphic reminiscent of the symbols for male and female, complete the appropriate identity.”

Capella

“Capella is a high-tech product design SME named after a star in the Auriga constellation. Working with the brand since its inception, our identity solution is deliberately challenging and beyond normal horizons. This is the core of the brand.”

Biomara

“This small but highly innovative retail brand sells mostly in Europe and the US. Our client wanted a brandname that pointed towards the pharmaceutical nature of the product and hinted at its Irish roots. Mara is Irish for sea, the source of all the brand’s raw materials.”

Distinctive work, and coming out of a gorgeous office space in Belfast (click on the image below for a closer look).

More projects on the McCadden Design website. And more Belfast design studios to follow soon.

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If the new Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with laser-etched logo is for publicity, then hat’s off. If it’s a legitimate marketing move an actual change of the cereal production process, isn’t it a needless use of energy and cash?

Landor calls it very cool. I call it a waste of money.

What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Mail Online

More here:

• Kellogg’s to laser-brand individual Corn Flakes
• Hoax, stunt or breakthrough?
• Kellogg’s says laser-etched Corn Flakes are real

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A.G. Low Construction logo
By Rebecca Low

Martin Newcombe Property Maintenance logo
By buddy

Nexcite logo
By Amore
Via Blair Thomson

American Institute of Architects Center logo
By Pentagram

Ogden Plumbing logo
By Astuteo

WWF
By Sir Peter Scott, modified by Landor

FreemanWhite logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

The Brand Union logo
By The Brand Union

Egg n Spoon logo (same day couriers)
By Thoughtful

Human logo
By Social UK

Dolphin House logo
By Ico Design

Eaton logo
By Lippincott (thanks, Brendan)

Elefont logo
By Logo Motive Designs

USA Network logo
By Peloton Design

CultureBus logo
By Pentagram

Carrefour logo
By do you know?

Henri Ehrhart monogram (shameless, aren’t I?)
View the design process on David Airey dot com

Sinkit logo
By smashLAB

Guild of Food Writers logo
By 300million

ED logo
By Gianni Bortolotti

Blade logo
By Subversive Design

Premier Catering logo
By Madhouse
Via Logolog

The Waterways Trust logo
By Pentagram

FedEx logo
By Lindon Leader while at Landor

Knoll logo
By NB: Studio
Via Logolog

Ryan Biggs Associates logo
By id29

Hartford Whalers logo
By Cummings & Good (thanks, Jeff)

Conception logo
By The Chase

Yoga Australia logo
By Roy Smith Design

Hands On Network logo
By Duffy & Partners

MyFonts logo
By Underware

Vanderbilt University logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

Recycle Taiwan logo
By do you know?

NBC logo
By Steff Geissbuhler while at Chermayeff & Geismar

New Bedford Whaling Museum logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

Mouse logo
By Johnson Banks

Can you pick a favourite?

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The logo board game. It’s all fun and games (apparently). Well, it is for the over 12s anyway—sorry kids.

Evolution of the LEGO logo. Such a simple product. If I was to tally the hours spent with it as a child, I reckon it’s easily triple figures.

Logo Design Love book available for pre-order. Time’s a pressin. Not long to go.

Commonwealth logo in overhaul. For the English out there.

The 9/11 Memorial brand identity. One of my favourite designs of the naughties.

New Doctor Who logo revealed. I’ve never been a big Doctor Who fan. I quite like the “tardis” monogram, but it’s not working so close to the type.

The Wolff Olins Guide to Corporate Identity. One I’d love to get my hands on.

Apple bites over Woolworths logo. A bit over the top from Apple’s legal team, no?

$500 logo design contest. 102 submissions. No winner. Same old.

85 automotive logos. No chat. No details. Just logos.

Yale University Press to ditch Paul Rand’s logo. Another one sadly bites the dust.

Tony Spaeth reviews Hilton’s new logo.

Punctuation-inspired logo designs. But none can match Pentagram’s Curious Pictures logo.

LEGO logos.

Google and LEGO have a fun and special history… The Google company founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are both avid lovers of LEGO toys, as are many of the company’s employees.

New Nickelodeon identity. More contemporary, with consistency across networks, but more corporate and I’m not sure about the uppercase K.

Typembrya—a homage to Herb Lubalin’s Mother & Child logo.

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Let’s begin.

6 steps to logo design greatness

Step 1
Launch Adobe Photoshop and create a new file (no larger than 3 inches square, RGB at a maximum of 72dpi).

Step 2
Create a shape using the rectangle or ellipse tool (for the more adventurous, go crazy with the custom shape tool—a bit too mad for me).

Step 3
Rasterize your shape before applying a gradient (the more colourful the better—you want to stand out from the crowd, remember).

Step 4
Type your name over the shape using the horizontal type tool (extra credit for those who use either Brush Script, Comic Sans, Papyrus, or Stencil).

Step 5
Flatten the image so you can make use of the filters available (release the creativity—use at least three filters).

Step 6
Save your file as a JPEG for maximum usage online and in print.

Infinitely more memorable than that old rubbish from before.

Assignment deadline
As soon as iStock stops giving a $5 bonus for “logo” uploads.

Now, go forth and prosper, my dezigner chums!

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