so this is a topic that a lot of designers get really upset about because whenever there's a new logo or Rebrand refresh the internet goes crazy especially designers who talk about the Aesthetics of it you know how I feel about that but I'm actually going to talk about Aesthetics on this episode one logo that I think is totally garish for a company that knows better that deserves better that's I believe a multi-billion dollar Corporation is okay cover ears Under Armour okay let's talk about the Under Armour logo if you're not familiar with it I'll do
my best to describe it for those of you that are listening to this under arour logo is two half ellipses that overlap and intersect and they're flipped upside down so you can see the X in it so it's cool to see the letter X that letter X is super sexy so good idea there and it's really a u and an a overlapping this is one of those logos where you think okay great idea I can imagine being in the board of directors Chief marketing officer where The Branding design firm presents this thing it's like there's
a u there's an A and there's an X in it and it's like The X Factor of Under Armour Isn't that cool what a terrific idea and everybody appla and said let's just adopt that and this is one of those moments where the idea could be so strong where you can approve it beyond the Aesthetics for me the Aesthetics of the this Mark is horrific like I don't know much about the company I actually own some Under Armour clothing and I almost want to remove the logo so the first thing is does it pass the
basic aesthetic test if anything the simpler your logo is the easier it is to pass this test and the more ornate or tricky or clever that you want to make it this is where it gets really challenging for people so you can love the idea so much that the Aesthetics of it actually takes a second seat this is one of those ones where there's a idea of Form and Function so maybe the function of it is really cool but the form is just I hate to say it it's like ass you guys I know I'm
being a bit of a design snob here and I'm not saying that I have a better opinion or taste or aesthetic level than you but whenever we go out in the world and we're going to wear something where the logo is very prominent and it's part of like the tribe that we join it's kind of the symbol that we can rally behind behind it's got to look good and so there are companies I know nothing about I don't know the Brand Story the founder story or anything like that and I see it and what draws
me in as a as a visual person as a person who's really keenly tuned towards design I see it and I think this is worth an investigation and when we're thinking about it what is the purpose of any marketing or design effort it's to bring in new customers and to keep the existing customers really happy so I think here the job of the logo designer especially when it comes to apparel merchandising it's really really important that it look good that it follow Universal principles of design about Harmony balance ratios all those kinds of things that
it look good when it's scaled down small that it's not overly complicated and it's very versatile it can be used for a lot of different applications it can be used maybe repeated as a pattern for a shirt or deconstructed for a shoe or a headphone that's how you know that the logo is really good and sadly if you agree or disagree with me that's why I think the Under Armour logo is butt so one thing when you're designing a logo is to try it on Multi multiple applications as a mockup put on a uniform put
on a truck a plane put it as wrapping paper or tape for a box that you're going to ship out try to find as many applications for as possible and it needs to pass a few things number one is it still recognizable is it iconic is it appropriately sized for its use some things look really good small but when scaled up look terrible so then sometimes you have to design a more responsive logo so it can actually have multiple configurations or slight enhancements or modifications to it so that it looks good at all sizes but
here's the thing does it feel like it's going to get tiring to like look at like you're going to get visual fatigue from it does it inspire you and this is the hardest test of of them all which is does someone who has a good sense of taste and aesthetic which we're not all born with and some of us never can find that you need to bring in the people who have good taste and say like Johnny Mary do you like this and tell us what you like or don't like about it now here's one
test if you build a mood board with all the brands that you love that have withstood the test of time so I'm thinking nothing that's like younger than 10 years old preferably 30 50 years old cuz now you know it's survived a couple different shifts in design and Trends put your logo and your mockup next to a board full of like great brands that you love and admire if it looks like it belongs there you've done a great job say you have a bunch of taste makers and you're not getting consistent feedback across the board
I think you're you're you're running the risk here and unless you're like a really forward bleeding edge kind of company it's not a risk that you want to take ideally when you create a logo it begins a story that you don't want to change it can evolve but you don't really want to change it because changing it means all the brand Equity all the recognition that's built into it it's you're going to have to start over take for example this was hot and controversial a while ago the F1 logo so the F1 logos existed for
a really long time and then they decided you know what it looks really dated we're ready to do something different we we want to do something modern and sleek and then it seems like all the fans of F1 the auto automotive enthusiasts the logo Geeks and those types they came out of the woodwork to say this is terrible logo but you know five six years later it's quiet down massively and now no one complains about it but you run the risk of alienating a lot of people and having people talk about your company and your
logo in not such a good way that's not good PR real quick before I forget this video is brought to you by us the future are you ready to Kickstart your creative career and build a business doing what you love whether you're just starting out or you're switching careers or starting something new with Decades of experience we can help accelerator is your fast trck to building a killer portfolio and Landing those dream clients you'll get training and experience on everything from lead generation and building your network to closing the sale and project management with over
100 video lessons weekly coaching and personalized feedback from the future team you are never alone an accelerator want to learn more about the coursework community and coaching you'll get as an accelerator member get all the details at the future.com accelerator we'll see you there all right let's get you back to the video so let's talk about Trends and should you be ignoring them or embracing trends when people use the word trend they misuse it what they mean is fad and we're not quite sure when something is pops on the on the Zeitgeist of Pop Culture
that is it a fad or is it a trend you do want to stay with Trends what is Trends well Trends is like equality inclusion those are not fads but a fad could be using certain elliptical shapes that were on trend for a hot minute and then went out of trend just as quickly or frozen yogurt that that seems to come in Cycles every 10 15 years so you don't want to grab that and then realize later on like oh those bell bottom pants don't look so good on me now okay they were trendy but
it's not following Trends and so when you are chasing something take a step back and ask yourself questions like why am I doing this is it because it just seems like what everybody's doing and if that's the case I would just avoid that because the worst thing that you want to do is to do what everyone is doing the whole point of identity is to be unique and to be different and to be slightly weird if anything else so following the trends is not a great way to do that now here's something that I've learned
through years of design and just studying design the people who have figured out design the masters of design who were in Switzerland and Germany many many years ago decades ago have figured out what works they follow certain golden principles of ratios harmonies certain geometric shapes that just work and when you look back at these marks that were created so many years ago they withstand the test of time and so everybody's trying to reinvent the rules I I don't think you need to reinvent them you just have to find the right application for what it is
that you're doing so rather than be so weird and unique in Breaking All the Rules be weird and unique in your application of the rules so if you're listening to this and you're a corporation and you're thinking about starting something or rebranding here's what I would advise that you do first I would consider looking at two or three companies that do this on the regular that this is their primary focus and what you want to do is look at their body of work their portfolio if you will to see if you see your future in
there we tend to think that if you can design something you can design me anything and that's the problem I've made this mistake before to look at gaps in the portfolio and think of course they can figure this stuff out but what I wind up usually getting is more of what they've already done so this is both good news and bad news because if they have a long track record of doing something that you like there's a high probability that they're going to do that thing again for you so if you don't see it I
would say you know what use caution perhaps look at other firms and then interview these firms and ask them about the creative process and the question I like to ask creatives is this tell me what the ideal client working relationship looks like to you what is happen where does it go wrong and how does this work in your mind and then just let them talk themselves in or out of the job often times they reveal that they have no process they're approaching every single problem as a brand new thing and that's not a good thing
for you and if you're thinking about using chat gbt or one of these generative AI engines to make you a logo I would ask you to reconsider what you're getting a logo isn't just a a random collection of marks and shapes put together by a machine and although aesthetically can look very pleasing you're not just buying the mark because at the end of the day if you showed me an award-winning logo and asked any capable designer can you draw this logo of course they can draw you the logo that's not the point the reason why
companies pay creatives a lot of money we're talking about tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands is because they're making a big decision and they want to do their due diligence so large agencies and design firms will go and do research they'll do competitive analysis they'll go into the history of your company they're going to look at things that unless you can prompt an engine to do this it's not going to happen so it's not about the formal qualities like what it looks like it's all the research that they do to arrive at a
conclusion so that you can feel confident that it's worthwhile for you to now spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars replicating this logo across multiple touch points we're a pretty small company every time we change one thing the color palette or a secondary face it has massive implications across the few applications that we have and just to think if a company like ours was a thousand times bigger what that would mean what kind of headache that would be and so then you're cycling out and rotating out Legacy applications and logos to replace it
with a new thing this is an expensive Endeavor so when we sit there and we debate like oh yeah we'll just like hire GPT for a dollar to recreate this logo you can but you're you're missing the whole point and that's the thing that a lot of creators don't understand all right I hope you enjoyed this format but I'm really honestly looking for your genuine feedback let me know and if you've enjoyed this please share it with someone who needs to listen to this
