Like these logos? I did all three of them in about an hour. The reason it was so easy is because none of the companies exist as far as I know. I just made the art, then added a company name that fits.

This has been something that’s been a slight pet peeve of mine. I see a lot of logos that look amazing, and fit the company name really well. I think, “How did they ever come up with that?”

Then I find out by doing a little research that the company doesn’t exist.

The designer showed a lot of imagination, but never had to deal with the client request to come up with something unique to brand the company.

We’ve all seen 99% of the time, the client will choose the logo that we would LEAST recommend. This makes logo portfolio sites a graveyard of discarded ideas. I’m fine with that, because at least the designer was working within the bounds of the client’s brief.

But I wonder what percentage of the logos you see in portfolios like Logopond or LogoLounge are for actual companies. I don’t know if that’s ethical or not…on the one hand, it’s a great way to build up a sweet portfolio. Young designers just starting out have a hard time getting a portfolio without experience, and this is an easy workaround for that.

But, on the other hand, it’s showing work that never had boundaries…it’s more like showing a piece of art, rather than design.

What do you all think?

Here’s a great video I found on Behance about taking creative control. I hope it inspires designers to not let their work go for free, to educate clients, and to strive for the best creative solution always.

We worry a lot about hue, saturation and value as designers, but there’s one aspect of color theory that designers often overlook: the TEMPERATURE of the color. This is important because, not only does it establish the mood of the logo, it greatly adds to the visual hierarchy, which is critical in good logo design.

Warm colors from the active side of the spectrum tend to come forward visually. They tend to agitate and convey emotions, sometimes unpleasantly (see the dental logos below). In nature, we see these colors when things are changing, i.e. a sunset, autumn leaves, and volcanoes.

Passive, cool colors like greens and blues recede. They instantly have a calming effect. They’re comforting and nurturing. Too much of it will relax the audience TOO much (see the BigShots logo below), so it’s best to liven it up with a dash of a warm or at least neutral color. In nature, we associate these passive colors with life and water.

You can balance the effect of these colors with neutral colors like grey, brown, ivory and beige. Their flexibility helps to tone down colors that might otherwise be overpowering. Let’s take a look at some examples to see how this works.

Here, the surfer is seen FIRST. The emphasis is on him. This is because the hot yellow will always stand out against a cool blue background.

In this version, the emphasis is paced on the setting, and not the surfer. We focus on what the surfer is looking at-in this case, a beautiful warm sunset.

This next logo is a good example of mixing the warm and cool to bring out certain areas. The dark purple provides a calming base, and the TECH portion stands out so the viewer can instantly see this is a technology-based company.

You need to decide what overall emotion you want to convey. Sometimes it will be excitement and fun, like this logo. Which one conveys those emotions more effectively?

We try to find emotional words in the creative briefs from our clients, and base our colors on those. As you can see from these examples, it’s pretty important. You can see more examples of great logo design at BusinessLogos.com.