LOGO DESIGN BLOG   LOGO DESIGN REVIEW

The Internet has changed the way graphic design is done, especially for small businesses. There are many affordable solutions available online for SMB’s and other organizations who are on a tight budget but still need a professional image. Now there are even places where you can get a free logo design.

Here’s a quick review of three of these services.

1. LogoMaker.com: uses a Flash-based program that allows you to create a custom logo. First you choose an icon you feel best represents your organization and then you type in the words you want to appear in your logo. You can rotate the shapes or text, change the colors, and even create more than one version of the logo at a time.

I completed the process at LogoMaker and here’s the logo I designed:

It’s free for web use, but I’d have to pay $79 to have the logo in eps format for printing purposes.

2. Cool Text: This is basically a text manipulator, but it allows you to choose the colors, size, and type of manipulation you want. Here’s what I designed through that website.:

3. Web2.0 Logo Creator: This site mimics the fonts of many of the websites classified as “Web 2.0.” These logos have friendly shapes and bright colors. Many also have reflections and intended misspellings. Here’s what the generator produced automatically for LogoDesign.com. It doesn’t allow for any customization, so it seems to me this site is mostly a fun toy, but nothing for professional use.

In celebration of their 35th anniversary, Starbucks announced they’re bringing back their original logo: a topless mermaid with fins spread apart. The Seattle-based coffee giant will put the logo on cups in its Washington and Oregon stores.

Not everyone is pleased about the new marketing strategy. A principle at Kent Elementary School in Seattle is reportedly asking teachers and staff to cover up the logo to prevent the students from seeing it, according to Caffeine Marketing.

The Starbucks logo has undergone two updates since the original appeared in a shop accross from Pike Place Market in Seattle in 1971. See the evolution of the logo below.

The UK’s Hackney Council has won an out of court settlement against Nike for unauthorized use of their logo, which Nike used on a variety of sports clothes sold as far away as Japan and the Philippines. The sportswear giant apologized and has agreed to pay the council more than $560,000 and cover the legal costs of the lawsuit, according to an article on Out-Law.com.

The London Borough of Hackney logo has come to epitomize amateur soccer because of the famous Hackney Marshes, a swamp-turned-field that has 90 full-size soccer fields, the largest concentration of soccer fields in the world. On a typical Sunday, more than 100 matches are held. More info on the marshes here.

Nike UK spokesman Charlie Brooks said in a statement that Nike “inadvertently used imagery that included the council’s logo. This was done in good faith and not as a deliberate act, however we recognise the concern this has caused Hackney Council and we are pleased that this matter has now been concluded,” according to Hackney.

The Hackney Council logo–a rounded ‘H’ shape–was designed by Alec Davis in 1965. Davis, known for his clean, simple designs, also designed logos for Fogarty, British Aluminium, and Lloyds Bank.