Like many graphic designers I love to read about other designers processes and to compare between them. I’m so sure that any graphic designers reading this will also be interested, so I have selected 10 logo design processes to highlight in this article. An interesting read for experienced designers and an educational read for those new to the game.

If you have a logo design process that you would like to share please leave a link in the comments section below.

Jacob Cass

Two fantastic, in depth walk-through articles from Jacob Cass, graphic designer and founder of Just Creative Design.

David Airey

David Airey, graphic designer and creator of highly successful blog Logo Design Love (and book of the same title) runs through the important steps making up his logo design process.

Chris Spooner

A colourful and vivid logo creation complete with step by step details of how it was created. Chris is the founder of blog.spoongraphics and Line25, as well as being a graphic designer and web designer.

David Pache

David Pache guides us through his logo design process. David is the founder of dache – a studio specialising in high class logos and concepts.

Fabio Sasso

The founder of Adbuzeedo and co-founder of web studio Zee guides us through a logo development with plenty of screen-shots and great advice.

Chuck Green – Logic Arts Corporation

This is another in-depth article featuring lots of images and advice. Chuck is owner of Logic Arts Corporation, and is a designer and author.

ClearDesign UK

Clear Design is a graphic design agency. This isn’t as comprehensive or detailed as other examples on this list, nor is it as complete as the others (in my opinion). There appears to be no sketching stage displayed, or initial research. I have included it as it’s nice to compare.

Mark Cossey

Mark is a web and graphic designer who loves creating logos and wanted to share his process. This article even includes a useful video to demonstrate his sketching stage.

Angela Ferraro-Fanning

I had to include a graphic designer who believes in running an eco-friendly company! Angela is owner of 13thirtyone where she works on various design projects. This is another good example of a design process, with a difference that she chooses not to sketch ideas on paper first but to complete this stage on the computer.

Vicki Willingham

I am going to be cheeky and include myself! I decided to note down my design process a while back and write it as an article on my blog. This was a year ago now but not much has changed. I will add that I always use a questionnaire for clients so we can both be sure of the requirements.

I’ve been through my bookmarks and compiled a number of sites that display logo galleries as a source of inspiration for those times when it just isn’t coming from anywhere or anything else.  My method of referring to these sites is to look through then leave the computer for a couple of hours (do dinner, clean the house, go for a walk etc) before returning to the project in hand.  They all help to provide colour, style, shape and concept ideas which I find useful for logo design.

Please do be careful not to duplicate anything already created, intentionally or not.

Logo Gallery

Pro Blog Design – Blog Article

Logotwo

Logo Faves

Logospire

Logosauce

Logopond

Logomoose

Logolog (part of  38One)

Logogala

StationeryStyle

Logotalkz

Logo From Dreams Awards

Brand New (a division of UnderConsideration)

Logo Design Love

LogoBlog – Blog Article

LogoGalleria

Lo8os

Logofi

Dzineblog – Blog Article

DeviantART

Design Dosage

Smashing Magazine – Blog  Article

Carbonmade

Brands of the World

Design Guide

Lemonflip

Logo Lounge

The Design Inspiration

The Identity Archives Project

Creattica

Web and Designers Inspiration – Blog Article

Thanks to Hilario for his blog article ‘New must have plugin for Firefox: Pixlr Grabber’ which helped with this article.

If you can think of any that I haven’t listed please let me know and I’ll add them.

At the end of January I posted 15 free wordpress themes that all had quite an artistic style and appearance.  Now I’m following up on that by sharing 10 premium themes that I’ve discovered.  Again, I haven’t tested each design so can’t comment on functionality/usability.

OnTheGo

Details
Demo

Viso

Details
Demo

Antisocial

Details
Demo

Tribal

Details
Demo

Elements

Details
Demo

Deviant

Details
Demo

Minifolio

Details
Demo

Simplix

Details
Demo

Flashlog

Details
Demo

Slurpie

Details
Demo

Some of you may have seen these in an email already but I wanted to share these images for those who haven’t yet seen them.  I was stunned by the quality and uniqueness of the work, all of which are creations of Guido Daniele, an expert body painter from Italy.  I urge you to take a look at his site and see samples of his other work.  Some of these hand paintings took up to 10 hours to complete – that’s dedication!

I’ve been continuing to look at the available free WordPress themes and have seen some really creative and artistic designs.  I’ve put together a small collection of 15 of these themes.  WordPress designs are everywhere right now so this is by no means a ‘best of’ list – but they are ones that jumped out at me!  Note that I haven’t tested each design so can’t comment on functionality/usability.

This post is quite link intensive – it should all work just fine but please let me know if you find any errors.  Thank you and enjoy!

Red Light Theme

Download
Demo

Vintage

Download
Demo

Creative by Nature

Download
PSD Source
Demo

Aeros

Download
Demo

Pixeled

Download
Demo

Absynthe

Download
Demo

Outdoorsy

Download
Demo

Revolution-X

Download
Demo

Blogger Notes

Download
Demo

Rockstar

Download
Demo

Letter Frame

Download
Demo

Imagination

Demo and download

Viewport

Download
Demo

Infinity

Download
PSD Source
Demo

Fhi-Zin

Download
Demo

This time I’m looking at Barcelona, which I think is probably my favourite city that I have visited and somewhere I’d quite like to make a second home!  Although Barcelona has a massive business side, there aren’t really that many logos that stand out and define the city – after all, Barcelona doesn’t have a Bloomingdales, Harrods or an Empire State Building!  In fact, many of the popular tourist spots of the city don’t have a logo at all – therefore most of these designs relate to entertainment and culture within Barcelona.

Barcelona

Listed:

L’Aquarium Barcelona
Olympics (Barcelona 1992)
Barcelona Business Centre
Metro
Barcelona Zoo
FC Barcelona
El Poble Espanyol de Barcelona
Fundacio Joan Miro (The Joan Miró Foundation)
Sagradia Familia Cathedral
Universitat de Barcelona

View Logos from around the globe: 1 – New York

An inspiring selection of 3d art compiled by 1stwebdesigner.com

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/40-most-impressive-abstract-3d-wallpapers/comment-page-1/#comment-21643

mediabistro.com is hosting it’s first Worldwide logo awards open to professionals and amateurs alike, with a swish award party to be held in New York City.  The main condition of entry is that all logos were created between March 31, 2008 and March 31, 2010.  Each entry comes with a fee of $30 but the competition promises excellent promotional opportunities and the chance to have your design seen by a massive audience.

Confirmed Judges:

(the following details have been taken directly from http://logoawards.mediabistro.com/judges)

Armin Vit

UnderConsideration | USA

Born and raised in Mexico City, Armin is a graphic designer and writer now living in Austin, Texas. He has written for AIGA’s VOICE, Emigre, Eye, Creative Review, HOW, and STEP magazines, among others. He is a former faculty member of Portfolio Center and currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts. He has lectured on topics ranging from typography to branding in locations ranging from San Diego to Berlin. He is co-founder of UnderConsideration and its myriad sites. His last employment position was at Pentagram and now runs UnderConsideration’s Department of Design. He is also author of Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design.

Rob Janoff

RobJanoff.com | USA

As a young art director in the early Silicon Valley years, Rob Janoff worked on many high tech accounts including, most notably, a new start-up called Apple Computer. He designed the now famous Apple Computer logo and all of Apple’s introductory graphics and advertising. Janoff then worked on national print and television accounts for advertising agencies in New York and Chicago. Client brands have included IBM, Diners Club, Kleenex, Kraft and SC Johnson. Rob Janodd is currently giving presentations on the development of the Apple logo and the lore that has spread about this internationally recognized icon.

Calvin Lee

Mayhem Studios | USA

Award-winning designer, born and raised in Los Angeles. His focus, developing identity and brand recognition for both small and large businesses. Through Mayhem Studios, started in 2001, Calvin integrates strategic thinking with creative design to create effective messages targeted to his clients’ specific audiences. Solutions may come in the form of identities, branded collateral pieces, annual reports, brochures, logo design, advertising and interactive web sites. Mostly self-taught, armed with a library of design books, a penchant for hard work and sweating over a hot keyboard has resulted in receiving numerous international design awards and featured in several books including; 100 Habits of Successful Freelance Designers, Identity Crisis, Creativity Awards, American Corporate Identity, Big Book of Business Logos, Big Book of Layouts and featured on many design websites and blogs. Working with clients, such as Guy Kawasaki, Alltop to develop their branding. Calvin also serves as a member of the Platt College Advisory Board for the Visual Communications Department, and on the NO!SPEC Committee.

David Airey

DavidAirey.com | Ireland

Celebrated graphic designer from Northern Ireland specializing in brand identity design. David created visual identities for companies of all sizes, from Yellow Pages to one-person start-ups. His clients were from Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, England, the United States, and many other locations across the globe. His book is called Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities. He’s also the author of the popular blog similarly named Logo Design Love, which is regularly updated with news, features, and opinions from the world of brand identity.

Fa’eq Al’Olaiwat

MadinaB | Bahrain, Middle East

Strategic Brand Architect, Marketing & Communication Strategist and a multidisciplinary Designer. He is the founder of MadinaB Brand Consultants, ePromoseven Web Branding and lately, DarOttakwin for Strategic Innovations. Most of his commissions today involve the development of a visionary brand strategy, a business model to support it, a marketing strategy to carry it through and an identity to express it. With this strategic and creative fuel, he played a key role in building organizations such as Reef, Sakana, Labour Fund, LMRA, Etisalcom, Edamah, Bahrain Polytechnic and other important Bahraini brands. Faeq’s added value to any design project stems from his broad and deep cultural background (Western, modern, Arabic, Arts) and a gifted balance between strategy, creativity and technology. He has 18 years of engagement experience in industries such as Government, Financial, Real-estate development, Architecture and Engineering, IT, Advertising, Brand Consultancy and Retail.

Cian Walsh

Afterglow | Ireland

Cian Walsh is an Irish illustrator specializing in icon creation. He has worked for over a decade producing artwork & interfaces for a wide range of online and desktop projects.

Seven more judges will be announced shortly.

For more information see http://logoawards.mediabistro.com

New from Smashing Magazine – 20 high quality fonts

I never just link to something for the sake of it, and this is no exception.  This list of 20 fonts features some really nice styles – from art deco to funky sans serif.  Well worth checking out.

Find it here

I will showcase in groups, a selection of logos from different places around the World.  The logos are not limited to these places, but are strongly associated with each location.

For the first selection, I’ll begin with New York.  There are many, many brands and businesses associated with New York – here are just a handful of the most famous and recognisable ones.

New York

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Listed (alphabetically):

Barneys
Bloomingdales
Chase Manhatten
DKNY
Empire State
Four Seasons Hotel New York
Grand Central Station
I Love New York
Macys
New York Philamonic Orchestra
NY Yankees
NY Giants
Rockerfeller Center
Tiffany & Co