New Work: Ashley Furniture and ILC

Hexanine: New work for Ashley Furniture and ILC

Great work is the lifeblood of what we do, so it’s always fun to showcase work, even if it has been hiding behind the curtains for a while. Here are a couple such projects: Website design and branding work for Ashley Furniture, and an identity redesign for ILC. More details of these projects follow at their respective portfolio pages, so check ‘em out.

Good, Great, or Hated: How to Rate Your Own Logo

Hexanine: Rating Your Logo

“Products are created in the factory. Brands are created in the mind.”  - Walter Landon, founder, Landor Associates

Every organization worth its salt has a logo or visual identity that helps distinguish, identify, or describe its brand to audiences. And if you’ve visited the Internet at any point lately, you can see that everyone has opinions on logos. But when people say “I don’t like it!” or “That’s terrible,” what do they actually mean? There is a deeper question beneath such reflexive comments, though. Honestly, how do you evaluate a logo? How do you know if your company has the next Nike swoosh on its hands, or something much less awesome?

Read on…

Musings: The Successful Logo

Our short musings on design, branding, business, and the human condition.

“Well-designed logos are the work of the designers. Successful logos imply the company’s use of the logo.”

-Per Mollerup, quoted in Steve Heller’s interview at The Atlantic.

Q&A With Alina Wheeler On “Designing Brand Identity” 4th Edition

Hexanine: Alina Wheeler and Designing Brand Identity 4

Alina Wheeler wrote the book on identity design. Literally. She is the author of Designing Brand Identity, which is just about to be released in its fourth edition. It’s an excellent resource and is arguably the textbook on the discipline of overarching identity design. Over the years, we’ve found Alina’s thoughts, insight, and process to be an invaluable roadmap in developing and shaping our own identity design process, leading to greater results for us, and our clients. The book is a great 50,000 foot view, allowing readers the ability to see the design journey from beginning to end, but also allowing them to zoom in on how each part of the process contributes to overall project success.

On the eve of the book launch, we wanted to chat with our friend and colleague about this latest version, and also pick her brain about the state of identity design today.

Read on…

The Branding Sweet Spot

Hexanine: The Branding Sweet Spot
Trying to stake out intellectual and emotional territory for an organization’s brand is a challenging proposition — so many viewpoints, stakeholders, and ideas to juggle and consider. You have the business and marketing goals of the organization, the reality on the ground, and the thoughts and emotions of the brand’s audiences. Marty Neumeier said in “The Brand Gap” that a brand is “what they say it is,” — that what the world thinks about your brand is incredibly powerful and often definitive.

I think he’s right on, but there’s more to the story. Read on…

Logo Work Included in LogoLounge 7

Hexanine logos in LogoLounge 7

We’ve grown up as designers with the LogoLounge book series. It’s great to see the beautifully-redesigned, newest volume. Also awesome to see that we’re part of it, with work from projects like BevReview and Plastic Highway. Our work was chosen from 34,000 selections, which is an honor.

How to Make Your Brand Iconic

How To Make Your Brand Iconic

When you talk to startups, CEOs, and others, it seems like everyone wants to be the “next Apple,” “just like Nike,” or to do things “the way Starbucks does.” Admittedly, these companies are icons and have surpassed the competition to become larger-than-life brands, symbols that stand for things both larger and more sweeping than the commerce they generate. But it’s not like any of them pushed a magic icon button to make it all happen. There’s no road map to guaranteed iconic status, or our world would be vastly different, to say the least. But if we dissect these kinds of rockstar brands, and remove the lucky breaks, the passion, sweat equity, and visionary leaders, what is left? We believe there are some fundamental activities remaining that help illuminate the roads a brand must take to becoming an icon.

Read on…

Musings: The Greatness Ceiling

Our short musings on design, branding, business and the human condition.

You will never be able to create or provide something that’s better than the organization you’re working for. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your branding or how excellent the strategy is, the end results will only be as good as the company itself. Paul Rand probably said it better: “[A logo] derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventually be perceived as second rate.” If you can live within those confines, your best bet is to dive in and help make change alongside your client partners. If you believe it’s too hard to live under that ceiling, you’ll need to find better clients.

Writing For LogoNest 01

LogoNest book cover Hexanine

We’ve just received our copy of the brand-new inspiration book by LogoNest. The book was an outgrowth of the popular logo website, and we were asked to lend our voice to this first collected volume. Hexanine partner Tim contributed the case study/tutorial “Marrying Symbol And Metaphor.” It’s at home among other great writing by Steve Zelle (of Processed Identity), Leighton Hubbell, and a slew of other design authors.

Hexanine article for LogoNest 01

Below is an excerpt from “Marrying Symbol And Metaphor.” For the rest of the story and more great logo inspiration, you can purchase the limited-edition book at the LogoNest website.

Defining The Symbol
A symbol is roughly defined as an image, object or depiction that represents something else. Understanding the basics of symbology is at the core of what we do as designers. It’s crucial for identity designers to absorb the basic symbols of culture, whether they are derived by association, resemblance, or convention. Symbols are super-valuable, because they communicate a vast amount of information with simplified visual depictions. Think of a stop sign’s associations, or the cross that represents a broad array of religious thought. These symbols don’t tell a complete story, but they stand in for much more complex thoughts or concepts. So, the first step of crafting an excellent logo is to generate a library of relevant symbols.

Student Spotlight: Gore-Tex Redesign

Within Hexanine’s DNA is a commitment to involvement in the future of our profession, and part of that is working alongside talented design students. We enjoy featuring great student from the classes we teach, so here is some of the latest:

Gore-Tex logo redesign

Read on…