We’re sure this has never happened to you, but sometimes brands misstep and the results aren’t pretty. Whether it’s because of bizarre weather patterns, changing stylistic trends, the rise of American Idol style voting, or slow news cycles, some logos just aren’t well-received. And to be fair, some logos are crappy, objectively. But assuming the work you and your team have launched isn’t a horror show, chances are that it’s decent, solid and professional. But that doesn’t mean everyone will like it. Sometimes the Internet brings the hate.
10 Snowflake-Inspired Logos
We’re squarely into 2011, and as we contemplate the year gone by, we thought it’d be appropriate to share some inspiration based on the weather. So, here’s a post to keep you warm at night as winter marches on: 10 great snowflake-inspired logos.
Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Olympics
Our Work In Brand Identity Essentials
It’s always nice to feel “essential”. That’s exactly how we feel after being included in the recently-released design volume, Brand Identity Essentials. This excellent book by Rockport Publishers showcases our work with Nerdcore and highlights the principles that make up successful identity programs. It’s definitely worth the read.
10 Ways To Fail Better
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard … is what makes it great.” -Tom Hanks, in A League Of Their Own
Here’s one of the reasons why I love baseball: Even the very best players, the absolute pinnacle guys — Mickey Mantle, Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, they all failed basically 70% of the time. Hitting .300 for a career pretty much gives you enshrinement into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but that works out to only getting a hit about 1/3 of the time. That’s a 70% failure rate. These players are the cream of the crop, but they have to learn to live with failure. They breathe it. It follows them around, sleeps in their beds. A 70% failure rate is pretty high, but these guys endure it and push through to levels of greatness, even though failure dogs them at every turn.
BevReview Case Study at Processed Identity
We are big fans of Steve Zelle’s design blog, Processed Identity. He digs in deep with identity designers on how they strategically solve clients’ logo issues, highlighting the inherent value of custom logo design. It’s all about the process, and we’re excited to once again be featured on PI, with a case study of our work with BevReview.
Thanks to Steve for his great continuing work.
Our Work In Logolicious
Just released is Peleg Top’s powerful, pint-sized logo volume, Logolicious! With more than 1,000 inspiring logo examples within its pages, we’re proud to have five of our projects represented, including work for Geek Monthly, Prominic.NET, Park Community Church, Nerdcore, and our own Hexanine logo. Thanks to Collins Design for putting out another great design book.
Compulsions logo and four others featured in Los Logos: Compass
We’ve drooled over the Los Logos series since it’s debut in 2002, so we’re thrilled to announce that the new Los Logos: Compass features five Hexanine pieces — our Compulsions, Nerdcore, Ocean Dawn, Park Community Church logos, as well as our type-treatment for last year’s Nerdcore calendar, “Horror”. This fifth book in the series sports a new look and editorial approach, but don’t be fooled; Berlin-based Gestalten still dishes out the same cutting-edge, international identity design we’ve come to expect.
Student Spotlight: Tic Tacs Redesign
Here at Hexanine, we are passionate about helping raise up the next generation of designers and design thinkers. This is why, as a firm, we seek to pass along what we’ve learned by teaching, mentoring, and instructing.
We gain at least as much inspiration and encouragement from the work of our students as they receive from our instruction, so we’d like to pass it along by showcasing some of their impressive student projects. Periodically, we’ll highlight great work coming out of our classrooms on this blog.