546 - The Logo Show with Dan Stiles, Dustin Noden, and John LaCroix

If you thought last year sucked then just wait until you see what Dan Stiles, Dustin Noden of Lincoln Design Co., and creative director John LaCroix have to say about the major rebrands from 2016. No one is safe from the watchful eye and sense of style these three designers have honed over the years on countless projects from companies big and small. Through their critiques and opinions you'll learn to apply the same skills to your own work and rise above the mediocrity being pumped into the world every year. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Nascar to Instagram you won't want to miss the twenty seven rebrands we have selected for these creative professionals togo over with a fine toothed comb. Is everyone going too thin? Has the logo evolved enough? Why the hell won't Taco Bell just put their B under their T? The Logo Show takes on an entire year of updated and all new logomarks that are going through a more thorough check than Winona Ryder leaving a retail store!

Talking Points

Moving up from clipart to an actual logo.
Have you stripped the logo down too much?
Giving a nod to what your mark represents.
Making the logo a family.
Touchy Qs, washed out mountains, and visual hierarchy.
Swashes that read very differently.
Going away from the MLB logo and hacking type.
Are you stabbing or cutting?
Stoking your audience with a logo.
The kids at the bowling alley that used all up all the crayons.
The fauxpas of stretch type.
Reversing everything to improve nothing.
White stroking your logo and moving away from bold.
Is thin considered sophisticated?
What does a two hundred page brand book say about that steezy W?
Version 10 Logomarks that make it out the door and clients that want to see mild, medium, and hot.
Risk Adverse Sea Level Dudes who don't know visual culture but have to take your logo up the flagpole.
Trashy Trailer Park Panthers wishing they were Cougars.
Going from kick ass to a stylized shield that doesn't excite your audience.
Did Fortune lose their fortune?
Finding a typeface that is close enough and losing your proprietary look.
Balance through being established.
Using on screen inks and problematic color scheme choices.
Brand equity over time and overcoming difficulty.
Retro Lollapalooza 1.0 logos.
Drawing icons in chalk to see how good they are.
Having the guts to stay with what's new.
Crazy, iconic K's and vertical type that won't scale.
Refracting light and tapping in on nostalgia.
A feel good off brand logo that relies on red.
Imagining how to execute your mark.
The problem with four color logos.
Geometric shapes that aren't pleasing and pushing and pulling the forms until it is.
Ligature Nightmares and beating your gimmick to death.
Repeating type tricks to build a uniform look.
Collegiate looks and older attitudes.
The challenge of NASCAR and being a human montage of logos.
Doing the right thing in the corporate world.
Brighter, friendlier, and thinner.
Enough to get noticed but not enough to make a difference.
Bird necks, rubber stamps, and propaganda looks.
Dropping the ball at the execution and stopping at a good start.
Reformatting the pieces of the puzzle for an updated look.
Flexing on your friends and tricking out the type on a very visual word.
Being ownable versus undeniable coolness.
Title casing your words but the giant gaps that you've left behind.
Leaning on serifs when it's important.
Switching around the type and the icon to make the motion go the right way.
An upgraded wing shape that breaks way from Nabisco.
Gradient gimmicks that work with clients but not in practice.
The importance of value and lumpy illustrator arrows.
Design moves when you want to just go home.
T and B's that hang all the way.
Cultural windows and shit colors for branding.
Has your logo lost it's sound?
Dropping your logo to one color and losing your type when you have an iconic mark.
Problematic, penetrating, and presidential icons.
Never save the swastika and don't make anything that looks like cock and balls.
Trump gets a win on AID.
Cultural shifts and CEO's designing logos.
Makes that don't make sense and leave users guessing what you've done.
Overcoming the difficulty behind adjusting reds and blues without going to Methane's website.
Thin outer strokes and why you never draw the name.
The biggest sport in the world done by the biggest brand in the world.
Overthinking the details.

TEAM REBRAND / GET PAID

AID 317

Last year's Grand Or Bland review was just as good as what you just heard. If you need more, this is the place to start!

AID 307

Leah Faust knows how to take branding to the next level and in this episode she lets us behind the curtain of adding value to the logos that you design.