Logo Design = Public Sport?

It’s hard to be logo designer these days. Not only do you have to please the client, now the general public weighs in on new logos as well. Just look at all the uproar following the release of the London 2012 logo, for example. LogoLounge has release their annual logo trends report, and the intro includes a rather pointed distaste for this public logo bashing.

It is also becoming disturbingly clear that logo design has become a public sport. As the public controls their own media more and more–Tivo-ing this, blogging that, YouTube-ing and Googling everything else–people are no longer satisfied to simply consume what is placed before them: They have opinions they want to share. So when a large corporation reveals its new identity, there are hundreds of internet sites flinging their opinions back at it. Even when the village board of Remote votes on a new logo for its two police cars, citizens take to the streets waving pitchforks and copies of their own designs. Committeecide seems to be rampant.

Is the public critique of logos a bad thing? Should the masses just go back to consuming what has been placed before them- letting the designer-gods tell them what good design is rather than thinking for themselves? I’ll be the first to say that some of this public ridicule of logos has been taken too far, but I think that the design world is just going to have to get used to the fact that the public has more of a voice that it has ever had before, and they’re going to use it.

While there are a lot of people critiquing design work who wouldn’t know a good design if it bit them in the left buttock, there are a couple of sites that do it really well. Brand New is a division of the UnderConsideration network of graphic design sites, and includes insights into recent logo redesigns. The reviews are excellent and the comments from the reader community are useful as well. IdentityWorks is another site that offers critical reviews of corporate identities, going all the way back to 1998.

What do you think? Do you think the public debate about logos and campaigns to change them takes it too far? Do you think we should ease up on these poor logo designers?

This article was written by Randa Clay. Read more about design, marketing, blogging, branding and all things creative at RandaClay.com.

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Published by Randa Clay on September 13, 2007 in Design • Did you like it? Subscribe! Or Submit it to Blogosphere News!