The Real Upcoming Slogan – Be What’s Next!

Apparently, the real purpose of the conference was to unveil a new slogan to go with the Microsoft logo. This was the only part of the video that the Redmond Company confirmed. Microsoft will be getting a new motto to go along with its logo design. According to the software giant the new tagline is “Be What’s Next.”  Users should expect to see this motto on Microsoft products in the near future.  

New Brand Logos or Concepts?

A few months back confusion caused Apple logo design folly to surface. This video does the same for Microsoft. It shows a fast moving sequence of morphing logos, shifting from Windows logo, to Windows Phone logo, Xbox logo, Bing logo, and finally the Office logo. While Microsoft clarified that the designs shown in the MGX were merely illustrating the “flexibility” of the software giant’s brands.     Following images are quiet blur, as these are the snippets sliced from the available videos, picked them from engadget.com so you could have a quick look for each of the brand logos concept.  

Windows Logo Design Concept:

Windows Phone Logo Design Concept:

XBOX Logo Design Concept:

Bing Logo Design Concept:

MS Office Logo Design Concept:

Question of the Post?

So you’ve just entered into the field of logo design and you’re trying to figure out…how much will I be earning? You’re wondering how much does an average graphic/logo designer earn in the US? Well, think no more! Recently, I came across this comprehensive and in depth survey conducted jointly by AIGA and Aquent. They have presented a detailed metropolis-wise average salary estimate of US graphic designers for 2010.

This extensive analysis will help designers of all spheres to evaluate their worth at their appropriate level and experience. You don’t really need to ascertain the cost of famous logos to calculate how much you can earn. Simply examine the salary trends that have taken place over the past 10 years and analyze your current market worth as a logo designer.

Salaries of US Designers at Various Stages:

Factors that determine a logo designer’s salary:

But before going to the survey part, let us first discuss the factors that are involved in estimating the real salary of a graphic/logo designer. Bear in mind that salary estimate requires an extensive research on the market and logo designers need to develop their pricing structure on the basis of various extraneous aspects as well.

• The level of experience of a graphic/logo designer.
• The type, scale and magnitude of the logo design project you are working on.
• The location (region) you are working in.
• The variable overhead expenditures incurred in the logo design project.
• Will you be charging a fixed fee or on an hourly basis?

US Graphic/Logo Designer Salary Survey:

Following is the extensive analysis performed by AIGA and presented by Aquent. The map below shows the average salaries earned by “Solo Designers” in each region of US.

Designer compensation trend (2000–2010):

The following graph shows the trend of compensation received by graphic designers of various levels over the past 10 years.

You can also view the rest of the survey results along with an interactive salary calculator tool at www.designsalaries.org.

Imagine just for a second that you weren’t a logo designer. No need to get scared folks…just visualize yourself for a minute as someone who knows nothing about the field of logo design. What would you have been then? I’m sure that many of you can’t even think of being anything other than a logo/graphics designer. This also applies to the people belonging to other professions.

Being completely honest, everyone would agree that professions are driven by the need to earn. But equally strong is the passion for the work. A person’s occupational destiny is motivated by either money or passion. Today I wish to list few absurd but probable suggestions that you could have ended up if you hadn’t been what you are right now.

1. Professional Footballer:
	Yes, this is one of the several vague possibilities that you could have become. Imagine yourself playing with the likes of Cristiana Ronaldo, Kaka and David Beckham. Instead of designing logos on the PC, you would be designing play moves and tactics on the field. You might even make it to the FIFA World Cup 2014. But the question is…would you really want that over being a logo designer?

2. Rocket Scientist:
Now this is one place a nerdy designer could have ended up easily. Picture yourself as a rocket scientist, instead of learning the history and future of logo design, you would be studying about aeronautical engineering and the laws of aerodynamics. Notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the coolest jobs to do, but you have to ask this from yourself…are you really built for it?

3. Actor / Model:

So…you dream of starring in a movie? Or maybe desire appearing in a popular brand commercial as a model. What would your world be like had you chosen to be an actor/model and not a logo designer? While I know that the logo design world might not have much of the glitz and glamour, but it’s not always the fame and money that drive a person’s ambitions. Would you have preferred being an actor or a model over being a graphic or logo designer?

4. Frustrated Dad/Husband:
This is one place nobody would want to wind up in. This is the worst case scenario that you can think of ending up in. This is the frustrated and unemployed person who is constantly struggling to make a living and at the same time face the taunts of his wife and kids. Wouldn’t want to end up there would you? This is where you must be glad that at least you’re a logo designer.

5. Psychic Doctor:
	This one tops the charts. Imagine you weren’t a logo designer and you also couldn’t find another profession to work in. You might probably end up becoming a psychic doctor. Now wouldn’t that be perfect? Far away from the logo designing mistakes, you are dealing with mental patients all day long. Talk about dealing with clients who don’t pay.

Single-letter logos are more simple and effective and can cause instant brand recall if properly embedded into the hearts and minds of the customers. Moreover, they require utmost creativity on the part of a logo designer to mend and bend a single letter into a suitable and effective message within the logo design. On the other hand, logos with multiple letters give the customers an ease in memorizing the company’s full name. It also gives the logo designer the room to express his creative wisdom.

Today, I have collected an assortment of 24 single and multiple letter logos. This will demonstrate a contrast between both the types and help identify which is more useful.    

Single Letter Logos:

Multiple Letter Logos:

Maverick’s Custom Trousers

Bender

Dol

Arturfo

ViraLabs

Elefont

Silk Skin

Mozaido

Shrink Media

FORESTAL

Urban Acres Buildcon

Utensil labs

Precision Networking

Rhymes from the Rocks

Playground

Minimum

NWA Boat and Sport Exposition

Chameleon

Hand Made Edition

IncExpert

Shout

Perfect Crowd

New Wave

Mini Museum Mürren

For those of you who haven’t come through my earlier post, here is a flashback of what this post is regarding. Last week, I discussed 5 dangerous signs that your client won’t pay for your logo. As pledged, I will suggest you some practical ways on how to handle situations where your client won’t pay for your logo design.

You’ve finally completed and submitted your logo design project to your client and are eagerly awaiting your remuneration for your efforts. You wait and wait and wait…but there is no sign of anything! You’re stood up! This is a scenario many logo designers face these days. Not that every client is bad and dishonest but there are a few who can be quite chaotic on money matters.

1. Know your client – Is he capable of paying?

First thing you want to make completely sure is that…is your client capable of paying you for the project in the first place? Avoiding the discussion of how much logo designers charge or what are the cost of famous logos, when a client approaches you for a logo design, he must be financially capable of paying you as well. Whether you’re dealing with a large corporation or a small business owner, run a check on his financial conditions and find out his monetary strength. This will prevent you from accepting projects from any defaulter clients.

2. Bind your client via contract:

Long gone are the days when business deals used to be sealed through oral agreements. Nowadays, logo designers must emphasize on making contractual agreements with their clients to avoid any default in the future. Binding your clients with a contract legally secures your worries of non-payments. Logo designers must keep a contract for each project they take up with every detail incorporated in it. Set the deadline dates, complete project details, mode of payment and all other terms and conditions.

3. Always insist on an advance payment:

You spent the whole week working your brains out over a logo design project and half way in the middle, your client comes up to you and says…“I think I’ll get it designed by my neighbor”. Makes you want to kill yourself, doesn’t it? Hence, the best solution out of this quagmire is to insist on an advance payment before your start the project. Maybe a 10-20 % deposit would make you feel secure, even if the client decides to run away in the middle of the project.

4. Deal in installments:

“I don’t have the lump sum amount right now. Do you mind if I pay you later?” Regardless of the amount of truth in this statement, some clients use this bait to bail out of payment. The best thing to avoid this kind of situation is to deal in installments. Formulate a payment plan before the contractual agreement and make the client abide by it. In this way, at any stage if the client decides to abandon the project, you will still have a portion of your remuneration.

5. Don’t show till you get the dough!

Follow the rule of thumb; never be too quick in giving out the files to your clients before he/she makes the complete payment of your fee. You can never be too sure whom to trust. Sometimes, logo designers face shrewd clients who steal the logo design ideas on the pretext of a demo. So it’s better to be safe than sorry. Give the client little bits of the project to see until he does not pay you the whole fee. In a nut shell, don’t show till you get the dough!

Enduring client trouble is every logo designer’s dilemma. While finding more clients is a nuisance itself but dealing with clients that won’t pay for your logo design is even more bothersome. It can be really frustrating for logo designers when they work their entire energy over a certain project and in the end don’t get compensated for their toils and troubles.

While issues over payments and remuneration are a persistent nuisance for logo designers nowadays, we can be sure of one thing…the history of logo design is filled with such cases where clients have made excessive delays in payment or simply didn’t pay the designers at all. Hence it is always better to be prepared for any wrongdoing beforehand.

5 Deadly Signs that tell your client won’t pay – Beware:

Although zodiac signs can help you predict your life’s future proceedings, it might not help in telling the signs that your client will not be paying you. Here are five sure shot signs that indicate your clients won’t pay you for your logo design.  

1. Not answering your calls:

Being busy to answer a call is acceptable but when your client does not respond to your calls over several days, you can be sure that you’ve been stood up. This the most dangerous sign that indicates you’re not going to get paid by your client for your logo design. You might presume, for a few days that the client is stuck in an emergency. But when you don’t get a call or email, it shows that the client does not want to get the job done and compensate you.

2. Starts showing lack of interest in the project:

All of a sudden, you start noticing that your client isn’t keen in listening to your suggestions and has stopped taking interest in your logo design process. Voila! That’s a clear cut sign that he has lost interest in getting the logo designed and wants to just run away without paying you a penny. You can try testing your client’s enthusiasm over a few days and if it continues, then you can be sure to say good bye to your remuneration.

3. Makes delay in payments:

When you’re dealing with clients who pay in installments, you can observe some critical signals of not getting the full reimbursement. When your payments are arriving extremely late, you can be sure that your client isn’t willing to pay you the whole fee. Moreover, delay in payments when your client’s check bounces is another dangerous sign that you will not be getting compensated for your labors.

4. Continuously mocks your designs:

Client criticism is a normal thing for logo designers to bear. But when your client constantly mocks your work saying foolish things like “My 5-year-old daughter can make a better logo design than you”, you can be certain that he is seriously going to ask his daughter. Clients can come up with lame reasons of getting a logo designed even by their neighbor. Hence, the next time you hear you client coming up with silly notions, be prepared to get dumped.

5. Asks you to postpone the project for a while:

“Hey, could you just hold the logo design for a few days? Rain check! ” When you hear these words from a client, you can be most certain that he’s running away. It’s not the project that’s being held up, it’s you who is being stood up in the middle of your efforts. What happens here is that some clients spend quality time with designers and in the middle of the project, ditch them while robbing them of their remuneration and logo design ideas.  

Practical ways to handle such situations:

Let me clarify that my post is not to create negative opinions against clients. In my next post I will suggest you some practical ways on how to handle such situations where your client won’t pay you.  

Have you ever faced any of the above signs from your clients? Do you have another sign that can indicate your client won’t pay?

  ]]> http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/dangerous-signs-clients-not-pay/feed/ 11 http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/latest-logo-design/ http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/latest-logo-design/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:29:06 +0000 Nora Reed http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/?p=4623

With the passage of time, the logo design industry has evolved into a highly developed and organized field. Although brand identities were created way before the technological age, the new technology age tools and expertise have made designing logos extremely easier and better in quality. Although it is not easy to discover the origins and history of logo design, we can still analyze its future trends and prospects.

We have witnessed many famous logo designers in the past who have stamped their name in the logo design field. But let us focus on contemporary logo designers for a change. The modern-day logo design world is blessed with countless designers who possess immense creative talent and flair. Today’s post features 20 of the most outstanding logos created by the designers of the contemporary logo design world. Have a look at these commendable works.

Bop Entertainment

Camora

Colossal

Creative Library

Dai Sushi

Enable Holding

Face to Face

Inquiring

Loin Bird

Live at the Moment

Mark Edmunds Associates

Mini Museum Mürren

Namyslow Airport

New Wave

One1

Perfect Crowd

Push the Bottle

ThinkTank

Vivid Vogue

WYY Water

A warm welcome to all my devoted readers…today I come with good news for all graphic and logo designers. It gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of Logo Blog’s very own “Logo Design Gallery”. The sole aim of this effort is provide aspiring graphic designers the perfect platform to thrive upon and showcase their creative flair to the logo design world.

The idea of creating a Logo Design Gallery came as a solution for those aspiring and less privileged graphic and logo designers who cannot make the limelight because of insufficient exposure in the market. This gallery is another step forward from Logoblog.org in contributing towards the betterment of the logo design industry.

Without any hassle, you can submit your logos for display and get ratings on them from other designers. You can build your complete portfolio by adding more logos anytime you want. Moreover, the gallery showcases the “logos of the week” by displaying the best logos under the spotlight.

I hope the Logo Design Gallery will prove to be useful in providing logo designers the opportunities they deserve. Please don’t forget to share your views and comments regarding the Logo Design Gallery experience with us.

The all-famous Apple logo design is in no need for introductions and praises. Designed by Rob Janoff, the Apple logo design has witnessed a series of alterations. A few days back, site carrying unreal news related to Apple, published a joke piece about apple redesigning its logo. The irony is that this news is being spread on renowned blogs as well, creating heaps of confusion among the masses.

How this sardonic tale started:

The apple logo folly is another addition to the logo design controversies hitting the blogosphere. The drama started when Scoopertino.com, a site posting fake news related to Apple Inc, floated a wild story involving its logo redesign. The satirical website alleged that Jonathan Ive, Industrial Designer at Apple, decided to remove the Apple from the apple logo, leaving only a leaf in the logo design. Scoopertino goes on further satirically adding a picturing showing an unreal brand campaign with the leaf logo and a fake apple iMac carrying the spoof leaf logo.    

Promoters of the misinterpretation:

The ironic part of this whole incident was that two of the most recognized logo design blogs endorsed the Apple logo redesign joke. Logolounge.com and imjustcreative.com have seemingly promoted this unreal news without prior verification. Although, Apple Inc is a very attractive subject to write about, but spreading unrealistic stories about famous brands can be misleading for the readers.  

Unreal news trend – right or wrong?

Even though the site spreading unreal news claims to be a parody site, spreading news like these on the blogosphere can be misleading for the common people. Don’t you think that publishing fake news with such brazenness is somewhat out of the humor limits? Also, is promoting this fake news from unreliable sources without proper verification correct? You be the judge!!!   ]]> http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/apple-logo-design-folly/feed/ 7 http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/hidden-code-cyber-command-logo/ http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/hidden-code-cyber-command-logo/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:34:25 +0000 Nora Reed http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/?p=4561

Since its inception in May 21, 2010, the US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) has been in the news largely because of the mystery behind its logo. Apart from its fancy logo design, the real attention getter was the strange string of characters inscribed in the inner gold ring of the logo. As it turns out, there really was a secret message inscribed in the US Cyber Command logo after all.

This was another addition to the series of logo design controversies particularly relating to US Government departments. A few months back, the US Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency was in the limelight for its similarities with the Islamic crescent and the Iranian Space Agency logo.  

Where is the Secret Code?

At a first glance, it might evade the viewer, but at a closer perusal of the logo, you will find that the US Cyber Command emblem consists of 32 random characters “9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a” embedded in its inner gold ring. Online technology magazine Wired.com was the first to bring this to notice and launched a contest to solve the puzzling cryptogram.

What does the code mean?

If you enter the above mission statement into an MD5 hash generator, the 32 character string “9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a” inscribed on the USCYBERCOM logo is generated. An extremely perplexing logic behind a logo designed for a Cyber War Agency.

You Decide!