bad logos

I can has illustrator. Shiny things are shiny.

http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/images/logo.gif

http://www.ups.com/img/global_logo.gif

nice comb-over

also lovely shade of red wine poo

yeah, google is the CLASSIC bad logo that has smashed all other bad logos and taken over the bad logo world

playstation 3 barely counts as a logo so I'm not posting it

vaguely disturbing:

http://yellowsubterfuge.com/wp-content/SherwinWilliams.jpg

nu-UPS is awful, but I kinda like google, even if the seritfs are a little much on the G and l

maybe just the l

I am trying to list on chat all the bad things about the google logo. Among them: that drop shadow makes it look like it's being interrogated under a single naked light bulb.

Each letter a different color? No, bad kindergardener.

colors are pretty

The panther is eh, okay, but the lettering...

http://www.charlottebca.com/customers/105122109525971/images/Carolina_Panthers.gif

This is what happens when you form your team in 1993.

I am basically totally against any more "logos" that are just a dumb word in a font on a solid background

digital typography and the web truly have loosed a great new devil upon the world

This is what happens when you form your team in 1993.

otmotmotm!!!

can we talk about that photoshop logo some more? It horrified me. Can someone explain me why it looks like a chat bubble in iChat? Why there's a hole in it? What is it apropos of?

Bad American sports team logos from the 1990s is like a whole different thread.

when I took graphic design in high school we had to DRAW our letters GOD DAMN IT.

clay otm

the thing I find most retarded about that photoshop logo is how whatever unifying design idea lazybones had is totally utterly ruined by the sarcoceles of registered trademark this and that!

like at least google has the sense to mute the TM to a very light gray and not just leave a big black cold sore in the corner!

and really is photoshop any more of a protected trademark now than XEROX is?

or GOOGLE for that matter?

god of all the threads to remind me today that our whole species is going straight down the tubes

there there.

whatever unifying design idea lazybones had is totally utterly ruined by the sarcoceles of registered trademark this and that!

My first thought when I read this:

designer: "Do we really need all these trademark symbols? They really throw everything off and..."

bossman: "Yes. All of them."

designer: "Can we at least make them grey?"

bossman: "Then nobody will be able to see them! What are you, an idiot?"

really, though, I expected better of Adobe.

do you know what sucks the most on OS X, like windows 2000 level of suck looking? the iTunes icon. I hate that stupid thing.

especially now that it does everything but beat gary kasparov at halo, you'd think they could see their way to ditching this d-grade CD with the floating eighth notes bullshit

but now it's blue! DO YOU SEE?!

I like the trend in mac icons of a color, a shape, and an identifying letter. Adobe CS3 is like this, and Skype.

do you know what sucks the most on OS X, like windows 2000 level of suck looking? the iTunes icon. I hate that stupid thing.

Oh tee emm. I wrote an applescript to replace it automatically when it's clobbered by a s'ware update.

hmmm.

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/012078.html

http://www.caydel.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/ask_large.gif

^^^ shocks me how bad that one is

http://www.quartzcity.net/2007/08/02/california-license-plate-aesthetics/

We’ve reached a point, in the homogenized West, where good graphic design is everywhere. The battle has been won: every business knows it needs good design —you don’t have to tell them anymore. It’s enshrined in the business schools, established in the corporate HQs. Even small businesses understand that good design is good for business. It’s a universal truth, like "customer service" and "value for money," and all the other boardroom nostrums that drive modern commerce.

I'll have whatever he's having.

http://web.archive.org/web/19990504112211/www.google.com/google.jpg

if they would just throw one well-placed paint splat on the CA license plate logo it would make everybody think of HST instead of tom selleck and things would be okay

http://www.darrenherman.com/2007/09/19/product-differentiation/

oh good, one seth godin wasn't enough

Phallic logo awards: http://b3ta.com/features/phalliclogoawards/

"differentiation"

Possibly the worst logo in the history of logos:

http://old.lwn.net/2001/0301/ov.gif

Thor chopping a snake in half? Vagina dentata is cowering in the corner.

http://www.logoserver.com/college/MichiganTechHuskies2.GIF

haha lol @ OSS volunteer gimp logos
just 'cause you had that one penguin take off don't mean just anything floats, all y'all stokholm sprung technik juniors

yo check out my hometown's minor league hockey team!!
http://huntsvillehavoc.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/thumbcache/ca146cd8376b3a9e09188a883f7201c1.200.jpg

that is straight up tattoo material

Still head and shoulders above mine:

http://i4.tinypic.com/6g2br5x.gif

Wrong thread, but:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/1/19/TBRowdies.gif

Obligatory Achewood opinion on the matter:

http://m.assetbar.com/achewood/autaux?b=M%5ea11f09b8576e606bcb5038dfdb92fb821&u=http%3A%2F%2Fachewood.com%2Fcomic.php%3Fdate%3D05172006

I think the Huntsville and Mud Hens ones are both great in their own way

http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/images/mega.jpg

The havoc is peace-loving in its natural habitat, but under artificially induced stress in laboratory conditions it quickly becomes more agitated.

http://www.cashsave.com/style2.gif

don't forget the whole thread and associated entire-internet-handwringing over the london olympics. though the olympics as as venture seem to require terrible logo design since even a modicum of class would draw attention away from those five timeless rings

http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/brands/0005/8682/brand.gif

ooh ooh Bed Bath & Beyond. I don't even want to post it.

The Google logo isn't a masterpiece of design, but in terms of product (re-)presentation, it's genius. It's simple, friendly, and honest, which is precisely how Google wishes to portray itself, from text advertising to DON'T BE EEEEVIL!!!

Yeah, I guess I am just a dumb mark in some sense, b/c Google's logo has never bothered me particularly.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/Blu-ray_Disc.svg

this one has an interesting problem in that the curve ascending away from the word Disc creates a little illusion that the words aren't on a straight baseline, plus the name is dumb, so the complete effect is to remind you of something a third grader made up one afternoon.

I was trying to find Russell Crowe's yin & yang version of this logo, but i couldn't :/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a9/South_Sydney_Rabbitohs.SVG/400px-South_Sydney_Rabbitohs.SVG.png

http://www.lookingfit.com/articles/images/i4c1a33.gif

for the record, ask.com does not have a bad logo.

it hurts me, anyway.

I'd say all of those dot-com logos are fine compared to what else is out there. I'm trying to remember which ones use the Crackhouse font.

well, if we go far enough down the ladder we could talk about the bad handwriting on the sign of your nearest fruit stand.

Hard to choose just one.

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/index/driveinlogoblack2a.gif

I mean, Google is not bad at all.

xpost Yeah, that's what I mean by the nearest fruit stand.

But watch out, man, that logo is copyrighted!

http://www.sellingcarsonvalley.com/images/HOW%20Owner%20logo.JPG

the thing I find most retarded about that photoshop logo is how whatever unifying design idea lazybones had is totally utterly ruined by the sarcoceles of registered trademark this and that!

-- El Tomboto, Thursday, September 20, 2007 2:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

so sad, so true

Eric, some crappy internet graphic does not a logo make. I mean, not even definition-wise, imo. Brian's Drive In made nothing like a logo, let alone a bad one, and so are excluded from competition.

sorry to get all Thread Nazi Nick on you.

No, no, fair enough.

LA Tan is OTM, though, it's everywhere and a wide pink scar on every building it's on.

http://www.logodesign-webdesign.com/entertainment_logo_several.gif

My most recent pet peeve: the use of the Algerian font, anywhere. Businesses use it, I reckon, because they think it looks more creative/interesting than anything else in the Word font package, but that also makes it stick out as That Creative/Interesting Font From Microsoft Word instead of being able to appropriately blend into the overall design.

Yeah, I remember that pet peeve.

see also "sand," which used to be packaged with os x

I've noticed it for a while, but I feel like I've only been demonstrating my annoyance within the last couple of months. Kr now knows what I mean when we're out somewhere and I'll just suddenly, apropos of nothing, point and say "ugh, Algerian."

http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/brands/0016/2917/brand.gif

haha, john, I do that when I'm watching TV with julia sometimes. I am veeeery slowly learning that's it's best not to comment on fonts, ever. Nobody gives a fig.

You guys need to have some beers and some font talk with Geoff.

http://www.areaagencyonaging.org/seniornetweb/graphics/ameritech.jpg

xpost Nobody gives a fig about it being pointed out, anyway, but I do believe that fonts and trends in fonts have cultural associations and emotional impacts that people don't think about.

xpost again

I love geoff. I would love to schedule.

Speaking of which, Helvetica is coming back to the Siskel Film Center this weekend. If you're at all interested in fonts, I recommend it.

do believe that fonts and trends in fonts have cultural associations and emotional impacts that people don't think about.

Yeah, see, you need to see that movie.

I missed that the first time, I will look it up. Thanks, jaymc.

That Ameritech logo is a case study in being unmemorable. Hey, at least no one is offended, right?

I just remember how 1998-1999 was full of swoosh logos.

That PricewaterhouseCoopers logo... is that real? I can't remember seeing that. It's hilarious.

"PricewaterhouseCoopers... the accounting firm with the clown car name." It really drives that idea home.

Yep.

Makes sense that they wanted to shorten the length of the logo a bit, but...

hey, check it out, guys! Another Chicago thread!

xpost, I'm not even sure it's bad, considering how insane the name is. They should have a sense of humor about it.

http://www.arhrf.org.au/docUploads/BOWELSCAN%20LOGO.jpg

*gets in line*

http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/thumb/3/3a/Pbs.jpg/300px-Pbs.jpg
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/images/logos/ps_logo_228x52.gif

The PBS guy has been turned 1/4 turn and his eye moved.

Oh, and his neck cut off.

http://www.arkansasorthodontics.com/photos/3364.jpg

I kind of give the Google logo a break. I imagine it as the result of a bunch of uber-nerd CS PhD dudes thinking that they needed a logo of some sort so they gave that job to the most artistic among them, and based on my work doing design stuff for uber-nerd CS types this is pretty much what you'd end up with. Then they got popular and couldn't / wouldn't change it.

also the PBS logo upthread is fucking awesome

I used to think the Happy Eater one was bad but now I'm not too sure...
http://static.flickr.com/53/163904549_563d96425b_m.jpg
Yes, he looks like he's trying to puke but also the whole "put food in me" is quite amusing.

Speaking of which, Helvetica is coming back to the Siskel Film Center this weekend. If you're at all interested in fonts, I recommend it.

saw it last night. lots of laughs!

The Luc3nt T3chnologies logo is an example of something that you know took a design committee several months to come up with, but just looks like something that a toddler drew with a blunt wax crayon in five seconds.

yes, the pshop logo has done a little trademark poo

the "glassine" look is so three years ago (actually more like seven): http://logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=384

good link! i love that one of the emerging trends for logos in 2007 is DRAGONS

It's harder to find good logos than bad logos.

http://www.springboardconsultancy.com/images/tspringboard.gif

It's a women's development programme and the logo makes screams WOOOOOOOAAAAAH BODYFORM, don't you think?

The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.
The "a-ha!" moment is gravy.

it depresses me to think they will never rebrand Google, Amazon and eBay.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/f/ff/ThomsonLogo.jpg

What is it? A tick? A wink? Where's the other eye? Why is the smile covering half the face? Gah it's annoying!

It could happen - the BBC has rebranded more than once and they're a univerally recognised uber-brand. Google the least likely to I will admit. xp.

TV companies tend to rebrand more often than giant e-corps, weirdly.

Dear ILX,

If a one line quotation is so stand-out WOAH that you feel the need to quote it out of context, don't you think repeating it multiple times defeats the whole purpose?

Love,
Mark

dear mark.

no.

love, ilx

Dear Charlie,

You're so wrong :)

Love,
Mark

where was that 'a-ha' quote actually from?

http://www.idg.no/multimedia/archive/00018/mysql_logo_18600c.jpg

long time fan of that cover the earth shit and carolina panthers and google

http://www.stevetrefethen.com/images/logo/cglogo.png

where was that 'a-ha' quote actually from?

from that brilliant logolounge link: http://logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=384

MySQL logo is OK I feel.

via sleep: http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/restaurants/archives/pac.jpg

5 blocks from my hacienda

It gets worse. This from the London 2012 newsletter:
http://images.c-f-1.com/filestorage/Template_Images_Imported/841/Support_4_boxes/support_title.jpg http://images.c-f-1.com/imageServer/841/tmp1A8D.jpg

It's like the font they ought to use when the Greeks speak in Asterix.

And they seem to be using it everwhere
http://images.c-f-1.com/imageServer/841/tmp5950.jpg

I still think the London Olympic one is totally visionary and awesome, especially after being reminded of the pathetic, tasteful Glasgow Commonwealth Games one:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d7/180px-Glasgow2014Logo.jpg

Utterly forgettable.

http://panther1.last.fm/groupavatar/0d7440c49a57916b995dc7b3e085ed57.gif

Alba, at least they didn't go for purple and green with a thistle.

you may all know this already but that "cover the earth" logo was interpreted by paranoid anti-communists as quasi-overt political propaganda: "SWP" stands for "Sherwin Williams Paint" but why not also "Socialist Workers Party"? the paint is red; the goal is to "cover the earth" with communism, eradicating national boundaries and subsuming all

this interpretation was so paranoid and ridiculous that of course communists and leftist student groups immediately began using the Sherwin Williams logo to advertise themselves

I did NOT know that! Neato! Ok, it can stay, then.

The Carolina Panthers were formed in 1993??

They are even more my favorite team, now more than ever!!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/43/86978537_906df6bdbf.jpg?v=0

I wear it on a hat. In public.

sans the lettering though.

1993333!!!

Way to go, Jeff!

you may all know this already but that "cover the earth" logo was interpreted by paranoid anti-communists as quasi-overt political propaganda: "SWP" stands for "Sherwin Williams Paint" but why not also "Socialist Workers Party"? the paint is red; the goal is to "cover the earth" with communism, eradicating national boundaries and subsuming all

this interpretation was so paranoid and ridiculous that of course communists and leftist student groups immediately began using the Sherwin Williams logo to advertise themselves

-- Tracer Hand, Saturday, September 22, 2007 1:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

hahaha i came up with the same "interpretation" too!

Google just keeps bringing the goods.

http://www.google.com/logos/9th_birthday.gif

what is that?

the google logo giving birth to more bad logos

Man, don't talk to me about logos I'm trying to work with a whole bunch of them at the moment that are all different shapes and sizes and degrees of crapness

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/NewWacomlogo.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/NewWacomlogo.gif http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/441803471_51bd15e418_m.jpg

this brings up a good point, with the new codebase and everything, and totally new hosting, and new moderators, etc, shouldn't we re-brand ILX?

we should have a new logo contest, and do a poll.

Definitely.

wooo!

http://home.megapass.co.kr/~lefoot/eng/mark.jpg

I hate this one:

http://tornadofilms.com/itv%20logo.gif

kenan - did you make that yourself?

ha no, it's from the Saunapants website!

http://saunapants.co.kr/

this is why my design job is still difficult to outsource

I keep forgetting to make the new ilx logo poll

http://bdmonkeys.net/brown.png

http://i.imgur.com/CNLEcsn.jpg

Gradients, how do they work?

The Old Grey Whistle Test logo looks like someone kicking Jesus in the crotch

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/StarKicker.jpg