People have emotional responses to simple designs, and nowhere is this more evident than in logo design. Certain images signify complex ideas such as reliability, wealth, intelligence, or wisdom: a rock, for example, is often used to portray reliability, while words or images coming out of a square (“thinking outside the box”) brings to mind intelligence and innovation. Conversely, companies trying to appeal to a younger, more “hip” audience (note ironic use of quote marks) often employ abstract or brightly colored logos to give a sense of irreverance.

Internet companies are a great example of this. Often they have no physical product or storefront, but they use the logo to give their service the right “feel.” Take a look at the old-style “W” in the logo for WordPress. It suggests typing or typesetting and comes across as strong and stable – perfect for a blogging platform that wants to appeal to a more serious audience. Compare that to the bubbly “B” in Blogger. Their front page definitely appeals to a younger, less serious demographic – yet the services themselves are almost identical.

Of course, just because you have an internet-based business doesn’t mean you should discard the cardinal rule of logo creation, which is Keep It Simple. (I left off the “…Stupid” because I find the KISS acronym to be unbearably twee.) The above mentioned logos work because they’re bold, they’re simple, and they’re uncluttered. A good logo should have a minimum of bells and whistles, relying instead on recognizability and scalability. If you have to explain the meaning behind your logo (“…and this swoop here is supposed to signify the triumph of good over evil”) it’s probably not as effective as it could be.

For some solid logo ideas, I’d recommend checking out Logo Pond. See what works, see what doesn’t. But hey, who says you have to do all the work? Drop us a line if you’d like a quote for a custom logo and we’d be happy to help you out. We’re nice like that.

It’s official: we’re a downtown business. CouldBe Studios gets an office this week in the Park Washington building on SW Park Avenue. We feel so…official. Does this mean we can’t work in our pajamas anymore?

In addition to the new digs, we’re taking the wraps off our portfolio site, CouldBe Design. We went with the minimalist black that seems to be all the rage these days. (We prefer to think of it as an homage to the terminal, but your mileage may vary.) Take a look, and drop us a line if you want some custom work. Or just say hi; it’s lonely in our big new office.

You know a concept is dead when the parody is easier to recognize than the concept itself. Thus, I point you toward the Web 2.0 Logo Creator, where you can 2.0-ize your company, your website…even yourself:

(Thanks to ProBlogger for the link.)

Now can we all move on from the Web 2.0 thing? Plz and thank you.

Besides, I hear Web 3.0 is going to have much better colors.

Get out your pencils, kids: illustration is back. Stock photographs or slick Web 2.0 style graphics are so last year. The next generation of graphic design is all about good old-fashioned illustration with a digital twist.

Very clean, slick and slightly stiff digital illustration has been popular for a while now, as is a style that I would describe as looking like ‘information graphics’, but clients are starting to get bored with this. I don’t want to scare artists that just render color digitally – that’s not what I’m talking about. I often hear the words ‘authentic’, ‘painted’ and ‘hand-made’ coming up lately.
- IllustrationMundo.com

One of the trends we’re seeing a lot of lately is the vector/photo mashup (a la ‘A Scanner Darkly‘). Layers Magazine has a good tutorial on how to create this effect using the Creative Suite. It’s a striking visual effect, but my guess is this isn’t what people mean when they say they want something “hand-made.”

The simplest solution, of course, is to actually do art by hand. You know, not on the computer. The results really can’t be duplicated…or can they? Heathrowe.com has a tutorial showing how to use Photoshop to get a surprisingly realistic sketched look from a photograph. Want a more stylized look? TutorialDash suggests some ways to give your illustrations an Anime flair. And the brilliant Veerle shows us how to use Illustrator brushes on text to create a unique, hand-drawn effect.