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No pro designer would come up with what Patrick has now, and yet it works. No pro designer would have come up with the new one, either. Any designer worth anyt
by samdk 16y ago
No pro designer would come up with what Patrick has now, and yet it works.
No pro designer would have come up with the new one, either. Any designer worth anything could have told you that the old logo was way better than the new one. The old logo has its problems, but it communicates exactly what it needs to. (And I think it's actually the strongest point of the entire page.) The 99designs logo is such a step back I really have no idea where to start. It communicates absolutely nothing. The image is generic, meaningless, and (in my opinion) ugly. The text is small and (especially in the context of the whole page) very hard to find and read.
It's really important to realize that design doesn't mean "nice looking" and it doesn't mean "professional". Those are the means to an end, not the end itself. Design is about purpose, and the reason the original logo is so much better than the new one is because the old logo makes clear exactly what BCC is and what it's for and the 99designs logo doesn't.
It's also really important to realize that you're designing for an audience, and Patrick's audience is teachers. They aren't generally going to care if the logo (or the rest of the site, even) screams 2002. If you're trying to sell to artists and designers you're going to have to put more work into making your logo look nice, but here it's really not what's most important.
Design is a lot deeper than aesthetics, and there are a ton of different things that have to go into a logo design. The takeaway from this shouldn't be that engineering trumps design: the 99designs logo is hardly designed at all, and you're not going to find many genuinely good designers at a place like 99designs.
- alsomike 16y agoIn other words, a lot of time is spent attacking straw men that don't resemble what professional working designers actually do. The attitudes and beliefs attributed to designers sounds more like it comes from people who pass themselves off as designers because they have a pirated copy of Photoshop, so the only lesson here is that people who are clueless about design hire clueless designers.
- tptacek 16y agoWe hire pro designers for everything, and while I don't love the 'B' logo Patrick chose, I can easily make a case that it is more professional than his current logo. I think your comment crosses way over the line into hyperbole.
- alsomike 16y agoHow is it hyperbolic? Your definition of a "professionally-designed" logo excludes the normal professional process for identity design. Then you conclude that engineering always beats aesthetics.
- kranner 16y ago"I can easily make a case that it is more professional than his current logo" Please do. It's not obvious to me.
- pmichaud 16y agoI don't think it's hyperbole at all. That the 99 Designs "logo" is as terrible as it is, proves nothing about the almost-as-terrible logo that is in use now.
- tptacek 16y agoSo in retrospect I agree with all of this. I think Patrick's current logo is pretty ugly. I think the 99designs logo is bland and cliched, but I don't think it's ugly. I thought that would count for something. It doesn't. Lesson learned: a logo that speaks to your audience can succeed even if it's ugly.