7 ms·

Jessica Hische Brings New Life to an Old Logo

41 points by ramimac 4y ago

trynewideas 4y ago
The oscillation between brands wanting consistent weights and spacing within logos to look "cleaner", and wanting inconsistency to look "authentic", all of it happening on an almost subconscious level for everyone subjected to it, employs so many graphic designers. It's mind-boggling.
lethologica 4y ago
The first thing I thought was "Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures"
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  Seems like these examples are selected as the ones where the corp overall actually likes the logo they have to begin with. So to be most successful at giving the client what they want, they need to make no drastic changes. While still earning comparable designer fees as if a whole new logo was produced instead. So everybody wins.
notadesigner 4y ago
This is the designer equivalent of rewriting working systems in Rust.
- rolenthedeep 4y ago
  This is the graphical equivalent of a PR fixing a typo in a comment
dokem 4y ago
Tech companies have really brought in an era of completely lifeless and inauthentic graphic design. I think we really are in in a sort of art dark-age right now, in general.
- causality0 4y ago
  On the upside, I can tell how long it is until my next eye exam by how long it takes me to differentiate Google's five dozen nearly identical rainbow circle products from one another.
olivermarks 4y ago
Basically better kerning and font weight changes, nothing too scary for the huge committees of empty suits to be presented to, meet over and approve
giantrobot 4y ago
For a website called printmag you'd think they would have heard about contrast. #EEEEEE body on #FFFFFF is a shitty combination.
- kbutler 4y ago
  Mine's fine (#1b1b1b on #ffffff, chrome windows). Are you running some low contrast mods, dark mode, or some such?
  - giantrobot 4y ago
    I'm running dark mode on iOS. Likely a broken dark mode CSS, I read it in Reader mode but it's not difficult to check dark mode CSS.
bluedino 4y ago
I'm still angry about that Mailchimp logo.
ryanwhitney 4y ago
Lots of negative comments so far, but this is much preferable to having every brand trend towards plain san-serif wordmarks[0] that will be easier to use. Much closer to something like the evolution the Coke brand[1], which occasionally refreshes and modernizes, but retains the same character it had 100+ years ago. [0]: https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-... [1]: https://dwglogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/coca-cola_logo_evolution.png https://dwglogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/coca-cola_log...
- kleiba 4y ago
  Curiously, a lot of the before/after examples given in [0] actually already had a sans serif font on the "before" side, so that was actually not the main change.
- buggy6257 4y ago
  The “Fashion: Colorized” image had me rolling. I have to imagine they knew what they were doing haha
ilamont 4y ago
"It can be a challenge for them to get executives on board with something that seems so subtle, but I do my best to provide them with the right language and tools to prove the value." For larger firms, getting a conference room full of executives involved in design approvals - whether for logos or websites or packaging or whatever - is a huge waste of time and inserts all kinds of personal bias and counterproductive decisions. The result is often design by committee, or purely "data driven" designs that lead companies down the path of mediocrity and following yesterday's trends.
- eurticket 4y ago
  Not to mention a headache. She is a great speaker though, so that probably shines through.
ttoinou 4y ago
Wow I usually dislike design rework but the new logos look great. Except for RetailMeNot, the font was more funky before
- bufferout 4y ago
  heh as the designer of the original RMN logo I personally think she lobotomized it.
alphabet9000 4y ago
the logos could have been swapped the other way around and the article would have read in exactly the same way and made the same amount of sense.
FrontierPsych 4y ago
Bucking the trend, I have a cool identifiable logo that I created on my own. Like Nike, I spent about $35 on it, done by some dude in Pakistan. I bumped into a brand expert a few days ago and we changed business cards, he just was floored by my logo and said it was fantastic, and that he knows a good logo when he sees one. So weird that so many people and companies have no imagination. All those "logo" changes done by Hische are so insipid. Nothing bold, nothing imaginative. But I guess she avoids conflict by making microscopic changes and she earns $40,000 per logo or whatever she charges, and that's the real point of it. And yes, I'm tooting my own horn, deal with it.
- rugina 4y ago
  link to the Pakistani bloke?
  - FrontierPsych 4y ago
    As I wrote, I created it on my own. I'm the one that conceptualized the logo in great detail, but he did the actual design work according to my specifications. I would never be able to do the actual design, it's not in my wheelhouse. But the concept was mine. If you have a crisp solid idea that you can explain in great detail, just about any graphic artist will do. That's really the key to outsourcing anything. You have to have a crystal clear idea and the ability to communicate it. It doesn't only pertain to logos. It's everything. You can't really ask for ideas that they have - it'll never be yours, never have your own originality. I thought a lot about my logo - I didn't do it in 15 minutes. I kept rolling it around in my mind until it came to full fruition. It took about a month for the concept to really work itself out. I google searched on terms for graphic images that were similar to my ideas and saw other graphics that gave me ideas. I put my own twist on it. But I was able to send the guy about 8 different examples from other graphics but told him how it would be different. Mine was completely different from the ones that I searched for the terms on Google, but they gave the "flavor" of what I wanted, plus I added words as to what I wanted and what would be different. I love my logo.
Gordonjcp 4y ago
Aha, so the reason the "refreshed" logo looks damn near identical to the original is because the brief is not "give us a new logo" but "give us the old logo but fixed so we can put it on our website, print it on paper, and vinyl cut it on the side of a van, and it won't look wrong" then.

41 points by ramimac 4y ago

The oscillation between brands wanting consistent weights and spacing within logos to look "cleaner", and wanting inconsistency to look "authentic", all of it happening on an almost subconscious level for everyone subjected to it, employs so many graphic designers. It's mind-boggling.

lethologica 4y ago

The first thing I thought was "Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures"

fuzzfactor 4y ago
Seems like these examples are selected as the ones where the corp overall actually likes the logo they have to begin with. So to be most successful at giving the client what they want, they need to make no drastic changes. While still earning comparable designer fees as if a whole new logo was produced instead. So everybody wins.

notadesigner 4y ago

This is the designer equivalent of rewriting working systems in Rust.

rolenthedeep 4y ago
This is the graphical equivalent of a PR fixing a typo in a comment

dokem 4y ago

Tech companies have really brought in an era of completely lifeless and inauthentic graphic design. I think we really are in in a sort of art dark-age right now, in general.

causality0 4y ago
On the upside, I can tell how long it is until my next eye exam by how long it takes me to differentiate Google's five dozen nearly identical rainbow circle products from one another.

olivermarks 4y ago

Basically better kerning and font weight changes, nothing too scary for the huge committees of empty suits to be presented to, meet over and approve

giantrobot 4y ago

For a website called printmag you'd think they would have heard about contrast. #EEEEEE body on #FFFFFF is a shitty combination.

kbutler 4y ago
Mine's fine (#1b1b1b on #ffffff, chrome windows). Are you running some low contrast mods, dark mode, or some such?
- giantrobot 4y ago
  I'm running dark mode on iOS. Likely a broken dark mode CSS, I read it in Reader mode but it's not difficult to check dark mode CSS.

bluedino 4y ago

I'm still angry about that Mailchimp logo.

ryanwhitney 4y ago

Lots of negative comments so far, but this is much preferable to having every brand trend towards plain san-serif wordmarks[0] that will be easier to use. Much closer to something like the evolution the Coke brand[1], which occasionally refreshes and modernizes, but retains the same character it had 100+ years ago. [0]: https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-... [1]: https://dwglogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/coca-cola_logo_evolution.png https://dwglogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/coca-cola_log...

kleiba 4y ago
Curiously, a lot of the before/after examples given in [0] actually already had a sans serif font on the "before" side, so that was actually not the main change.
buggy6257 4y ago
The “Fashion: Colorized” image had me rolling. I have to imagine they knew what they were doing haha

ilamont 4y ago

"It can be a challenge for them to get executives on board with something that seems so subtle, but I do my best to provide them with the right language and tools to prove the value." For larger firms, getting a conference room full of executives involved in design approvals - whether for logos or websites or packaging or whatever - is a huge waste of time and inserts all kinds of personal bias and counterproductive decisions. The result is often design by committee, or purely "data driven" designs that lead companies down the path of mediocrity and following yesterday's trends.

eurticket 4y ago
Not to mention a headache. She is a great speaker though, so that probably shines through.

ttoinou 4y ago

Wow I usually dislike design rework but the new logos look great. Except for RetailMeNot, the font was more funky before

bufferout 4y ago
heh as the designer of the original RMN logo I personally think she lobotomized it.

alphabet9000 4y ago

the logos could have been swapped the other way around and the article would have read in exactly the same way and made the same amount of sense.

FrontierPsych 4y ago

Bucking the trend, I have a cool identifiable logo that I created on my own. Like Nike, I spent about $35 on it, done by some dude in Pakistan. I bumped into a brand expert a few days ago and we changed business cards, he just was floored by my logo and said it was fantastic, and that he knows a good logo when he sees one. So weird that so many people and companies have no imagination. All those "logo" changes done by Hische are so insipid. Nothing bold, nothing imaginative. But I guess she avoids conflict by making microscopic changes and she earns $40,000 per logo or whatever she charges, and that's the real point of it. And yes, I'm tooting my own horn, deal with it.

rugina 4y ago
link to the Pakistani bloke?
- FrontierPsych 4y ago
  As I wrote, I created it on my own. I'm the one that conceptualized the logo in great detail, but he did the actual design work according to my specifications. I would never be able to do the actual design, it's not in my wheelhouse. But the concept was mine. If you have a crisp solid idea that you can explain in great detail, just about any graphic artist will do. That's really the key to outsourcing anything. You have to have a crystal clear idea and the ability to communicate it. It doesn't only pertain to logos. It's everything. You can't really ask for ideas that they have - it'll never be yours, never have your own originality. I thought a lot about my logo - I didn't do it in 15 minutes. I kept rolling it around in my mind until it came to full fruition. It took about a month for the concept to really work itself out. I google searched on terms for graphic images that were similar to my ideas and saw other graphics that gave me ideas. I put my own twist on it. But I was able to send the guy about 8 different examples from other graphics but told him how it would be different. Mine was completely different from the ones that I searched for the terms on Google, but they gave the "flavor" of what I wanted, plus I added words as to what I wanted and what would be different. I love my logo.

Gordonjcp 4y ago

Aha, so the reason the "refreshed" logo looks damn near identical to the original is because the brief is not "give us a new logo" but "give us the old logo but fixed so we can put it on our website, print it on paper, and vinyl cut it on the side of a van, and it won't look wrong" then.