Death Pop

Shake off that holiday slump, we’re back. Mark Hall-Patch did some fancy lettering for some death metal logos, only they’re for pop artists. Oddly enough, I could see Lady GaGa using this one at some point…

(via Buzzfeed)

Oh yeah! I forgot about the music video that I went crazy over a while back, and I was just reminded of it.

Machine Molle did this video for Justice’s “DVNO,” off of their 2007 album † (which is where the rather conspicuous cross toward the end of the video comes from; it became somewhat of a de facto logo for the band, incidentally). Outside of being a really great song, the animation is well done and reminds me of old HBO tapes my aunt would placate me with as a child. 

…And No Two Alike

The MIT Media Lab introduced a new logo – or I guess logos… logo system? – recently, that’s really crazy. I’ve seen logos that have permutations on a theme (Nickelodeon’s old identity springs to mind), but this one most assuredly takes the cake. 

The overarching idea of the logo is the three variously colored spotlights mixing and coming together, each maintaining it’s own identity, something that speaks to the lab’s tradition of “cross-pollination” as Suzanne Lebarre calles it at Design Co. “The Media Lab has outgrown this notion of traditional media, with researchers working in areas ranging from human computer interaction to neurobiology or nanotechnology,” Richard The, a designer of the logo system, noted. “Whatever ‘media’ means, it has been and will be defined at this place, in the next 5, 10, 20 years. The algorithmic logo is an effort to capture this dynamism.”

The craziest part (and this is what prompted me to tell you guys about it) is that it’s based on an algorithm that can create up to 40,000 unique position/color combinations. That’s enough to give every staff member their own logo. For the next 25 years. They’ve even gone as far as to set up a website where folks can choose their own logo. Once a design has been chosen, no one else can use it. On all of your business cards, tote bags, etc., it’s your personal logo. It’s a wonderful idea, that results in such a bizzarre and beautiful logo.

(via Surfstation)

One Great Logo!

I’ve always enjoyed and placed a lot of emphasis on sports team logos. They seem akin to a coat of arms or a medieval banner. They become more than just an image in the center of the field; they become a rally, a source of pride and strength. So, with people as passionate as they are about their team, it’s important to get it right (looking at you, Buffalo Sabres… Hey, where’re you goin’ Tampa Bay Rays?)

Even as a kid, I got excited as teams would change hands or expansion teams were added to leagues. Not because of the effects it would have on the rest of the teams of the how the new teams roster would fill out or anything like that (I’ve never been one to follow sports that closely), it was because a new logo and brand would come to life.

The Jets name has been around for some time, in various forms. The Winnipeg Jets were first founded in the World Hockey Association, one of the few strong competitors to the NHL, in 1972. When the WHA inevitably folded, the Jets were still remarkably strong. The NHL absorbed the Jets in 1979 where the team enjoyed as well a run as could be expected. In 1996, with money being the deciding factor, the team had to move out of Winnipeg and became the Phoenix Coyotes, who still operate today. In 2009, True North Media optioned to purchase the flailing Atlanta Thrashers with intent to move the team to Winnipeg. With Winnipeg’s rich Canadian Air Force history, the Jets name seemed the only choice.

The design mainly plays off of the Canadian Air Force’s rondelle medallion that is featured prominently on all official aircraft. It also evokes a compass pointing north, a nod to Canada’s proud affiliation with the direction. The collateral designs and word mark play less with the aviation theme and stick with the maple leaf.

It’s a great mark, honestly, as good a mark as you can hope. It’s clean, strong, playful, active, buzzword, buzzword, buzzword. The “Jets” type is the weakest aspect of the brand, it’s a bit too angular and pointy. It says to me that they were going with more of that aviation theme with a script, old-school style, but in modernizing it, maybe they went too far? But it’s not terribly distracting and I don’t think it will be featured on the jersey.

My worry is that if they put the rondelle full on the chest of the jersey, their away games may end up looking like a team of Captain Americas, which would be counter intuitive, but I digress.

Seattle’s Best Blood Bank

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Seattle’s Best Coffee. It doesn’t do much for me, and I feel their ubiquitous presence in Borders’ across the country is, well, weird. Seattle? Why would I want Seattle’s coffee? I’m old and crotchety regarding my coffee it seems. But recently, Seattle’s Best Coffee changed their logo, as companies have a tendency to do.

Changing an established logo is an endeavor that cannot be taken lightly. It is the first introduction you give your customers and it needs to say everything about your company in one mark; it needs to be recognizable, original, and if all goes according to plan, represent where your company stands in the market. Changing this can dramatically change all that, intended or otherwise, for better or for worse.

On the left we have the old logo. On the right, the new. The differences are remarkable, to day the least. It is a drastically modernized logo, continuing with a trend of flatter, less involved logos; I think the Pepsi logo change is the flagship example of this. But where Pepsi succeeded in updating their logo, I think Seattle’s Best’s logo most assuredly didn’t.

Why? Well, for one, it doesn’t look like they sell coffee; if it didn’t say “coffee” in the mark, you would never know. Yahoo! Business reports various opinions on it, one person saying it looks like “Seattle’s Best Blood Bank.” It doesn’t feel like coffee much, either. It’s dull and sterile. It reminds me a lot of Target’s Up & Up brand (which, again, does it more successfully), not coffee. The old logo was robust and rich, like coffee. It was bold and warm. Now it’s kind of vague and unfamiliar, not a good ‘first impression’ that I was talking about earlier. Another person from the Yahoo! article quipped that it looks like a “cereal bowl full of tears.” A Seattle Times snap poll shows that just over 73% of people think “they should try again.”

So what does Seattle’s Best do? I don’t think they’ll do anything. They seem very confidant in their marketing, and as the chain expands this year, we’ll be seeing more and more of this logo. Thoughts?