The start of Corporate Identity
Hey Scott, sorry for the shaky start for the semester getting sick already, I definitely didn’t expect to be missing class right away!
Here’s the discord link for the junior class, we usually talk and ask questions/sometimes post classwork critiques in there:
So do we want the good logos, or the bad logos? Well, let’s start with the good ones.
The Good Logos
Successful logo 1 -
So, starting off with my favorite e-sports team, Astralis. Astralis primarily focuses on Counter-Strike competitive tournaments and gameplay similar to the fighting scots team here at Edinboro. Their logo is a star-like shape with a star cut out of the center, and an all lowercase (or sometimes all upper case) neutral sans-serif font with spacing in-between.
Astralis’s catchphrase is “TO THE STARS.”, representing their wish to become the best CS team in the world (which you could consider to be successful, considering they hold the most Global Major Trophies out of any other team), this works well to push their star logo motif and ties meaning into each part of the logo as explained in the case study:
Successful logo 2 -
Another successful logo on a site I often use is Drop.com, for various computer supplies for my custom keyboard hobby. The previous logo drop had established was also when they were referred to as Massdrop, and they took a brush script street culture approach to their store. The site was created around the idea of a “Group Buy”, which is where an item is only available for a limited time and collects sales, only to produce after sales are completed. This is a common tactic in the technology community, but as time went on drop later expanded into normal consumer sales and much wider audience.
This rebrand is successful to me because the new logo better associates with the brand, using a newer and modern sans serif opens up their relationship with technological and mixing into mass consumer products.
Successful logo 3 -
My third logo is from Oculus, a Virtual Reality company purchased by Facebook that create Headsets for the consumer market. The Oculus Quest 2 has basically revolutionized the VR market, making a standalone headset capable of running VR games for a much cheaper price than previous headsets.
The reason for this logo being successful in my opinion is how Oculus is trying to streamline a clean and polished consumer feel similar to the highly minimalist Apple Inc logo and branding. The white and clean feel allows the headset to look stylish while the simple logo is a nice small yet noticeable touch.
Although now they switched to meta, which I don’t believe is as strong as the previous branding.
The Bad Logos
Unsuccessful logo 1 -
Oh boy, where to get started with this. When looking at this rebrand from the mysterious team of designers apparently among the students, it radiates the energy of a school looking to copy and create the same identity as Penn State. With a similar blue color, similar naming, etc.
On top of the naming and color choices, the logo itself is a carbon copy idea that you can purchase for a $109 on a design website.
I mean, come on, it’s literally the same think with tiny changes. The compass doesn’t even properly represent our school and the loss of our Scottish identity and heritage. Horrible.
Unsuccessful logo 2 -
The Key.co is an online distributer that focuses in custom keyboards and keycaps and other enthusiast/hobbyist keyboard items.
The problem with this logo is that it’s simply too complicated to become effective once it becomes small. The concept overall is interesting and properly shows what the company does for a business.
They’re too many small windows and elements that make the logo difficult to read and interpret from a distance or when it becomes small enough to be placed on a website or invoice. (I have their invoices, it’s so small and in black/white)
Unsuccessful logo 3 -
This is an example of a logo that is over-decorated and completely unnecessary, TEAL Technik is another keyboard enthusiast part distributor, but what really throws me off is the random duck in their logo, which has no relation to any of their brand, concept, or product.
The website in general isnt the most appealing or well put together either, but looking at it definitely makes the duck in the logo seem extremely off-putting. Not to mention the LLC of the company in the logo is so small that in website form it’s hard to tell what it is.
