Happy birthday Canada! Well, almost. The independent state of Canada turns 150 years old in a few years’ time and Canadian Heritage has commissioned a new logo design to celebrate this momentous occasion. But how do you represent ‘Canada’ in a logo?

Like this, apparently.

I recently wrote about the innovative way in which the US state of Colorado crowd-sourced its new logo from native Coloradans – and the underwhelming response that the new logo receiveddespite its user-led approach.

Now it’s the state of Oregon’s turn to reinvent itself – but has it done any better than Colorado?

There is no one true approach to logo design. A wide variety of design styles and techniques can be employed by designers in their efforts to create a memorable logo. In this article, we try to make an inventory of every different category a logo can fall into. You will notice that style, layout, form, technique and subject elements are all included. Logos typically fall into a combination of these categories - it is virtually impossible to see a logo fall into only one of them. For example, a logo can be a unique font with multicolored letters, a 3D graphic with gradients to spice it up, or an animal drawn in a childlike manner.

Some say that creativity consists in the ability to take several oft-used elements and to arrange them in a whole new way. This is certainly the case in logo design. Even though none of these categories individually is very original on its own, great logo designers will take a few of them and creatively combine them into something unique and outstanding.

1. Separate icon

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Social networking and ‘microblogging’ site Twitter has been around for just 7 years, and when it was launched many questioned whether it would take off given the huge popularity of Facebook.

Yet Twitter has become a social revolution. Via the main website, and various apps and clients, Twitter has over 500 million registered accounts and handled an estimated 1.6 billion search queries in 2012.

There are few emblems that can divide nations and render a fully grown adult to tears, but the flag of one’s own country is one of those emblems.

Dreamers Ink Aesthetics, recently rebranded as DIA, could just be the epitome of New York City cool.

This Manhattan-based design agency, located in the trendy Little Italy district, has worked with some of the biggest names in the biz. Clients have included Google, Nissan, Nike, Nokia, Revlon, Kraft and many more recognizable brands.

The time has come to kick it up a notch. After our successful logo update, we have moved on to upgrading our website itself. Along with the new logo came a new header and an updated navigation system. It is much more clean and intuitive than the previous one was. Lots of plans are on the way for the rest of the website as well! Stay tuned.

So, here it is – the logo we’ve all been waiting for. After a month of being teased with a different logo design each day for thirty days, internet search engine and multimedia company Yahoo! finally puts us out of our misery. Drum roll please….

There is an incredible amount of talent in the world of logo design, so in this blog post I’d like to take a few minutes to celebrate one of my favorite design agencies, other than LogoBee of course!

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv is a stalwart in the design and branding industry. Founded by Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar in the late 1950s, and joined by third partner and designer Sagi Haviv in 2006, over the last five decades the company has worked with some of the biggest names on the planet. Their impressive client list includes the likes of Mobil, Xerox, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Rockerfeller Center, NBC, Time Warner, Merck, National Geographic, and many, many more. To say these guys are in the major league is an understatement!

As some of you may know, Yahoo is in the process of replacing their old logo. Right now, the company is showcasing 30 different logo designs over 30 days, one logo every day. We are not sure how the selection process works, as we couldn't find any user voting feature on the site. The big reveal is scheduled for September 5th! There are no news on who designed the samples or who will be making the final decision.

Here at LogoBee, we've decided to experiment with a few ideas of our own. Here is a list of 6 logo samples designed by our team. Their styles vary from conservative to liberal. Personally, we believe a simple cleanup of the old logo (removing all the serif add-ons on the letters) would be a good choice for Yahoo.

Businesses often decide on a change of image when a new leader takes the reins – out with the old and in with the new in more ways than one, so to speak. This was certainly true when Karen L. Gould became the new President of Brooklyn College, a higher education institution that forms part of the City University of New York.

According to sources, Gould, the first female President in the college’s 80-year history, felt that the former College logo ­– a silhouette of the campus’ imposing Georgian clocktower (see below left) – was “too phallic”.

Internet search engine company Yahoo! has announced that it will soon be replacing its distinctive purple ‘exclamation point’ logo, but it will showcase a different logo every day before choosing the final design.

Yahoo! was founded back in 1995, right around the time that having access to the internet at home started to become popular with consumers. In the first year, the young start-up company experimented with some brightly colored designs (see below), which incorporated the signature exclamation point. As the brand became more popular – remember, this was before the days of Google, so Yahoo! quickly became one of the most popular internet search engines – it wasn’t too long before an established logo was introduced Read the rest of this entry »

Apple, Microsoft, McDonald’s, Pepsi – these are all successful brands that we know and recognize – but the state of Colorado as a brand?

In an innovative effort to boost tourism, attract new business and give Colorado a recognizable identity distinct from its neighboring states, Colorado’s governor John Hickenlooper launched a competition to design and develop a branding concept that could be used on official documents, tourism websites and by local businesses.

Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t have to be a fitness freak or health guru to realize that nutritional drinks are a hot trend right now. Energy drinks, protein shakes, lactose-free milk, power juices – nobody seems to drink plain water anymore!

A travesty to feminism, or harmless fun? Love it or hate it, whatever your view, there’s no denying that the Hooters chain of restaurants is certainly iconic. The great-tasting chicken wings, the cold beer on tap, the warm and friendly atmosphere – oh yes, and the Hooters Girls with their skimpy orange shorts and tight white t-shirts!