Posts Tagged ‘clever logo design’

I’m In Logo Love: FedEx Logo Design

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

“I’m In Logo Love” is a new series on the crowdSPRING blog. Periodically, we’ll pick a logo we’d like to take home from a bar and tell you why. And if you think it’s a bit strange to have a crush on a cleverly designed logo, get in line – my mom has already lectured me on this topic. Today’s post was guest written by Marc Köhlbrugge. Marc started out as a freelance designer (some of you might recall that Marc won crowdSPRING’s inaugural web design project). Since 2009, Marc has co-founded two internet start-ups - PressDoc and *openmargin. Today, we’ll look at the logo for FedEx.

FedEx is company operating all over the world, but if by any chance you haven’t heard about them before, here’s the quick run-down from Wikipedia: “FedEx is a logistics services company, based in the US.” Simply said, they make it possible for both businesses and individuals to easily ship packages around the world.

BACKGROUND ON THE NAME ‘FEDEX’:

When the company began operations in 1973 they were initially named Federal Express. However, after a while Federal Express outgrew its name and headed towards a more global approach. Therefore, in 1994 they decided to rebrand the company to ‘FedEx’ (an already commonly used nickname) along with a new logo shown above, designed by Lindon Leader.

WHY I THINK THE FEDEX LOGO DESIGN IS HOT:

I always prefer logos that communicate the essence of the brand, have a unique and thus recognizable look, intrigue the mind and clearly show the name of the company. The FedEx logo achieves all of this and remains very simple.

The overall concept of the logo is very basic, the name of the brand in bold letters and a unique combination of colors. I won’t say it’s the most elegant typeface I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely bold and very recognizable.

To give the logo an extra edge Leader decided to make one minor tweak to the letters which has resulted in one of the most discussed logos out there. If you didn’t see it already: the negative space between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’ forms an arrow symbolizing movement and precision. Which are of course two very important values for a logistics company such as FedEx.

Of course, not everybody will catch this detail immediately, but as soon as you do, you can’t help but notice it every-time you see the logo. Even better, when I’m among other people and the logo comes across there’s a big chance we’ll actually start talking about the logo because it’s such a clever design and it’s great to share the ‘hidden detail’ with others. I can imagine other people feel the same, so it’s not just a nice looking logo, it’s also a great word-of-mouth marketing tool.

If you want to learn more about the designer and the logo, I recommend reading this interview,  but first let us know what you think about this design by leaving a comment below!

Sources:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx
- http://www.corporatebrandmatrix.com/cases.asp?ca_id=51&case=Federal%20Express%201994
- http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php

What do you think? Do you agree this is a clever design? Can you think of any ways to improve the design?

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Posted in Awesomeness, business, inspiration | 19 Comments »

I’m In Logo Love: EIGHTY20 Logo Design

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

“I’m In Logo Love” is a new series on the crowdSPRING blog. Periodically, we’ll pick a logo we’d like to take home from a bar and tell you why. And if you think it’s a bit strange to have a crush on a cleverly designed logo, get in line – my mom has already lectured me on this topic. Today, we’ll look at the logo for EIGHTY20.

EIGHTY20 is a small consulting company based in South Africa.  EIGHTY20 focuses on financial modeling,  providing businesses, marketers, policy makers and developmental organizations with strategic and actionable insights from data.

Background on the name EIGHTY20:

EIGHTY20′s about page offers a useful explanation about the origin of its name:

Eighty20 consulting is named after the 80:20 rule. This rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, was first observed by an Italian engineer-turned-economist by the name of Vilfredo Pareto (1848 – 1923). He observed that in his country, 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. He also noticed that 20% of the plants in his garden yielded 80% of the produce. Thus was born the 80:20 rule, one which states in its generalised form that 20% of the input generates 80% of the output. It still has multiple applications over 100 years after its discovery. For instance, consultants will tell you that 80% of the insights are yielded by 20% of the analysis. In the CRM field it is widely believed that 20% of the client base generate 80% of company value.

Why we think the EIGHTY20 logo design is hot:

Notice the fourteen boxes above the name EIGHTY20? Four of the boxes are blue and ten of the boxes are gray. But if you’re guessing that this ratio represents an 80/20 ratio – you’d be wrong.

Take another look at the logo and instead of counting the differently colored boxes, think of the blue squares as 1′s and the gray squares as 0′s – as in the binary numeral system. The top line reads: 1010000 and the bottom line reads 0010100.

This translates to 80 and 20 written in the binary numeral system. Hot indeed!

What do you think? Do you agree this is a clever design? Can you think of any ways to improve the design?

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Posted in Awesomeness, design, inspiration | 17 Comments »