26 April 2011

[logo_design] That Peculiar Lightness of Logos for 2011

2612.So saith GD USA's Logolounge: the fashion trend for logos seems to be light, airy, and transcendant:

For the 2011 report, our ninth, color is still prevalent, but tinted down. Where black has been used as the strong neutral, now brown or gray is in place. Blues and greens are softer, and pinks are starting to appear.

Other degrees of lightness: Shapes are airier, lifting off the page. Designs are rising out of their 2D resting places and suggesting that they would really like to go places. In some logos, line weights are slimmer. There’s plenty of transparency, too, as if light is now able to flow right through.

The transcendancey comes from what's turning out to be a logo's new remit: it did what it does before, but now it does it in places that Paul Rand never would have guessed. You'll find a logo as a favicon, animated, in print and in electronic form … but not just one form, many of them – animated, backgrounded, what have you. As digital design tools evolve, more effects and functions, once the domain of fairly abstruse professionals, now come to the fingertips of your friendly neighborhood desktop designer.

They can be used for evil, yes, we understand that. With great power comes great responsibility. Also, large power bills.

Read the Logolounge's report here … http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2011/april/logolounge.php … and go right to the graphic that illustrates what they see as the 2011 trends here … http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2011/april/logolounge/index.php … each image has a link to a definition and examples.

H/T to Jeff Fisher.

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