Design Rant: Logo grabbing and mood boards
It was agreed a couple of hours ago that I should write a design focused entry every thursday afternoon. A number of people at recent events have asked me where I write, so in a attempt to put that to rest here goes…
As a junior designer working in London, I would often get assigned the task of collecting logos from client competitors. These would be used on mood boards and other internal presentations. Occasionally one of these would need to be presented to a client and a mad rush to find high quality versions of the logos started. Some corporates are better than others, some even providing great media centers like Reuters. However the majority are hard to obtain and it’s the job of some poor junior to recreate them in illustrator.
It’s an issue worth thinking about if you run a business. Not just to help elevate the boredom of newly qualified designers, but because the press and the bloggers do the same thing and it’s important to make sure they get hold of the correct artwork and present your brand image in the best possible light.
Many years later and its seems that occasionally I still can’t escape this tiresome task. However was wonderfully surprised the other day when I right clicked to save the ‘wakoopa‘ logo. A small and extremely helpful popup box offered me a high quality version with an alpha transparent layer. Happy days! I haven’t managed to identify the designer yet, but I salute you sir!
It’s worth mentioning that we don’t use mood boards internally here at Howard Baines. I personally find them a restrictive way to communicate creative ideas. I prefer sketches, I am always happier to look at a designers sketches than have them waste valuable time preparing a board. Although this works wonderfully internally, its a whole different ball game when communicating to clients. We use a different formula when that occurs, but thats another story blog post!
Hi
I am currently looking for someone who is interested in a groundbraking concept concerning “local Adresses” of houses and places in combination with building a kind of digital “Stamp” for that.
The point is, that most people use Adresses to find a house, or a hotel and so on. But in many countries it is nearly impossible to do it that way.. Japan and China often do not have the exact adress. So, what would be helpful is a kind of “tinyulr” or “QR-Code” that defines a GPS - Position and adds it to the adress. This would be easy and fast to implement and also help services like UPS to deliver packages to the right address.
I really got a mockup, but i need someone who sees the potential and would do the programming…
Best, Jens Schwoon from Germany
That designer would be me. Glad you like it! Your one of the first to blog about this kind of thing I think. I’m always annoyed when people don’t put their high-res logo somewhere on their site. It’s actually really easy to create this thing but it helps your brand in a big way.