Great Coffee [logo] (?)
Why the Starbucks logo isn't really that great
This
post came about after reading
Garr Reynolds' excellent blog-post about Logos &
identity. The Starbucks Logo and its many
rip-offs is one of the things Garr dig into. Through
the links in his post I also found my way to
Ranquit.com where Starbucks' logo is placed eight
in the "All-Time Ranqued logos". As you've probably
gathered from my sub-heading I don't think it
deserves this honour.
-Faulty by design
One of the most important elements of a logo is that it is instantly recognizable. It should immediately separate itself from other companies' logos so that the customer can recognize it at a glance. The problem with the Starbucks Logo lays in the shape. Why the circular badge looks pleasant it also has the same shape as gazillions other logos:
Now, as long as you watch these logos displayed like this in full colour displayed you should have little problem separating them. Although at a distance you might already be forgiven for mixing the Skoda and Starbucks logos. Let's try in black and white:
As you can see the logos now appear even more similar. Flipping through a newspaper I doubt if any of these would evoke immediate recognition. The identical geometry becomes a problem. Just look at these silhouettes:
You might argue that none of these logo-owners would ever present their logo in a simple silhouette and you'd be right. But a strong silhouette improves the recognizability. Furthermore, Starbucks (or any of the others) surely can't expect to copyright a circle?! Other companies however have clear, distinct shapes that both stand out in a crowd and are hard to copy:
How close do you think anyone would come to these before becoming synonymous with copyright infringement? As mentioned earlier: a logo should be instantly recognizable. One of the easiest way to achieve this is to design a strong and exclusive silhouette.
Drew Struzan
Childhood Hero
While I briefly mentioned Drew Struzan in another post he definitely deserves a post of his own. He is, according to George Lucas, "The only artist worth collecting since World War II". While I think this is erhaps taking it too far, he has been one of my heroes since my childhood. Not that I was aware of it at the time, but I used to marvel at those fantastic movie-posters wondering what kind of magic was used to make them. A film with a poster like that had to be worth seeing!
Incredible But True!
Only several years later did I find out about the man behind the art. No magic-tricks, just an amazing talent in the visual arts. That his parents actually named him Drew is one of those coincidents that it is hard to believe. But it is nevertheless true.
The Hero Of A Thousand Faces
Better Than The Movie?
Being
one of the most recognizable poster-artists in
the world he is probably best known for his work
on Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Even if people
don't know about the man, they're likely to
recognize the style. In addition to the almost
super human technical talent, he also seems to
recognize the storytelling aspect needed of a
Movie Poster: Teasing the audience to see the
film. I dare say Drew's work is often the best
thing about a movie!
Personally I just find it gratifying to see someone build their success on an indisputable talent. Mr. Struzan makes the posters with a variety of natural medias and techniques, without the aid of Photoshop or other digital tools. Come to think of it, that sounds a little bit like magic after all...
The 10th Anniversary Of The iMac
Sweet As Candy And The Birth Of i...
That's
right. 10 years ago Apple released the first
iMac. It was in its time a revolutionary product
on many levels and can in many ways be
considered the first big step in the
resurrection of Apple.
The most obvious differentiation from its peers was the way that it looked. The all-in-one-enclosure was a friendly looking egg-shaped machine in a blueish hue. The material had reportedly been created in cooperation with a candy-factory and I think it is safe to call the machine a genuine design-classic. It was by and large the first computer made where the manufacturer really considered the esthetics to be as important as the technical specifications. As Steve Jobs (Apple's CO) said: "...the back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guys'...".
It also gave birth to a new naming convention, starting the name with a lower-case "i". Today, using a lowercase first letter is fairly common, but back in its day it was another thing that told the audience that the iMac was something special.
Apple is today one of the strongest, most popular companies in technology. This is of course largely down to the fact that they release high quality products. But, it is also because Apple honors the fact that the "story" matters...
First iMpressions (ooh, that's clever)
As I've been mentioning going on and on
about in my last posts, the first impression is
incredibly important. Apple's focus seems to be on
delivering the best possible user experience and they
obviously understand the importance of a good first
impression.
That's why they spend money on stuff like packaging. Where most PC-manufacturers will send out their machines in a brown cardboard-box, Apple will pack their machines in specially designed cartons with 4-color printing and often creatively designed styrofoam designed to make the unpacking easy but also to create an experience in its own right.
Ad for the original iMac
Telling A Story
Some will shrug at this and say that it doesn't matter. Well, it doesn't matter if your product doesn't live up to the experience, but it certainly puts the receiver in a mood where he or she is ready to be further impressed by the hardware. When people spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars they want to feel well catered for. The same feeling of quality and attention to detail seeps through from Apple's advertising all the way to the finished product. It tells a story. The story of a company that cares about their products, not just about cutting costs to improve the bottom line.
Above you'll find a video from the release of the birthday-kid. It's also a nice example of how to give an effective presentation.
Visuals in Neutral
Trying to keep the visuals out of the way
I came across this on TED and found it most interesting. It's not exactly storytelling but rather a music video where the creators try not to let the visuals dominate the music.
"Moonlight in Glory" (David Byrne & Brian Eno)
I'm not 100% sure about the use of text, as I find it impossible not to read when I see text and as a result I'm distracted from the musical experience. Also the designer, Jacob Trollbäck, is Swedish; and as Norwegian there are limits to how much praise I can give to one of those.
Nevertheless, I find this to be an excellent piece and a brilliant example of using the right visuals for the right job.
Bayeux Tapestry
When it comes to classic examples of visual storytelling the Bayeux Tapestry is one of my absolute favourites. The tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings where the Norman army led by William the Conquerer defeated King Harold's Saxon army. A truly defining moment in British history and one that among other things is largely responsible for the heavy latin influence in the English language. (Something to think about the next time you eat pork).
In the context of this blog I will naturally focus on the use of visuals to tell the story. Told sequentially from left to right with vivid imagery and latin inscriptions it is constructed surprisingly similar to modern day Comic Strips. It is rather ironic that while the Bayeux Tapestry is celebrated as a brilliant piece of medieval art, comic strips are still occasionally shunned upon as an art form.
If you are dreading the continuation of this post to be a dry step-by-step description of the actual tapestry you are in luck. As the tapestry itself was meant to be experienced visually I won't spoil it for you. Thanks to animator David Newton the story depicting a huge battle, Halley's Comet and the fate of a nation can now be experienced in a better way:
Purists might object but I think this is a really clever example of how to present an ancient piece of artwork to a contemporary audience.
Alien Aztecs, the curse of knowledge and the mother of all design-assignments
The mission
Imagine being given the task of explaining the origins of an object to an unknown recipient. A recipient that doesn't understand your language, has no knowledge of your alphabet and not even a basic understanding of the symbols we all consider universal.
This might sound absurd but it was exactly the assignment Dr. Carl Sagan and Dr. Frank Drake set off to accomplish when starting design on what was to be known as the Pioneer Plaque.
To infinity and beyond
Pioneers
NASA's Pioneer program consisted of space probes being sent out to investigate celestial bodies. The Pioneer 10 and 11 would actually travel to the end of our solar-system and continue into deep space. Journalist Eric Burgess was the first to present the idea that the satellites should contain some information about their origin in case of alien interception.
What a design challenge! How on earth (pun intended) can you possibly imagine what it would be like for an alien to witness imagery from a totally unfamiliar world? Will they even have the ability to understand artistic renditions? It might seem obvious to us but the majority of beings on our own planet cannot. They did make a few assumptions that limited the challenge slightly. As the chance of the satellite ever coming in contact with an alien civilization was slim at best, they figured that the best chance would be for it to be picked up by an alien space-craft. This would mean the collectors weren't exactly cave-men.
And
when watching the imagery it certainly seems
decodable. While I don't instinctively catch
the deeper scientific bits. I recognize the
planets and the two human figures. So credit
to Drs. Sagan and Drake and to Sagan's wife at
the time - Linda Salzman Sagan who actually
prepared the finished artwork.
The curse of knowledge
However: It is hard for us, as it was for the plaque's creators, to escape the curse of knowledge. We all know about the stuff the pictures are describing. The human figures are nearly instinctively obvious to us as we're trained to recognize other humans from the moment we open our eyes the first time. For otherworldly beings however all this could be potentially confusing. Just think back through our own history when [legend has it] that the Aztecs mistook the Spanish conquestador Cortes for a good when he unmounted his horse. We all view our world based on knowledge, culture, religion and other filters society have bestowed upon us. The earth used to be flat remember?
So to try to round this up the plaque-creators had a seemingly impossible task and they probably knew it. They gave it their best shot however and whether they succeeded or not we'll probably never know.
The point you should keep in mind is this: Your audience, whether you're making a speech, lecture or film, might be Alien Aztecs. They might be completely oblivious to what you trying to convey. Therefore you must try to put yourself in your audience's shoes. Otherwise you just might end up as an Aztec deity on The Forbidden Planet...