Words

In it's current state the internet is a seething mass of ever changing text and content, that is a bit overwhelming at times. No one person could possibly read all the content that is available, nor would anyone really want to. The problem becomes, that when you need to know something in a hurry, who do you trust? These are my 'Go To' sites, that over the years I have come to love because they are good at providing the information or inspiration I need from them.

This seems like common sense, but I continue to see the problems everywhere. I'm a bit frustrated, and it has a lot to do with artists and web cartoonists.

Scrolling. Extraneous Clicks. Javascript/Flash load times for a tiny picture.

Do you not want me to come back to your site? Is that why you stacked three banner ads across the top, and then put the daily content half way down the page? If you expect me to come back every day, your site needs to be a pleasure to use.

The final pixel just slid perfectly into place. Thanks to you one more piece of the internet is beautiful. The design is breath taking, and not just because your mom said so. Or is it? You better take another look. Seems fine? Ok, if you say so.

My wife and I recently returned from two weeks in Europe, and despite taking well over a thousand photo's myself, there isn't a single good one of the two of us together. Without fail when we handed our camera over to some other tourist, waiter, or innocent bystander it was returned to us with a centered photograph. Even the tourists touting serious camera gear would give us the same bland treatment.

Now I know why vacation photo slide show's are synonymous with boredom.

This may not be the popular definition, or even the right one, but I'd like to share my personal thoughts on logo design and what they mean.

First a logo should not be confused with a catch phrase or current marketing buzz. These items are important components of your branding / identity, but they are not logo's.

Secondly a logo shouldn't just be your company name. There a plenty of exceptions to this rule, but for every success there are plenty of failures. Is the entirety of your brand image really summarized so well by a typeface?