6 June, 2008

Let it stand alone

I like design; it is the basis of my job, after all.  However, I do have a bit of a problem with designers who over-analyse and over-intellectualise their work.

The Register offers a prime example.

The corporate logo of an IT company (I think; their 'About Us' web page is so full of buzzwords that I literally don't know what the firm actually does) has recently been redesigned, with an uninspiring result which I think looks pretty good in the context of a website header bar. Fair enough.
Yet the brand implementation guidelines make the fatal error of rationalising each aspect of the logo's design, thereby 'cranking up the whalesong to 11', as El Reg says. Read the ensuing marketing bollocks in the linked article.

The payoff of the story is that a (apocryphal?) customer's immediate impression is far more compelling and memorable than the designers' over-considered waffle: if one feels a need to read 'messages' into logos, this one implies the company cuts corners.