Bill Gardner was presenting the 2018 Logo Trend Report (not quite online yet, but it will be soon) at the HOW Design Live design conference in Boston. We ended up taking a bit of time to discuss logos, the difference between trendy and trend, amazing orange jackets at conference parties, LogoLounge and their now 15(!) books, and more.

At last year’s LogoLounge party (my short post about the event here) at HOW Design Live, I saw Bill do an amazing magic trick. This year, I wrote about him doing another magic trick in the exhibit hall. So, we spend the first part of this episode talking about magic, and what it was like performing a trick for Muhammed Ali.

I guess I have been an actual member of LogoLounge for almost eight years. I probably should have signed-up earlier, as I really do believe it’s beneficial to me, and more importantly, to the profession of design. When I review student portfolios, I always ask something like, “What type of work do you like doing the best?” and I would say at least half of the students respond with something like, “Logo design.” There is just something about the initial look of a company / cause / event – about distilling meaning and mission into something that still works at a fourth of an inch. Having a website dedicated to nothing but logo designs, presenting them well (and easily searchable), as well as putting the best of the group on the front page, well, I guess it reminds me of what we should be doing, the quality we should be doing it at, and the constant reminder that even in a format that we speak of wanting something ‘timeless’, that change is always needed. Take risks in logos. Make a logo look like it was created a long time ago, and yet also created in the future.

Enjoy.

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