Company Logo Designs

In this weeks posting, I decided to follow up on a subject that is happening fairly commonly today. The evolution of corporate logos is a subject, which gets little attention and relates well with art and identity of self. At the bottom of this post is a web link, which analyzes various well-known logos and gives brief history of the company and logo. This post is intended not to look into the various companies changing their logos but to analyze he importance of changing the logo. The logo is the visual representation of a company and perhaps he first thing people notice about a company. The design and color scheme are all selected according to some type of realization that can vary. Do these logo’s attract consumers? Do these logo’s create the illusion of friendliness? Do these logo’s represent the company a whole, a product or an idea? These questions have multiple answers depending on the company being analyzed, however it is important, in my opinion, to note the significance of logo changes. For example, perhaps the most recent known design change was Pepsi’s brand logo update. The Pepsi Company has been linked to the logo for decades, however, the company decided to change the logo. When a company changes its logo, it must put in a ton of effort and thought into its final design because although only good intentions are to come from the new design, a consumer backlash can result in response to the change such as consumer dependency on tradition or confusion. The new Pepsi logo didn’t change much as the color palette is still there, but some minor changes were done to the design that has received various types of criticism. Sometimes a company changes its logo because of a traditional logo becoming outdated in relation to current times, but the main question that I would like to see some answers to in the comments are to why consumers feel the need to push or rely heavily on a particular logo for years or even decide to change.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/07/the-evolution-of-tech-companies-logos/

Box Art

A couple weeks ago, I brought up the topic of digital art that is commonly overlooked. Today, I would like to step back to that topic and bring about something similar with box art. Because box art spreads a number of categories, I will focus on video game box art because of their visual accomplishments and failures.
When we look towards purchasing a video game, or even DVD, we don’t think about what it is packaged in. As the consumer, we are more interested in what comes packaged in the disc rather than what is packaged in the containing wrap. I have a collection of games which presents me with a collection of DVD case art work that never receives much attention. One of the biggest questions that bother me is, “Why do distributors put so much time into creating box art?” Box art and the art that covers the top face of the disc appears to be rather pointless at times doesn’t it? We end up shelving our cases anyway and the disc which usually contains the same or similar designs as the case does normally gets fed into our disc drives where we never see it again until we decide to swap disc. There are many artistic designs that I have seen currently on video game case inserts.

The cultural favorite fighting game Street Fighter has returned in its fourth iteration titled Street Fighter IV and its cover art is just as attractive as the game. The reasoning behind this belief is that the actual game that is packaged behind this cover looks just like the cover. A unique Sumi-E art style gives the game and the cover a better pop in perspective. When playing the game, character models tend to jump at you and move so sleekly. The cover retains the same attributes as the game itself and isn’t deceitful.
Another game that I feel shows of great artistic qualities is Electronic Arts revolutionary game Skate. The cover is unique because of its simplicity. It doesn’t use overly saturated colors and doesn’t cram as many images and detail into one 7.125x5.00 inch space. The image contains no saturation to improve on its simplicity which also matches the simplicity of the name of the game. This type of approach is not normally taken and the outcome here is looks like an aged film, and if you aren’t familiar with the game or skating, filming is a major part of the sport.

One final game which displays a fine cover art is Burnout Paradise. I mentioned above that one good quality to Street Fighter IV’s art was that it wasn’t deceitful… well in this case, deceit is the next best thing. Anybody familiar with the Burnout franchise knows that the name Burnout and Paradise don’t mix well in reality, but mix flawlessly in a game. This cover art displays a very nice stenciled image of a vehicle which mask off a background of vibrant colors. The colors give off the paradise feel and may attract consumers who aren’t used to the franchise, but the game is everything but. High speed races and unrealistic vehicular crashes are breathtaking and make for a great game. The art doesn’t just mask away the colors, but it masks the gameplay as if not to reveal its goods.

Even with some pretty attractive art, box art of all forms will typically go unnoticed. As stated above, the cases will get shelved and often times thrown away as they take up a lot of space of those “collectors”. It is understandable to see the creation of attractive box art to lure the consumer in to purchase the product, but in an era with the internet, it isn’t box art that attracts people, it’s normally trailers, reviews, and perhaps the biggest, hype.

Industrial Design

In this week’s Original Post, I would like to focus on the visual changes in industrial design over the years and their effectiveness. Just about everything around us has been thoroughly mapped out and digitally designed before being manufactured. For example, the revolutionary media device known as the iPod has undergone “design surgery” numerous times. Many take for granted the amount of work and thought put into the next generation consumer goods. The iPod started out as a thicker version of last generation’s model with the only major visual change being the switch from the casual button functions to the iconic click wheel. Even so, the design has undergone an additional facelift in order to mix better with advancing technology which has created the popular iPod Touch series with a touch screen design. This design does carry over much of the original design layouts from its predecessors. The change in design has been a major success and has benefited owners by creating a much more user friendly interface and sleeker style. Another visual change in industrial design that I have come across is in the form of shoes, in particular, soccer cleats. The Nike Mercurial 1998 R9’s were a top of the line soccer boot during the time of the 1998 World Cup. The design appears to be fairly basic compared to today’s standards. A few streaks of colors and stitching that create a fairly unique pattern on the surface of the shoe. Today, the top of the line boots include the Nike Mercurial Vapor V. The designs styles between the two show a dramatic visual difference. Numerous current boots have a design layout that eliminates or hides shoe laces. This design, as seen on the Mercurial Vapors, allows for a centered strike on the ball at all times eliminating any offset placed on the strike of the ball by shoelaces. So between the two, technology has advanced dramatically to allow for a better experience. Now not all designs are for the better. Let’s take desktop graphics cards for example. The nVidia GeForce MX 440 was a midrange graphics car produced early in the century. It was rather small and featured no over the top design. Now, we have cards such as the nVidia GeForce 9800 series which is extremely bulky and rather unconventional in regards to its design. Basically, this post is meant to observe the many industrial changes to a line of consumer goods and their changes to help better the experience of the consumer and appeal visually. In looking back just a few years, it’s amazing to see the level of design advancements that the industry makes with their products. We went from a cubic lunch box designed GameCube in 2001 to a rather sleek looking rectangle known as the Wii in 2007. The current design has been praised for its ability to fit just about anywhere size wise and visually.