A quicker and dirtier guide of branding yourself

File under:
Designing Designers


Written by Brian Ling (Design Sojourn)
Aug 19, 2006


6 Comments


Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time. ~ Sun Tzu

Well in our case it’s not really the enemy but our competition. From our last article, we know a little branding goes a long way. But it’s not only about differentiation, which means to be different, what we need to now is to have distinction, which means to be better. So we need to study our competitors in the web 2.0 world and their branding standards they subscribed to.

web 2.0 logos

Thanks to Uniquely the epitome and The Font Shop.

This is an absolutely amazing collection of all the best web 2.0 logos out there. Well it looks like the Design Sojourn logo still needs a lot of work, or does it? At least now we have a much better idea and direction on where to go.
ds_small2.jpg

The big question really is to follow or not? Its seems the Web 2.0 logos today all have a similar feel and you can easily create your own if you follow this list:

    1) Bevelled edges
    skype_logo.gif

    2) “Chicklet” or rounded corners
    youtube_logo.gif

    3) Bright colours or a range of complimentary colours
    pando_logo.gif

    4) Glossy highlights
    skype_logo.gif

    5) Clean fonts
    eventful_logo.gif

    6) Drop shadows

    7) Ground and horizon reflections
    enron20_2.jpg

    8) Gradient fills
    reminderfeed_logo.gif

So do you want to differentiate or have distinction, follow or innovate? I’ll leave that to you to decide.






Love this post? Subscribe to The Design Sojourn Newsletter, for free, and get the latest content delivered right to your inbox with our 110% NO-SPAM Policy!

You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook as well.





Related Posts You Might Find Interesting:


Comments

niblettes
Aug 20, 06 – 11:59 am

Design Translator
Aug 20, 06 – 8:56 pm

Heh heh, thats a nice one, thanks Niblettes!

Kitsch
Aug 22, 06 – 11:24 am

I guess I would vote for “none of the above”. I’m a fan, like I believe niblettes there is, of really simple logos. Just because it exists on the internet doesn’t mean it has to defy the good laws of design. Generally at some point you may want to use your logo outside the “web”…So I’d stick with something that really identifies you simply and easily. You have this great minimalist image going to your blog..white space EVERYWHERE and soft greys and thin key lines..me likey. So why not express that in your logo, only with like, a pop of colour to set it off? 2 colours. Thin sans serif. Pop of colour. Graphic.

Woot woot. Let the imagination begin. :D

DT
Aug 24, 06 – 9:59 am

Hi Kitsch,

Thanks for your comments and stopping by, I’m not too strong in graphics espically in text, but I do know what I like.

I agree with you, i will explore San Serif fonts with a hint of color! Thanks!

Kitsch
Aug 25, 06 – 11:01 am

noooo worries. I like colour…too much!

A quicker and dirtier guide of branding yourself…

You have heard of a quick and dirty way of branding yourself from our resident contributor, Brian Ling aka Design Translator. In the first article, he first discussed the necessity and the know-hows to brand yourself in our competitive world. In this…


A note about commenting: We value your comments as they provide different perspectives that we can learn from and/or improve our products as we see this blog as a platform for interaction and exchange with our friends. However, whilst we welcome constructive criticism, we do not tolerate offensive and disrespectful comments. Postings deemed inappropriate will be removed.

Finally, to avoid auto deletion from spam filtering, we kindly ask that you use your personal name or initials instead of your business name. Thank you and I hope you enjoy being part of the design conversation!