It’s not hard to see why agencies adopt this policy. It prevents moonlighting designers from passing off group agency work as their own, keeps below standard/NDA restricted work out of the public domain and stops marauding recruitment firms from directly poaching design talent.

However some agencies do let their top designers publish their work in personal portfolios, and the most notable are arguably some of the best agencies on the planet: AKQA, 2advanced and North Kingdom. Their portfolios are featured below: 

http://www.killahgrafikz.com/   Kevin Hsieh               (AKQA)

http://www.shanemielke.com/   Shane Mielke             (2advanced)

http://www.designchapel.com/  Robert Lindstrom      (North Kingdom)

By letting these designers show their work in their own light, they become design heroes that others follow and respect. It’s a symbiotic relationship between designer and studio. The designers are allowed to show off all they’ve achieved, gaining both industry and in-studio respect, while the agencies shine in the reflected glory of their top designers, effectively turning them into one man recruitment magnets. What designer wouldn’t want to work and learn alongside any one of these guys?

It be great to see more agencies follow suit. After all, what could be better for designer morale than letting the best show-off and giving the rest something to aim for?

Brand agency SomeOne have recently created a new logo and visual idenitiy for highstreet retailer New Look. According to their spokesperson the new identity will give “a mature direction to the brand positioning”. Not a bad move, as what they have currently is pretty young and feminine in a crowded teen market. What is surprising though is the timing.

With the price of living in the UK soaring, house prices falling and inflation rising perceived middle and high end brands have seen faltering sales. The masterful M&S rebrand was perfect for the economic climate of the time, but as shoppers lock down spending its the perceived budget brands such as Netto and Comet that are reaping the benefits. Suddenly looking cheap and cheerfull isn’t such a bad way to be.

Somehow “This isn’t just a recession, this is an M&S recession.” Isn’t gonna cut it.

Whether other major brands reposition themselves in the face of the brewing economic storm remains to be seen, but New Look’s brave rebrand will make an interesting study. Will a fresh face reinvogorate and inspire tired shoppers and sales? or serve to push New Look away from its target market when it needs it most? 

Last week I defended the Tunbridge Wells Council’s decision to rebrand from a another knee-jerk media reaction, the majority of criticism seemingly leveled at the £18,500 price tag. The quality was also attacked, with the local paper pointing out that the new logo was by most standards a bit rubbish. They were right, but they failed to mention it was modern, the logos one saving grace. In contrast the previous logo belonged in an museum. The region needed a fresh face, and although the results were far from perfect, the time was right for a change.

Everyone has an opinion on the region they live in and the other regions of the country. On a local level we never really see the regions brand at work. We may occasionally see the logo in the local paper or the councils website, but it has very little effect on our day to day lives. Nationally however the picture is very different, and its on this stage that a modern identity starts to pay its dues.

Scotland is known for its countryside, Cambridgeshire its university and Manchester its football. Country, region and city, all with their own identities. They work hard to promote themselves nationally, though the locals rarely see it. You have to be in Glasgow to see a One North East advert,  just as you need to watching the TV in England to see a Visit Scotland advert.

And Tunbridge Wells? It be foolish to think an area that small can do without a modern logo. With local I.T firms struggling to tempt talent away from London, and local initiatives such as Kent TV allowing new platforms for area promotion, now is the time for a new face. And as for the £18,500 price tag? This is logo for a region where a pint costs £3.70 and a house over £300,000. For the same price as a new ford focus the town can present a logo that although not award winning, at least won’t be receiving a telegram from the Queen any time soon.   

Costing £18,500 the local paper is not happy, and as the logo is pretty rubbish, its understandable, but is it really becoming acceptable to blast design work this publicly? The new logo is bad, but it is at least newer than the one it replaced, which had past its sell-by-date a decade ago. It seems since the Olympic logo was so brutally mauled the media has had free reign to decide what is good and bad value.

The situation isn’t helped by biased coverage. Headlines always make the price out to be for the logo alone, disregarding the consultancy, research and multiple concepts that come hand in hand with rebrands. Councils are big organizations, and getting buy-in from all parties on a new design would be a stressfully slow process. The paper decided to add a cutting insult to mild injury, stating “They would have been better off asking residents to submit their own ideas”.

Nice. Maybe next time there’s a power cut they should ask residents to submit their own batteries. 

This media attitude sets a bad precedent for freelance logo designers. If the public (aided by the media) believe their design skills rival established professionals, then the perceived value of design drops, and when that happens the lower end of the logo market suffers. Big brands understand the need for professional branding, but does the local plumber and the high street nail salon?  It’s clients like these that keep freelancers and small design business’s alive, and if their local paper is trivializing brand design then its people like them who suffer.

Public awareness of the true cost of branding needs to be raised if the tide of negative publicity is to be turned. Logo design is one of the smallest parts of a brand, but if the media continue to make out to be the biggest then the logo design industry will face a turbulent future.

Using the word Solution in a brand name has long been a pet hate of mine, annoying me to the point that in the past I used to post up the Private Eye’s weekly absurd solutions list on Breadline in an attempt to highlight the vulgar practice. Sadly it continues so I’ve felt the need to reiterate why using the term is as disgracefull as OAP tipping and global warming. 

I first clocked the term ”solution” at the tail end of my uni years, and yeah I’ll admit, back then it was a useful word for fleshing out terrible proposals. My final project was titled ”An Integrated Dynamic Block Stacking Solution”, which I felt had a far better ring to it than “Tetris Reskin”

These days business’s both big and small use the term to over-describe whatever product or service their trying to push. This can be forgiven, but putting Solution in the actual business name is truly a crime, as not only does it tell us nothing about the product/service, but will consign the name to the ranks of the hundred thousand other small business’s that couldn’t be arsed to come up with an original name. My favourite example is Pasta Solutions “The Ultimate Solution To Your Pasta Needs!” What was wrong with simply ”Perfect Pasta” ?

Using “Solution” might sound vaguely professional, but have you ever actually thought, ”I have a cooking problem, I need a Cooking Solution” Of course not.  We don’t think in management speak, so why name business’s this way?

If a client comes to you for an identity and they propose a name that includes the S word, it’s worth going out of your way to turn them round. Explain to them that thousands of business’s use the same word in their title, tell them that the word doesn’t actually mean anything, that they’ll have a search engine nightmare, and that it saps personality from a potentially vibrant brand.  If they still insist use Helvetica for the typeface, add a corporate swoosh graphic and the strap-line “Thinking Outside the Box”.  Then double your fee. They’ll love you for it.    

A logo for an online resource focussing on all things apple related.   

Those in the know will already have seen the OGC rebrand debacle. After splashing out a cool £14,000 on a fresh identity the suave government department have ended up with some serious egg on their face. The logo, when spun 180 degrees, reveals a comically explicit image of a man indulgeing in a five knuckle shuffle. In light of the embarrassing revelations an OGC spokesman said:

 ”It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters OGC - and it is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on Government spend”

A firm grip indeed. However when an identity becomes the laughing stock of the very staff at the centre of the brand, surely its time for a climb down? The poor spokesmen is right, the effect is generic of those letters, but surely simply boosting the kerning so the letters didn’t touch would go some way to easing the problem? A quick fix now would save the OGC years of internal and industry smirking. Clearly a little pride needs swallowed here.

This is the second government logo to come under fire in recent months. The Olympic logo was slain on sight and yet still endures. Perhaps the OGC brand managers believe their logo will survive in the same way. I wouldn’t bet on it though. The Olympic logo may be unpopular, but there is nothing inherently comical or obscene about it. I suspect we’ll see another quiet OGC rebrand shortly, and if not, another worthy inclusion in those “obscene logos” collections that do the rounds every few months.