Polamatic App by Polaroid™ (AppaDana)— Brings back the instant Polaroid magic (and hopefully set-off an app war with Instagram/FaceBook?)

Polamatic is an officially licenced iOS app from Polaroid: awesome. Read more on this: Polaroid Polamatic™ Mobile Application for iOS

Wouldn’t it be great if Polaroid, as well as now having it’s own iOS photography app, also had it’s own sharing network? A network that could instantly and realistically compete with Instagram and would likely see quite a significant take-up by Instagramers.

Polamatic is a great looking app and has some lovely features. The main one being each photo is based around the physical Polaroid prints with the thick white borders. One has a selection of scanned -in, not computer generated, Polaroid frames as well as the requisite filters with more options available as in-app store purchases.

It just feels so right to be using a faux Polaroid branded iOS app.

Your photo can be shared directly with Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr and FaceBook. I have already placed Polamatic next to Instagram on my iPhone home screen.

Polamatic only costs £0.69 as well and you can download it via iTunes: Polamatic | Made in Polaroid

From PR NEwsWire: Offered by Appadana Development, an authorized Polaroid licensee, the Polamatic app brings back the instant magic of Polaroid pictures to mobile devices. Users may select from 12 frames with clever names like “tape,” “crumpled” and “kinda new.” Unlike other photo editing applications, the frames are not computer generated. Instead, they are high quality scans of new, used, and vintage Polaroid Classic Border frames, giving pictures a unique classic style.

The app also features 12 photo effects for customization with fun names like “chroma,” “gelatin” and “pyrophoric.” The photo effects allow users to apply a number of color and tone adjusting effects to their pictures. Whether users wish to apply sepia tones, or a rosy hue, this application has a plethora of effects to choose from. Users may also add text to their Polaroid picture, choosing from 12 different fonts.

Your Polaroid pictures can be saved and easily shared via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr or email, making this application a must for bloggers and social media enthusiasts who want to add Polaroid pictures to their visual posts. Users may also save their pictures directly to the iOS photo library, with the tap of a button.

The Polamatic app store allows users to purchase additional frame formats and effects. From the Polaroid Vintage Pack upgrade, users can select an additional 12, authentic, high-resolution scans of Polaroid Classic Border picture frames from multiple eras. For those wishing to add a touch of color to their photos, the Polaroid Chroma Pack upgrade includes 10 colored Polaroid Classic Border picture frames. The Photo Effects upgrade offers 12 added photo effects allowing for more customization options.

Feature Highlights:
* Easy to use, intuitive interface produces quality edits in seconds
* 12 authentic Polaroid Classic Border picture frames
* 12 photo effects for innovative pictures
* Easily share via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr or email
* Control flash, grid, and front or rear camera
* In-App purchases provide additional borders and photo effects

“Bring back all of the magic of Polaroid pictures on your iPhone,” stated Appadana Development’s Dana Shakiba. “Polamatic makes your pictures come alive with classic Polaroid style.”

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* 41.5 MB

Related posts:

1. Original Polaroid Branding by Paul Giambarba
2. The Official Lost Type Co-Op Store Now Open
3. Windows 8 Logo Update—More on the Official Line from Pentagram

Read Polamatic (Official Polaroid™) App — Brings back the instant Polaroid magic on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Know Your Onions: Graphic Design, written by Drew de Solo, looks great especially as it’s designed more like a notebook: enabling you to add your own notes to the supplied blank pages as you go along.

Know Your Onions sounds like it is aimed at the novice-intermediate level from what I can tell from the summary and table of contents.

Know Your Onions (BIS Publishers, IBSN 978-90-6369-258-2 , €17)

From the Publisher

K Found on GetAddictedTo

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Dog Names for Graphic Designers by CMYBacon
3. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman

Read Know Your Onions – A Book on Graphic Design on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

This is not so much a review, more of a brief overview with the hope you will like what you see and purchase Brand Identity Essentials forthwith.

From the website…

Logos, Identities, Brands…What’s the difference?

Brand Identity Essentials is a valuable book that covers just about everything to do with logo, brand and identity design with a lot more besides.

It’s not a hard or text heavy and super detailed book to read, and is cleanly laid out so you can dip in and out quite easily. There are plenty of large size photographs that work well with the text to explain each topic. There is another book, which is far more detailed and text heavy, that I will cover next week called, “Designing Brand Identity: Alina Wheeler“. This is for the more passionate and information hungry types that borders on educational coverage.

100 Principles for Designing Logos & Building Brands

One of the most useful aspects of Brand Identity Essentials is the complete online resources that accompany the book, titled 100 Principles for Designing Logos and Building Brands. A summary of all the topics covered in the book has been made available online for reference, see partial index above.

The few images below are taken from the website version.

All in all a solid and useful book to have around if you are keen to pick knowledge that covers more than just logo design.

If you are already reasonable well versed in logo and brand identity design/marketing/advertising then this may be worth a miss, but the book I mentioned above, Designing Brand Identity, is definitely more hard-core.

Related posts:

1. Sony Vaio Brand Identity Book & Guidelines
2. The Cisco Brand Identity Book and Guidelines
3. Adobe Brand Identity Book and Guidelines

Read Book Overview: Brand Identity Essentials by Rockport on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Just received my 3 gorgeous t-shirts from The Noun Project and they look and fit great. Thanks to Sofya from The Noun Project for being ever so helpful with my order. I had missed out on the Kickstarter project and loved the look of the t-shirts that they would be sending the investors, and thus I decided I wanted some of that.

I emailed Sofya on the off chance that they still had some available, and they did. Sofya sent me a list of sizes that they had left, and I was then able to choose which three symbols would go on each t-shirt.

Symbol Customisation

This was not an easy decision, as it turns out, as there is a large choice of symbols in The Noun Project library that I really was flummoxed.

Finally managed to pick 3×3 symbols and you can see the results on the photographs.

I tried to make a little story with each one so the first one has two dogs, Charley and Dylan, waiting for their bone. The 2nd has my alarm clock getting me up for a bike ride, and ending in a nice shower. The final design shows me falling down the stairs, having an operation to fix a broken bone and having my arm in plaster.

The customisation options of these t-shirts is so very cool.

The Best Fitting T-shirt Ever

It’s not just the choice of symbols, however, that initial drew me to the t-shirts; it was the actual design, style, fit and fabric choice The Noun Project ended up going with.

A company called Hozell manufacturers these splendid t-shirts.

I find it quite hard finding the right fit of t-shirt and these are perfect in every way. Details such as: the loose cut of the neck, the relatively short arms, the pre-shrunk tighter style of fitting as well as the soft fabric and coloured stitching all combine to make my perfect t-shirt.

Contact The Noun Project

Website: The Noun Project

Twitter: @nounproject

Email: info@thenounproject.com

Flickr: The Noun Project Flickr set.

So thanks again to The Noun Project, and Sofya for getting me these truly wonderful t-shirts.

Related posts:

1. A T-Shirt Company Logo Is Conceived
2. The What if Project-Good Logo Design For Local Shops
3. Freight Baggage Logo Design

Read Awesome T-Shirts From The Noun Project on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Exciting times when another book on design comes out from Laurence King. This time a gorgeous looking book called Symbols has just been published and looks set to carry on where Logo finished off.

The pictures have already sold this to me and I have just placed my order through Amazon for £15, and can’t wait to get my filthy hands on it. Apparently not quite ready for my hands yet as there is a 6-9 day delay whilst the ink dries.

If I were you I would not bother waiting for any reviews if that’s how you usually roll. Trust me when I say that if it’s half as good as Logo then you can’t go wrong. And plus you could win a copy for which you can see how below.

From the website

This book features over 1300 symbols, organized into groups and sub-groups according to their visual characteristics. Each category includes a short introduction, with expanded captions providing information on who the symbol was designed for, who designed it, when, and where appropriate, what the symbol stands for. These sections are interspersed with short case studies on both classic examples of symbols still in use, and exceptional examples of recently designed symbols.

I actually found this through Pentagram website, and they have a few more images of the book on their site so worth checking out.

Giveaway

As this book looks so damn awesome I feel another giveaway is due. I will have 2 copies of Symbol to giveaway, and all you have to do is leave a brief comment below and one or two RT’s of this post, and I will announce the 2winners in a few weeks.

If you feel like showing appreciation for this giveaway then you could do either/all of the following: follow me on Twitter, sign up to RSS feed or Like the imjustcreative website using the button below.

Related posts:

1. iheartlogos Book Giveaway
2. iheartlogos Book Giveaway Winners
3. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration

Read Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Logo is one of my most read and prized logo design books which has lead me to update this mini review, which was first published in November 2008, and repost it.

Published by Lawrence King, and written by Michael Evamy Logo is a thick book at 350 pages with mostly black and white imagery. Each chapter starts with one covering page showing thumbnails of the logos to be covered in colour which acts as quick cheat sheet.

The forthcoming pages then present each logo in large scale solid black and white with text description: who designed it and the occasional factoid.

The layout and design of the book is well structured, clean and easy to follow.

Logos are grouped and categorised in sections with a diverse set of categories: strands, waves, concentric, ovals and ovoids, punctuation marks, single letters so plenty of scope for drawing on inspiration.

It’s a hefty book and the uncoated paper it’s printed on feels sturdy so no obvious signs of trying to cut costs with wafer thin paper. The book cover itself is glossy and of a fold-out design easily removable to provide you with a huge fold-out reference poster.

Unlike LogoLounge and other inspiration type books most of the logos covered have have accompanying text descriptions for the 1300 logos included.

If you are a logo designer or appreciate  logo and identity design then this particular logo book is a valuable addition to your library. I purchased this shortly after it was first published a few years back now, and it’s still the first book I refer to when starting on most new projects.

I am looking forward to a hopeful update to this book.

If you need professional grade logo inspiration then look no further.

Related posts:

1. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman
2. iheartlogos Book Giveaway
3. Modern Vintage Logo Design Inspiration By Riley Cran

Read Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Everything you could ever want to know about printing letters and figures.

Letter Fountain: The Anatomy Of Type By Taschen looks set to be THE type book to get this year. I caught a glimpse of it over on Swiss Legacy and have pre-ordered my copy from Amazon for £44.99.

I have just flicked through the first 100 pages via the Taschen website so this is a great way to see the quality and variety of content you will be getting.

A few nice features include: hardbound in half linen with three ribbon bookmarks, 144 pages appendix with resourceful glossary and indices, and convenient typographic ruler with conversions between four measurement systems and hidden shortcuts for your Apple keyboard.

The editor and author:
Joep Pohlen is a graphic designer, devoted with heart and soul to professional typography. With his colleague and friend Geert Setola he founded Dutch Fontana Publishers in 1994 and together they published their first edition of Letterfontein. From 2002 to 2010 Joep Pohlen rewrote most of the contents and enhanced the book to 640 pages. He has won several awards with book design on typography and art.

From the website

Looking back as far as man’s first efforts to communicate with visual signs and drawings, Letter Fountain is a completely unique typeface handbook: in addition toexamining the form and anatomy of every letter in the alphabet (as well as punctuation marks and special characters…

Further attention is given to the esthetics of the digital age and typographical recommendations such as the choice of the right typeface for a job…

Over 150 typefaces, their origins, and font characteristics are discussed in detail, visually explained by full page tables including scale, weight, and useful alternatives…

Read more on Letter Fountain

Win A Copy Of Letter Fountain

When Letter Fountain is released you will have a chance to win a copy as I will be offering one up as a very special prize.

Make sure you follow me on Twitter and sign up to the RSS feed to make sure you get notified when the giveaway goes live.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Know Your Onions – A Book on Graphic Design
3. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman

Read Letter Fountain: The Anatomy Of Type By Taschen on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Font Fuddle is relatively new, and low key font project/quiz that I thought some people might like to have the odd crack at. The concept is simple but the actual unfuddling can be quite tricky. Font Fuddle runs on the same WordPress theme: Gridalicious as Unevolved Brands.

As the About page states:

Fuddle
-verb, to muddle or confuse. -noun, a confused state; muddle; jumble.

A Font Fuddle is a font that has had certain characteristics altered in easy or majorly devious ways – this is to say there will be a number of difficulty levels. The Font Fuddler challenges you to work out which font the letter belongs too, and to then list the uncharacteristic alterations.

Levels so far consist of: Super Easy, Medium, Hard and Devious Fuddles. Each Fuddle is colour coded according to the difficulty level: yellow is Super Easy, orange is Medium (as example below), red is Hard and Devious Fuddle will be black.

Each Fuddle will have a small description that will provide a hint as to how many Fuddles have been committed. For example: if I have rotated and smoothed off the slab serifs then this means two Fuddles have been committed.

Not all Fuddles will have an anatomical change but this will be indicated on the easier levels but will leave you guessing on the harder ones.

Answers will be posted online a few days after the initial posting.

Font Fuddle will require you to work out what certain anatomical parts of a font are called as well as stretching your overall font recognition skills.

Flickr

Just as I have done with Unevolved Brands there is a dedicated Font Fuddle Flickr Set up which you can also comment on should you care enough to try the quiz.

Why Should I Care

I can’t think of any awesome reasons why you should care about sparing a few moments to check it out; I mostly do it for self gratification and a miss directed sense of trying to offer up something vaguely fun and interesting.

You also won’t care then that I will update this just a few times a week which is not at often as Unevolved Brands.

Related posts:

1. RPM 45 – Free Font by Infamous Foundry
2. Hero Font from Fontfabric – Free to download
3. Updated 232MKSD Round – Free 3 Font Weights by @mksdsato

Read Font Fuddle — An Anatomical & Naming Font Quiz on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Follow up review

I reviewed Backboard way back in December, 2008, albeit a short and sweet one. It was project management app that I swore by, in terms of helping keep track of design revisions and feedback, Backboard just seemed to be best at doing it just right.

Not overly complicated with a steep learning curve, not too simple as to be useless.

Nothing much has changed with the way it works, so the few words I wrote about it back then are still relevant.

Dark days

Sadly, during the late part of 2009 and 2010, the reliability took a bit of a nose dive. Various hangs, page freezes meant you could not totally rely on Backboard as a client facing option. I ended up loosing patience and found other, not so great ways, to manage logo idea presentation and comments. Part of this unreliability I feel was due to them being taken over by Box.net.

For their part, they responded quickly to my various emails of frustration and concern. A few times things seemed to get back on track, before nosediving. A few other people that I knew who also used it, also expressed frustration at it’s downtime.

What was frustrating is that after trying other solutions, none offered that crucial ‘this feels right’.

I didn’t give up

After a long BackBoard break, and my existing project management system straining under the frequency of project revisions, I decided to try BackBoard once again.

Over Christmas, 2010, I uploaded my first logo design.

So far so good, no hangs or crashes. The image displayed quickly, my thoughts on the design were left and a email was sent to the client. From this moment, BackBoard seemed to be back to it’s old self. Huzzah.

I uploaded more projects, clients left their feedback, I uploaded more and more revisions successfully.

BackBoard is back to being an essential part of my project management process.

Why it is so good

It’s simple and quick. To upload one image and notify your client, just do this:  (also shown by image below)

1. Create image, screenshot, photo etc.
2. Go to ‘New BlackBoard’.
3. Upload File.
4. Add details, title, comments etc.
5. Invite Reviewers, ie, client email addresses etc.
6. Done.

Once you have published the image for review, you then sit back and wait for the client to reply. During this time you can still upload other images and leave other thoughts and comments.

Client

The client receieves an email saying there is a image to review. Once they visit the URL they can leave a reply to your initial comments. The discussion is threaded so you can leave direct replies to each seperate discussion topic. Very easy to see what is going on.

In addition to leaving comments, you can use the virtual Red Pen to draw on the actual image. The client can indicate areas of interest or concern and leave appropriate ‘Sticky Note’ comments.

As the designer you will be notified when comments have been left, or if you are still at the URL, the updates are shown live.

You can reply and make changes in real time.

Wrap Up

There are 100′s of project management applicaitons out there, some are simple and some are complex, each fullfulling different takes on the area of Project Management, collaboration and feedback control.

But if you are a freelancer, with a handful of projects on at any one time, something like BackBoard could really make your life easier. Clients love it when they get that email as it’s so straightforward and intuitive to get going. You can send low security URL’s or you can set up more secure URL’s, all depends on your needs at the time.

It is one of the very few web applications that actually make a huge difference to my life. I know where everything else, all the revisions are named and viewable, as are the comments for each one and it’s easy to reference an older version.

Reliability

My only hope is that the few weeks of concurrent uptime is here to stay. It turns out that around September 2010, Increo managed to get on top of the instability issues with some significant server and software upgrades. In this time they have witnessed significant and continuous performance improvements, so all looks good.

If you are keen to try it out, please please give it a shot, I am sure you will love it. You can do so with a free trial.

Should you decided to subscribe just make sure you take full advantage of the free trial period to make sure it is the right solution for you.

Link BackBoard.com

Related posts:

1. The Broke Bike Alley Multi-Tool or Business Card? By ReThink
2. Prevue – Concept Sharing and Portfolio – Invites Available
3. Your Client and Their Financial Well-Being

Read BackBoard – Feedback and Collaboration Tool on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Imagomundi is a new release on Amazon which arrived early yesterday after having it back ordered for some months. It’s not a logo design book but it is a book full of concept icons, pictograms, ideograms and signs for utility/usefullness.

The recurring theme is simplicty, interest and usefullness.

Focusuing on new ways to visualise common signs.

Reduction means to find the simplest expression of an object, its natural essence.

I am very much into the simplification in my logo designs, trying to say more with a lot less. Stripping away all the clutter, leaving just the bare bones visuals. Seeking new and interesting ways to visuliase something that has been done a million times before.

Imagomundi has many wonderful concepts, pictogram ideas… seeing how all these designers have been able to perceive common and cliché images and come up with new and interesting ways to break the mold.

If you are into reduction and simplification, then Imagmundi is a worth while book, it will get you looking at things in a whole new level of interesting simplicity.

Although it is not a logo design book, it will help you focus your creative thinking onto a new level. It will help you look at common objects in a new light and may be of help to you in a new logo design project further down the line.

Buy on Amazon for £25

“Picts can be defined as a simplified representation of unalterable proportions which is characterised by profile positions, achromatism and a lack of detail that would be imperceptible from some distance. Thus, the innate simplification of picts is necessary in order to project only one essential.”

“If one cannot easily achieve true universal usability and utility, one other approach to uni versatility is appeal. Do the signs intrigue? Do they attract the viewer? Do they provide mystery? Do they provide humour? Do they make us smile, or even laugh?”

“… (the) visual iconicity, understood both as process and result, is the bearer of a cognitive potential of great scope, as regards both theoretical reflection and concrete experience.” – Tomás Maldonado

Book CD

The book comes with a CD full of editable icons in EPS format, 1450 icons to be exact. There is also a rather unique typeface included.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman
3. Book Overview: Brand Identity Essentials by Rockport

Read Book Review – Imago Mundi – pictograms, ideograms on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Just like design, books can be quite subjective. Some books speak for themselves, some need help reaching a audience. I had no such reservations with David Airey’s first book, based on his logo design website titled “Logo Design Love“.

Pulling in everything to do with successful logo and brand identity design, this book really achieves what many books seem to fail to do.

David on Twitter (@DavidAirey) & Logo Design Love (@logodesignlove).

Open the cover and it’s choc full of logo information. A few pages short of 200 to be exact.

Case studies from other logo designer and David’s own experience as a world renowned logo designer will keep you turning the page. I particularly like the case studies and David’s choice of these is excellent, at least for me. A while back, many books were titled ‘Bible This’ and ‘Bible That’.

This would warrant a compact ‘Bible’ tag line as it provides such useful and interesting information without the fluff.

Contents include:

• It’s the Stories we tell
• Elements of iconic design
• Laying the groundwork
• Skirting the hazards of a redesign
• Pricing design
• From pencil to PDF
• The art of the conversation
• Staying Motivated
• Your questions answered
• 25 practical logo design tips

I would have just liked the cover to have been a little thicker and durable. If like me you like to collect these kinds of books and take them with you to coffee shops, then you might find that the cover will mark easily. Having a white matt cover, it is prone to marking and scuffing. You can see in the first picture some blue markings, this is just from being in my ‘man bag’ for when I would take it down to the coffee shop to read.

This is a minor fault in terms of what information the book provides, but maybe for the next edition a more sturdy and durable cover would really help keep this book in tip-top condition and keep it a valuable resource.

If you are starting out in logo design or have been involved with it for some time, I am confident you will find this book of interest. Reading how David works, or anyone else for that matter is incredibly useful, helps one look at other methods and alternative ways to improve the process. So even if you create wonderful logo designs, never cut yourself off from learning from others. Especially when that other person is David.

If you find yourself on Twitter tweeting logo designs questions, then it would be safe to say you will probably find the answer in this book. And if not the exact answer, it will no doubt answer more questions that you have not yet asked. If you find yourself doubting how you work and the process you use when designing logos and working with clients, then this book will help you firm up everything you do.

It’s a well priced book, pick it up on Amazon for £12.99, which is an amazing prize when compared to other logo design books out there. Books that claim to enlighten but are mostly galleries of logo designs. Logo Design Love offers practical and compact guidelines and examples.

I have myself picked up a wealth of information from this book, some of it reinforcing my own logo design process and some adding to my arsenal of tricks.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman
3. Know Your Onions – A Book on Graphic Design

Read Logo Design Love by David Airey – Book Review and Photos on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Been after Logology – The Wonderland of Logo Design for some time, specifically had it on back-order with Amazon.co.uk for about 4 months. Each month they would email me saying it was delayed.

Then finally, last week, they emailed me saying they would have to cancel the order as the publishers of Logology no longer had any copies available.

Damnit.

About

Logology — The wonderland of logo design
Edited by Victionary

Among corporate business of small and large, the identity of a company is very important. It differs a company from its competitors. And when it comes to identity, logo plays a significant role. This series is a comprehensive and inspiring collection of logo design that reveals its very latest trend.

You will find two key parts include Case Studies and Gallery. Case Studies not only emphasizes the idea and the concept within and shows how each design is perfectly presented for a particular company from the inside out by examining why design changes were made during the design process, it also gives valuable insights of different working style and impacts on the design of logos from big design firms to individual designers. By addressing in a brand new way the original ideas of a logo design, it discovers how form follows function or the other way around.

An incredible wealth of contemporary and breathtaking design solutions from design studios all around the globe is showcased in the Gallery. Various forms, concepts and styles of logos are presented in 3 main categories: Typography, Icon and Illustration. So, let’s spread the pages and run into the wonderland of logo design!

Google

Not wanting to give up, I then took my search to Google. Found a few places in America stating they had it, but upon ordering, they would subsequently inform me they, like Amazon, could no longer get a copy. So seemingly, many places advertising Logology for special order, even now, unaware that it’s no longer in print.

eBay

So next stop was eBay. Did find a supposedly new copy for sale, but the sellers feedback left a little to be desired, and the Buy It Now price was a little steep for a seller with dodgy feedback. I mean, for a hard to find out of print book, not a steep price, it was just the seller didn’t inspire me to take a risk with my money. So left that alone. By this time feeling a little despondent, as I really really wanted to get my hands on this book.

Amazon.de

Finally found a copy on Amazon.de, not sure why it took so long for me to find it on Google. I was still hesitant to order direct from Amazon.de as the site of course is all in German, so a little tricky navigating around and not 100% that they themselves would have it in stock, even though it was listed. Decided to risk it, after all, seemingly the only place on line with a copy in stock.

The confirmation emails came, with expected delivery time via DHL. Less than one week later, Logology turns up direct from a independent book seller Amazon.de marketplace. All nicely shrink wrapped as well, so no doubts as to its ‘new’ status.

Now that I was very impressed with. Determination paid off, one happy chappy.

Thanks to Frank for helping me translate the various emails I received from Amazon, made the transaction easy peasy in the end.

So here are some photos of Logology. If you can find a copy, I would recommend getting it. Likely to be copies for sale at inflated places, so depends on how important books like this are to you. But the book is stunning and has a stunning embossed fake leather cover. It is a essential addition to any logo designers book collection.

Logology Flickr Set

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman
3. Book Overview: Brand Identity Essentials by Rockport

Read Logology – The Wonderland of Logo Design Book and Photos on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

LogoLounge Book Vol 6

Seems the LogoLounge range of books are the staple diet of any designer interested in logo design. I still carry the small pocket sized volumes around with me when I think I might end up in a coffee shop somewhere, a quick flick through for inspiration whilst sipping a coffee. Having all previous volumes of the LogoLoung series, I am in eager expectation of Vol 6.

Buy the LogoLounge books from Amazon :

LogoLounge 5

LogoLounge 4

LogoLounge 3

LogoLounge 2

LogoLounge

Submit Your Own Logos

Although been more than aware of LogoLounge, the books and the website, I had not fully embraced the more functional role that the LogoLounge website provides. Namely providing a neat way to submit and showcase your own logo designs. The added benefit of joining up with LogoLounge and submitting your own logo designs, is that they ‘could’ end up in one of the LogoLounge books. Which has to be a good thing.

Maintaining portfolio sites like Behance, CargoCollective, Krop, LogoPond, Flickr, Facebook (list goes on…) is all very well, they can work well for general exposure, but investing in membership with LogoLounge offers that next level of publicity. The possibility of getting some of your work included in the LogoLounge books.

Membership costs $100 for one year, and as LogoLounge states:

Your $100 annual membership to LogoLounge pays for unlimited submissions with no additional entry fees or forms. Your membership also entitles you to full privileges and unlimited access to LogoLounge for 12 months. Online payment instructions are provided during registration. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted.

Discounts: All book contributors whose logos are selected for LogoLounge 6 will receive a 50% discount on purchase of the book from Rockport Publishers. Details of this discount offer will be sent to those contributors at the time of publication.

So if you want to stand chance of having some of your work possibly considered for the LogoLounge book, then you need to get your ass in gear.

The deadline for the Vol 6 publication ends 15th February. But if you miss that deadline then all is not lost. Any logos submitted after this date will be considered for Vol 7.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Logo Design Trends up to 2010 from LogoLounge
3. Book Preview & Giveaway – ‘Symbol’ By Angus Hyland & Steven Bateman

Read LogoLounge Book Vol 6 – Last Call for Entries on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

LogoGala

There are a number of Logo Design Inspiration sites out there, all of which provide similar resources. They offer the freelance logo designer a valuable way to increase the exposure of their work for ego purposes and impressing potential new clients. Not to mention providing a wealth of inspiration for idea strapped designers.

LogoGala, however, offers a few extras which sets it out from the other logo design inspiration and showcasing websites.

The Featured Logo – Not Just Pretty Pics

As you have no doubt caught on, I have cunningly timed this review to include my new ImJustCreative logo design, well, you know, if you got it, flaunt it.

The one thing that really sets out LogoGala is the Featured Logo section. It’s not just a regular ‘submit logo and thats it‘ site. It allows the designer an opportunity to explain the process involved with the design of the logo in question. Looking at cute logo’s all day is one thing, but frankly, after a while, ‘just’ images start to loose their impact. More so now there is a trend for a lot of submitted logos to be concept based rather than ‘real life client logos’. Often, the underlying reason for a logo design can be lost or just impossible to see.

The Featured Logo sets the record straight. Deron (@deronsizemore) has got this bit nailed down perfectly.

Upon submitting your logo, you also have the option of filling in a questionnaire. You can skip it if you want and just submit the logo design by filling in the following, or you can take some time out to answer some well thought out questions, some shown in image below.

Deron allows you, the designer, via LogoGala, to set the record straight.

This allows you to really go into as much detail as you want, there seems to be no character limit, so take the time and space to make the most of the opportunity.

Question 6 provides you with the option of attaching an image of your various sketches etc, which is a brilliant concept for a logo inspiration gallery. The real inspiration comes from seeing how the designer became ‘inspired’ in the process for a final logo.

Pretty Colours

A novel but useful part of LogoGala is the ‘colours used’ section. The website automagically picks out the main colours and displays them in a palette next to the logo design. On the home page, you can view logos by colours, which is a super neat way to find inspiration based on colour opposed to keywords.

No Voting here

A small aspect that I am in favour of is that LogoGala run without a voting system. It seems every inspiration and showcase site under the site is powered by votes. Ofcourse there are the most ‘view and popular logos’ shown on the homepage, but this is based on pure viewing numbers opposed to the very innacuate voting system.

Voting sites are flawed. It’s a pointless system, especially If you are as cynical as me. The more ‘friends’ you have, the more votes you can assure yourself if you are so inclined. Just this very aspect means that any logos with the most votes can’t really be taken seriously. It becomes almost laughable in this sense.

As with most other inspiration sites, LogoGala allows comments to be left. This is the most genuine way to show appreciation for a design you are ‘inspired’ by.

LogoGala Blog

Deron also keeps the LogoGala blog active and each month he features various logos in a monthly roundup, which is a genuine way to show appreciation for those submissions that attract the most ‘eyes’.

The author

Deron Sizemore runs and maintains LogoGala and you can find him on Twitter @logogala and @deronsizemore. He also is the man behind ‘NiceStylesheet.com‘ and ‘Random Jabber.com‘.

So all in all, LogoGala offers a nice slant on the usual inspiration sites. The site design is clean and easy to navigate.

If you are a logo designer and have not really checked out LogoGala then I would recommend you give it a shot.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – ‘Logo’ – Logo Design and Inspiration
2. Modern Vintage Logo Design Inspiration By Riley Cran
3. Logo & Modern Vintage Design Inspiration By Wallace Design House

Read LogoGala.com Review – Logo Design Inspiration and Information on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.

Which then poses the problem, should I leave it unwrapped or open it to read it? The cover is almost made from this woven fabric, quite extraordinary. 

So I need to sit on this and figure out what to do with it. Until such time I make a decision, I shall just gaze lovingly upon it.

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1. Know Your Onions – A Book on Graphic Design
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3. Letter Fountain: The Anatomy Of Type By Taschen

Read New Book – Story of a TypeFace – Helvetica Forever on imjustcreative - logo & brand identity design portfolio and blog.