kate's infrastructure

Formerly being an aspiring (and sometimes practicing) web designer, I should probably be disappointed by the existence of seemingly souless online services which will generate a logo and brand for you online for less that $100 and less than 24hrs.  I remember reading about it in disbelief a few years ago in WIRED and I’ve only just tracked down the article again.  Seems most of the services are still running, and as much as I hate to admit it, they look ok.  They certainly look better than anyone with a few IT skills trying to hack together a professional image without the requisite skills.

I know this ground has been well and truly covered, so a few links worth reading:

• Mike Davidson has a great summary on logo design, which covers the principles, and more importantly addresses the difference between simply having a logo and having a brand.
• A great blog BRAND NEW, which assesses new corporate identities.  It’s reassuring that sometimes the big kids don’t make all the right decisions.  More importantly, this blog identifies where they go right and wrong, so it can provide an interesting perspective.  Anything that can avoid the amateur looking Fosters’ group logo of a few years back is gold.

I’m not all tech all the time, but I do think the above is relevant to tech folks.  Know what you do well, if you’re not a designer, don’t dabble.  Your customer may be happy, but they may not realise you’re doing them a disservice.