Bad Logos...

So the major Commercial Radio station in Australia just changed it's logo to this hotdog like creation.

Personally I think this logo is an abortion, but I am not a graphic designer and don't know why i find it so unappealing.

Is there a way that this logo could be improved?

What makes a logo good or bad?

Do any games have particularly horrendous Logos? (Resident Evil 6 come to mind)

Well, um, it seems somehow salacious. Although, I like it, because the colours are almost CGA.

Good logos: immediately recognisable, usually minimalist, relevant to the product/company, adaptable to different media.

Personally, I've never liked the Deus Ex logo:

@beachthunder: I never really felt anything for the Deus ex logo, but now that I look at it I kind of like it. It's dated by today's standards but it's a cool logo.

@samfo: The idea behind the RE 6 logo was alright, it's just that the execution was unfortunate lol

Personally I can't think of a really bad one right now, I'l edit if something comes to mind.

@samfo: "the major Commercial Radio station in Australia" --- yeah.... speaking as an Australian, working in the media who just had to do a reverse image search to work out what that logo was from, can I just say a local Adeliade radio station is not THErmajor Commercial Radio station in Australia.

Also, the Deus Ex logo never made sense because I can see a D but no E... and was the Resident Evil 6 logo that bad? I know about the giraffe blow job joke or whatever, but I thought that before that joke it looked fine to me...

That is some artisanal spamming...

That is strange, I'm not sure why but it doesn't even look like a logo to me. The colours are kinda cool but nah, not a fan. Is it just an exclamation mark on top of a pink er..thing?

Now that you mention it I don't think I can think of a single video game logo off the top of my head except Pokemon aha :/ As for pubs/devs I've always liked Rockstars logo for some reason

@pandabear:

Hey Panda Bear,

Fox FM, 2Day FM etc are all using this logo.

The Adelaide one recently had it's name changed hence why you havent heard of it.

I cant say I super love it but when you'll see that logo from a mile away you'll instantly recognize it, so its kinda doing its job. The colors go great together and are often used.

Oh, I just checked the Countless Rooms of Death QL:

Shapes aside, are those the actual colours? using pure cyan and magenta doesn't seem like a great idea. I used these colours for a logo animation once as per the clients request, the colours "work with each other" (don't know how else to explain this effect in English, other than saying the edges sort of blend together) which became even more apparent when in motion.

I stand corrected.

@beachthunder said:

Oh, I just checked the Countless Rooms of Death QL:

That scrotum is armed to the teeth, yo

Does ANYONE else think the iHeart Radio logo looks like a butthole farting?

@papercut: now i do XD .... in my case Im more into the "barroque" ,meaning with way to much stuff in them or neigh ilegible but cool looking like most of the black metal name band logos , also into the gothic lettering (no not the hip hop style , I mean the real stuff medieval/german ones). As for gaem companies I think grasshoper is the best one , like I said I like them intricate.

To Op that radio logo sucks big time specially with the colors , yuck.

Worst name and logo in one.

Even aside from the fact that you could read it as 'kid sex change', why would you name you company kids exchange? Are you really exchanging kids?

@monkeyking1969: Jesus, WTF were they thinking.

This is a fairly common chain in Korea:

Oh, and this one...

The logos aren't terrible, but those names...

This one also always cracks me up:

@sinusoidal said:

It hurt just trying not to laugh so hard right now.

@monkeyking1969: Back when I used to frequent the Harmony Central forums I remember someone trying to promote their new website musiciansexchange.com and laughing so damn hard it hurt.

@sinusoidal: Megafucks doesn't belong on this list, it is an awesome name.

is it really Mega Fucks? What do they sell?

MegaFlicks is my guess.

@vierastalo: aha, yes, of course. You've ruined it now, I can see where the L and the I join.

I make my living as a graphic designer so i basically have the answer to this question burned into my retina.

This is a logo of a Milkshake place that popped up about 3 years ago in my hometown in England. It is to this day the worth piece of commercial work i have ever seen.

Like what the actual fuck...it still baffles me.


Edit: The website keeps the theme going http://www.shakezone.co.uk/

The Hitler clothing store in India is pretty wierd

The best advice I ever got on logos is to imagine what it looks like in black and white. If it doesnt work in black and white then its probably not a great logo.

Logo's are tough though, because they have to exist in so many different areas (uniforms, sides of trucks, tops of stationary) etc. If you want to see someone whos really good at logos do his craft, watch this video http://vimeo.com/113751583

@thunderstorm101 said:

I make my living as a graphic designer so i basically have the answer to this question burned into my retina.

This is a logo of a Milkshake place that popped up about 3 years ago in my hometown in England. It is to this day the worth piece of commercial work i have ever seen.

Like what the actual fuck...it still baffles me.

Edit: The website keeps the theme going http://www.shakezone.co.uk/

That's amazing, you kind of want to think it's done ironically, but it would be so much better if it wasn't

It looks like the logo for the next Destiny game or something

Damnit, now I'll never un-see it that way.

Can't say I'm all that fond of the Fract OSC logo. I appreciate what they're going for with the Fract part, but the OSC doesn't fit in, I think:

I don't particularly like the S.P.A.Z. logo either, the letter spacing seems a little off?

@beachthunder said:

Well, um, it seems somehow salacious. Although, I like it, because the colours are almost CGA.

Good logos: immediately recognisable, usually minimalist, relevant to the product/company, adaptable to different media.

Personally, I've never liked the Deus Ex logo:

YOU TAKE THAT BACK.

(yeah the logo kinda sucks)

@fisk0: I love the FRACT OSC logo, as well as everything else about it except the actual gameplay.

Dragon's Crown, this is a classic example of a designer who could not stop designing. So what you get is a complete mess that is too busy and hard to read. The title reads: Drago RowS. I could write a whole blog post about this logo!

This thread is cracking me up. I love Shake Zone, MEGAFLICKS, and everything that went into that Dragon's Crown logo. It even has scales and tails. Fantastic.

As someone who occasionally has to do logos ... if you are not really good at doing them (which I am not) it's really hard to make good ones. The last one I did was for myself (working on a boardgames-website) and it turned out better than I thought it would (dont have the source-file here atm, hence the screenshot).