We all have heard what would the world look like without bees. Those little fragile creatures are extremely important for the whole humanity. And that importance inspired some of the logo designers as well. When it comes to messages and metaphors we probably don’t have enough space to count them all here: from the symbol of hard work and dedication to agility or just being extremely organized. Or if we take another route over the shape of the insect itself that provides us with curved but also sharp edged elements to work with. But also not to forget probably the most inspirational part of a very interesting and powerful yellow and black color combination. But being inspired by the bees, as you will see here, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to directly use the exact shape of that insect or copy the exact color scheme: let your imagination flow and final result can be more then interesting. So next time when you see even the smallest insect around, don’t just squash it but take a moment to explore it fully and let it ’sting’ your senses and creativity.

Trendy or not, there is a lot of film strip inspired logos at the moment. Since graphic designers are very visual people and love to communicate and experience the world around them that way, I bet you that you can’t find a designer that doesn’t like watching movies or browsing through some nice photos in magazines or online. And that’s how we get inspired every day because movies and photos became parts of our everyday life. The media that brings it all to life inspire designers to bring interesting logos to life.
There is something magical about that simple black/white element that combines the worlds of square and curve and forms into interesting shapes while being put into it’s purpose. But logos featured in this article show the endless options if you try to play with it a bit: it can form unnatural shapes, it can come as a fusion with other objects around us and it really doesn’t have to be in black at all! So take a look at this fine examples of well designed logos and once again enter the amazing world of film.

One of the hardest fields of logo design overall is definitely sport teams logos. It takes a lot of creativity, imagination and execution skills to show the messages of power, agility and dynamics. The base of it lays in the team name and different sports treat those names in different ways: some use weather terms, some animals, some use founder’s name and some just a name of the town they hale from. One way or the other, only original and nicely detailed solution will get recognition amongst the fans but also provide an extra feeling of loyalty and power for allthe team members as well. While we all know of many sport team logos, especially the ones that we support (I’ll never forget watching Jordan’s and Pippen’s magnificent play) take a look at this new and maybe less known but nice examples of the subject. One thing is for certain, only a designer that really loves this field can create a nice solution and maybe for a second feel as a sport team member he did it for.

Can you imagine the time when there was no TV, no videos or DVDs, no internet or any other complex on screen media? Well, those times are not so far behind us and large number of designers that did logos only for print and similar media are still very active. But ever since the ’screen communication’ came to life people are trying to make more and more visually impressive logos searching through all the 3 dimensions for a proper way to send out a message. And that progress brought us to internet age where we can meet special visual effects in every corner. Even logo design couldn’t resist this ‘tsunami’ and a lot of new logo design techniques were born. One of the most popular of them is definitely so called ‘transparency effect’ where overlapping graphic elements offer a new dimension for visual stories. Transparent design or not, there’s one more treat for all of you: from now on we will bring you interviews with designers who’s logos we have featured in each article so after you browse through this examples learn more about one of those directly from it’s maker. Enjoy!

The best way to explain my idea here is to look at some definitions of ‘abstract’: thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances (an abstract idea), expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance, difficult to understand, an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object, to divert or draw away the attention of… These kind of logos are usually followed by question ‘Ahem, excuse me, but, what is this suppose to show?’ the answer is simply ‘Magic!’. It diverts your attention but makes you stare at it and decipher it for hours. And that was the point, to show something that can’t be shown, to express the chaos with the goal of achieving the order.

Time to whip CreativityDen back into shape! Starting off with some amazing logos. I don’t know what it is about identity and branding but I just can’t get enough of these logos. Everyone I see makes me want to boot up illustrator and start drawing. Unfortunately when staring at the screen for 10 minutes I realize the difficulty in brainstorming, preparing, drawing and choosing what colours and typefaces to use.

Dear readers! You have a chance to vote for your Top3 favorite featured logos on Creativity Den! Please add an short explanation next to your list in the comments section and BEST FEATURED LOGO will be announced in 7 days from today (30th Oct 2009 – 5th Nov 2009)! Here’s the list to pick out from.

If you read a lot of posts on design including the interviews, you’ll notice that the most common question there is usually something like this: “Where do you find your inspiration? What inspires you the most?” Now, every designer has his/hers own approach, someone just needs a bit of nature (like myself), someone grabs 50 books and starts reading them, someone browses through the history of art and design, someone even leaves the Earth in the mind and travels through space and time. But usually it’s right in front of our noses and we don’t have to get ‘gigantic’ on things – what if we just use the smallest graphic element visible, the DOT! It has been used by mentioned artists before, it is in use today in this information age when the word DOT comes out of our mouth on an countless level. An so did these designers, they just got inspired by this micro element and just connected a few of them to create remarkable pieces! Let’s enjoy them!

We all have our own music preferences and today there are tons of music genre and sub categories to pick what we like out from. Some of us are forced to download (free) stuff from the Internet and some of us can still afford buying original CDs with wonderful covers and booklets in the package. But when you really love some cool artist you’ll get that CD no matter what it takes, bring it home, hit it in the player, and enjoy the next hour and a change listening to music and browsing through the cover to the smallest detail, like the record company or distributor logo. And someone has to ‘play’ with that part as well. Here are some fresh and interesting ‘music logos’ by great designers who got ‘inspired by the sound’.

Birds are my favorite kind of animal, I even use the shape of one, Toucan, for my personal visual identity. They are extremely inspirational and you can get inspired by their exquisite body shapes, their gestures and behavior or simply by their wonderful and dynamic movement when flying. There are many families within the bird species and designers have recognized their main qualities or characteristics for symbolic logo design usage, for example: eagles – freedom and power, chicken – tradition and quisine, ducks – kids and outdoors, peacocks – fashion and cosmetics, swans – elegant and wellness, owls – business and consulting, sparrows – agility and speed, hawks – sports and automotive, parrots – pet stores and zoos, and many many other approaches. You just have to love them, explore them and incorporate them in your most original designs!