What makes a good or bad logo

Logo design in today’s world can make or break a product...

Two example of a really good logo design are Apple Computer, Inc. (Apple Icon) and Nike, Inc. sportswear (Swoosh Icon).

Apple's first logo depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. This was replaced by the rainbow Apple", the now so familiar silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. The coloured stripes were to represent the relise of the colour monitor.

In 1998, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use a plain silhouette to be more clear on all coloured backgrounds, products, packaging and advertising.


Nike (mythology), Greek goddess who personifies victory.
1971 the mark now known globally as the Swoosh was designed. The Top people at Nike told the designer. "I don't love it," they told her, "but I think it will grow on us”. The swoosh is most recognisable logo to date.


A logo needs to describable, memorable, effective without colour, scalable i.e. work when just an mm’s in size.. Both Apple & Nike use these methods to the best.

The importance of logo design for business is one of the most imports things.. so a badly designed logo cannot help even a successful product. A badly designed logo generally uses a Rainbow Gradients, Comic Sans, Bevel Emboss, Bad Grammar, Off Centered Type, an image used which is not relevant to the product and also an offensive portrait of imagery or type used.

One example of mixed opinions is the London 2012 Olympic Games logo. When this was first revealed people thought that the logo resembled an offensive image... plus the TV ad campaign caused some people to have epileptic fits. Has the bad publicity lead to greater publicity?


For more information visit www.tridentdesign.co.uk