78 Inspirational Logos
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 by MattDon’t settle for an <h1> tag, put a cool logo at the top of your blog!
If you’re starting a new website, or revamping an existing one, spend a bit of time thinking-out a logo. If your site doesn’t have one, get one as soon as possible. A good logo tells users where they are, and implants your site in their brains. Look at the image below:
The image shows Smashing Magazine with and without it’s logo. I purposefully picked a site with a spartan layout so you wouldn’t be distracted from my point. Which looks more memorable? The bottom or the top? Obviously the top.
Logos are important. Take a look at any business and they’re sure to have a logo (though the cool factor may be lacking). Amazon, CNN, Pizza Hut, etc, they all have logos. Obviously your website shouldn’t be without one. Logo making doesn’t take much work, just Photoshop (and a little experience), some creativity, a little inspiration, and a bit of time.
Photoshop costs $630, so I can’t help you there (sorry). If you don’t have Photoshop and you’re on a budget, you may want to take a look at the much cheaper Photoshop Elements, which can do most of the essentials, though it has a few features stripped-out. Creativity and time are up to you as well, but I can help you with the inspiration bit.
Here are some notable logos. Take a look at them, maybe they’ll give you some ideas.
And since you made it this far, have a bonus bad logo:
Okay, the logo isn’t really bad, but stay away from MySpace.com…
10:51 am on August 21st, 2007
Here is an additional logo for the list http://www.filmreviewz.com/images/new_film3.jpg
12:34 pm on August 21st, 2007
hm…quite inspirational, just need to get an idea for a logo for my blog. My website (ruelicke.net) has some kind of logo although it doesn’t really satisfy me atm…
btw, although I don’t use it (plan to do it sometime though) I recommend “Gimp” which is a open source photoshop like design program which is very good. Just visit the official website at http://www.gimp.org
1:35 pm on August 21st, 2007
Fantastic list, and thanks for including Pro Blog Design! (Logo design is my weak spot usually! xD )
My favorite logo is from HicksDesign.co.uk. He has made quite a few versions of it over the years, but my favorite can be seen on this wallpaper. Nice, eh?
12:38 am on August 22nd, 2007
hi
can just give a website where i can find all the business companies logos .
8:03 am on August 22nd, 2007
My favourite is Technorati. It’s simple, clean and that green has some sort of hypnotizing power - I can’t stop looking at it! PS. thanks for adding Blogsolid to your list
10:14 am on August 22nd, 2007
J.Basque: The link’s dead. It’s a forbidden error.
Marco: I always forget about GIMP. I’ve never actually used it, but I do know that it’s a bit harder to use (though the Gimpshop version is easier) and there are much less tutorials for it (which would be useful for newbies).
Michael: Your link’s dead as well. Logo design’s your weak spot? I like the ProBlogDesign logo, nice and simplistic, yet cool.
Imar: Yeah, that Technorati green color’s cool. I bet they hired hypnotist professionals to pick a that color…
Blogsolid and ProBlogDesign have cool layouts. Their on my list of Design Spotlights to do.
2:13 pm on August 22nd, 2007
Matt - Woops. It’s either of the first 2 desktops on this page.
And thanks.
3:57 pm on August 22nd, 2007
That’s kinda cool looking.
No problem.
5:21 pm on August 26th, 2007
The blog techsoar one is pretty good as well. Haven’t seen that one before. My favourite has got to be blogger. Its just amazing.
4:19 pm on August 27th, 2007
Matt: I just thought I let you know that I created a new design for my blog. Feel free to have a look and give your opinion. There are still a few minor adjustments I need to take care off…but I should be done in a few…
10:01 pm on August 27th, 2007
It looks pretty good, Marco. The banner is pretty cool, with the code in the background. The only thing that bugs me is that the sidebar doesn’t appear on the post pages (one of the things I don’t like about the Kubrick theme). If you want to fix it, it’s as easy as adding a get_sidebar to the post template, if not…it’s your blog. Other than that, I like it. The ads are unobtrusive, too.
P.S. I see you’re using Spam Poison.
I like the idea of that service, but I haven’t checked it out myself yet.
6:20 am on August 28th, 2007
Good idea with the sidebar, will add (”fix”
) it later. Although the design is based on the Kubrick theme I wrote the most of the html/css code on my own. e.g. The Kubrick is xhtml transitional while my code is strict.
@SpamPoison: I discovered it a while ago and have no real idea if any spam bot caught it already. I only know that my Spam protection layers stopped a few spammers already so I hope that the SpamPoision is helpful
11:08 am on August 31st, 2007
I have more of a problem with comment spam. I’d been rid of it for awhile, by using a CAPTCHA, but they’ve started again. I’ve activated Akismet, and I’m hoping that will help. I get trackback spam too, and I don’t know if akismet can take care of *that*.
2:08 pm on December 15th, 2007
Myspace logo is devoid of art but it is still popular. YouTube is bland but the logo rules in web universe.
4:33 pm on February 27th, 2008
[...] logo (featured in 78 Inspirational Logos) sits inline with some useful text links, positioned at opposing ends of the screen. Floating atop [...]
7:56 am on June 27th, 2008
Great resource, the best are still waiting to be created