WARNING: Following is a LONG post based on my short work ex. in trying to create a simple thing....ahem....called a LOGO! Brace yourself.....
...ever encountered this? “I want a nice creative logo
design in 2-4 days for XYZ Company”...is like asking “I want a nice comfortable
house design ready to use for XYZ family in 4 days.” Excuse me, but who is XYZ?
Is the house going to be built on air, where is it situated? How big is it?
Comfortable alright....but how do you define what is nice? A house in 4 days,
surely you are looking for a movie set to be dismantled in a day! So many
questions for designing a neat little house?
Oh probably a house is a little more complicated, but what about a logo?
Its unfortunate to know, that the
popular perception of logo design is something of a tattoo or a sticker
instantly designed to be pasted wherever you feel like in whatever shape, size
and color so long as it looks fancy or stylish to represent literally any XYZ
brand. This popular perception can very well be equated to another
presumptuously false idea that abstract art is bogus and child’s play and that
any random set of brush swooshes or paint blobs can be tagged ‘abstract art’.
Can’t blame anyone for this mindset, frankly my own thinking of a logo was no different
few years ago, when I was bitten by the juvenile self-branding spree. One is
always tempted to rush into the future to see how the logo a.k.a. some
arbitrary symbol or emblem of one’s inflated self would look after its printed
on visiting cards and letters and these days social media, blogs etc.
Much to the shock, horror and
mostly contempt of those sensitive to the arts and design profession (mind you,
I am not calling it an industry or business here) these other worldly and
disdainful ideas are but a resultant of an entire population that is simply not
enchanted by the wonderful world of arts, history, nature and the likes. Often
immersed in their systematic, mechanical routine daily lives which involves
fulfilling the basic needs of survival, very little room is left for knowing
the wondrous world of creativity that a few of us have been fortunate enough to
experience, thanks to our families or just plain destiny and our sheer drive to
pursue knowledge.
It is not that there isn’t much
exposure, we are incessantly surrounded by visuals from the time we open our
eyes in to this world. And even the busiest of the busy knows how to relish
tasteful art and entertainment. Art is something that is so ingrained in our
human race from the first time we discovered the power of our hands and minds,
from the first hand that drew marks on the ground and on cave walls. Even
today, a whole population of people who, in spite of oodles of hidden genius
within them, think they haven’t any formal connection to art, but often possess
a highly individualistic aesthetic taste and a unique opinion about arts. So
then, where did the link go missing?
May be in the rigmarole of
competitive educational system, or the unending work-life struggle to achieve
the small-big dreams of owning an endless list of urban amenities and the habit
of scanning and browsing rather than waiting, watching and absorbing. I am at a
loss, but since when did art get estranged from nature and society to be viewed
as something imperceptible, lofty, inaccessible, elitist and overly
intellectual beyond the common public’s reach, interest and understanding or sensitivity?
Our profession today arises not from our roots of democratic folk arts and
crafts, but from a foreign regime of elitist art and design education and
practice. Arising from the days post renaissance in Europe, arts and design
took off from the public realm to be closed within the glass walls of the rich
influential circles that commanded and proclaimed what was good and tasteful
and what was plebeian. In spite of efforts to go back to the old world charm of
inculcating folk arts and indigenous art sensibilities, often a huge chasm
awaits to be bridged. Born out of economic divide and political favouritisms
but drastically affected by a fast changing world of the modern times.
At the risk of sermonizing and
generalising, I can only attribute human greed of aspirations from the onset of
commoditisation and the age of assembly lines of becoming the richest, fastest,
biggest, largest, newest and earliest. The assembly line not just marked a
phenomenal age of engineering prowess for the collective humans, but on a
subliminal level played into the minds of the people that quantity speaks more
than quality in the pursuit of large holdings. The power of the transient took
hold over permanence. Thankfully, not all were swept in by this notion, but for
a majority of dreamers and enterprises (fighting to support their lavish
systems) this seemed as the beacon of hope to greatness and the adventure of
embarking on entrepreneurial voyages, only to be beaten at their own game by
niftier more promising technology that went way ahead in quality and quantity.
Commoditization and consumerism
has constantly taken a toll on enterprises that passionately jump into their
proposition of a unique product or service production line, without knowing the
role, purpose, mission and meaning of their actions in the larger society. In
the slightest chance of any thinking that goes in, a major part of it is in
acquiring the most profits and that’s there. These enterprises faintly
resurrect the old picture of charging conquerors from the west, who with or
without their flags bearing their emblems, rampantly looted, plundered causing
only destruction. They never seemed to know the meaning or purpose of true
wealth and never seemed to think much on the idea of running a well administered
empire of their own. Their only thought was how to make the money to lead a
wasteful life of luxury. Well the allegory here might seem rather extreme, but
that is exactly what happens to enterprises that do not incubate their ideas
during which time the necessity of bringing an identity to their unique work
arises. And that is where the logo design component fits in.
Logo design is not just the clock
on your pretty walls; it is part of a carefully designed framework of your
house’s design. Yes, interior design is expensive, thank god for a public
consensus on that, but so is logo design. Why view logo design in isolation
like a wall decoration, when it fits into the context of a well fleshed out
strategic identity schema of icons, typography, colours, images, words,
experiences and much more that represent the brand. Why hold a myopic view of
investing in a cheap ad-hoc logo as if a bargain buy only to be later refined
into an even more expensive re-branding exercise (which is beyond one’s control
anyway). Why refuse to believe that a logo design is far more difficult,
detailed and scientific than a house design, since it is a short hand code of
what your brand wishes to express not just visually but psychologically too and
the connection time is the shortest, a fraction of a second.
So let me come again with... “I
want a nice creative logo design in 2-4 days for XYZ Company”. Unless, XYZ
company is a school or college project, looking at a short term existence, or
over confident about their work to over-ride a cheap logo and communication
design, going to have ignorant customers wanting cheap bargain services, who
don’t care about good quality themselves, then yes why not, here’s a quicker
more affordable bargain you can’t refuse, how about 2-4 hours of free work
instead? As smug and conceited as these sound, the idea is not to shun good
quality designing for those with small capital or berate their understanding or
the lack of it about branding, but to re-inforce the importance of a systematic
and serious look at their own business and also reinforcing that disciplined
design never comes cheap. Then again, if you are in the profession (mind you
not industry or business) of communication design you better convince your
client by communicating the nitty gritties of the work. Else you’ll fail, but
keep trying, after all clients are your employer and not your enemy and who
knows brighter times are here to stay.
Until my next typical design problem...
Tschüß (or Tschüss) (Pronounced Choos meaning - Bye in Deutsch/ German)
Chitra