I can’t remember exactly how I got to it, but I was reading over on Boing Boing where they had reported a review of the GotLogos service by Kevin Kelley.
Kevin reported that he had a good experience with the $25 logo package offered at GotLogos.com, and although I was highly skeptical I decided that I’d go ahead and gamble the $25 to see about getting a logo for the site. Some of my readers have complained that it’s too plain looking, so I figured a $25 logo would be just the thing to spice it up. ;-)
So, I headed on over to place my bet… er, order. I chose the $25 package and then in the comments field I put the following:
OneMansBlog.com: Hopefully you’ll take a look at the site to get some ideas, but basically One Man’s Blog is the personal blog of John Pozadzides.
I’m a fairly well known Internet pioneer (founder of HTMLHelp.com) and a technology expert. My blog covers a wide range of topics, all of which are things that interest me.
I don’t really have any preconceived notion of what the logo should look like. The only thoughts that I had were:
- There should probably be 1 “man” somewhere in the logo.
- It might be neat if the man were directing the construction of the logo… say, supervising as a crane lifts one of the words into place or something like that.
- Personally the way I feel about my blog is that it is a labor of love for me, it involves a tremendous amount of effort, and it is a fairly solitary undertaking.
I hope that helps give you some ideas and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
The logo was ordered on 3/16/2007, and on 3/22/2007 I received the following logo.
Ok. First of all, I thought I was clear in stating that I was in no way certain about what it should look like, and that I could only even come up with one bloody idea. That doesn’t mean the idea was any good, and a designer should have felt free to freakin ignore me and come up with something nice.
Now, go look at the samples they’ve got on display over at GotLogos.com, click on the Gallery tab, and then come back and tell me if you think this is in any way, shape or form of the same calibre. Go ahead… I’ll wait. No? Didn’t think so.
In fact, the worst logo they have in their Gallery is infinitely better than this “logo”. This travesty demonstrates absolutely no artistic ability, creativity or even taste. I mean, come on. We couldn’t even get a little more cartoonish or something like that? The color scheme for the logo isn’t even legible for the “.com” part! Just because it’s a background color on the blog doesn’t mean its appropriate for typography!
There is no way there was any quality control check on this thing, even for $25. I would think that someone over there would want to ask the question “do we want to have our name associated with this” or “could we put this in our gallery” for anything coming out of their shop. Especially given that they want to upsell you to all kinds of higher level services (which I might have bought if they had come back with something nice).
But this thing is so bad it seriously gives me the dry heaves. How does everyone else feel about it? Oh. And feel free to Digg the heck out of this to spread the word. I don’t care if it does take the server down again…
PS – If I’ve got any talented designers for readers out there who would like to help shape One Man’s image then let me know.
EDIT: 4/7/2007 @ 4:27AM – Peter, from down in the comments thread, put together this modified version of the logo. Not only is it colorized, but now I’ve got a beer in my hands, and a gut to match it, while I “supervise”!
Fwiw I think it’s a pretty solid logo compared to what’s on their site.
I do have to say that the construction worker looks like he’s drunk, and holding on to the “O” for deer life, and teh crane looks somewhat phallic.
But I really don’t think you can ask for more for $25.
You go a logo. It’s a comprehensible theme. And it’s ok.
I would add, that the more I look at the crane the more it looks like a giraffe.
Personally I would add some color. Bright red and yellow. I would slap a beer bottle in the construction workers hand (and bright color the helmet), and I would make your “B” be swinging crazilly looking like it’s about to destroy the rest of the letters… Sort of a typical FUBAR situation.
Hey John,
It’s not actually that bad, but it really comes down to personal taste. Only you know what messages you want to get across with your site, so only you know exactly what it should look and feel like. It’s pretty tough to communicate that in a few words with someone who doesn’t have much time to spend building it. At least you’re only out $25.
Terrible logo? No not at all. Could it be better? Absolutely. Then again, $25 isn’t much for a logo. I think you got it easy compared to some of the people there. There’s some really bad logos on that site.
Peter,
You kill me. That is hilarious! And now all I can think of is a guy in a big yellow construction helmet standing over a red crane with the beam protruding between his legs, a beer in one hand and a big cigar in the other. Reminds me of the Mel Brooks movie “Life Stinks”.
See… now you were exercising some real creativity there! If you were a cartoonist then we’d be getting somewhere.
I agree with both you and Eric’s point about the fact that this is only $25. But at some point I also think at any price there is a minimum respectable level of creativity expected.
Also, when you go to buy one of these logos they try to upsell you to packages that cost a LOT more which would include high res versions of the logo plus vector graphic versions, etc. I remember thinking ‘I wonder if they only make the GOOD logos for the people who pay more’, but then I thought there might be a chance they would still make good ones for everyone because that way you’d fork over more money after the fact to actually get your high res versions.
Oh well.
John
There’s really nothing wrong with it and it’s certainly not as bad as you make it out to be. Like the above poster said, it’s all about taste. I’d have liked to see a little more color – but other than that I like it…
im with you, personally, i think that the overall design is a bit lacking in creativity and theme. but as for the colors, it merely fits in with your current theme without adding anything that may just end up looking bad in the end.
the logo sucks.
but you get what you pay for.
I smell an ugly logo competition. First entry!!!
oops can’t use tag i guess…
take a look at this:
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8832/ombyu5.png
You’re cool Peter! :-)
Thanks for the beer! My wife would probably tell you that you got the belly right too. ;-)
Oh, and I spliced it into the article up above…
John