I unearthed something from my archives the other day that really amused me in relation to my comments on this blog.

http://www.trulyace.com/blog/thoughts-on-design/can-originality-simplicity-co-exist/#more-280

Amanda

Also the CD covers for Polluted are really cool.

For Polluted…like the thought behind the logo, using the symbols to create an urban graphic. Reminds me of the design for The Mill in some ways – http://www.davidairey.com/logo-of-the-month-10/

This is actually a topic I’m looking into at the minute (the subjectivity / objectivity of design). There is indeed always room for improvement. I couldn’t agree more. It’s one reason I never use the phrase, “Practice makes perfect”, preferring, “Practice makes better” (excuse the poor English). I’m sure there are plenty of different takes around this one, and I never profess to have the right answer.

hmmm… I do agree but (always a but) I think talking in absolutes like that is not always going to work out.

At the end of the day, you can have a program… lets take an email client for instance. It sends email, great, it receives email, great. In other words, it works.

Now you take a logo design. Sure you could be way off the mark, and you could be spot on, but to get an absolute optimal result where everybody loves it, no exceptions… thats another story. One what lives in the world of dragons and faeries.

See where I’m getting to? Whether or not it “worked” in your eyes, and the client’s eyes is whether it performed to solve a problem (sometimes just the lack of it’s mere existance), but thats not to say it couldn’t have been done better, and solved the problem better, or more problems.

Thats my definition of things being subjective. There is always room for improvement.

Ross, no need to apologise. Your opinion is very welcome. I disagree with your statement that design is subjective. It isn’t. Unless you’re looking at a piece of design from a purely aesthetic viewpoint (i.e. as art), then it must fulfill the design brief. So it works, or it doesn’t.

The polluted logo to me doesn’t scream polluted. My perception as a designer is that the pause and the stop symbols are overly-obvious solutions that could apply to any record label really.

The Branch logo itself makes me think of the “Baby Teeth” article in this month’s Print magazine. Nothing wrong here, just wickedly apparent of riding the trend wave.