Customer Reviews

The New Big Book of Logos

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book the same day I bought the beautifully-bound "Trademarks designed by Chermayeff & Geismar" (Princeton Architectural Press). I plan to use them both in a presentation to show what 40 years of good, solid design can do versus a Big Book of Hack. This is indeed a big book, but when David E. Carter refers to these logos as "great" he is really deceiving the growing designers in his audience. And when he goes so far as "To paraphrase W.P. Kinsella, 'Publish it and they will buy.'" his intentions become frighteningly transparent. If you truly want to be inspired, learn from the legends. For the same amount of money you can own the Chermayeff & Geismar book. I gave it two stars, but that's mostly for effort.

OK. You're trying to come up with a logo design for your new client. You're stuck. What do you do? If you're lucky, you have this book handy, and you can flip through nearly 400 pages and about 2,500 logo designs from creatives all over the world. Suddnely, you see something you like. You don't copy it, but you get an idea from what you just saw. That's why you buy books like this. Ideas "spring" from other ideas.

Will you love every logo in this book? Of course not. That's not its purpose. Diferent designers from all over the world have greatly varying styles. But one thing for sure, you'll see enough "great" work in here to lift you to new heights of creativity. (And guess what, much of the stuff that you think is "so-so," others will think is "great." That's what makes life interesting. Quite simply, if you design logos, you should have this book on your reference shelf.

I don't know why anyone would need to buy another logo book after buying this one. It's chock-full of logos. Certainly, they are not all gems...but there's enough good ideas in there to get your own brain stimulated.

In reference to the guy who was disappointed in this book because it didn't have recognizable, big brand logos (Shell, McDonalds, etc..) my question is "why would you want that?" Why would you want a book filled with marks everyone knows so well that they see them in their sleep. Give me fresh stuff! Stuff I haven't seen! And, yes, this means stuff from big markets as well as small. Why is a logo for a small maket any less valid? Why does distribution suddenly equal rellevancy? Maybe you should go back to design school to figure this out.

80% of this book is nothing but an uncritiqued (is that a word?) collection of logos created by desktop publishers. You have your standards; Hornall Anderson Design Works, Mires Design, GSD&M, etc, with their conceptually inspiring work but the quality falls off quickly thereafter. Mostly alot of clipart and rip-offs. This book is far from inspirational. Save your money.

This could have has SO much potential - it could have dealt with famous brands in the last 100+years such as Shell, BP, Bell, AT&T, IBM, Coke, Pepsi, Sony, Audi, BMW, McDonalds, Procter and Gamble, Microsoft, etc etc - there are so many famous and excellent brands. And they are International we all know them, but it would be nice to have a book covering them all and some more obscure ones.

But this book isn't in that league at all. This is the big book of early 90's clip art. Most of the designs are horribly dated, with sickly pastel colours, overly complex motifs etc. They are all much the same and certainly don't stand out on the page.

Obviously they are all Americentric, but worse they are all small-town Americentric. The cutesy clip art for the 10th Anniverary Snowy Creek Cub Spelling Bee, or Grand Street, Middletown, Nowheresville 3rd Annual Street Parade and the like have no value or merit outside of that institution. And that goes for 90% of the clip art...sorry logos. The work on offer is wholly unprofessional and bland. Managing to fill 400 odd pages with such mediocre work is quite remarkable.

After having read through this book I opted for How to Design Logos, Symbols and Icons - at least it had some quality, recognisable brands in it.

Pretty outdated, clip art looking images. Nothing exciting. Most of the logos look unprofessional and uninspiring. You cannot even guess what they represent. It is not worth the money.

This is a logo designer's delight. The full-color book has included more than 2,500 logos from designers all over the world. When you're stuck for a design idea, this is the book to have. You may not like every design shown, but that's only because there is such a vast range of styles included in the book.

Every person who designs logos should have this reference book handy. There are literally thousands of ideas inside.

By the way, I read recently that this is the best-selling graphics book in history. That makes a big statement about just how good this book (and the first Big Book of Logos) really is.

There wasn't a lot of information that I could use in this book. It was high on fluff and short on substance. Considering that this author seems to put out a book about every other month, he should spend a little more time making the quality of the books better before they get printed....

David E. Carter has published shelves full of books on design and creative applications. The New Big Book of Logos is a valuable addition to anyone's swipe file. If you're looking for yet another array of by-gone days in corporate identity, then this is NOT the book for your money. Frankly, I'm tired of books filled with thoroughly worn-out antique icons (clip art) of corporate entities. This book and it's predecessor are fresh and valuable to the creative mind for the wealth of ideas taken from unknown and uncommon identities. For the purpose of looking at others' work as something to analyze, pull-apart, and re-assemble into something new and completely different, this book is a gold mine of creative opportunities. Your money is well-spent on anything David E. Carter produces.