Russian Science Centers' Visual Identity

There's a city called Puschino that is just south of Moscow and full of research and technology centers. These centers were build during the Soviet Era and are now undergoing a massive restoration. One nice change I've noticed is their visual identity. These proposed designs are quite different and I love how "old-school" they look. Check them out, I think these are great:

Creative Company Websites

Here are some very nicely done online-services websites I've found. These are very personal ideas and designs that make the user feel very welcomed to the site. Take a look around their login screens, sign-up language and the general marketing. It has less of a "corporate" sound and more of a "community" tone.

On Postmark I've outlined few details. Plenty of white space for breathable layout, great choice of typography and nice touch on icons and simple illustrations.

  

   

Style Over Reason

When designing a new logo for a brand, throughout the process, it is important to keep in mind that there has to be a reason for shapes, elements, colors and the overall mood. If you are a designer you should already know this by heart. But adding random swooshes to random typefaces that you though looked good on your Dell monitor is a wrong way to go and will not bring you success. Of course you can never please a client just with your own ideas, it has to be a collaboration and a compromise of thoughts.

Looking at the logo, I always think of what it speaks to me. In my experience:

• logo has to be simple enough that the viewer can draw it by hand just from a short glimpse at it.
• logo has to speak a simple and clear message
• logo has to have a reason or idea behind it

You’ll be surprised how many huge corporations with huge marketing budgets don’t research or have a proper logo. A great example would be Microsoft’s latest failed attempt: Bing. Name itself has a great sound to it and would worked great with a simple shape. But, it looks like Microsoft was not thinking of the image, users, audience or the philosophy behind the brand. It was strictly profit. Microsoft had to fight Google. And for Microsoft, to compete is to imitate. Just as Google’s bland logo, Bing had to reflect that. Just like Google’s blend User Interface, Bing had to go the same way. Microsoft claimed that they spend $80Million on Bing’s marketing campaign. Really?

To end the post on a positive note I’ve found some amazing examples of swiss style logos by helvetic brands. There ARE great identity designers after all, and you don’t have to spend millions to find one. Just Google them.