I’ve been an active member of Estetica Design Forum for many years and it has been a huge help to me during my time not only as a freelance logo designer, but also during my student years and even before that.

Forums have many uses and you should be taking advantage of them whenever you can. Here are a few reasons why you should be active on at least one forum.

Advice & Guidance

As with a lot of people first thinking of design as a career I found it difficult to talk to anyone about it as there was no one in my family, or friends, who had any experience in the matter. I dare say this will be the same for the large majority of people out there as well.

Forums offer a place full of knowledge and experience from people who have more than likely been where you are now, and many of them are willing to share that information and help guide people who would otherwise be lost as to what the entire world of design is all about.

When I first joined Estetica I’d taken to design as a hobby and helping out my Aunts business doing little things here and there and without the guidance of people over on Estetica I doubt I would have gone beyond this.

Hearing from people who had worked in the industry for many years, and been very successful, showed me that it was something I could do if I applied myself properly and surrounded myself with likeminded people…and I did, and it worked.

Even now it’s still a place I go to for advice from peers, but I now see it as somewhere I can pass on what I’ve learnt to less experienced designers to try and help them as well. Forums are as much a place to give to, as they are a place to take away from. And it’s a nice feeling to know that you’re helping people who are in the same position as I once was.

Obviously there are other benefits to forums, the most common of which is getting critique and feedback on work from other professionals.

Critique & Feedback

This has to be one of the main reasons people sign up to forums. It’s all well and good asking friends and family to critique work, but their knowledge is always limited and they will not pick up on things that professionals will.

This is especially true if you work as an individual, or in a very small group. As I’m a freelancer I spend all of my time engrossed in a project and often I cannot be objective at times when critiquing my own work. Once you’ve been staring at something for long enough you cannot really see anything. Having numerous different people look it over with fresh eyes can be a huge advantage and they will pick up on things that would otherwise go unnoticed.

It is however important to understand what is being said and to take it on board fully. There is no point to simply ignoring negative feedback because it hurts your feelings. Remember that, for the most part anyway, the people who have taken the time to critique your work have done so because they truly want to help you.

I recently completed a logo design for a personal trainer. As with most of my projects I put it up for critique on the forum to try and produce the best possible end product.

Oxfos Logo Design Thread

Looking back through this thread the help I received really made the project a lot smoother for me. I could have spent hours and hours staring at the logo in the early stages and not thought of doing some of the type adjustments that took place by the end. I doubt very much it would have turned out anywhere near as nice had I tried to do it unassisted.

I think that thread is a great example of how a forum can be utilised to aid in your work. Feedback was given, taken on board and changes made improving the overall design.

Just remember that forums are a give and take. Don’t just use them to get feedback on your own work, give feedback on the work of others too. It’s a community and everyone is there to help each other.

Contacts & Networking

Forums are FULL of talented people from a variety of disciplines. It’s important to get to know as many people and understand their strengths, not only is this a great way to make new friends but they are also invaluable contacts to have.

When it comes to a time when you have a project you require outsourcing who are you going to turn to? Random agencies or freelancers on Twitter or Gumtree? Or people you know and speak to regularly, whose abilities you are sure of? It goes without saying really. I would much rather outsource work to people I know from the forum who I trust and know are capable of the work.

This is very much a 2-way street. If you prove yourself to be a nice, trustworthy guy (or gal) and your work is of a good standard then there is a good chance your fellow forum members will be considering you to send work too as well. Before you know it a nice symbiotic work relationship may have formed.

Speaking of gaining work…

Tenders & Employment

Most forums will have a specific area where people can post up jobs knowing that they’re doing so in a place full of creative people. These are great areas to find new projects without having to venture beyond a website you would be frequenting daily anyway.

I’m not saying that you’re going to earn millions from jobs via a forum. But every so often a nice one comes along that might be fun to work on, or might top up the holiday fund, so it’s very much worthwhile scanning it every so often.

Getting your name out there

Everyone knows of the benefits of using social networking to get their name recognised. Many also use galleries to try and get their work published, anything you can do get your name out there on the internet is worth doing.

Forums are no exception. Many people scour forums looking for examples of work to display in blog articles or galleries. Having your work uploaded to forums increases your chance of getting exposure within the industry.

Now I’m not saying go on them and just spam forums with countless threads showcasing your work, but if you’re really proud of something then why not show it off? If you’re an active member of a forum then no one is going to mind that you’re doing a bit of self-promotion.

SEO & Links

Anyone who’s ever signed up to a forum will know that many people, and robots, will sign up just to post links back to their own websites and it’s a royal pain in the arse.

If you use a forum regularly and have a link in your signature back to your portfolio then this will help, albeit a very small amount. Don’t think about it as something you’re actively doing. Just go about your day to day life on the forum, it just so happens you’re dropping a link each time.

There is also no shame in linking to your own blog articles within threads if you think it could help someone, or likewise, linking to a piece of work from your portfolio to show someone how you went about a similar project. I’ve no doubt that being active on forums and from time to time linking back to my site has helped my website ranking.

Please don’t just go around spamming every forum under the sun now with links. It’s really annoying for admins to have to keep on top of and clean up.

Don’t seek out ways you can link back to yourself, just take the opportunity if it arises.

Making Friends

For a lot of people this is the main reason they join a forum. I know first hand how hard it can be to meet people and make new friends when you work from home, the constant isolation makes it difficult to get to know new people.

Fortunately forums are a great place to just socialise with people. Forget about work and critiquing projects, they’re a fun place to be and have discussions with people about anything and everything under the sun.

Hopefully you will find yourself in a pretty tight-knit online community that does meetups ad get-togethers every so often(have a look here at us all having a great time). We try to have one each year over at Estetica and they’re always a great couple of days. It’s amazing how well you find you get on with people who you might never have met in person before just by chatting on the forums.

I’ve met some fantastic people from forums, some good friends, some brilliant work contacts, some both! It’s a place I know I can go for help and support, to share my ideas, or if I just need a good laugh.

If you’ve tried forums in the past and didn’t really like them, give it another go and really try to get involved. It’s a whole different place when you do.

The post Why you should be using forums as a freelance designer appeared first on .

When I made that initial decision I gave myself one rule: “If I can survive for 12 months then I can probably make a career from this.”

Given the current economic climate this became even truer.  But, even though the economy is still in ruins and businesses are closing their doors up and down the country here I am, 12 months later and doing better than ever.

So here’s what I’ve learned over the past year of being my own boss.

Know What You Want

Although this may sound trivial it’s something that I’ve come to realise is crucial. There are thousands of people in the design industry who think they want to be a freelancer. Thousands of people who after a few months realise they REALLY don’t want to be a freelancer. The stress of being your own boss, not knowing where your next payment is coming from, having to chase up payments owed, keeping accounts becomes too much for them.

It takes a unique kind of person to be a successful freelancer and it’s not for everyone. You don’t have to be a superhero, but you do have to want it. Really think about your own mentality and if you really want to make the sacrifices that it takes to become a successful freelancer. During my first year I’ve made a lot of financial sacrifices, given up luxuries I didn’t need in order to continue to work for myself.  If you think you can deal with the stresses of it then the rewards are very much worth it.

Play To Your Strengths

Seems kind of obvious, but many people try to do too many things and focus on everything, instead of focussing on the one or two things they are passionate and excel in.

I spent years learning many aspects of design from my mid-teens through to my time studying ‘Interactive Design’ at university and during those many years I learnt a lot about a lot of different things. However there was always one aspect that I had more of an interest for, and that was logo design and brand identity design.

From the off I knew this was what I really wanted to specialise in and make a career out of. That’s not to say I don’t do other things, as you can see from my blog and portfolio I also do web design and marketing material (leaflets, flyers etc) but it’s not what I market myself as. Although I’m competent in both these areas it’s in logo design and branding where I truly excel and where I receive most praise from other designers.

Because I’ve played to my strengths over the first 12 months of trading, and the work I’ve been doing is mostly logo design and brand identity my reputation is growing fast because I’m creating work I’m passionate about and proud of. Its work I want to show off to the world, if I’d have not been so focused and done more of other things this wouldn’t be the case.

Remember, as a freelancer you are one person you are not an agency, you will have a couple of specific areas you excel in so play to them.

Organisation, Organisation, Organisation

During my time at university the one thing I remember being told A LOT that being organised was imperative, I guess this applies to most situations in life too. I completely ignored this advice and thought it irrelevant, after all how hard is it to keep on top of a couple of uni projects?

Well as it turns out, not too hard. However, there is a massive difference when it comes to even just a single work project. Time management is crucial. There is so much more to think about as a freelancer than simply ‘the task in hand’. You also have to constantly be aware of:

• Your accounts, which you should ALWAYS keep on top of.
• Blogging
• Marketing yourself
• Working new leads
• Networking
• Looking after your website / SEO
• Keeping on top of payments and bills

That’s a brief list of things that you need to be doing whilst working on projects. Not to mention you need to keep on top of family life and your social life. It’s so easy when you work for yourself to neglect these and put work first all the time, working long hours into the night, working your weekends etc. There’s nothing wrong with this from time to time, but as the old saying goes

‘You work to live, you don’t live to work’

Be Careful Who You Work For And Who You Work With

There is a tendency as freelancer, especially when starting out, to take all work available to you and to work with anyone to try and maximise the amount of work you can do, and the amount you can earn.

Whilst this sounds perfectly logical, and possibly the correct approach to take, it’s far from true. It’s important to pick your clients wisely. These are people you are quite likely to be working with for a long time, do you really want to work with someone who is unorganised and makes your life 10 times harder as a result? Do you want to have to be constantly waiting and chasing them for feedback, content, or even worse payments? Do some research first. Talk to them, get to know them and use your own ability as a judge of character to see if they will be someone you feel you would want to work with.

The same applies when looking for people to partner up with on projects. Just because someone approaches you to work on project with them don’t think

‘Gotta do this, it’s a job that’s fallen right in my lap’

As with potential clients, do your research into this person/agency and find out if they’re reputable. Check for testimonials, better yet drop a couple of their clients an email to see what they really thought of them. You don’t want to spend your time working hard on a project, only to be screwed over by them not paying, or something else along these lines. This has happened to me before; don’t let it happen to you.

This brings me on to my next point quite nicely.

Be Safe. Get Everything In Writing. Take Deposits

I wrote an article dedicated to this topic earlier this year ‘How Do You Secure Payment?’ but I thought I would revisit it again as it’s one of the most important aspects of working for yourself.

Even if you take the advice above and ‘screen’ clients and working partners before embarking on projects with them you still have to protect yourself. Always make sure you have everything in writing beforehand. Ensure you have a contract signed and TAKE A DEPOSIT.

At the end of the day you deserve to be paid for the time during the work as well as at the end of it, if you’re working on a 2 month project and only get paid at the end, you will find yourself possibly struggling financially during the project. This is why I would always advise taking a 50% deposit in advance. If a client is unwilling to do this then ask yourself

‘Are they committed to the project? If they won’t pay a deposit, will they pay the final balance?’

This isn’t to say they won’t pay, most will. But it protects you and ensures you will at least get some financial reward for the work you put in.

Again, I’ve been burned by not taking deposits and halfway through a project the client has decided they no longer want to continue, or the run out of money etc. This left me out of pocket for that time period. Although a deposit would still have left me without the final 50% I would still have earned something for my time and it’s a mistake I’ve never made twice.

Remember Your Worth

It’s hard when you’re setting up shop for the first time to know where you stand in the market. When people start out one of the first questions I see asked time and time again is ‘How much should I be charging?’

The answer is simple; whatever you feel comfortable charging for your time. You know how much time you’ve spent perfecting your craft, you know how good you are and also how much you need to earn to survive.

What you have to remember is you will never compete with the bottom of the barrel in this industry. There will always be someone who is going to undercut you. As a logo designer there’s no way I should be able to compete with companies and other freelancers offering logo design services for £50 and under, but I do. This is because I know I’m better than these people and I know I charge a fair price for what I offer, 9 times out of 10 clients will agree with this. The ones who don’t? Do you really want to work with them anyway?

Also remember you are not simply charging for the task of designing a logo or a website, you’re charging for your customer service as well, ensuring that your client is looked after in the best possible way, helping them and guiding them through the whole process. This isn’t something that they are going to get for £50, stress this point to them.

As a rough guide at what other people are charging check out this: http://cole007.net/blog/86/freelance-rates-survey-2011

The final thing I’ve learnt in my first year, and in some ways the most important is…

Have Fun and Enjoy It

I never wanted to work for an agency doing the whole 9-5 routine so working for myself was the only option. I’ve not regretted it one bit. Yes there have been times where I’ve been stressed out beyond belief, I’ve lost money here and there, but these are things that will become fewer and far between as I get more experience.

The main thing I will take from this first year is I’ve never spent 12 months in a job and enjoyed it as much as I have doing this. The lifestyle suits me perfectly, I can work when I want, and more importantly, on WHAT I want. For anyone thinking about taking up a career as a freelance designer I can’t stress enough that it is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying things you can do.

Having spent a year doing what I do, I don’t think I could ever not do it anymore and I would strongly suggest if you think you have what it takes, do it. You won’t regret it.

The post 12 Months On…What I’ve learned from my first year of being a freelance logo designer. appeared first on .

I’m sure if you ask the large majority of designers around they will tell you that a high percentage of businesses out there would resent paying a professional designer to revamp their existing brand image and website design, or even create ones for them as a start-up.

On the face of it you can understand why. Especially in the initial phases of starting a business money can often be tight and there is a whole host of things that require purchasing ranging from shop-fitting, stock, training, etc. none of this comes cheap. As a result the public image of a new company is often one of the last things considered, when in reality it should be one of the very first.

Why Do I Need This?

A lot of the time people do realise they may need some kind of logo design and I often receive enquiries asking for such things. However, many times it is undervalued and the purpose of a companies’ logo/brand image is not fully understood. A logo is not just there so you can have something to put on a shop sign or an advert in the local paper, it’s something which represents a business and instils trust with potential customers.

One thing you have to remember is that people, in general, are a fickle bunch. No matter how good your product or service may be, if your company looks unprofessional, through its website and brand image, then it will lose custom to those which do appear to be of a  higher class.

Below are a couple of logos for plumbers. Now remember, both might be equally good at their job. But which would you call first?

Why Is it So Important?

Let me try and put this into some kind of metaphor that everyone can relate to. Let’s say for example you’re building your new dream home. The first thing you would do is hire an architect and design your new, amazing dream home that will be the envy of everyone in the town. It’s going to be modern, dynamic, exciting and you’ve planned everything about the house down to the last picture on the living room wall. It’s all of the highest order, and this is no doubt how many business ideas begin.

The next thing on the agenda would be to hire a building contractor to make your dream come to life. With buildings you start from the ground up, and you build on solid foundations to make sure it will stand the test of time. The brand identity of business could be looked at in a similar light. It’s the foundations of your business, it’s what you build on top of and without a solid foundation things may begin to crumble, or never even get going to begin with.

You’ve Decided You Need A Website & Brand Identity – What Now?

In an ideal world what you would do now is pick up the phone and give me a call, or nip over to my contact page and drop me an email. However, if you decide not to do this, then please make sure you get in touch with a different professional designer.

All too often people think that because they have a brother, cousin, nephew, niece or friend who has Photoshop and designed a birthday party invitation once that they are more than capable to design them a new logo and website. Give this article by Canny Creative design agency a read before embarking on that journey.

If we use the same ‘dream house’ metaphor as before then things would be very different. Would you let your brother, cousin, nephew, niece or friend build your house for you, just because they once worked as a labourer for a construction company for a summer? No you wouldn’t as they don’t have the skill, training or experience to undertake such a task. So why would you let them loose with the crucial brand image of your business and livelihood?

The post Hiring a professional designer will earn you money appeared first on .

If I’m honest I did struggle when working on these to break out of my usual thinking methods and laying everything out in grids etc. But once I got going things seemed to fall into place and I’m happy with the way these have turned out.

Have a look and let me know what you think in the comments section!

The post Some Leaflets & Flyers appeared first on .

The last time I wrote about this kind of abuse was with the announcement that Cadbury had been awarded the ownership of ‘that purple’. This time however, the culprit is Apple.

So what exactly are they trying to do now? As you may be aware I’m not a fan of Apple, in fact I’d go as far as to say I despise them. They have already tried to get sole use of an apple as a logo…but this is Apple and that is simply not enough. So now they want ownership of a generic leaf shape too!

Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the trademarking of things…but this is just a simple shape. Below are just a few quick examples of other brands out there using this shape and there are countless more.

You will all have seen this shape used countless times yourself and you will continue to. So, is this right of Apple to try and trademark it? Or, is it just one step too far from Apple?

The post Apple try to trademark ‘leaf’ appeared first on .

Pentagrams latest project, headed up by the fantastic Paula Scher, is the rebranding of the worlds leading weight loss programme, Weight Watchers.

The old Weight Watchers logo was nothing spectacular, nor was it anything horrific or offensive to the eye. It did its job and had good brand recognition, through the longevity of the brand.

So there’s the old logo which we all know and have become familiar with over the years of seeing our loved ones and friends, maybe ourselves, try to shed the pounds come the new year.

And here is the new typographic logomark developed by Paula Scher:

Now a lot of you may be thinking the same as I did when I first saw this. ‘Oh here we go again. Another lazy ass clean minimal typograhpic logo.’ Not dissimilar from the eBay logo controversy. Well rest assured I do not think this lands in the same boat.

Although on first sight this may seem very uninspired and dull, even a little odd considering weight of the font, remember this is for a company that helps people lose weight.

You can’t really begin to appreciate until you see the logo in use. Only then do you really begin to fall in love with this new look.

When the colour variations are brought into the equations you can see how the gradient in the logo adds an element of softness to what would otherwise be a very strong, masculine wordmark. This also shows the versatility of the new logo used as either an icon or monogram.

As nice as all this is though it’s the new print material that really makes this brand stand out and make you think ‘Wow, that is gorgeous’.

If I were to receive this welcome pack through the post I wouldn’t be able to stop myself diving in and having a read through. Even though it’s a very simple, clean, and white design there’s something very appealing about the vividness of the colours that just makes you want to look further.

Then there’s the cherry on top of an already lovely piece of work. The new Weight Watchers books. Simply put these are stunning. Again, carrying on from the welcome pack the design on the whole is very white, open and clean which makes the colours look so vibrant and enticing. The pictures jump off of the page and make you want to pick them up. The use of the gradient from the logo reversed and overlayed over the images is a lovely way to tie everything together as a whole.

Overall I’m very impressed with this new identity and it really gives Weight Watchers a new image of being fun and fresh. Which is exactly what you want when trying to lose weight.

The post Fantastic Weight Watchers Re-Branding appeared first on .

So, what do you do when you feel someone has copied your brand, and in doing so is harming yours?

There are a few ways you can go about solving the issue when it arises, some of which are far better than others, and in this article I will give an example of a brilliant way of dealing with it, and one not so brilliant way.

Let’s start with the not so brilliant method and it comes from the richest company in the world. Apple.

We all know and love the Apple brand, even I as a hater of the company love their brand. It’s so clean and minimal and just utterly gorgeous in so many ways. It’s taken decades of evolution to become the essence of contemporary branding.

Everything about the brand is so precise and almost perfect. So you might be thinking it would be a great brand to copy…were it not for the fact that just about every person on the planet recognizes this brand then yeah, maybe. I do not condone plagiarism in any form but I think Apple may just be going a bit far now with ‘protecting their brand’.

The above logo design is from an online Polish grocery store ‘Fresh 24′. Apple are not happy with the logo they have chosen to use for their company and claim that it is too close to their own logo and is harming their brand image.

In all honesty I think the only thing harming Apple’s image is their own actions. Their attitude towards these small companies, who have no impact on Apple at all, is borderline bullying.

There is no way on Earth that this small Polish retailer is in anyway harming Apple’s brand. Were it not for them bringing this to the worlds attention by suing them then no one would ever even bat an eyelid at this logo ‘being similar’ to Apple’s.

Yes there are some similarities but lets look at this logically. What we have here is a circle and a leaf. I fail to see how Apple can sue over this. Maybe a 14 year old dog with really bad cataracts could mistake this for the Apple logo, but that’s about it. There are just too many differences for this to be even considered plagiarism and Apple are the ones harming their brand image here NOT Fresh24….well in my opinion anyway.

If Apple were really concerned that their brand was being harmed by this ‘plagiarism’ then maybe they should take a leaf out of Jack Daniels’ book.

Back in March, Patrick Wensink published his book ‘Broken Piano For President’. Within a week he received a cease and desist order from Jack Daniels claiming that the cover of his book was too similar to their own brand.

I don’t think that anyone can deny that there is more than a bit of a similarity here. It’s obvious that the cover for the book has taken it’s ‘inspiration’ from the Jack Daniels label.

Obviously there are grounds here for Jack Daniels to take action here, and I don’t think anyone would argue that they’re within their rights to do so. And that’s exactly what they did.

However, they did it in a fantastic way. Yes, they did ask that Mr. Wensink stop using the cover but they did it in such a polite and pleasant way that this had nothing but a positive effect on people’s perception of the Tennessee based whisky company.

I’m sure you will agree that when it comes to protecting your brand there are both good and bad ways of going about it. There are also times when you SHOULD pursue legal action and times when that in itself will be more detrimental to your brand.

So if you do ever come across something that resembles your brand, or your work, then just think twice about what is really the best course of action to take.

The post So Your Brand’s Been Copied? appeared first on .

Let’s go back in time for a little bit shall we? Back to a time when I was just a spotty music obsessed teenager, who, like millions of people across the globe spent an inordinate amount of time logged onto one website. MySpace. 

Launched in 2003 MySpace was the place to go to meet new people, and for a lot of people, find new music and publicise themselves to millions worldwide. This was a brand new concept and one that took off at an incredible speed. People were able to have their own ‘mini website’ all about them and customize it so it screamed every inch of their personality. They could upload pictures, write blogs and generally share their thoughts throughout the day.

As well as the user being able to set up their page to showcase themselves to the world, MySpace also allowed users to comment on each others pages. This was the advent of ‘social networking’ on this global scale, and people loved it.

So what went wrong? How did MySpace go from being the most visited website in the U.S. to the desolate wasteland of a website that it is today?

A lot of people say the demise all started when MySpace was bought by media guru Rupert Murdoch in 2005. However, MySpace continued to grow for a further 3 years after this but you have to bear in mind there really wasn’t any competition as Facebook was still in it’s infancy and being targeted only at selected colleges and universities.

When Facebook, and Twitter, hit the mainstream market they offered users something very different. Something that wasn’t geared around the music and entertainment scene, but instead set up purely for socialising. As a result they quickly turned users from MySpace and by 2008 MySpace had been overtaken by Facebook in the Alexa rankings.

The fact that MySpace couldn’t evolve meant they could only hold onto a niche market and subsequently meant that they were sold in 2011 $35 million, far less than the $12 billion valuation back in 2008.

So why are MySpace relaunching? Considering the global domination of Facebook and Twitter what can they hope to achieve by doing this?

Well why not have a look for yourself here?

It all looks nice and fresh, very metro UI based. I love the look of this new MySpace and I’m keen to give it go. I don’t for a second think that it’s going to trouble the likes of Facebook and it could well end up in the same situation as Google+, which is brilliant and in many ways better than Facebook, but it just can’t tempt people away.

I would like to see MySpace keep to its roots and try and push the music and media side to social networking. It could be a brilliant hub for creative types all over the world to socialise, share work, and find inspiration.

Judging by the interface shown in the video it would work really well, I just hope that’s how it goes!

So what about you guys. Will any of you be having a look at the new MySpace and what would you like to see being offered?

The post Let’s go back to the future! MySpace relaunch appeared first on .

So what does this mean exactly? Well, basically it means you can no longer use this colour. Personally I think the is absolutely ridiculous and Nestlé were in the right to challenge the ruling. No company should be able to own a colour, no matter how big they are, or how prominent that colour is to their brand identity.

It defies belief that this has been allowed. ALL colours in existence are part of the natural spectrum of light, they always have been, they always will be. Cadbury did not invent this colour, nor did they even discover it, they simply chose it (as every company does) to represent themselves.

There is obviously a need to be able to protect your brand image, after all a lot of hard work goes into it and you want it to be unique. This is why companies have logos, or slogans, aspects of a companies brand image that HAVE been created by someone.

Now, some people out there might be thinking ‘Why does this even matter? There are infinite colours out there!’ and yes, there are an infinite amount of colours out there, however there are not infinite colours available for use. Even though this is just one colour that you can no longer use, if everybody decided to go out and buy colours they would very quickly run out.

I think this is a big mistake and soon enough people will begin to abuse this if it isn’t governed properly. Hopefully this won’t happen, but the foundations have been laid…

The post Pantone 2685C: Property of Cadbury appeared first on .

Lincoln Uni started life ten years ago, separating from The University of Hull, and has since expanded drastically and constantly been improving year after year, both in facilities, courses, and teaching. This can be seen in the dramatic leap up the university rankings in the past few years. It appears obvious that the uni wants to continue pushing forward having recently had the new Siemans Engineering Hub added to the campus as well as plans for a large state of the art sports facility, these are all great new modern additions.

One thing I always found refreshing about the Lincoln uni brand identity was it was unlike the majority of universities, which are very oldy worldy in their design. There’s nothing wrong with this, most of the universities in question have a great history behind them and the emblems represent that. Lincoln, however, does not have hundreds of years of history and as a result I found their original emblem very fitting.

The Minerva logo was something very different compared to most university logos. The meaning behind the logo is great, Lincoln being a Roman settlement the connection to Roman mythology is easy to see and Minerva is definitely very appropriate (she was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving and crafts).

Alongside the representation of Minerva, the location of the university campus can be seen in the hair of Minerva. The waves in her hair directly mimic the waves and ripples that can be seen daily on the Brayford Pool, next to the campus.

What’s so great about this logo, compared to most university logos, is the simplicity. It is a flat single colour so can easily be changed for used in monochrome, it’s lack of detail makes it scalable for use in print and screen and the type can be moved to form a horizontal layout.

You might be wondering then ‘Why on Earth would the university see fit to change it?’. I also thought this. As it turns out, the reason is nothing to do with how the logo looks or functions, it instead comes down to trademark laws, and the University of Lincoln cannot copyright the symbol above.

This was a big issue for the university, apparently, and as result they now have this:

As you can see it’s very much the opposite of the old Minerva logo. It is now a very run of the mill, generic, forgettable university crest. Yes it may have some meaning behind all the MANY different elements to it but what good is that if people can’t remember it (or even see what these elements are when scaled to normal sizes). You can read up on some of the rational behind it here: Coat of Arms

I’ve made my opinion on this quite clear and in a recent poll carried out by The Lincolnite I am in the minority. What’s your thoughts on the new Lincoln Uni emblem? Is it a step in the right direction? Or was the Minerva logo more appropriate for the uni? Let me know in the comments below.

The post No More Minerva… appeared first on .