Make the Logo Smaller

Anyone that’s a creative in the graphics/advertising/design field for any length of time has probably run into the request by SOMEONE to “make the logo bigger.” That request, along with “make better use of the white space,” has caused many designers to blurt out endless obscenities or fall to the floor writhing in agony. The pain is akin to being forced to use Comic Sans for every layout – forever. It’s not that we creatives want to downsize a company’s logo to a nano speck on the page or have all the copy positioned in one tiny corner in 2pt. Helvetica for the hell of it. It’s that we used our creative and aesthetic judgement to make a well balanced clean design that communicates well, only to have it junked-up, messed-up, cluttered, off-balance, noisy, sucky, effed up… you get the idea. “Bigger” or “more marketing content” usually isn’t better.

A few years ago, a video popped up on YouTube that illustrates the point well. It’s a spoof about what would happen if Microsoft designed the packaging for the Apple iPod. Who knows, maybe someday the popular design trend will be to “make the logo smaller”… nah, that’ll never happen… will it?