There are a lot of brand identity design books out there, but I’m still to see a book which is more handy than Logo Design Love written by David Airey. Forgive me if I sound bias, but David is not only a very talented designer but also an amazing blogger.
David share his personal experiences working with various clients and describe his own working process in detail, from brainstorming to the development of initial sketches and the final result. If you are looking for some sort of guideline on how to deal with an identity design project, don’t look any further, this book will help you through and through.
One of the most curious parts of the book is right in the first chapter where David propose and execute an experiment to illustrate how much branding is part of our lives. Right after waking up, he starts to photograph logos on the products he interact with and end up with 33 logos in 33 minutes. I could not put better than David: —”There’s no escape!”.
I’m constantly preaching about the power of iconic design, and as one would suspect, David write an entire chapter on the subject, explaining in a multiplicity of ways the benefits of a simple iconic brand. I believe that any entrepreneur looking to start a business should think about this even before writing their business plans, that would help to identify their own unique selling points, and perhaps save money down the road.
Can you see a hidden arrow in the FedEx logo? I just love this identity.
David have not only been sharing his experience on the topic of brand identity design on own his personal blog since 2006, but in many occasions also writing about somewhat related topics showing a lot of personality, here’s some of my favourites:
- Want versus need
- Ethics in design (and who you won’t work with)
- Too Many Ideas
- You don’t have to be as good as everyone else
- Aesop on kindness
- You are the map maker
- We all need to start somewhere
Even though I have only exchange a few emails with David, in opposition to have a long philosophical chat about life, I believe we share a lot in common when considering his choices on what topics to write about. Subscribe to his blog, you’ll not regret it.
Logo Design Love is a book written with designers in mind. If like me, you specialise in the creation of brands, this book will give you an amazing insight in the work of one the best in our industry. On the other hand, if designing brands is the sort of project you’re constantly trying to avoid, but have to take on every now and then, it will guide you to build up the necessary skills and help you to gain confidence in taking on such projects.
Either way, I’m sure you’ll love reading Logo Design Love.