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The Art of the Game Logo
Making game logos is an art form, and Hamagami/Carroll is behind many of the most recognizable ones on the shelf today. Gamasutra takes a look at what it takes to craft iconic imagery, talking to company co-founder Justin Carroll. From the article: "Typically, we're brought in fairly early in the process, as soon as they start building marketing plans, somewhere about halfway through, we're brought in and we start working on the packaging. Depending on the company we're working with, we're also working on the in-store display, we're working on sell sheets, materials for E3, and different parts of the brand identity."
With the number of sequels being put out these days, how much new work can these guys really get anymore?
You can't make me believe that they would get paid the same for branding and packaging on a new title versus putting a "2" and a sub-title on a pre-existing logo.
x = x + ++x;
Not to mention that logos have so many unwritten rules to follow: have to look good big and small, have to print in B&W well, have to be easily recognized, cannot offend a foreign culture, etc...
To tell you the truth, I'm considering just using a damn circle. :-p
- I voted for Nintendo and against Bush
I would argue that a good identity doesn't stand out like a bad one does. A good logo, one thats is well-designed and appropriate for its application just feels right. It looks natural within it's environment. The only people who will really appreciate it are designers.
:-o
A poorly designed logo, on the other hand, stands out like a sore thumb. At best, it is completely inappropriate for its application, at worst, it looks like an atrocity. There are countless examples of awful logos from the dot-com era, when everyone and their grandmother had those stupid swoops in their logos.
That said I don't really consider game titles logos. If you really want to stretch the concept of what is a logo, they qualify, but I don't see them as logos any more than the title of a comic book is a logo. Certainly there are logotypes that contain no graphical element, like Sony or Microsoft, to point out some of the more obvious examples. However, I see these simple as titles, done in an ornate style that reflects the theme of the game.
This company did a good job of recapturing the theme of the previous games from these respective developers. Although, it's something that any sensible design company would have done. I don't think game packaging is particularly creative. Everything I've seen follows the same basic template while trying to be as flash as possible. However, in the sea of crap I see on the shelves nothing stands out. I have a hard time finding anything because all the game art melds together in one giant blur of color. It's even worse with console games considering that they're forced to stuff additional elements on the front of their packages. It also doesn't help that retailers don't bother to keep anything neat and organized.
I think packaging for applications tend to be a lot more creative than game packaging, if you discount the illustrations which don't necessarily qualify as an integral part of the design since the designers are just using art provided by the client. In most commercial applications, however, the designers are responsible for producing the artwork and photography.
On another note, I notice that guy is working 14 hour days. But thats the design world for you; designers are some of the most over-worked, under-appreciated people you'll ever meet in the corporate world. There's no reason why designers are given such ridiculous deadlines, but with desktop publishing you've got your average idiot thinking they understand design. I've dealt with people that think it takes 15 minutes to lay out a complicated design because they know how to paste text into word and insert a photograph. And then they go and second guess everything I design even though they wouldn't know good design if it punched them in the face. The worst is when someone in sales tries to sound like a designer. Even worse is when you've got a boss who's 20 years out of date trying to cram his design style down your throat.
If only people were this demanding with auto mechanics, construction workers and politicians the world would be a much better place. I got carried away with my rant there...