Interesting. I’d suggest that they drop that factory completely out of their logo. The clean lines of the factory clash with the “dirty typewriter” font. Also, the factory looks too much like Mini Pics Art Jam artwork that was cliched 15 years ago.
What the heck is kerning?
Kerning. In short, it is the spacing between letters in proportional fonts. Although most modern word processing and graphics programs do a decent job of kerning automatically, when one is integrating text with logos (or other graphic elements) special attention needs to be paid to how the letterforms work with the graphics, and that often entails custom kerning or leading (i.e., the vertical spacing of lines).
Excellent logo design also often involves subtly modifying elements of the letterforms themselves. The famous hidden arrow in the Fedex logo is a great example of both this and kerning. Notice that the characters are actually touching each other. This is generally not done in ordinary typography for body text or headlines, and is one of the key elements to transforming these five letters into a logo. (Personally, I think that “real” logos are entirely graphic, with no letters or words, but that’s another discussion.)
The other thing is that the font, although it looks like an ordinary Helvetica/Arial-style sans serif, is in fact a customized combination of Univers and Futura created by designer Lindon Leader. He had to alter the lower-case letters so they were the same height as the tops of the crossbars of the capital F and E.
Also, the X was modified to be perfectly symmetrical. Most people don’t realize it, but in many fonts, the X is not two perfectly straight strokes, each with parallel sides. Often the upper and lower parts of each diagonal don’t line up exactly above and below the cross point. But because of a sort of optical illusion, it appears that they do. In the case of the FedEx logo, it was only with this change that the white space between the E and the x became a symmetrical arrow.
So a lot of work, artistry, and subtlety went into making what appears to be a “simple” logo that has become one of the most successful and well-known logos in the world.
It could just be me, but I got a virus warning after clicking on this link.
Serious malware issues at that link.
Ridiculously uninformed thing to write. My BFA and 15 years of experience in the creative industry are a pretty sure sign that I can design an effective logo better than a layman. I’d advise anyone— even if they aren’t going to use my services—to use a professional. Graphic design, especially something as tricky as logos and corporate identities, is best handled by artists, not just computer jockeys with a handful of cool programs. You wouldn’t let some clown with a wrench and a screwdriver repair your Mercedes, would you?
It’s not a matter of having ‘no artistic taste’; it’s a matter of having a very specific type of artistic taste, knowledge, and training. Sure, anyone can design a logo; that’s not to say it will be a good logo.
Sorry about that guys, I run Firefox and avast! and never got a peep out of it.