Logo design done for Brandclay, a logo, web, and UI designer from Ann Arbor Michigan. The logo has two hands forming a lowercase b in the negative space. The logo represents shaping and molding companies into distinct brands.
Credits: Sean Farrell & Jerron Ames
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by logooftheday. logooftheday said: Logo Of The Day: 2010-05-06 | Brand Clay http://bit.ly/cBhWhK [...]
So here’s another with hands forming the overall shape…. umm…. take care of the negative space dude…
Sorry for double posting but you should take care of the very long thumb too. I think you’re at half way of a really good one!
It throws me off that the hands are to scale.. but that’s probably just because I sat here for 5 minutes trying to do it.
I really like this logo. Love the use of burnt orange and looks excellent when combined with his site.
I love friends or alias that come to defend some works. I guess ill never give my brand to brandclay.
As a designer i can say those hands are out of proportion, not a good color choice, not nice to the eye, negative space is so wrong…
Hey Antrex,
I appreciate your opinion, but the logo isn’t meant to reflect realistic looking hands. Most logos that use hands aren’t conformed to the realistic look. Take St Johns, Pasadena Police Foundation, Riverside Health Care, Cigna, Optima, Golden Hands, etc… for example. All logos using the hand shapes but fingers, spacing, shapes are all skewed.
Also, I can’t respect anybody’s comments without a link to their portfolio/who you are.
I love anonymity online.
I like it, Sean, the thumb isn’t really a problem in my opinion. It allows the ‘b’ to be shown in the negative space and without that you wouldn’t really have the sense of moulding and shaping, which of course is what you do with logos!
I enjoy this logo. The first impression I got was of an artists hand on a wheel, then the “b” from the negative space in between, as though it were the clay being formed, which is fantastic. I can see how the “b” also looks a little phallic, but not so much when scaled down or reversed out.
I am wondering if the southwestern vibe is intentional. The lines for the fingers look very much (to me) like the New Mexico flag.
The logo is perfect bro. This isn’t a fine art piece, it’s a logo! It totally makes sense for the hands to be skewed a bit to get your desired B shape. As for the colour, perfect! Don’t change a thing.
@Sean, proportional doesn’t mean realistic, very different concepts. When you find proportion you can make that ugly logo look good, without making “real” hands.
I dont want you to respect my opinion, sorry if I was too harsh or disrespectful, just said what came to my mind.
Big fan of Sean and nearly all of the brandclay work, so I may be a little biased. And I’m not a designer, I’m just a general appreciator of good design…and this is good design.
Ariel, and Antrex -
Your opinions have little validity when your credibility is unknown…
As long as I know this logo the shape of those hands always made my eyes hurt! the fingers, the shape of the thumb of the lower hand. I really think it is executed badly… In addition to that, I think its a forced concept …
I have to really agree with Ariel and Antrex here – regardless of whether or not they are credible sources. I think there is a disconnect between the rigid, hard-edged shape of the hands and the overall concept of hands molding a brand. I would have imagined a more organic shape.
Also if you are going to list references to specific logos, it would be beneficial to add links so that we know what you are referring to. I looked up half of the logos you listed and none of the sites featured any logos with hands. And since most of them were in a health related industry, the symbology of hands is appropriate.
For BrandClay, I’m not sure if it’s an effective metaphor.
On the other hand, I do agree. The color choice is spot on.
Hey Daniel,
I was referencing logos on Logolounge and didn’t have time to link them. That was just on the first page.
I’m still trying to decide if its the direction I want to go. I seem to have a love hate relationship with it.. some days I love it, some days I can’t stand it.
We’ll see what happens in the future.
Design is art and with art comes creativity. For all those itching to see realistic hands, go find a photograph. I also challenge any of you to find one well done icon, not illustration but icon that is correct in all aspects to the real thing, whether it be an animal, human, tree, structure, vehicle or any item for that matter. Not only would it not be considered an icon but it would also be completely uninteresting and unoriginal.
Whether or not design is an art is a discussion that could go on forever, so we won’t even debate that here.
Nobody here is debating whether or not they want to see a realistic representation of a set of hands. What we want to see is a set of hands that appear more natural, less awkwardly distorted, makes a better use of negative space, or one that better represents the goals of the design brief.
That would ultimately be a more interesting and original design.
The problem is not that the hands dont look realisitic, it is the lack of proportion and construction.
besides those major problems, the overall idea is just not very creative … hands forming something. Great… very unique, they could form everything if you force them to do so. Check out SIAH DESIGN. THAT’S an good example of how a hand can work in an logo… but in this case it looks just wrong and very poorly executed.