How many times you see a random logo somewhere and think to yourself you can easily do it better in a half an hour? "Well knock yourself out, Mister Knowitall", once answered somebody in my head.
The rules
Time trial —30 minutes to do the hard work, 5 more to finalize. No cheating. Keep it real — work as if there is a real client asking for all this. No backsies — once the timer has started, the result has to be published.
The dude
Mr. Knowitall is a side project of Filippo Gander. Web and graphic distiller from the hearth of the Swiss Westlands.
I'm mostly working on project funded by Europe. Their logo system bugs me, especially the European Commission.
Mine are terrible as well. I wanted to build a consistent logo system out of the triangles that form each European start, but definitely needed more time on this one.
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July 2019 – Small Business
One of my favourite small business in town. The logo though, not one of my favourite.
Have I had more time, a pattern with the two elements of the A – for wrapping paper, bags, and other stuff – would have been in order.
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June 2019 – Charity
A guy walked in at our office asking if he could hang poster for this charity. I should have said "yes, but please let me clean up this mess a bit".
This charity collect canned food in boxes and give the boxes to the less fortunate, hence my new logo. Cheesy? Maybe, but I do like me some Frankfurter!
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May 2019 – Research Institute
Seing this logo made me reminisce of the good old days when using the live trace mode seemed like a legit way of having everything vector.
There was for sure a easier way out, but my timer beeped up and I have to live with what I made.
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March 2019 – Industrial services
If you abide by the Geneva convention, you don't use Helvetica rounded.
In the spirit of the rules I made, I kept the L-as-a-framing-device thing, the only good thing about the current logo.
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Feb 2019 – Travel company
I wanted to show that even bad type choices can be lifted up with a proper typesetting. Turns out I'm not as good as I thought.
Shifting to Hobeaux saved my face a bit, but I was close to disaster.
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Jan 2019 – Distillery
Excellent gin, weird lettering.
I didn't have neither time nor skills do draw the lettering from scratch, so I let awesome Melany Lane do the heavy lifting.
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Dec 2018 – Hotel
Rooms are pretty overpriced, based solely on the logo.
Rooms still overpriced after my makeover though.
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Nov 2018 – Restaurant
From the weird "cd" ligature to the building-shaped C... it's a no go.
More literal interpretation of a chalet that might disappoint visitors seing that the building is everything but a chalet.
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Oct 2018 – Logistic Company
DPD has probably the cheapest logo in the delivery companies game.
Maybe to childish, but I love my delivery P-erson. A lot.
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Sep 2018 – Insulation company
Pretty terrible logo, I'm sure it's not waterproof.
Mine can take a monsoon and still be dry though.
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Aug 2018 – Small town
Town seals are a mine of gold in term of bad graphic design choices.
In case of doubt, always go with a two-coloras approach.
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July 2018 – Small Business
Probably not even a legit company, but I had nothing better to do.
Carpetry-inspired logo: check. Flared serif wordmark: check. We built ourselves a good logo people!
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Jun 2018 – Electrician
Small town's bulletin boards are hell for a graphic designer.
Probably already done, still happy with the result.
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May 2018 – Public transportation
The logo that inspired me to start this project. In all its glory.
MBC stands for Bière, Morges and Cossonay. Three small town that form a triangle on a map.
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April 2018 – Garage
Cheesy typography, cars out of swooshes,... What's not to (dis)like?
Kept the cheesiness in my version...
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March 2018 – Insulation Company
Everything needs a starting point. Here's mine.
The rules I set myself are clearing in the way of good graphic design.