With 2009 having just arrived, I am pleased to announce an exciting new change within my own graphic design business. Our company, operating as Gough Graphics since 1999, has been renamed Sproutreach. The name change comes with a few other changes, including a re-designed website.

After almost a year of careful thought and much discussion on the subject, we’ve implemented the change for a number of important reasons. Perhaps the most important of these reasons is a desire for our company name to more accurately represent our core mission – to help socially and environmentally responsible organizations grow and connect with their audiences..

We’re very excited about this news, but we’d love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment below with your thoughts, or as always, feel free to email us directly with your feedback.

- Rob

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already since I wrote about their last report (Logo design trends for 2007), but LogoLounge has again released their thought-provoking, mid-year report on trends in logo design. The report, written by Bill Gardner and published in the April issue of GD USA magazine, can be viewed in its entirety at gdusa.com.

The title, LogoLounge.com THE 2008 REPORT: MORE CLEAN and Less Green, reveals at least two of the “prevailing winds” identified at the start of this year’s report, working to shape the 15 trends identified within. “We saw less emphasis on sustainability or general “greenness” in logo design. There’s plenty of natural imagery but being “green” doesn’t seem all that unique anymore.”, Gardner writes. He also observes, “There’s an overall move toward cleanliness — in type, in line, in color — as if ideas are getting more and more succinct. It may be an indication of the degree of seriousness with which branding is now regarded.” Also speaking to the rise in simplicity within today’s designs, Gardner writes, “Less is more common: less calligraphy, less Photoshop tricks, less artificial highlights.”

Could these “winds” represent a societal backlash against the current trendiness of touting one’s “greenness”? Are we pushing back or pushing forward? Or, are we just getting past green? Similarly, could the desire for simplicity in design be an expression of our desire for simplicity in other parts of our complicated world? Or, are designers not an accurate mirror of the societies in which they work, making these question ill-conceived?

Regardless of the answers to the questions I’ve posed above, or of any outside influences that might be driving a move toward simplicity and away from the oft-overused software-generated effects, I, for one, am pleased to see it.

Deep questions aside for the moment, let’s get back to the matter at hand. Gardner identifies 15 trends within his report. He gives each of these trends a brief moniker, with some requiring a bit more explanation than others. For these explanations, the context, and the all-important visual examples of logos within each trend, I recommend reading the full report. Nevertheless, here they are in nitty-gritty list form:

1. Supernova
2. Fine Line
3. FoldOver
4. Global Expansion
5. Loops
6. Jawbreakers
7. Strobe
8. Nimbus
9. Stitch
10. Colorblind
11. Amoeba
12. Facets
13. Doodles
14. Flourish
15. Fibrous

As a follow-up to my most recent post on the symbolism of shamrocks, I’ve assembled a collection of logos that incorporate the shamrock* in some way (with the Boston Celtics first, of course). While this list is just a small sampling of the countless logos with shamrocks, the designs shown here represent a diverse set of businesses, services, groups, and events, and many display remarkable creativity. If you’d like a closer look, you can download a PDF file (8.5″ x 11″, 460kb) of the collection. Enjoy!

*This collection focuses on the 3-leafed shamrock, and does not include any of the many logos that contain the 4-leafed clover.

As the saying goes, May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

Sláinte,

Rob