Well, it’s Friday night (out here). Time to party. And since Jon of the beautiful logo always seems to be in the midst, seems fitting, yes? It also seems fitting to finally feature Hicksdesign Journal. (Sigh) Yeah, it’s yet another in DWB’s blogroll without (but I’m working on it).
For starters, let’s scroll right down to the bottom. To the footer. Down to where it says ‘You can also email Jon, but he may take a while to reply’. And I did (Hi Jon!) Only, I’m impatient with the possibilities and all. I’m ready for the party of Friday night NOW. While I’m writing this. On Friday morning.
In the footer is also where we find a short blurb about the who of Hicksdesign …
Hicksdesign is the creative partnership of Jon & Leigh Hicks, founded in 2002, after working with charities, government bodies and publishers. We build sites to web standards, as well as doing branding development, illustration and print design. If that’s too short, you can read more about us.
I don’t know much about Leigh (waving!) I remember when Leigh left her safe position to team up with Jon, but that’s about it.
Question: Where does she find the time to raise two kids and a Jon, run a household, work, AND have a hicksmade?
Then the piece is rolled, this can take up to 1000 rolls, depending on how well the fibres felt.
I find bread making taxes my wrists, so thinking of 1000 rolls, I’m impressed.
And although I’d love to see more of Leigh, it’s Jon I know more (of). Ever since I became interested in blogs, it was always Jon laughing and having a time around the Internet.
Hey, (while I’m at it) you too can laugh and have a great time with Jon and John at The Rissington Podcast ( featured on DWB here).
You do remember John of joshuaink. Right? With the tagline, ‘more love than a bus load of hippies’? Well, I’ll give you one guess where that bus ended up. Right.
Oh dear. Episode Eleven already? Now I know what we’re doing this Friday night. That’s right. American Idol stopped chewing on my evenings (it wasn’t me, honest) so I can finally get a night life. Oh! Oh! And I get to listen to Jon and John diss Paul. Too nice.
I realise I’m flaffing around, but let’s stay down on the footer and see what’s up. Let’s see what Jon and Leigh deem important enough to grace their place of Love.
>> The Omni Group Now this looks interesting. Because yes, I am a Mac fan. I’m also having browser problems (FF won’t refresh) so this is a good time to bring it on. But WAIT. The Omni Group is not just for browsers (ok, I’m slow. I write this stuff in the am before my caffeine kicks in, ok?) And WAIT, OmniWeb 5 is not free. But at that price, it’s as close to being free as can be.
>> Panic - Coda Ohhhhh, drool factor. I haven’t been crazy-active looking for a DreamWeaver replacement, but I am in the market so this just might be it (downloading now). Again, it’s a Mac product. And again, the price is great at US$79 (compared to DreamWeaver at around US$400).
>> Veer: Flont ‘test thousands of fonts online’. Slick. And one to remember when featuring typographers.
>> The Forgiveness Project (a Hicksdesign project) ‘The Forgiveness Project encourages and empowers people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge’. A sweet concept, and one I’ll have to think about. In my way of thinking, there’s no point in gut-wrenching, time-wasting revenge. Life is too darn short and way too sweet to waste. And WAY too funny, even.
Getting back to the guts of the Journal, seems we get two choices for posts. Latest, where he shows five full posts. And Archives, by date. Clicking on Journal or Latest takes you back to the Journal homepage, but let’s poke around Archives.
2008 >> 2007 >> 2006 >> Explaining the new logo (Jon groans)
Now, I distinctly remember when Jon announced his new logo. Almost like it was yesterday actually. I remember the kerfluffle going around, and I vaguely remember Jon’s explanation at the time.
Dosh Dosh recently went through similar with his site and logo redesign. I didn’t read the comments Jon received, but from what he’s saying they seem equally painful.
So, what is it with communities and perceived ownership? Because that’s sort of what it boils down to. Jon’s public audience laid it on rather heavy, as did Maki’s (owner of Dosh Dosh). While David Airey’s community (logo designer for Dosh Dosh) were more open to understanding the design brief and the reasons for the submitted designs (ahhh hummm, although they did put forward ideas of their own).
And the reason I’m bringing this up after all these years? It’s my delayed and personal response to Jon’s logo. While I wasn’t too sure before (while it was all happening), I am now. I have Jon and his logo clearly connected in my mind with Jon of the beautiful logo.
And really, have you seen anything of the likes? I haven’t. And that’s exactly what Jon set out to do. And he did. And that, I like.
Now, how about you?
Technorati Tags: blogs, design, Dosh Dosh, logo, logos, podcast, print
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May 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I also find Jon’s logo memorable, and it’s the first thing I remember each time I stumble upon the Hicks Design website (that’s not very often, however, which highlights the fact of memorability).
I hope Friday’s partying is fun!
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Yes, it’s quite the logo. And I love how he’s incorporated parts of it into his website.
(I was hoping Maki would do the same with yours).
Friday is going fine. Relaxing. Eating a bit of dinner. Drinking wine … already started on a wee Alka-Seltzer.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
The logo is what reminds me, when I go there, that I’ve been there before. When I look at it. I think, “Ooh! Cool, but it’s not very scalable and there’s a few different colours and I prefer something simpler”, but then I look around and it has monochrome and scalable versions all around the website. It’s a cool logo.
The Forgiveness Project sounds excellent.
kristarellas last blog post..Tumblr, tweets and twizzles (for shizzle)
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
One part I like is the feeling of direction.
From Jon, ‘Apart from achieving all my goals, I think the logo also suggests constant movement, which wasn’t intended, but I like that fact that it does. The shape is also pointing/moving/leaning forwards, which suggests direction.’
And with that bus to boot, it ties it all in together. Movement.
(I’d like to know the real story of the bus as I just threw my idea out there for fun)
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I have the same reaction as Kristarella; the logo is what reminds me I’ve been there before.
Funny that you mention the community’s ownership of the logo. I can’t remember where, but I recently read something on that. Why all of a sudden do people feel they have the right to comment on a company’s logo? Did they put money up for it? Did they sit for hours and hours on end with the designer and executives deciding on how the logo would fit into the new direction of the company? Uh, no. And most of them don’t even know what goes into a good logo, so they have no grounds to comment, except personal opinion. I do have a personal reaction (for instance I definitely do not like the 2012 Olympic logo, the new Wacom logo or the new Animal Planet logo), but I also look at it from a design perspective–What is the logo accomplishing? How is carried through other material? And of course the whole bit about memorable, scalable, versatile, etc.
LaurenMarie - Creative Curios last blog post..The Creative Process: Details, Details, Details
May 24th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Yeah a logo is a difficult thing to make. It should not be too creative, or over the top.
It should be attractive, be nice and most important: be funcional.
This logo had an instant association with achieve your
goal to me. I like the color combination.
Firas last blog post..Haar Knippen Kan Je Zelf
May 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Lauren,
The 2012 Olympic logo is an odd logo. When it first came out, everyone hated it. Now, after they’ve seen it around in the various usages, opinions are changing. Out here, I don’t see it as much at all so I’m still iffy about it.
And do you remember BP’s logo? I still can’t stand that thing but that’s because (in part) the message it was created to give - being green - did not ring true to me.
Fira,
Agreed. It’s functional, noticeable, and a plus, it’s fun (I’ve always seen Jon as fun). Oh, add rare as it’s original.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Yes, I’ve seen the BP logo (it’s on all our gas stations over here). I don’t mind it; it’s a little frilly for an oil company though.
LaurenMarie - Creative Curios last blog post..The Creative Process: Details, Details, Details
May 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Every time I’m in the UK I grrrrrrr at that logo as I drive by.
And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with them taking over an oil company I once worked for (or the way they did it).
To me, it’s just so very wrong on all sides.
Design: It’s like someone handed their kids one of those pen sets (you know, the kind that create repeat twirls) and said ‘go at it’, then slapped on a hefty price for their client - BP. It just has no soul.
Green Marketing: Do you buy into those commercials where you are shown a fluffy world, and ‘did you know this person works for an oil company?’ is tagged on at the end?
Are you sitting there nodding your head and saying, ‘what a nice oil company you are’ or are you saying ‘riiiiiight’ …?
Some logos do grow on me. Some don’t. As you can see, BP is a BIG don’t for me. Grrrrrrrrrr
:-D
May 24th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Yes! The spirographs!!! I used to play with those! You’re so right, though. That logo is definitely reminiscent of the spirograph designs. It doesn’t bug me quite that much, I’m rather ambivalent, really. I don’t think it represents much
P.S. I’m having to re-enter my info in the name, mail, website boxes every time I come leave a comment. Is it supposed to do that or is it just me?
LaurenMarie - Creative Curios last blog post..The Creative Process: Details, Details, Details
May 24th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Yeah, the spirographs! I couldn’t remember what they were called.
“having to re-enter my info” … That is not how it’s supposed to be at all. It started happening after the upgrade and redesign. I’ve googled but so far have not figured it out.
What I was thinking of doing is pasting in code from another blog and see if that’ll work.
It’s soooo frustrating, so apologies.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:20 am
The “sticky” info is controlled by cookies. Here you go! Scroll to the bottom. Try searching around for those things. Maybe that’ll get you on the right track.
LaurenMarie - Creative Curios last blog post..The Creative Process: Details, Details, Details
May 25th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Lauren, I could just reach out and HUG you! :-)
Thank you very much for sharing that page. I searched all around and found several people having the same problem, but no one gave any answers.
No off to see if I can get this frustrating problem fixed …
cats last blog post..Hicksdesign Journal: print and new fangled media
May 25th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Yay! Glad I could help. I know that page didn’t say how to fix it, but now you know what it’s called, it will hopefully help you search for the right things now. Good luck!
LaurenMarie - Creative Curios last blog post..The Creative Process: Details, Details, Details
May 25th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Well, even a little way to getting there is movement, so ta :-)
May 26th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Testing …
May 26th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Testing on Safari …
May 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Sigh … testing …