
Building a search engine for logos - luu
http://alex-charlton.com/posts/Building_a_search_engine_for_logos/
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michaelpinto
As someone who has worked in branding it's pretty clear that the author isn't
a domain expert. For example for one brand there can be multiple versions of
the same logo that are slightly different.

So a good example would be the AT&T death star logo. First there are several
versions of the logo that have been modified over the years. Then even if you
look at one release (say when the death star was first introduced) the color
version will be different than the black-and-white version (and sometimes
there is a grayscale version).

There may be different versions of the logo done for different sizes, so the
logo that goes on a truck is not the same logo that goes on a business card.
There may also be different layouts for the logo playing with the placement of
the symbol and the logotype.

Another problem in the digital age is the ability of non-designers to muck up
a logo. I've seen people distort the proportions of the logo because they
don't use the shift key when resizing. And of course sometimes non-designers
even feel "creative" and start to play with a logo.

Also not all logos are what you'd call "cookie cutter logos" some are full
color illustrations (think Quaker Oats, Mister Clean or Aunt Jemima).

Lastly one trend I've noticed from the digital era is that thanks to sites
like 99designs there are quite a few people who think that they have an
original logo, but it's in fact been copied from an award annual or recycled
by the "designer".

So the task isn't as black and white as some people believe...

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TazeTSchnitzel
The fact so many applications do non-proportional scaling by default is a
problem. You shouldn't need to press shift, that should be the default
behaviour when dragging the corners.

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mattway
[http://trademark.vision](http://trademark.vision) \- a local startup doing a
similar thing.

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aliakhtar
Isn't this already solved via the 'find similar images' feature of google
images?

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dopeboy
Given the nature of the post and its emphasis of technical details over
business ones, I think the motivation here was to learn new technologies and
perform a task (novel or not) with them.

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davidgerard
Don't trademark filings require a textual description anyway?

