
Logo design trends of 2018 - zwieback
https://www.logolounge.com/articles/2018-logo-trends
======
dang
We changed the URL from [https://qz.com/1292403/the-dark-age-of-soulless-sans-
serif-l...](https://qz.com/1292403/the-dark-age-of-soulless-sans-serif-logos-
is-coming-to-an-end/), which points to this.

Some comments below might make less sense outside the context of the qz.com
article's polemic. But it's more substantive (not to mention fairer) to link
to the original source.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
pdkl95
> The traditional excuse for stripping away ornament has been about improving
> legibility, especially for small screens. This is a fallacy

No, serifs really do have legibility issues, but not for small _screens_ ;
they cause problems at (very) small font sizes where glyphs are only a handful
of pixels tall.

> You can render a serif letter in seven pixels

Yes, but that's pushing it and the legibility will depend on the quality of
the font hinting, how the font rasterizer antialiases, and the way subpixels
are utilized[1]. Legibility will even depend on the display technology: low
resolution fonts on a CRT can be a lot harder to read compared to an LCD. (a
shadow mask means phosphors do _not_ align 1-to-1 with pixels[2])

Of course, legibility is in the eye of the beholder, and many people find
serifed fonts to be easier to read, while others prefer sans-serif, and some
people just don't care. For some people, anything smaller or more complicated
than high-contrast 96pt simple sans-serif is unreadable.

> drops the serifs from its logo

A logo, however, is probably (much?) larger than the small font sizes where
serifs often have legibility issues.

[1]
[http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/index.h...](http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/index.html)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-
gulnQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6tw-gulnQ)

~~~
jozzas
Who is using CRTs? Mobiles have incredible pixel density, high-pixel-density
displays and TVs are becoming the norm, etc. Is this even an issue? Who only
has 7 pixels for their text?

~~~
pdkl95
Serifs on low resolution fonts didn't gain legibility when LCD market share
became dominant.

> Is this even an issue?

Yes, to some people on some devices. While less common than it was a decade
ago, old hardware exists[1], poor quality displays exist, and broken hardware
exists[2]. However,

> Who only has 7 pixels for their text?

Everybody that used an Apple II, Atari 400/800, Commodore 64? Most 8-bit
computers in the era before framebuffers were common used low-resolution
hardware fonts[3].

[1] The last time I bought _any_ kind of computer hardware was ~2011; my CPU
and LCD monitor are vintage 2008. Wile my LCD displays small fonts very
clearly,

[2] I know multiple people that have been stuck using a broken LCD because
they cannot afford to replace their old (PowerPC) macbook.

[3] [https://damieng.com/blog/2011/02/20/typography-in-8-bits-
sys...](https://damieng.com/blog/2011/02/20/typography-in-8-bits-system-fonts)

~~~
brazzledazzle
At some point you have to be okay with leaving people behind in some way or
another. Where you draw that line is going to depend on your goals, market,
etc. but if you want progress in design and/or technology you have to draw the
line somewhere.

I hope I’m not coming off as brusque with that attitude. I just think it’s
practical. I’m intimately acquainted with using older hardware. I was lucky to
have a computer and an internet connection at all as a child but I won’t
pretend that it wasn’t a punch in the gut every time a website would take ages
to load, crawl when it did load or a game wouldn’t run at all. It hurt when
the line was drawn at broadband or faster CPUs/GPUs but I’m glad they didn’t
wait for me to catch up.

There’s a tug between creators and consumers but the drive toward new
technology is a good thing. Eventually it becomes more affordable or can be
had for reasonable prices second hand.

That said, I don’t think that precludes reasonable accommodation. If your
website isn’t an application it should be readable without JavaScript even if
it’s ugly, screen readers should work, users should be able to adjust their
font size even if it’s ugly, etc.

------
kbutler
This is from one section of the logo trends article
([https://www.logolounge.com/articles/2018-logo-
trends](https://www.logolounge.com/articles/2018-logo-trends)). If you look
through the pictures of logos in the full article, all but a very few use sans
serif fonts.

A more accurate title may be, "A few new logos use serif fonts".

------
mhink
> Our infatuation with the creation of implied heritage really deserves
> greater attention than these two paragraphs allow. The new culture of small
> shoppe business and personal attention are fiercely fighting the truly
> established bluebloods for the same share of consumer attention. Heritage
> that's only inches deep is winning through smart design, even when the
> identity reads ESTB 2018.

I find this really interesting. Although it might just be a design fad in some
cases, it does make me smile a bit to see an "Est. 20xx", because it reads as
a desire that the brand (often a physical store) intends to stick around long
enough for that declaration to mean something.

------
roryisok
Got excited when I thought this read "Lego design trends of 2018"

------
calebm
It seems that minimalism is finally on the way out.

~~~
excalibur
Good riddance. Can somebody please inform Taco Bell before they impose their
new blinding-white color scheme on any more stores?

------
squozzer
I'll wait until Gothic becomes a thing again.

~~~
catach
Blackletter or bust.

~~~
AndrewStephens
ℑ 𝔞𝔤𝔯𝔢𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔭𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔢𝔩𝔶. 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔨𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔦𝔰 𝔠𝔢𝔯𝔱𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔩𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔴𝔞𝔶 𝔱𝔬 𝔤𝔬 𝔱𝔬 𝔤𝔢𝔱 𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔠𝔢𝔡.

𝔓𝔩𝔲𝔰 𝔦𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔟𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔟𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔑𝔞𝔷𝔦𝔰. 𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔡𝔬𝔫’𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔫𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔩𝔬𝔤𝔬 𝔦𝔫 𝔞 𝔣𝔬𝔫𝔱 𝔰𝔲𝔭𝔭𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔢𝔡
𝔟𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔑𝔞𝔷𝔦𝔰, 𝔡𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲?

~~~
brailsafe
How did you even?

~~~
thanatosmin
Hidden in the vast expanse of unicode.

[https://sheep.horse/2012/5/blackletter_-
_unicode_abuse.html](https://sheep.horse/2012/5/blackletter_-
_unicode_abuse.html)

------
tomc1985
All I know is that I am sick of everything looking like everything else.
Everyone line up to contribute more derivative crap to the pile!

~~~
dankohn1
Though tedious, I've enjoyed the process of collecting high-res SVG logos for
all projects and products in the cloud native space. There's a lot of variety!

[https://landscape.cncf.io/grouping=no](https://landscape.cncf.io/grouping=no)

~~~
archagon
Neat! It's fun looking through these and seeing which ones catch your eye. I
think the Redis logo might be my favorite.

------
hn0
Not sure why sans-serif minimalism should be considered soulless. I don't
think I'll ever tire of solid no-nonsense Swiss design, but variety is the
spice of life for sure.

~~~
brailsafe
I think what happens in Switzerland is that grid-design and sans-serif
minimalism is applied with good taste all over the place. It stands out when
something is poorly done. In North America, the variety of other styles are
applied with no taste or consistency, including those styles taken from the
swiss. I'd love to see a very culturally/aesthetically diverse urban landscape
with good taste applied to many styles of design.

Edit: Walking around Zurich gave me a weird sense that everything was so
consistent as to be too refined and rich. Every woman had the same highly
fashionable style, everything cleanly cut, everything sanitized. I'll admit it
was a little creepy. Every person I spoke to was more or less a delight, but I
felt as though speaking to people would be taboo. Much more so than Downtown
Vancouver, though the vibe is often described similarly.

~~~
p0nce
I went to Swiss by bike and I can't shake the feeling the whole country had
this graphical idea throughout. Felt quite unreal though enjoyable.

~~~
brailsafe
By _this_ graphic idea, do you mean the one I described or a different theme
that you noticed?

~~~
p0nce
No no the one you mentionned. It's like there was _intent_ behind colors and
shapes.

~~~
brailsafe
As if everything is deliberately designed. I did notice that Bern is a little
different, being a bit of college town I guess lends itself to having slightly
older character to it.

~~~
p0nce
> As if everything is deliberately designed.

Exactly!

------
HelloNurse
> The more humanist quality of some serif fonts are playing directly to a
> generation looking to find personal value and worth, or a warm place to feel
> comfort.

In other words, a low-level oscillation from an old generation of companies to
a new generation who want to look different and nicer.

------
fhood
Hilariously the title of the article is sans-serif.

~~~
jmull
I guess one could argue an article title isn't a logo, except that the Quartz
site uses sans for it's logo and menus, and links, and all kinds of other
elements, however you want to break them down.

No doubt the author would change some things if she got the chance!

------
creaghpatr
>Soulless

Or, you know, Sleek, Modern, Minimalist...

------
d--b
Quartz's logo seems pretty sans to me

------
KhayriRRW
Minimalist design is overrated.

~ Khayri R.R. Woulfe

------
u90g4u8904
Good bye dumb old fad, hello new dumb fad.

Can someone tell me if this is because designers like to copy whatever look is
in season? Or is it mostly the clients / managers who are afraid to have their
brand identity be too different?

I knew a designer who couldn't tell you what made text legible, or how a grid
system worked. But they were good at copying certain styles that were popular.
They would read those articles like "20 stunning sites with flat design," pick
a few to copy, and then give the client a look-a-like site, regardless if the
design made sense for their business. Always thought they were a hack, but
they were employed, so good for them.

Edit: Just wanted to point out that the return of serifs is probably a good
thing - good designers seeing that minimalist logos are overdone and wanting
to stand out. My comments are more directed at what is inevitably to come -
hordes of smaller companies copying the most superficial aspects of this
trend.

~~~
ghaff
Typography and logo design have fashions just like almost everything else.
There are good reasons for the relatively simple logos and wordmarks you see
today--mostly around legibility in small sizes because of mobile.

But, unless someone's deliberately cultivating a retro look, consider any
batch of random logos from 20 years ago and compare them to a batch of current
ones and you're going to see a lot of common patterns.

