The Logo Brainstorm Book: A Comprehensive Guide for Exploring Design Directions Hardcover – August 8, 2012

This book was recommended to me by a very experienced graphic artist.I've only glossed over it, but It walks you through the steps of creating many types of logos and gives many ideas and recommendations. I expect to refer to this when working on similar projects.

Being a Graphic Designer, inspiration is something always sort after so when I saw this book, I was eager to own it. It is quite informative and very inspirational. Everything I was hoping for. Thanks!

I bought this book for my Identity Systems class. My students produce FAR better work than the majority of the examples. I was about to put it out on the free book shelf for students, but I was afraid one of them might actually take it and use it. I threw it away to protect our students.

Here's a book for those days you pick up your drawing pen, scribble for an hour and all you have to show for it is a grocery list written in your best approximation of Helvetica Neue. Ever look for logo inspiration only to reach the conclusion that a disproportionate number of famous logos are for brands of alcohol? Desperate, you read one of those artsy blogs that try to inspire you by telling you to do utterly crazy stuff you would never in a million years try - like taking a walk. Outside. In daylight. Enough of that foolishness!Jim Krause has written no less than eight books with titles containing the word 'index', so it's unsurprising that nearly every double-page spread is an idea prompt. With almost 300 pages, that's a lot of ideas! You'll recognize the ones you rely on most, but there are bound to be a few things you haven't tried yet. I normally start my logos as drawings on paper, so I'm interested in the techniques that use photos more. The concepts are not groundbreaking - it's not like I'd never seen a logo where an O has been replaced with an icon. But when I'm thumbing through the book with my own specific ideas in mind, it's easy to find prompts that give them a little twist. We all have days when we're not at our best, and we aren't looking for jaw-dropping inspiration so much as nudges to help keep us moving in the right direction.Each chapter is color-coded and has a table of contents, introduction, numerous prompts, and exercises at the end. It's a thick hardbound book and the colored tabs on each page make it very easy to thumb through. There is a fair amount of text for students; I skipped most of it, but what I saw looked like sound advice.When I was a student, the mantra was, 'it's not a logo unless it works as a black and white vector image.' Not that you can't add color, drop-shadows or shading, just that it has to work without them too. It's hard for me to accept some of the more shaded and photographic images as proper logos. Some of the logos look really 1990s to me, especially the bevel effects, soft edges and big colored shadows. The colors and grunge effects remind me of oldschool videogames from 15 years ago, and the text is set in a narrow sans serif typeface more suitable for websites than a printed book. (And yet, web 2.0 styles barely make an appearance.) If I were teaching a course on logo design, I would not choose this book as a main text but would still recommend it to students as a supplementary purchase.

The sample imagery is generally not what I'd call beautiful, but that helps you to stay detached from the samples and go in your own direction. This is a pretty comprehensive guide to pen on paper brainstorming to create unique and memorable logos. There is also some discussion of computer techniques. This was a good addition to my design library and worth the price.

Thank you Jim Krause again for writing a wonderful book!!! It is a very straight forward book, clearing out many of my doubts.

This book was a gift for a fellow designer who loved it. It contains several ideas that help expand your logo knowledge and creative process.

what a total letdown......I came into this purchase with ridiculously high expectations. The reviews were riveting and many designers seemed to enjoy it immensely. I'm always eager to add great books of designing, particularly Logo design, to my colection (since they are so hard to find) and from the people's comments here, i thought I'd hit the jackpot. A goldmine. What I got was the book equivalent of Capone's vault - a whole lot of nothing.Mind you, the book is generous with the amount of examples it presents the reader with each chapter. But more often than not, I found said examples to be not at all pleasing or attractive in helping convey the oh-so "amazing" point the author was trying to make at any particular paragraph. Other times, the text was so beyond obvious for an intermediate/expert level designer, but so vague for a beginner, that it just ended up being unhelpful and boring. I wouldnt recommend this book at all to anybody. Still in search for that GREAT Bible-calling-worthy book for designing logos....but i can tell you flat out, this aint it. You'd learn more downloading or buying every chapter of the Logo Lounge collection. At least those booms have attractive logos to browse through and be inspired...