| DesignBay, 25/06/2008 | | Web2.0 logos have a distinctive look and feel and often use techniques that break with accepted logo design conventions. Web2.0 logos often use orange, grey and lime green. They use reflection, gradient and 3D effects. But it is important not to get carried away like Gwen Stefani - pick just one of these techniques, don't use them all together.
Web2.0 businesses don't do much printing and the effectiveness of their logo in print is rarely connected with the success of their business. These logos are built for use on a website and not for traditional marketing. Thus they are optimised for computer screen monitors and not print. Web2.0 logos happily ignore the conventions of traditional logo design that can cause problems with offset printing or black and white printing.
Web2.0 logos often use happy but soft colours (that seem to simulate a matte print finish on the screen) and rounded fonts. They often use: more than two colours, gradient, shadow, reflection, and 3D effects . These techniques often give a warm and welcoming feel to a Web2.0 logo and its website. Google's Conversion University suggests effective website design should be aimed get your first click. It follows that Web2.0 websites with warm and engaging design and logos will have their users stay on the site longer and click on more links.
Here are some examples of these qualities in use:
1. Happy Colours with Matte Simulation
2. Rounded fonts
3. More than 2 colours
4. Gradient, Shadow, Reflection
5. 3D Effects
I suggest that you avoid these techniques for a regular bricks and mortar business, but for a Web2.0 business almost anything goes. Table 1 highlights some features that are acceptable in Web2.0 design but not traditional logo design. Table 1 - Acceptable Logo Design Features, Traditional vs Web2.0
| Attribute | Traditional Logo | Web2.0 logo | | 3D Affect | |  | | Gradient | | | | Reflection | | | | Shadow | | | | Happy Colours | | | | More than 2 colours | | | | One or two solid colours | | | | Easily viewed in black & white | | | | Rounded fonts | | | Use these techniques sparingly! The more succesfully dot-com businesses use 1 of these techniques at a time (see Table 2). Take note.
Table 2 - Successful Dot-Com use of Web2.0 techniques
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Written by DesignCrowd on Wednesday, June 25, 2008
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.
