Over the years, the Microsoft Windows operating system family has had a few solid releases, and a few duds (I’m looking at you, Vista.)

With the recent release of Windows 8 comes a new logo design, and for me, a marked improvement over its predecessors.

You’ve no doubt read articles by plenty of other graphic designers and typographers railing against Comic Sans, but they say a picture paints a thousand words.

Comic sans was designed in the early 90′s to be used in, you guessed it, comics. Despite this specific purpose, it’s regularly used and abused for just about anything, however inappropriate.

As a client, you’re probably not going to be well versed in the different file formats commonly associated with graphic design and their different purposes. After all, that’s one of the reasons why you’ve hired a designer.

Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to clients being given work in a file format that, while it may be suitable for the project they’re currently working on, is not going to be usable in future projects.

If some logos were brutally honest…

Sometimes the things that aren’t in a logo design say more than the things that are. Shown here are just under 40 logo designs that make excellent use of negative space in their designs.

As if it hadn’t received enough criticism already, the 2012 London Olympics logo design is now being accused of being racist by the national Olympic committee of the Islamic republic.

Compare the with’s and without’s of a few of the worst offenders of overused and abused logo design elements.

With 2010 coming to a close, here’s a look back at 60 logo design tweaks and brand identity changes from the year gone by.

Don’t settle for an off the shelf logo, your business deserves a professional logo design and brand identity.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the message is clear. The I Love New York logo design is loved far and wide.