The trademark application filed by Australian retailer Woolworths over a year ago may now be contested by Apple to avoid potential “custom confusion”. While the above Apple and Woolworths logos ( show above respectively ) have some similarity I think Apple are, to say the least, over reacting.

Both logos in my opinion are clearly distinct. Additionally the Woolworths logo is always shown in colour where available while the Apple logo uses none, adding to the difference.

While the Woolworths logo is undoubtedly reminiscent of an apple, taking action for this reason alone would suggest that no one may ever an apple for branding every again, and I’m fairly certain Apple didn’t “invent” the piece of fruit from which they took their name.

Another important factor in copyright is competing interests. If a similar logo is developed by a rival company dealing in the same products and demographic then certainly this would merit more concern.

While Woolworths supermarket and fuel station chains deal in some minor I.T. products such as mobile phones, I don’t see them as much of a threat to the computer and mp3 player market.

What do you think?

A few steps too far by Apple in my opinion.

In yet another installment from The Dacheboard, David Pache brings us 100 more brands of interest including my personal logo design.

If you’re not familiar with the series (refer parts one and two) David brings us a yet another collection of over 100 brand marks from fellow logo and identity designers. David explains;

In this third collection, I have chosen to focus on up and coming designers and have displayed these with more well known enterprises. By displaying everything in black and white it is interesting to take the different brands down to the same, almost basic, level and then compare them side by side within the criteria of just great design.

Without the use of colour, monochrome allows us to view the identities outside the context of their visual universe and makes it all about the design.

Many thanks to David for including my logo design, a mentioned from ones peers is always encouraging. As usual here’s a few choice selections, be sure to read the full article for more.

Cicada Design.

Effektive.

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For a long time the gift market Screaming Rhino has been my favorite brand name. They don’t have a webpage that I can find, and I have no idea what the inspiration behind the name was but it just paints such a bizarre picture in my mind. I recently found this contender…

Duck Fart, perfume eau de cologne ( logo pictured above ).

Clearly aimed at customers with a sense of humor, I use cologne so little that I’ve had the same bottle of Hugo Boss for about 12 years but I think I’d have to buy this just to see what its like.

Seriously though… choosing a brand name isn’t easy, below are half a dozen mnemonic devices for creating a memorable brand name.

Rhymes
Like a song you can’t get out of your head, rhymes work in much the same way. e.g. Curly Wurly, Mellow Yellow and Lean Cuisine.

Provoking imagery
Our brains love imagery, names which evoke clear images are particularly memorable. e.g. Apple, Blackberry and Fox.

Alliteration
Alliteration is a quite common mnemonic device where each word of the brand name begins with the same sound but does not rhyme. e.g Coca Cola and Krispy Kreme.

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Maxim Transport provides freight and transport for small to medium size loads, including shipping container transport, and operates through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

There previous logotype was something akin to Bookman Old Style Italic, very dull and not in the spirit of these modern movers. The above logo was designed to better reflect the reliable and dedicated service they pride themselves on.

Here is a handful of alternate ideas as always.

Feedback is welcome.

And appreciated like always, what do you think?

When talking about good logo design the Nike logo comes up time and time again. For every comment of praise however there is more often than not one of criticism.

It’s just a tick, People only use it as an example because the brand is successful and the ever popular I’d have charged $50 to design that logo.”

As it happens, there’s much more to it than that.

The name Nike refers to the Greek winged goddess of victory, the so called “tick” is in fact a stylized representation of these wings and expresses movement, as well as the ambition and desire for victory which are as bigger part of the brands culture and image as the logo itself.

Still just a tick?

Or is the message plain to see? Even if you didn’t know the history of the logo, the message was probably still getting through. What do you think?