The Best Logo Design Resources

From time to time I’ll see a list of ‘logo design resources’ being circulated around social media websites, but more often than not, I’m disappointed at the quality of links. So I’ve searched through my bookmarks, trawled the other ‘resource’ articles, and asked some designers for their input.

Here I present a choice selection of logo design resources that I believe are beneficial to serious designers (with a touch of humour here and there).

Where to find excellent logo typefaces

• Hoefler & Frere-Jones
  H&FJ works with brand leaders in every sector, developing original typefaces and licensing fonts from its library of nearly 1,000 designs.
• Porchez Typofonderie
  An independent digital type foundry in France, designing, manufacturing and selling high quality typefaces for adventurous digital typographers.
• OurType
  Founded in 2002, OurType is managed by three partners: Fred Smeijers, Corina Cotorobai and Rudy Geeraerts.
• Village
  The union of eleven young type foundries who have decided to go it alone, together.
• P22
  Creates computer typefaces inspired by Art, History, and sometimes Science.
• FontShop
  Around for 16 years, since the dawn of digital type.

The history of logo design

• History of popular logo designs
  Categorised in alphabetical order with a search feature too.
• The Evolution of Tech Company Logos
  How famous logo designs came to be, from Neatorama
• The Evolution of Car Logos
  More historical insights from Neatorama
• Branding Firefox
  A short insight into the history of the Firefox internet browser brand

Logo design trends

• Logo design trends in 2008
  Subjective, as with a lot of logo design, and whilst I do keep an eye on trends I always design logos that work as flat art. That way, the logo is still effective once the trend has passed.
• 2008 trends // 2007 // 2006 // 2005 // 2004 // 2003
  Bill Gardner, of LogoLounge, takes us on a journey through the trends of 2000

A selection of logo design articles

• 100 unused logos and what they reveal about my design inclinations
  An excellent insight behind the designer by Armin of Speak Up.
• 6 reasons why a logo should cost more than your lunch
  Tara of Graphic Design Blog writes a short but sweet article.
• Logo Notions
  Jeff Fisher’s insightful collection of logo design articles on Creative Latitude.
• Logos with a meaning
  An extra insight into a selection of logos, by Ivan of CreativeBits.
• How many speech bubble logos have you seen lately?
  A fraction of what’s going down out there in Web Bubble Logo Land.
• 5 vital logo design tips
  A guest article on davidairey.com by graphic designer, Jacob Cass.
• Logo design guide
  youthedesigner.com offers some stellar advice for designing logos.
• The LogoWorks saga
  A huge collection of articles about the multi-million dollar business, LogoWorks.
• Is your logo design phallic?
  A little logo humour to lighten the mood.

Logo design books

• Marks of Excellence
• Logo by Michael Evamy
• cidoc.net’s corporate identity book list
• Identity Crisis
• LogoLounge 4 // LogoLounge 3 // LogoLounge 2 // LogoLounge
• Tres Logos // Dos Logos // Los Logos
• Decoding Design by Maggie Macnab

Some heavyweight agencies in the design industry

• Pentagram
• Johnson Banks
• Tayburn
• The Partners
• ico design
• Minale Tattersfield
• FutureBrand
• Chermayeff & Geismar

Independent logo design portfolios

• David Airey
• dache
• Raja Sandhu

Logo design awards

• Eulda 2007 winners // 2006 winners
  The winning entries from the European Logo Design Awards (EULDA) from 2007 and 2006.
• Wolda
  This is what used to be Eulda, but has since expanded into the World Logo Design Awards (Wolda).
• Identity: Best of 2007 winners // 2006 winners
  The results of an international logo design competition, judged by a very experienced panel.
• Logo Design Love Awards
  View the winners from the inaugural Logo Design Love Awards, featuring the best blog logos around.

Blogs about logo design

• Brand New
  Excellent discussion focusing solely on corporate and brand identity work.
• Logo design category on David Airey.com
  An added insight into logo design from yours truly.
• logolog
  A logo log from 38one.
• bLog-oMotives
  Jeff Fisher’s logo design blog.
• Speak Up on Identity
  The branding and identity category on Speak Up.

Adobe Illustrator tutorials

• N.DESIGN STUDIO
• Smashing Magazine
• Tutorial Blog
• Revitalise your logo with a Crescent Swish
  “Can I get a swoosh with that?” a little humour from Logo Hell.

Logo design showcases

• FIFA World Cup logos from 1950 to 2010
• 50 Olympic logos from 1924 to 2016
• Top 10 Rock Band Logos
• The Logo Design Love category for logo designs
• 10 examples of simple effective logos
• Logólogos - logos expressed as fractions and sums

Style guides and manuals

• Identityworks: Tools - Guidelines and Standards Manuals
• Channel 4 identity style guides
• Corporate Identity Documentation

Further logo design resources

• Iconic logo designers
  A rundown of the world’s most iconic designers and their logos.
• Corporate identity catalogue
  If you want to discover the typefaces and Pantone references for some of the world’s main identies, look no further.
• Forums for logo design feedback
  Upload your designs and let the constructive criticism commence.
• LogoLounge
  Inspiration from all levels of design expertise.
• Designguide’s logo gallery
  English translation of a German site about design and logos.
• LogoPond
  Similar to LogoLounge, only free, more inspiration from all ability levels.
• The big page of branding and corporate identity resources
  Covers manuals, guides, trademarking, laws, essential reading and more, from LogoOrange.com
• 5 websites for free vector logo downloads
  For those times when you need a well-known .eps file, in a hurry

Hopefully that lot will keep you engrossed for a while. If you know of any more excellent logo design resources, feel free to mention them in a comment.

Learn More: Custom Logo Design