The LogoSauce Blog
The problem with Brands of the World and others
If you’re looking for a listing of logos with possible access to artwork, there are a couple of relatively popular sites you can look at.
- Wikipedia’s brand of the world page
- brandsoftheworld.com
The problem with these sites is that the listing are not necessarily endorsed by the owner of the brand, nor are they necessarily up to date.
If you have a look at Wikipedia’s listing you will note a copyright (fair use) notice that is based on the artwork being of low res, web quality only. Unfortunately, the files are SVG formats based on vector files and therefore are not low resolution. This makes the art downloadable from Wikipedia in breach of their own copyright notice.
Brands Of The World is a bigger problem. They provide vector artwork to anyone that wants it.
It’s great to be able to view and even download artwork for your favourite brands or a logo you need for a design project. Even if you’re entitled to access and use the logo, you are running the risk of the logo not being sanctioned, out of date or just plain wrong. You simply can’t rely on the artwork being right. Despite the good intentions of most designers, the owner of the brand is the ultimate authority on what is right.
Neat idea but flawed.
Another approach is a site like Logopond. Logopond is a site where designers can showcase their logo designs. No downloads. No searching. Just a place to find ideas, see creative concepts etc. Choose and rate your favourites.
We like Logopond – a lovely interface and some nice designs. They just launched – which is a bummer for us because we’ve been working on a similar but different concept in-house. I guess we’ll need to ramp up production now (that 37Signals message about getting something live no matter how unfinished speaks volumes right now).
Logopond is nice – but has limited functionality – and no way to search for a particular brand or logo. There is also no way to find how to access artwork – unless I contact the designer.
We think we’ve got a better idea – and we are working on a secret project – we’ll let you know soon.
By Digger over 2 years ago.