Good to hear from you. The definitions I gave above are the ones I commonly use in everyday speech (of course we all go around saying “wordmark” in everyday speech, don’t we?). Before I finalized the post, I checked with a couple of resources (books I’ve got around and Wikipedia, online), to make sure I hadn’t been messing with my terminology too much or getting sloppy over the years.

I feel pretty good about these definitions so I’m going to respectfully stand behind them.

I would like to clarify one bit: when I said “a logo is a graphic (illustration, usually)…” I meant as opposed to a photographic image, which you see occasionally but thankfully not often. Most overly illustrative logos are a big mistake—a rant for another day—but there are some who can pull them off beautifully: Leslie Cabarga, Tom Nikosey, and Louise Fili, for instance.

BTW: Anyone who is getting a kick out of the semantics of logo terminology here should run don’t walk to David Airey’s new blog, Logo Design Love, to the post that won’t die, When Is a Bad Logo Design Actually Good?, and particularly, to the lively comments on that post (don’t miss Frank’s comment, which is as fresh as it is timeless).

Thanks for checking in, David, and making me own my words!

Regards,

Kelly

Many thanks for your recent comments on my blog. Very much appreciated.

I disagree that a logo is usually an illustration.

Illustrations are too complex to be used as an identifier, and there’s a big difference between graphic design and illustration.

I also believe a logotype to be the wordmark, so if you’re using your name alone, without a symbol, you still have a logotype (the kerning, colour, typeface etc. are all representative of your identity and should be chosen carefully).

As a professional Designer I must confess that the idea of playing around with ideas, with a little graphic skills, wounds me slightly. It’s been discussed at a fever pitch around the Internet, so I’m not going to go there.

As a realist, and as a professional who helps smaller businesses grow, I recognize that this is exactly what happens all the time. Here at the MCE Blog, I am an advocate for the strongest possible research and strategy behind any design, whether professionally commissioned or not, and I think we can all train our eyes to understand better work when we see it, coming from our own desktop or someone else’s.

Just to be clear: to me, there’s nothing to say a Designer (paid or dabbling) must have been to University or have seventeen years of agency experience to have been handed the seeds of knowledge. Some people have a keen eye and are sharp strategists without any of that. Maybe it’s in the genes. Go, DIYers!

Unprofessional gobbledegook that won’t produce results is created both by individuals—and by people who get paid to do it—every day.

I think this will get me in trouble equally with everyone.

: )

Regards,

Kelly

I wanted to remain true to our Purpose but riff off it. The theme began as Soleil by Carrie Petri.

I code just well enough to be dangerous, so I’ve tweaked the CSS significantly, but when I was considering a blog I wanted to be up and running quickly, without learning blog-specific intricacies, and Soleil was a perfect compliment to VisionPoints’ main site.

Thanks for looking in!

Kelly

I remember the Olymic logo FUBAR! I had to ask my UK friends what the hell they were thinking on that one.

As a graphics person myself, I agree not everyone needs to have a logo in the traditional sense. For our own blogs (JCM Enterprises and our soon to be released new blog) I didn’t create a specific logo at all.

I’ll remember your blog too. I told James it’s so cheery it reminds me of orange juice. Nice choice of colors and layout here.