The Best of Letterhead & Logo Design
Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d – 14.02.2012
ISBN – 9781592536306
The Best of Letterhead & Logo Design by Mine Design and published by Rockport is another great graphic design book published by Rockport. There is really not too much to say about The Best of Letterhead and Logo Design as it is pretty straight forward. It is just a collection of logos and letterheads collated from a variety of graphic design firms and individuals from around the world. There is no educational component, nor is there any in-depth design analysis or interviews or even descriptions. But for seasoned designers these parts can often seem like padding for the real meat which is those juicy designs. This is where the book really excels, the designs are beautiful; I am almost tempted to say they are the best designs I have seen yet, which would be appropriate seeing it is a ‘best of’ book.
The designs are split up into the following categories:
- Professional Services
- Creative Services
- Retail, Restaurant and Hospitality
- Recreation and Entertainment
- Education, Health and Non-profit
- Miscellaneous
Someone from Rockport is certainly reading my book reviews as in the past I have been very harsh on how some of the older Rockport titles categorised designs based on aesthetic motifs or themes. For example having all the logos that contain dogs and animals together, or all the logos that are in circles together. When in reality it is design firms who buy these books and they want to quickly get inspiration from particular industries or perform market research. The Best of Letterhead and Logo Design addresses this need by using these industry categories.
If there was anything that I could possibly complain about in this book is more a strategic decision that was made to include letterheads. Many younger people believe it or not don’t even really know what a letterhead is. I consider letterheads to be a dying communication method. Even for startups the idea of having a standard letterhead seems like a bit of a luxury that old corporations use to exhibit standardisation and uniformity. A letterhead is used when you write letters to people…I don’t even remember the last time I did this, and aren’t letterheads used for faxes as well? Wait what’s a fax? Perhaps for these high calibre clients a letterhead might be a welcome addition. But I think in this day and age why not throw in a business card and other branding items. Why not even have a logos and email signatures book! This may seem silly but I tell you what I bet I have seen at least a thousand times more email signatures than I have letterheads in the last year. Just a thought.
Perhaps it is a bias of a worn book reviewer who can find it difficult to be excited and inspired about these graphic design collection books; but I feel like I have seen too many graphic design collations. Perhaps it is another personal bias since we are an educational blog to want to see more of an education focus. I know from experience there is so much to learn out there about logo design and theory and the current material is by no means comprehensive or resolved. But don’t let my personal afflictions get in your way as The Best of Letterhead and Logo Design is a fantastic book and I am sure if you don’t have a high quality graphic design book yet this would be a fantastic place to start. I can say first hand that I have used this book to help me with a few graphic designs I have been working on and I found this book to be of great value, so check it out!
[rating:4.5]
