A Designer's Eye: Logo Obsession, Pt. 3 - Bad Logos

Last week, I presented a series of 10 logos that I found in an issue of Savannah Magazine. Each one of those caught my attention for one reason or another, but all of them were, in my opinion, successful. This week, I thought I'd show some of the examples of the logos that I felt were less than successful.


The logo for Ward's Auto Painting just didn't connect with me in any way. The use of primary colors just leaves me with a generic feeling and does not inspire me to get my car painted at Ward's. I almost get the impression that all they can do is simple color work; nothing like you would see at a custom paint shop. Plus, I'm not a fan of the harsh drop shadow.


This logo bothered me an a couple of different levels. First, I though I had hierarchy issues! I can't tell whether is to supposed to read SPCS, SCPS or SPSC. Also, they have no description of what the acronym is supposed to mean. Unless you are very familiar with the logo or organization, you have no idea what the logo is for. Incidentally, it is the logo for the Savannah Christian Preparatory School. Of course!


This logo provides the audience a little bit more information than the last logo: they've been in business since 1946. But doing what? Punching Judy? The word "and" in the logo is almost unreadable at the size it was originally published and is completely lost between the stylized "P" and "J", which also brings to mind Peanut butter and Jelly...


This logo just screams of laziness. By simple placing the name of the company in a black box with white letters, I feel as though they do not believe their audience is capable of seeing beyond B&W.


This could have been a successful, if not great, logo except for the random "S" that has no business being there. It is out of place to point of being distracting and draws the eye clearly off the logo onto the background.