Blog entry February 2010

Chrysler, maker of the Ram truck, issued Florida’s Lake Mary High School a cease and desist letter asking them to change their mascot logo, which happens to be a direct copy of the Dodge Ram logo. Chrysler asked the school to remove all instances of the logo on its merchandise, team uniforms, signage and even its gym floor, leaving taxpayers with a hefty bill. The knee jerk reaction would be to criticize Chrysler for picking on a little guy, but the fault lies squarely with the high school. Most would be hard pressed to blame Chrysler in this case, who have every right to protect their brands. 

Seems like this could have been easily avoided. You don’t need to be trademark expert to know that is illegal to steal another organizations identity. It seems even more odd that, according to one Lake Mary alum, the school had gone through a similar issue in the 1990’s when they co-opted the T. Rowe Price logo. I’m hoping the St. Louis Ram’s are keeping a close eye on the next iteration. Read more »

I've come across a number of online conversations about integrating creative thinking into business education. This is a great idea, and has already been adopted by several business schools such as the Rotman School of Management. However the broken cog in the design/business machine is not with business education, but I believe rests with design schools. Consider that most design programs do not introduce students to business fundamentals (strategy, research, measurement) unless they pursue a masters degree. These schools are doing a disservice to these undergraduate students by not integrating business principles into the foundation of design curriculum.

I believe we need business faculty in design schools as much as business schools need design faculty. Until this shift happens, designers will continue to be trained as tacticians.

Here is a link to a current conversation on the DMI LinkedIn page:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers&discussionID=13175360&gid=102921&commentID=12299068&trk=view_disc

With the advent of fiber optic cable, cheap design software and an increasingly design conscious public, the craft of logo design has become as much the property of trained and experienced design professionals as it has for your 15 year old nephew.

This situation has provided a willing workforce for design crowdsourcing firms, who can now throw open the gates and let the world participate in the great design democratization experiment. Some wonder whether this devalues the design profession, or is unethical and exploitative. These are all valid concerns, but I believe the more pressing question crowd sourcing raises is “how do clients value design?”

For the most part design value, like many other products or services, is subjective. Either client’s like it, or they don’t. I believe that basing design value on subjective criteria is the kiss of death for the design industry. Without a standard of measurement, then it seems reasonable that anyone should be able to participate in logo development. Read more »