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New logo of the Montreal Impact – MLS 2012

ycd — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:42:13 +0000

Logo - IMPACT 2012

Montreal’s Impact will be joining Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS next season and for the occasion they revamped their logo. We gotta say, a redesign was clearly in order as this is what it used to look like:

Very “Junior League”… Overall, we quite like the new logo and find it’s amongst the best ones of the league. We like the shape, the colours and the use of the Fleur de Lys, stars and stripes. It’s symbolic without being overly clichéd. However, we’re not too fond of the font used for the team’s name. It seems like a font with a little more impact (no pun intended!) would have suited the design better.

The logo was created by Pigeon* Branding + Design, a design agency with offices in Montreal and Oakville, ON whose recent work other than the Impact logo seems to be more in the field of packaging design. With clients such as Dempster’s, Danone, General Mills, Kraft, Shoppers Drug Mart and of course Saputo (who’s owner also owns Montreal’s Impact!), we are surrounded by their designs every time we go to the grocery store or simply open our refrigerator… They’ve also created a little explanatory video to illustrate the logo’s narrative:

Just for fun to see what people think, we’d like to know: according to you, which MLS team has the best logo? To vote for your favourite, please join our Facebook page and answer the poll question.

Please Mind the Gap(‘s new logo)

ycd — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:46:58 +0000

Old Logo vs New Logo

I love Helvetica, and used to really really like the way Gap used it in its signs, especially in regards to the 1969 jeans collection’s branding. Last time I went to their Toronto Eaton Centre store they had big Helvetica words/sentences written in black on the clear windows. It was beautiful! Inside the store, they had the same words written in black Helvetica on white cubes displayed on clothes racks. That, too, was beautiful. See this. That works.

The question now is: what’s with their new logo??? It really doesn’t impress me much! What, did Gap become a sub-brand of its 1969 stuff? The old logo was becoming a bit outdated and very 90′s, but the new one…Far from excellent! The blue box (which I still think has been left by mistake by the designer – really, who would in its right set of mind place that box there?) makes it look like it should be for a computer retailer/manufacturer. Or a stock market company. What’s with the gradient as well? It really looks like it took 5 minutes to create and clearly not much thinking has been done to link the new logo to the old one. “Humm, let’s just resize that blue box and drop it on the side -in the “p” gap- so that people know it’s still the store that they know. They are stupid, so a navy blue square is a navy blue square, doesn’t matter how we use it. Oh wait, let’s add a gradient to it because I’ve just discovered that great Illustrator functionality. It will make it stand out”. Yep, I’m sure that’s how the conversation went between the graphic designers (apparently) who created the logo.

Anyways, let’s just say that from a company like Gap, able to afford the best of the best, we expect a lot more when it comes to their visual communication and that, really, is far from the best re-design I’ve ever seen.

Vick @ Yellow Car Design

Freshly Printed Business Cards!

ycd — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:36:37 +0000

YCD's Business Card

After designing several business cards for various clients, we finally got some printed for Yellow Car Design! It took a long time but we’re quite happy with the result and can’t wait to start distributing them. We settled on a simple and minimalistic look featuring our logo and contact details. That design goes along well with our soon-to-be-launched new website, YDC 3.0, which is in construction now (should be launched later this fall). For a long, long time we were using Helvetica on all our materials; we’ve sort of grown out of it a bit now and replaced it with another classic font, Garamond. Since most things are better when “homemade”, we printed our cards ourselves on a pre-cut greyish stock that had been laying at the bottom of a paper drawer for ages. For hand-crafted cards, they do look quite professional don’t you think? All we need now is people to give them to!

Créations Titi – Logo!

ycd — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:08:29 +0000

Logo

Drafts - Croquis

Créations Titi is a new company specializing in “personalized nappy cakes”, which are actually cake-shaped baskets full of baby toys, accessories and of course, nappies. The owner and designer, Stéphanie Lauzon, creates each cake according to her client’s tastes and needs so that every single cake is a unique creation, guaranteed to please whoever receives it as a gift.

Stéphanie (or Titi, as toddlers refers to her) contacted Yellow Car Design a few weeks ago and hired us to design a logo for her new venture. After a various concepts and a change of name, we are proud to show the final result!

We always have a lot of fun designing baby or kids-oriented logos as it allow us to use vibrant colours, lively fonts and little illustrations. For this logo, we used fuchsia as per the client’s request, but to make it “not too girly” and to tone it down a little we matched it with a chocolate-grey colour. Fun, but with a touch of class.

If you’re looking for a unique and customized gift for a friend or relative about to become parent, don’t hesitate to contact Créations Titi through its Facebook page by clicking here.

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Créations Titi est une nouvelle entreprise se spécialisant dans la conception de « gâteaux de couches personnalisés», c’est-à-dire des paniers/sculptures en forme de gâteaux où l’on retrouve non seulement des couches, mais bien une panoplie d’accessoires et de jouets pour bébés. La propriétaire-conceptrice, Stéphanie Lauzon, adapte chaque gâteau selon les goûts et besoins de ses clients.

Stéphanie (ou Titi, comme les enfants l’appellent !) a contacté Yellow Car Design il y a quelques semaines pour qu’on crée le logo de Créations Titi (qui s’appelait alors Titi Cadeaux). Après quelques concepts et un changement de nom, nous sommes fière de présenter le résultat final !

Nous avons toujours beaucoup de plaisir lorsque nous devons créer des logos enfantins puisqu’ils permettent l’utilisation de couleurs vives, de polices de caractères fringantes et de petites illustrations comiques. Pour ce logo, nous avons utilisé le fuchsia comme couleur principale, tel que demandé par la cliente. Pour l’atténuer un peu et faire en sorte que ce ne soit pas trop « fifille » nous l’avons coordonné à un gris chocolat… Amusant tout en étant sophistiqué!

Si vous êtes à la recherche d’un cadeau original et sur mesure pour une amie ou un proche sur le point d’être parent, n’hésitez pas à contacter Créations Titi par l’entremise de sa page Facebook en cliquant ici.

Gâteaux de couches - Charlie - Nappy Cake

Gâteaux de couches - Léo - Nappy Cake

Our work – Business Card + Logo for Language School

ycd — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:45:45 +0000

Académie d'Excellence Linguistique

Last week I met up with one of our past clients who gave me a few of the business cards that Yellow Car Design created for her company a little while ago. They feature the logo we designed for her language school L’académie d’excellence linguistique. Since most of our dealings with clients takes place over the phone or via email, we usually submit the design files ready for print and do not get involved with the printing process – unless specifically required by the client. Consequently, most of the time we don’t end up seeing the final, printed, result. It was therefore really nice to see “our” business card printed in the flesh. It’s looking good, we do say so ourselves!

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Logo + Carte d’affaires pour L’Académie d’Excellence Linguistique

La semaine dernière j’ai rencontré l’une de nos clientes qui m’a remis quelques copies de la carte d’affaires que Yellow Car Design a créée pour sa companie. Elles mettent en vedette le logo de son école, L’académie d’excellence linguistique, que nous avons également conçu. Puisque les interractions avec nos clients se font principalement par téléphone et via courriel, d’habitude nous soumettons les fichiers prêts pour l’imprimerie et ne nous occupons pas de l’impression – sauf si le client le demande. Nous ne voyons que rarement le résultat final et imprimé. C’est donc très bien de voir “notre” carte d’affaires en format réel… Elle est belle en plus, n’est-ce pas?

Vick.

GO à vélo!

ycd — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:08:44 +0000

GO à Vélo - Logo, Jersey & Cuissard

Il y a quelques mois, GO à vélo!, une équipe inscrite au Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie, nous a contacté pour savoir si nous accepterions de créer un logo pour leur équipe de vélo. Nous avons créé le logo, et puisque le grand départ de cette randonnée de 1000 km à travers le Québec est prévu pour demain, le 18 juin 2010, nous avons pensé faire un blogue pour promouvoir la cause!

Le Grand Défi à pour but d’amasser des fonds pour la recherche médicale sur les maladies orphelines tout en faisant la promotion de saines habitudes de vie chez les jeunes et dans tous les foyers québécois. Pour plus d’informations, veuillez visiter le site du Défi au http://www.legdpl.com/fr/ et pour voir la page de “notre” équipe (à laquelle on dit un gros bravo pour les 10 540$ déjà amassés!) cliquez ici. On souhaite une excellente randonnée aux membres de l’équipe et à tous les participants au Défi! Bonne chance

PS: Le logo de Yellow Car Design est joliment disposé sur le jersey de l’équipe, l’aviez-vous remarqué? C’est une première pour nous, et nous en sommes très fiers!

GO à Vélo! - L'équipe

GO à vélo – Logo by YCD

A few months ago, GO à vélo!, a team enrolled for the “Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie” (Big Challenge Pierre Lavoie), a 1000 km bike ride across the province of Quebec asked us if we’d be interested in creating a logo for their bike team. We created the logo, and since the departure is this week, on Friday, June 18 2010, we thought we’d create a blog post to promote the cause and the team.

Le Grand Défi’s goal is to raise money for medical research on orphan illnesses (illnesses that impact very few patients and therefore does not attract attention in the way of research for treatments) while at the same time promoting an healthy lifestyle to Quebec’s youth and general public. For more information, please visit http://www.legdpl.com/fr/ (French only) and to see “our” team’s page (that we want to congratulate for the $ 10 540 already raised!) click here. We wish an excellent ride to the team and to all the Challenge’s participants! Best of luck

PS: Yellow Car Design‘s logo is proudly printed on the team’s jersey, had you noticed it? It’s a first for us, and we’re really happy about it!

Olympics Design

ycd — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:49:17 +0000

Vancouver 2010

10 days left (at the moment of writing this blog) before the Winter Olympics & Paralympics Games. I don’t have much interest in the games themselves and probably won’t go out of my way in order to watch the events (except maybe the hockey). However, I do like the ‘Olympic Spirit’ AKA the advertising, the promotion, the merchandise, the website, and most of all: the visual identity of the games. I think that this year the inukshuk featured in the logo and the 3 mascots (Miga the Sea Bear, Quatchi the Sasquatch and Sumi, the Thunderbird) are doing an excellent job at representing Canada’s presence as the host of the Games. Most importantly (for me and for the purpose of this blog): the visual identity of Vancouver 2010 looks good, from a design perspective!

I was reading an article earlier today where people are debating the future of logos. David Law, partner at SomeOne, mentions that:

“While we all acknowledge that the logo is not about to disappear — and that it is still an important part of any brand toolkit — there is a case for applying more emphasis on brand worlds.”

He gives O2 as an example:

“When you look at brands like O2, its success lies in the richness and depth of its brand world (bubbles, blue grad etc.). This forms a flexible branded platform that is instantly recognizable — you could remove the logo and still know the brand. The logo in itself is not the ‘hero’.”

I think that Vancouver 2010 could have replaced the O2 example in the citation above. Why? Well, I don’t know about you, but when I look at all this year’s various ‘Olympic Spirit Items’ I can see a brand. The colours, the shape, the fonts, all that seem to be connected and in harmony. The logo of the Olympics itself is very strong, but isn’t necessarily a ‘hero’ because of all the other elements that support it. His brother the Paralympics logo, while still fitting in with the rest of the branding, is also very powerful. When I look at Salt Lake 2002′s visual identity, I don’t see a brand: I see 2 logos (1 strong, 1 weak) and 3 weird ’80′s-looking mascots.

Past Olympics branding (or lack of it), confirms that yes, branding does make a difference and compared to previous years we can clearly tell that a special attention has been paid to giving the same look and feel throughout the elements. The Olympics tumblers + bottle that I got proves that the whole thing works: even people mildly interested in the Games are spending money on it…

—Below you’ll find the Yellow Car Award winners (& losers) for Winter Olympics Design… Tell us what you think!

Olympics & Paralympics Logos + Mascots

Yellow Car Awards for:

…Best Overall Design/Identity: Vancouver 2010

…Best Logo: Torino 2006 (Olympics)

…Worst Logo: Nagano 1998 (Paralympics) (what’s with the bunny shape?)

…Cutest Mascots: Nagano 1998

…Weirdest Mascot: Albertville 1992 (the starman really creeps me out, don’t know why…)

…Worst Overall Design/Identity: Salt Lake City 2002

…Most Punchable Mascots: Lillehammer 1994 (Kristin and Håkon have such punchable faces)

General Comments:

Vancouver 2010 - Stuff

Neve and Guv, from Torino 2006, remind me of the dentist.
The Sarajevo mascot looks semi-maniac, semi-cool.
Orange must have been ‘Colour of the Year’ in 1984.
The cowboy-bears from Calgary 1988 look way too nice and soft; it’s annoying.

vick.

Old fashioned logo for an old fashioned sign

ycd — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:50:50 +0000

Mac's Logos

We came across the Mac’s convenience store sign above during a trip to Kingston, ON. With over 5000 stores across Canada, Mac’s (or Couche-Tard in Quebec) are quite common sights. But this one was different. We couldn’t help but notice the good job that had been done in adapting the logo to give the sign an old fashioned look that allows the corner shop to fit in with the city’s historic charm. A little bit of gold, some decorative ornaments and a Serif font was all it took to give the well-known winking owl a touch of class and transform the shop into a General Store from back in the old days. Even though Mac’s logo is okay as it is, we think that it’s a shame that they don’t personalize all the stores to try to break their boring corporate look of plain red, blue and white and make the stores a little bit more in line with their surroundings.

Yellow Car Design will eventually be in need of office spaces, and if we ever have the chance to rent a space in a historic building we would definitely try to give our studio sign an old fashioned look by the choice of material on which we would print our logo. Even though we would keep our current style of having everything clean and modern for our website and other communication, we would certainly make our office sign fit in within its surrounding in order to keep a certain unity with the neighborhood. “Yellow Car Design” in wrought iron Helvetica letters on a old brick building would certainly look amazing, don’t you think?

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Couche-Tard

Un logo à l’ancienne pour une enseigne à l’ancienne

Nous avons aperçu le dépanneur avec cette enseigne lors de notre voyage à Kingston, Ontario. Avec plus de 5000 magasins à travers le pays, voir un Couche-Tard (ou Mac’s, leur nom en Ontario) n’a rien d’extraordinaire. Cependant, celui-ci était différent. Nous avons tout de suite remarqué le travail accompli pour adapter le logo et faciliter l’intégration du dépanneur au charme historique des autres bâtiments de la ville. Une touche d’or, quelques ornements décoratifs et une police de caractères à Serif est tout ce qu’il fallait pour donner une touche de classe au célèbre hibou au clin d’oeil et transformer le dépanneur en véritable magasin général de l’époque. Même si nous trouvons que le logo normal de Couche-Tard est convenable, c’est dommage qu’il n’y aie pas plus de dépanneurs qui soient personnalisés comme celui-ci afin de briser la monotonie du look corporatif de l’entreprise.

Éventuellement, Yellow Car Design aura besoin de louer un espace commercial et si un jour nous avons la chance de pouvoir louer un studio dans un bâtiment historique nous allons certainement essayer de donner un look un peu “vieillot” à notre enseigne pour bien intégrer le studio à son voisinage. Même si nous garderions sûrement un style moderne et simple pour notre site internet et autres communications, le choix des matériaux sur lesquels imprimer notre logo ferait en sorte que l’enseigne demeure partie intégrante du bâtiment. “Yellow Car Design” en Helvetica en lettres de fer forgé sur un vieux mur de briques ça serait beau, non?