Look & Logo
DESIGN BLOG
PERSONAL PROJECT WRITING, BRANDING, WEB DESIGN
A collection of creative thoughts for creative minds
Look & Logo is a design blog and Instagram account I started in 2016 celebrating the people and process behind some of the most inspiring design work happening online. Who is behind the scenes making all this great work and what are the design decisions that happen along the way? I wanted a greater understanding of the design industry, so I began to participate in it.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
There was so much great design going on around me and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to learn from it. How did the designers choose what to change about their brand? Why did they make certain design decisions? And who were these awesome creatives behind these projects?
The more I read, the more it helped me better understand the design industry and the decision-making that goes into our field. Design was clearly becoming a top priority, with a number of influential brands pushing their brands and logos. Suddenly, one of the most eye-catching redesigns was the 2016 Instagram rebrand. Here was a super successful company, with millions of users and brand loyalty, that wanted to push the envelope. I wanted to know why and what the design process was like.
Instagram wasn't the only significant app to rethink its identity in 2016, Uber and Snapchat both reconstructed their look and logo. These brands were closely following on the heels of Airbnb, Apple, and Medium who all seemed to be ushering in a new era of design thinking.
In a span of a year, many of the apps and websites I used daily were getting new logos, identities, and user interfaces. So I dug deeper. I spent months reading articles, interviews, and design community reactions to these redesigns. But consuming it wasn't enough, I wanted to learn from it. So I began to write.
I published The 10 Most Influential Redesigns of 2016 on my newly created Look and Logo website, and suddenly an idea was born. I wasn't sure where this project would take me, but I was eager to learn. By taking a step back from my own day-to-day designing I began to see some of the big design trends that were quickly shaping the industry.
Even though I was still a young designer, this exploration helped push me forward to the designer I am today. You can read some of the articles in their entirety on the Look and Logo website.
Dive into the details with these design write-ups
Learning by writing
PUTTING PEN TO PAPER
For the next several years I analyzed the amazing work being produced by businesses and agencies around the globe. The more I wrote more, the more doors seemed to open. I started to connect with designers from these companies, I started attending more design conferences, and I brought all these ideas and strategies back to my design team at Tableau. I was able to gain a much deeper understanding of what and why things were happening in the design industry and began to push our team to reevaluate our own branding and design systems. It helped to look back as I continued to move forward.
For me, the look and logo became even more important than ever. It is a brand's first impression but also their lasting impression. I started to apply this to my own design thinking - and a lot of things started shifting. I began to mature as a designer and in 2018 I sat in the audience at How Design Live and heard a phrase that has lasted with me until today.
“Look back to go forward” were the words Lisa Congdon said on the keynote stage in Chicago and they resonated with me ever since. The 4-hour flight was filled with contemplation about where I have been and where I wanted to go. It was the best kind of advice: the kind you didn’t know you needed until it was finally said out loud. By looking back on my journey from creative high school kid, to college architecture student, to self-taught visual designer, I began to see all the common threads that shaped who I am today. Then I began to move forward creating this next phase of my journey.
CREATE MORE. SHARE OFTEN.
What started as a design blog reviewing some of the inspiring big brand redesigns evolved into an Instagram account where I began to highlight all the amazing work I was seeing online. Instead of focusing on just rebranding projects, I began to connect with individual designers who were making some jaw-dropping work.
The design industry is massive and filled with some incredibly talented people. I work hard to create great work in my day job, but I also wanted a way to contribute to this diverse and vibrant community of creatives. By zooming out and looking at the industry from a different vantage point, I have a much stronger grasp on the what, why, and who behind all the impactful design work we see around us.
To see some of the latest inspiring work in branding, identity design, illustration, packaging, photography, and user experience design check out Look and Logo on Instagram.
Follow along for more design and inspiration @lookandlogo
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© 2021 Matt Knorr. All Rights Reserved.