[mratzloff]

You, too, can have a generic logo that doesn't actually reflect your individual company, message, or values! Simply pair it with a font of your choosing (font and logo need not match), and you have yourself a brand.

These kinds of things devalue the actual work that goes into real branding, like crowdsourcing your logo or Marissa Mayer popping out something that she thinks "looks nice" over a weekend. It also has the effect that any graphic designer who can whip something up in Illustrator thinks they are a brand expert.

[jasim]

No. I'm bootstrapping a product startup, and the only thing I care about now is whether it works and whether people find _value_ in it. Its logo doesn't matter, the copy doesn't matter, glossy startuppy pictures don't matter. The only thing that matters now is whether it is materially useful - whether someone thinks that their life is easier because this tool exist in this world.

So when this site came up a long time ago in /new, I grabbed one of it and put it on - only because my product contains a Chrome Extension, and it needs a small 32x32 icon. And, it is a damn good logo too. I also sent an email asking permission to use it, and even offering to pay (peanuts) for exclusive access, and the founder was extremely courteous and reminded me that it doesn't matter what you start with, you can always change once you get traction.

So there you go. I love my generic logo.

[malandrew]

I can't upvote this enough.

I know a few of the true stories behind the original logos of some of SV's unicorns and this is spot on (unfortunately, I cannot share them because they were shared in confidence). The parent comment is not wrong about the value of a great brand, but it can easily become a huge frivolous distraction after a certain point when you're should be focusing on building something useful for people in their daily lives. You can always perform a full brand refresh later once you can afford to spend a few months and lots of money to do so, and that's exactly what many unicorns eventually do.

I've seen outside designers rationalize some of these well known brands after the fact without knowing the inside and often accidental story and its comical. It's brand design. Like all the other components of a great company and great product, it's contributory like engineering and customer service, but it's not like you're solving World peace. For some products/services and target markets, the brand may be very important. For others, it could be non-consequential. "Worse is better" and "perfect is the enemy of done" apply to brand design as much as in any other aspect. Like other aspects you can always iterate and improve later.

[jiblylabs]

Totally. I think there is plenty of value in design and brand work. The types of startups that don't have the money, or need to get a professional designer to help them out aren't the types of customer any designer would want in the first place. So free resources like these simply fill the gap to make sure startups don't waste $5 on fiverr for crap, instead get something much nicer for free. WHen they have the money and are seeing their company get traction, their brand becomes important and they'll naturally shift towards designers. I think the company behind this resource understands that. bravo.

[LCDninja]

I appreciate your dedication to delivering value, however it's also worth considering the emotional connection people make with your product. A logo is essentially a mental shortcut to your offering, your story, and your value proposition. A distinct logo compresses all the meaning behind what you do into a simple reminder, a mental shortcut. Great logos are unique and memorable.

Your pitch is important, and tone of your copy is important in framing and expressing this. For example, if you're asking me to download an executable you need to gain a certain degree of trust on behalf of the user. Trust is an emotion. Good art & copy can go a long way to building trust.

Branding is really the emotional connection you make with your user base, and emotional connections aren't rational things. This is why excellent products sometimes lose to less functionally valuable products - because we've distilled the rational meaning down to something which is irrational.

To "like" Apples products, for example, is not rational - it's emotional. The meaning behind Apples brand is more than the functional value of it's products. It represents something different to each of us, even though we're all using the same product. For some people, Apples brand represents a part of their own identity - this is about as emotional as it gets. Apples brand communication has touched these people in a strong way. Do you think Apple could have built such a loyal following with a MS Paint logo and terrible copy?

To put it another way, branding could also be thought of as packaging - and it's well known that packaging is extremely important to product success.

[UK-AL]

Yes, but all of that comes after you have something of value.

Spending tons of money on brand design, when you really need a minimum viable product to get you going is not a good plan.

Once you've worked out you have something of value, that people are willing to part with their cash for, then by all means spend tons of money on it.

[Mahn]

Well said, it's the product and the execution what matters, not the product logo and name. Heck, you could probably use a ridiculous name with a logo designed in MS Paint and as long as the product delivered amazing value people would just get used to it.

That's not to say there's no value in well made branding, but it's just not something that an early startup should care about much.

[chejazi]

I'm bootstrapping a product startup as well and I have to agree. My logo is the cent symbol, in Arial font. Lots of other things to be working on!

[LeifCarrotson]

Good luck! I work at a company where the logo is the founder's last name, in Arial Black, the aspect ratio slightly squished because the original designer was an ME with no software experience to know how to preserve aspect ratio. Now that logo is on 20 years and tens of millions of dollars worth of machines, so it would be hard to change, but it's fine.

[homarp]

https://www.khanacademy.org/computer-programming/dell-logo/5... ?

[yesimahuman]

Design isn't an all-or-nothing thing. Many of the companies we respect for design came from quick and dirty roots, and if this helps someone get there more quickly, that seems like a plus to me.

[YngwieMalware]

I wonder if the OP has ever even seen Pentagram's earlier work. This assumption that all branding has been slaved over, or that no one has ever come up with a good brand in a short period time, show a lack of understanding about branding AND logo design. Sometimes the quick ideas are the best ones.

[mratzloff]

You got all that from my post which said nothing about a logo needing to be "slaved over"? It does, however, take some thought.

Perhaps you were referring to my comment about Mayer, whose creative output amounted to a collective shrug, as she (and, sure, the design team she micromanaged) produced a logo that did nothing to communicate a new strategy, vision, or purpose.

Which is perhaps appropriate for Yahoo, after all.

[YngwieMalware]

Perhaps being so dismissive about something that is potentially very useful for seeding new ideas about identity wasn't the ideal way to present yourself. Unless that's your personal brand voice, I guess?

[Gracana]

Plenty of companies pay lots of money for logos that don't actually reflect their individual company, message, or values. This just lets people with no money do the same.

[jiblylabs]

If you're serious about your brand, they seem to offer a custom solution. This is however great for having a quick placeholder to get you going. Don't think it devalues design at all. In fact, it clearly states these are designs that were unused and instead of just having them sitting idle, they are opening it up for those that need quick placeholders.

[olalonde]

Heard the same sort of refrain about PHP, WordPress, jQuery, Bootstrap, etc. as they were gaining popularity. Each of them somehow devalued something or made people think they were experts...

[vacri]

Because every side project should spend thousands of dollars getting a "proper logo from a proper designer"? There are people on HN who have talked about their side projects existing on $10 Digital Ocean droplets, should they be dropping $500 for a properly-branded logo from a low-end designer?