Here’s a font geek post exploring the typography of Star Wars through the years.

I recently went to the eastern shore of Maryland and came across this awesome bank logo on the outside wall of a bank. It made me want to walk in and give them my money. and other people’s money. and sacrifice some children in their name.

Now let’s compare it to citibank’s logo, which only succeeds in evoking slightly positive associations for a series of tween magazines that I will never read:

I am a huge fan of simple and memorable. but I think branding has overtaken design – companies just pick something catchy and throw it in peoples faces over and over until it becomes “them”. It’s important sometimes to remember a time when a logo actually evoked real emotions. Look at the font selection. Look at the kerning. Look at the stone they chose for the outside wall of the bank as a background, that has aged beautifully over the years. Look at the bird. It’s a real sculpture with depth, shadows, and gravitas. I mean, wow, it’s just stunning.

Ok, now everyone can chime in with pithy observations about how this would look terrible on a webpage banner, or how it makes them think of nazis.

While we’re talking about logos… do you agree with these color categories? Some of these brands are quite old. What came first, the color or the emotion?

Some fascinating stuff in here.  (And yes, I know these aren’t charts, but I like to also post on interesting graphic design issues.) (via)

Do you see “MOM”?

The arrow in FedEx?

The bear in Toblerone?

I have no idea why I never noticed the 31 before. it’s pretty obvious.

Want more? Google “hidden logos”.

How does your brain process visual information and relationships? Read this article to begin to understand it.

Here’s a related article on the topic by Stephen Few that you might find interesting.

And a walk-through example of why this is important by Cole Nussbaumer.