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Type Battle 39 // Digg logotype
Posted by Jared Benson in
4 Jan 2010 — 4:08pm
4 Jan 2010 — 4:08pm
This week's battle: Design a new logotype for digg. (digg.com)
Let's show our friends over at digg what a logotype could look like when designed by typography experts.
Winner take all, no holds barred. May the best designer win.
// REQUIREMENTS
- Solution must be typographic and contain the letters "digg" in lowercase.
- Letters must be custom drawn. No use of existing fonts!
- Image size: 550 width x 400 height. 72 dpi*
- Color: Black and White
- Format: PNG, GIF or JPG (Preferred in that order. Mmake sure there are no spaces in the name)
*Please try to keep your file sizes to a minimum! 50k per file max.
// ABOUT TYPOPHILE TYPE BATTLES
This is your chance to flex your type muscles on a weekly basis. You have one week to create and submit your entry. Anyone may submit a design response to the challenge. You may enter as often as you wish. Post anytime. Critiques and comments are welcome throughout the game, from participants and spectators alike. Smack talk is encouraged.
As with any street battle, there is no panel of judges and no prize — only the ability to call yourself the best on the block.
Link directly to this battle: http://www.typophile.com/battle39
Link to the battle directory: http://www.typophile.com/typebattles
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5 Jan 2010 — 11:10pm
For shits and giggles.
5 Jan 2010 — 11:17pm
Trying not quite as hard as my first entry, and better for it I think:
6 Jan 2010 — 1:15am
Perhaps something a little less gridded.
6 Jan 2010 — 1:33am
I want to work on a double g ligature for this but I can't figure out a way to without it just looking plain odd with these letterforms.
6 Jan 2010 — 1:53am
Not exactly a marvel of type design per se, but it is amazeingly simple :-)
6 Jan 2010 — 1:58am
@apankrat that pun alone should make you win
6 Jan 2010 — 2:00am
Used Cocon with some adaptations…
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO
6 Jan 2010 — 2:25am
knight's my favorite too :)
--
"Good taste is almost as hard to come by as good design."
6 Jan 2010 — 4:01am
I like Craig's first one a lot.
And why is the man with shovel holding it upside-down?
6 Jan 2010 — 4:08am
Wow, some good stuff. I love Bruno Bruno's first! And Mark's, with the curly-quote.
6 Jan 2010 — 4:19am
Take #2
6 Jan 2010 — 6:39am
Craig, that is much better.
ChrisL
6 Jan 2010 — 7:15am
The thumbs-up icon is kind of appealing. Working with that and an Ed Benguiat flavoured script g might be interesting.
6 Jan 2010 — 7:15am
Felicity, try a single head with two tails.
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 8:01am
My first version was a bit rushed. Here's another take:
6 Jan 2010 — 8:04am
@Mark Simonson: This one's much better, indeed.
6 Jan 2010 — 8:20am
This is awesome! I've shared this battle with the design team at Digg :) Keep it up, stoked to see all of the entries!
6 Jan 2010 — 8:50am
Mark, curving the "g" descenders was actually important.
They're too much like "9"s now.
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 9:11am
You're right. I thought the the same thing right after I posted it, but didn't have time to deal with it. Here's another take:
6 Jan 2010 — 9:25am
When you dig, you extract stuff:
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 9:30am
Someone please tell me this type battle wasn't a cover for Digg getting a free logo...
6 Jan 2010 — 9:53am
Bert, yours is clever!
Funk_king's remind me of Dig Dug.
And why is the man with shovel holding it upside-down?
Methinks his designer has never actually held a dirty shovel!
6 Jan 2010 — 10:02am
Ben, of course if Digg ends up using anything [close to] one of
these, proper credit -and a generous gift- would be in order.
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 10:06am
Sketch I did this afternoon. Any takers for a cleaner version?
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO
6 Jan 2010 — 10:50am
Ben, I think digg guys are quite capable of designing the logo themselves :-) Not that they actually need or want to mess with their existing identity in the first place.
6 Jan 2010 — 10:47am
Gotta be lowercase, Bert!
6 Jan 2010 — 10:59am
Just messin' about during my lunch hour.
Somewhat inspired by Knight's design.
6 Jan 2010 — 11:05am
Alex, there's always room for improvement.
Especially in this case.
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 11:11am
I don't think Digg would have such talent in-house as the designers on this forum have. Craig and Mark's are exceptional designs IMO. I was worried they were being invited do spec work under the guise of a Type Battle. Call me cynical ;)
6 Jan 2010 — 11:12am
@DanGayle
What they should replace is that stupid icon of the dude with a shovel, which is barely recognizable even at large scale.
Yes, Dan. And why a dude? Isn't it time a woman had a turn?
With inspiration from FF Ginger Icons, Velinge and the parentheses of Diavlo, I have cobbled together a female digger. No gradients, drop shadows or bevels for her! Just some unfortunate harem pants that she kept from 1986.
6 Jan 2010 — 11:52am
I never thought the name had much to do with shovels, but with being enthusiastic about something (as in hipster lingo), and talking about it.
6 Jan 2010 — 12:08pm
A couple more variations, taking the punctuation theme further:
6 Jan 2010 — 12:16pm
I can digg it, Mark :-)
ChrisL
6 Jan 2010 — 12:48pm
@mark
I like your second one there, with the curly d and the perspective i. Very cool.
6 Jan 2010 — 12:55pm
Mark, that last one with the person* in there is very nice.
* Could even be a girl, with that skirt. :-)
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 1:01pm
Way to go, Mark!
6 Jan 2010 — 1:02pm
Girl? I thought that was an exclamdown. :-)
Agreed, great stuff.
6 Jan 2010 — 1:07pm
Lc revision.
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO
6 Jan 2010 — 1:14pm
Mark, I might still try an upright "d" but with no counter (not sure about having a foot or not), because the double-quotes mean something but an extra single quote seems extraneous.
hhp
6 Jan 2010 — 1:31pm
Rockin' the dotless i.
6 Jan 2010 — 1:48pm
@Bendy This battle was incredibly presumptious on our part, and is not sponsored by digg in any way. I'm sure the digg designers are perfectly capable of designing their own logo. We just see their boxy logo often and thought it would be a juicy problem to bite into, from one online community to another.
6 Jan 2010 — 1:57pm
Thanks for clearing that up, Jared. I'm happy now and will leave my cynicism at the door next time :)
6 Jan 2010 — 2:32pm
Bah. They're all for youngsters. How about one for real Americans?
Font: Figaro MT
Lot's of nice work here, no need to add to it.
pbc
6 Jan 2010 — 2:33pm
There has to be a cool way to do a "d_i" ligature
This isn't it.
6 Jan 2010 — 4:59pm
Tried a more geometric approach
6 Jan 2010 — 6:11pm
Because digg is about finding the hidden lil' marbles in the maze that is the web.
(I wish I had more time.)
6 Jan 2010 — 6:19pm
… and then you can digg'em up, the marbles.
(I'll stop now.)
6 Jan 2010 — 6:58pm
This is so cool, and I really look forward to participating in this in the future.
Do the companies ever consider a rebrand as a result of these competitions?
If so has there been any discussion about the adverse results of a crowdsourcing / spec work / contest situation?
My apologies if this has been something that has been discussed in excess or beaten to death in the past. I'm new here.
6 Jan 2010 — 7:28pm
The only "rebrand" that I know of was for this site - the results rotate in the red box top left. Here's that thread:
http://typophile.com/battle27
People here are very aware of NOSPEC.
pbc
6 Jan 2010 — 7:39pm
What about that YouTube mini-icon?
hhp