Maggie Macnab has been recognized as an innovative design communicator and logo designer for over three decades. She has written two books on design theory, Design by Nature (New Riders, 2011) and Decoding Design (F+W, 2008), and most recently hosted Designing Effective Logos, a logo-design training video series. Maggie is a design educator at various universities and colleges, and gives workshops on designing with nature in mind. She is committed to beautiful, functional design and creative problem solving based in nature’s richly practical process.
A handful of simple shapes have been used throughout time in the art of all cultures: the circle, intersecting lines, the triangle, the square and the spiral. Each fundamental shape never varies in its basic function because each unifies purpose with form. Don’t let the simplicity of these forms fool you. It is because they are so simple that they have the ability to scale consistently and are used as the building blocks of nature and the man-made world. They also provide consistent messaging for a logo. In this third part of the series, Maggie Macnab will talk about how geometry influences logo design.
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The essential property of a pattern is repetition. Because they are continuous, they read like a story. The periodic migration of herds, the transit of constellations across the sky and the distinct features of different terrains are all examples of patterns that create expectations upon which we depend. Designers use patterns based on nature because they are reliable. This three-part series explores fundamental creative strategies for designing effective logos. The first part showed how to use symbols, metaphors and the power of intuition. In this part, Maggie Macnab shows you how to use nature’s patterns in logo design.
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Designing a good logo is the utmost in creative problem-solving. The process makes you really think succinctly about how relationships work. The practice of logo design develops your skills of intuition to recognize obscure but effective solutions and teaches you to discover connections that aren’t apparent on the surface. Adding a universal quality to a logo provides the broadest communicative reach, what almost all identities are intended to accomplish. This three-part series explores fundamental creative strategies for designing effective logos. The first part shows how to use symbols, metaphors and the power of intuition.
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In order to understand what an ambigram is, we need to look at both parts of the ambigram: the word and the universal principle being expressed.
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Symmetry is the ordering principle in nature that represents the center of balance between two or more opposing sides. As a fundamental design principle, it permeates everything: from man-made architecture to natural crystalline formations. In nature, symmetry exists with such precision and beauty that we can’t help but attribute it to intelligence–such equal proportions and organization would seem to be created only on purpose. Consequently, humans have borrowed this principle for its most iconic creations and symbols.
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