A couple of weeks ago, I loaned out a book called “Logo Design Love.” It’s a great primer on the logo design process, best practices, and how to get the most out of client relations, by none other than David Airey himself. (If you don’t know him, just google “Graphic Designer” – he’s number 5 on the results page, the only individual in the world to make it above page 2…)
The thing about this particular book is, it’s filled with notes. I’ve loaned it out a dozen times, and just like every other time, I pre-marked a few relevant passages to address what each creative was personally going through. Each time, it comes back with several additional dog-eared pages.
I say this to illustrate a single point: This book is good.
Note: We’re giving away a few copies of Logo Design Love, by David Airey. Jump to the bottom of this post if you’d like to get a free copy! The giveaway is now over, but keep reading — We’re still giving you a free chapter to download!
Enter David Airey
David Airey is a brand identity designer based out of his own home office in Northern Ireland. He runs three extremely successful design blogs (here, here, and here), and he’s personally been a good influence and spoken into my career along the way. He’s a good guy, that David, and you should connect with him. He’s on Twitter (@DavidAirey, @LogoDesignLove, @ID_Designed), Facebook, and LinkedIn.
All images in this post used with permission and supplied courtesy of David Airey.
Logo Design Love, The Book
The biggest thing that I love about this book is that, while it’s not especially long (203 pages), it does pack quite a punch. It’s not the type of book you’d have sitting out on your coffee table, heavy on form and light on function. No, this is the type of manual that sits within arms’ reach, right next to your computer and your sketchbook. It gets used. It collects notes. It collects ideas and sketches.
In fact, just about the only thing my copy doesn’t collect is dust.
The book is divided up into three sections which cover identity principles, work processes, and motivation/life management, respectively. If you’ve ever had a less-than-solid design, an awkward situation, gotten burned out, overpriced or underpriced yourself, or made a rookie mistake, then you’re guaranteed to walk away with something valuable after a short read. Trust me, the section on setting client expectations and managing the designer/client relationship is worth its weight in gold.
If you’re perfect in every way, well… you owe it to your colleagues to pick up a copy that they can borrow.
It’s available in paperback (here) and digital form (here).
Free Chapter
If you’re not yet convinced, or if you like to try before you buy, you’ll be happy to know that David offers everyone a complementary chapter from his book, which you can pick up here.
The free chapter is entitled “From Pencil to PDF,” and it includes the following topics:
- Mind-mapping
- The fundamental necessity of the sketchpad
- The Tenth Commandment
- Pinning the map
- Internationally recognized
- No set time
- Dress for success
- Black and white before color
- Where Photoshop comes into play
- The pen is mightier than the mouse
Free Book Giveaway
This book is such a great resource, I’d really like to share it with several readers. In fact, I believe I will.
Here are a few ways you can enter the drawing (you can do all of them to increase your odds):
- You can click here to tweet about the giveaway. (feel free to follow)
- You can click here to connect with me on Facebook. (just like the page to enter)
- You can subscribe to the blog via email.
Additionally, I’m going to go ahead and guarantee a free copy to the one person who holds the “Top Commenter” spot (across all of ShawnWeston.com) as of the close of this giveaway. I love to hear from you guys, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this. :)
Update, July 1, 2012: We’ve had great response from the creative community, and I’m excited to get to share this resource with some of you. I’ve decided to bring the giveaway to a close on Friday, July 6th, 2012 (12:00 PM CST), at which time I’ll get in touch with our selected winners.
Remember, I’m guaranteeing a free copy of Logo Design Love to the person who has the most comments site-wide as of the close of this contest. Currently, our top commenter only has five under her belt, so this is wide open.
Update, July 6, 2012: Wow, the involvement from the creative community was outstanding! Drawing from the names of people who got involved, I’m happy to announce that Matt Langner and Erika Glasper have scored a copy of the book (both from our email list), as well as Monica Marcil (for currently being the most-involved creative here at ShawnWeston.com). I’ll be in touch today to get mailing addresses. Enjoy!
