Even though you had some really good pointers, your final comp examplifies what happens when you make a recipe by following the book to the letter. You end up with the same bland dish everybody else makes. I know you just did that as a quickie, just hinting that sometimes bending the rules a little is necessary to stand out from the crowd.
This one has as much ‘depth’ as the cube one but is much more dynamic (despite it’s many flaws). I kinda liked the spiky cross beam in the A of your original attempt. Keep at it.
Just a thought on the company name itself. I work for a corporate entity that has many “companies”. The trend seems to be moving away from stating what the company does in the name. Unless you can come up with something that sort of conveys what you do, like Microsoft (software for microcomputers), you might as well stick with something benign like Apple or Sun (which also conveys info about your company on a different level). Just a thought…
I didn’t intend for my comp to be a “this is what you should have done” illustration. I just put it there as an illustration of the points I was making in case I wasn’t clear enough in my writing. I hope I didn’t come across as if I was attempting to do it for him (because you’re right, it was just a quickie).
Regarding breaking/bending the rules: I agree, sometimes you do need to break the rules. However, ‘rules’ exist for a reason, usually because it helps strengthen the work. So, yes you can break the rules (and quite often should) but you should know the rules and know why you’re breaking them so that you have a stronger piece.
Though some rules shouldn’t be broken, like no small detail if you want to print on a business card, etc.
You are quite right. Yet there is always that one gifted person that is totally clueless and seems to be breaking every rules and still do great stuff. These guys piss me off. Hahaha…
BTW I did not mean my post to be a broad statement against “good design principles”. Just a mild warning about blindly following “guidelines” rather than use good old problem solving and a little experimentation.
Given today’s papers, alternative substrates and improvements to printing technologies, you can get away with quite a bit more detail than you could even a decade ago. Hence the need to experiment even if only a little… as long as your customer is willing to go along.
