Making a design, in our case both functional and graphical design, isn’t an objective job. In this blog we’ll be looking at the design of the MyRoute-app logo, the stages it went through and where it’s headed in the future.
For example, the MyRoute-app logo went through several iterations before being finalized. The logo I now instantly recognize as being objectively the best possible logo for MyRoute-app, is merely the product of my collective memories associating this logo with this company for the past 7 years or so. Perhaps you think the logo is especially bad, maybe you would’ve liked a different logo better. Maybe putting more focus towards the “moments” feature in MyRoute-app, maybe creating a more realistic pin, maybe even going the abstract route and trying to emphasize “connectiveness”. All in all, even something as “simple” as deciding on a logo is very subjective.
Of all the above logos the middle one was picked as being the most “recognizable”. That said, that’s mostly because all map-based software at that time used pin-like icons to display waypoints. While there’s plenty of arguments that could be made for how that’s a great choice of logo, there’s also good arguments against. After all, it could also be considered a bit lame. Like an online storage service using the iconic floppy-disc icon as a logo. The most important argument against this logo came from Michel however. He liked the logo very much, however, it looked too much like ice-cream.
Using this feedback as input for a new iteration, we designed a new logo that’s both instantly recognizable as a pin whilst not being very “ice-creamy”. This became the current MyRoute-app logo. For good measure we added a plus in the pin, symbolizing how MyRoute-app was an improvement over other legacy-gen route editors.
This logo has been the design for MyRoute-app logo since the inception in 2013, combining the characterstic waypoint logo with stylized “MyRoute-app” lettering through a route line. This peculiar little logo, distinctive from more corporate and abstract logos whilst at the same time exuding a sense of modernity and progress became the brand symbol for MyRoute-app.
Happiness lasted only for a little while though, as during the application of the logo the realisation set in that this logo went with very few colors other than white. In fact, the logo pretty much only worked with white. In general, this wasn’t a problem as there are many ways in which graphical elements can be combined in such a fashion that they create a white background for the logo. Regardless, it made the design progress more time consuming as every design decision could inevitably lead to the question “but how do we make the logo more visible on this design?”. This is why much of the early marketing materials, UI elements and brand visuals contained images of pearly white clouds and snowy mountaintops: ideal backgrounds for the logo.
This problem was quickly resolved by adopting to a then-popular new design trend: flat design. With the first iteration of what artists called flat design, almost all color was removed from logo’s. Returning to an essence of directly recognizable visuals in vibrant colors. What this design trend lacked in visual complexity, it made up for in praciticality. Suddenly, companies all over the world adopted variants of their logo’s containing vibrant photography matched with simple two-tone logo’s. At MyRoute-app, we stylized the visually complex standard logo into a variant that could be used on non-white backgrounds.
Today we’re looking forward to re-inventing our brand, as soon we’re expecting to rebrand some of MyRoute-app’s services for the purposes of clarity. At the same time, we want to bring the design of all logos back to a clearly recognizable identity. Whatever design trend will happen, whether it’ll be about sharp edges or smooth corners, whether it’ll have vibrant hues or a single-color, MyRoute-app will always be instantly recognizable.
