Designers Literally Only Say One Thing, and It’s Disgusting
Designers, please, I beg you, for the love of God, stop saying that work is so bad it’s good despite breaking the rules. What are you talking about?
Wrong.
Does my resume break all the rules because it's not written in iambic pentameter?
Marvel logos are obviously very good. They are not avant-garde or esoteric. They conform to an incredibly sophisticated, well-developed set of conventions that are openly discussed, embraced, and celebrated by millions of comic book artists and fans worldwide. Why pretend otherwise?
The AIGA article invokes Paul Rand saying, “a logo cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.” Was Paul Rand arguing that the Incredible Hulk should be made of squares? Was his aesthetic sensibility so sophomoric that he thought comic books should look like corporations? I don't think so, and we can't ask him because he's been dead for decades. If he thought that, he was wrong. Sorry, your design daddy led you astray, designers!
Kick that strawman to the curb! Ignore him! Why perpetuate this impoverished discourse that only imagines two modes—conformity and rebellion—when there are so many better ways to describe, analyze and evaluate design?
Just, tell us why you love Marvel logos, if you want to. We’re all here for it!
Aesthetics for Birds: Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone
Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement, Leonard Koren, 2003
Which "Aesthetics" Do You Mean? : Ten Definitions, Leonard Koren, 2010
Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, 1993