One of the very nice things about hipsterdom is that it has allowed us, by pretending to be ironic about it, to go back to the graphical language of the past, with roots as far back as heraldry.
I'm not sure of that, because I'm not sure it is possible to generalize about postmodernism. While most postmodern theorists would agree on doing away with the high-modern rejection of any classical, traditional or historical vernacular, there isn't a coherent positive direction they would recommend, and many post-modernisms would be as embarrassed by an earnestly traditional work as a high-modernist.
Perhaps I'm seeing what I'm looking for, but, in hipsterdom, I see an aggressive undercurrent of unabashed classicism and traditionalism, taken forward in meaning, but not necessarily in formalism, underlying a very shallow ironic shield that preserves just enough ambiguity to allow bailing out on full classicism when pressed by modernists and postmodernists.
It's a continuum, of course, but I would expect a postmodernist to make a logo with obviously absurd historical references, juxtaposed in a surprising manner, whereas a hipster would put the cool shit he or she likes today in a straight-forward reference to a historical style, letting the meaning supply the irony, rather than the form.
I used to heavily use http://cooltext.com/ to generate logos over 10 years ago, and amazingly it's still there. The site is a web interface to GIMP (or at least was). It basically converts text into any typeface/effect you want.
HipsterLogoGenerator is the modern day equivalent. Text as an image isn't very Web 2.0 (you're supposed to write an equivalent sized CSS file to create the same effect), but today's logos should be ambiguous in relation to the company or products purpose.
Hahaha, awesome I think I'll use this one day. The terms of use are pretty interesting. Looking like the PNGs you can download are unrestricted in terms of use. But they may plan to add a payment feature for SVG downloads:
"Hipster Logo Generator does not own, or sell to others any graphic generated by Hipster Logo Generator users. Anything created on Hipster Logo Generator may be used in your own or commercial projects. It is your responsibility to abide by any licensing regulations related to any design elements on this site, many of which are outlined in the "Resources" section. Hipster Logo Generator is not liable for any artwork / graphic created by its users.
All use of the design elements offered on Hipster Logo Generator are AT YOUR OWN RISK. Prior to creating and using any Logo, Hipster Logo Generator encourages you to perform due diligence to determine that the use of all content within your generated logo is free of any adverse claims and is not subject to any third party rights. Hipster Logo Generator and its creator is not liable if this requirement is not met.
SVG Files
Users must pay the amount set forth via credit card or other payment method in order to access this file format."
I find these terms strange. I have to pay for the high resolution and SVG but still have to check for right violations.
For a payment of 5$ (compare stock photo prices), I expect the right to use it
He's obviously concerned about being sued by, for example, McDonald's because you made and used a logo having golden arches in the shape of an "M" with on a red background with text "McDonald's" at the bottom. There's no way he can detect or prevent every such possibility.
If you pay to use Illustrator, that doesn't automatically ensure that anything you create using Illustrator doesn't infringe on another's trademark. Stock photos are different because they are generally rights cleared (depending on the license you purchase.) This isn't a stock logo repository, this is a construction kit.
A different from a picture, since it may have been trademarked. At least in theory, a picture is free from copyright violation claims if it's been taken independently, but a trademark may be violated even if the logo was independently generated.
At least, that's my understanding of the relevant law (IANAL).
I couldn't see a purchase option was it present? I had the feeling it was in the terms in case he decided to do it later.
The image element resource licenses are listed in the Resources section. Most of them appear to be relatively permissive licenses though some require attribution.
I get the impression it's a nice little side project, and mostly for fun. I guess he didn't what to go to the expense of purchasing licensing rights for stock images or searching out high quality resources which are in the public domain.
I'm not sure if you're serious, but I agree that random would be a better approach. For example, the page could generate 10 random logos, then you choose the one you prefer. Then, it generates 10 random logos based on that one, and repeat. This way, you literally just click three times, and you decided on the best logo for you out of 1,000 randomly generated ones.
Right now it's kind of clunky, and it takes a little while just to setup one concept. I think the target audience is looking for instant here, not a lot of customization.
The Terms of Service link doesn't work. I suppose that means I can do whatever I want with this? Cool!
I used this to make the logo for my kickass ninja rockstar get-the-girls get-the-boys HTTPDY/2 Wangular.js responsive Big Data™ Cloud dirty funky native HTML5 Node.php.rb.haml.sass Web 2.0 .com app! Look: http://imgur.com/1OxBPKD
This is really fun. Is there a way to go back to the previous section while designing? It would be nice to add it, or make that option more apparent. I also think the word hipster is a bit over-played and a turn-off to a lot of people these days. Besides that, cool toy.
Not bad, quite nifty interface as well. I'd use it for a quick site.
Perhaps the next step in the evolution of this logo would be to add some CSS selectors to the text (shadow, glow) for readability purposes against img. backgrounds.
I can't be the only one who sees this as yet another cue that it's time to stop using these played-out design elements. "Est. 2015", "Purveyors of fine...", etc. And yet, the comments here are full of people who seem to legitimately want to use this? To make real design elements for their real projects?
That said, this is a wonderful project. It'll be great to point this out the next time I need to talk someone out of leaning on this particular design language.
