Please, kill the amiga ball

[vic20owner]

One thing about the Amiga I wish WOULD die is that stupid checkered ball.  Come on guys, this is the lamest logo ever.  

Sure it was cool in the early 90s when 3d was the new thing, but today it's almost embarrassing to see an Amiga logo with that stupid ball in it.. seems you can't find a single Amiga backdrop or logo without that ridiculous ball.

I'm am thankful that the AROS guys had enough sense to come up with something new.  While I think an animal for a logo is sort of dated also (playing on the Linux penguin) it's better than a plain old checker boarded ball.

I feel sick everytime I look at it.  It's like looking back at photos of myself in the 80s in a fluorescent shirt with fat boy laces on my checkered vans.

I can't believe one little bouncing ball demo became the entire marketing directive for the whole product line.  How sad!  This is the sort of marketing that let C= sink in the first place and we are carrying on the tradition!

[vic20owner]

Ok, but to me, a TWO COLOR animated ball doesn't do a machine with a 16.8M color palette any justice.  It could have been done on a C64.  As a quick demo, without OS, showing that the hardware works, it's fine... but as a logo it sucks!

[vic20owner]

Matt_H wrote:
On the contrary, Commodore wanted nothing to do with the Boing Ball. The Checkmark and the color swatches were their marketing icons. It was the post-Escom Amiga Technologies / Amiga International that used the Boing Ball, a pattern that has persisted through to today.

Which is why I can't take Amiga,Inc's website seriously.    It looks like a 1999 startup company.

[vic20owner]

Seven Logo Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Summary

If you can successfully avoid these common logo blunders and you are well on your way to a great logo:

1) The Clipart Logo
Most clipart images are widely distributed. Anyone who is familiar with the software providing the clipart will very likely recognize your ‘borrowed’ logo. This is a poor way to build credibility for your business.

2) The Special Effects Logo
Strip away all of the special effects to get at the heart of your design. Special filters such as glows, drop shadows, and bevels are great for creating graphics and manipulating photos, but they can be very distracting when applied to a logo. A great logo should be able to stand its ground in black and white, without any effects.

4) The Banner Logo
A logo is not a web banner advertisement. You are doing yourself more harm than good by forcing your logo into a banner shape, especially if the content is crammed to fit the entire rectangle. Our eyes are trained to avoid these shapes, not read them.

5) The Integrated Logo
Professional logo designers occasionally integrate graphic elements directly into the text to create one unified logo. This process is risky. Executed poorly, your logo can easily look ‘tacky’. (i.e. using the letter ‘O’ in the company name to create a globe, eye, magnifying glass, etc.)

6) The Text-Only Logo
A text-only logo severely restricts the ability to express your company’s uniqueness and memorability. Larger, more established businesses can pull off text-only logos with exorbitant marketing budgets. If you just can’t resist a text-only logo, consider a strong, unique typeface – preferably custom made.

7) The Monogram
Monograms (company initials) are very difficult to use effectively. It will take a long time to build credibility with a monogram logo. Similarly, logos consisting of several overlapping letters generally do not work well. They may be fun to construct, but the end result says very little about your company.

The Complex Logo
Detailed illustrations, photos, and complex layouts make poor logos. Each additional detail is an extra detail that your (potential) customer has to remember. A simple, unique logo with solid shades and minimal lines will have greater impact and memorability.