The Share Icon Project - One Icon For All Sharing

There was once a time when blogs were called weblogs, diaries and online journals. They were the coolest thing happening on the web at that time. Then came Syndication feeds, which allowed the webloggers to share their content in new different ways. Then there came a variety of feeds, like RSS, RSS 2.0, Atom and so on. So the webloggers who were then already jumped onto Blogger and Wordpress blogging platforms started serving all flavors of these feeds. To display a link to these feeds they needed icon so everyone started using different icons for different feeds.

Atom Icon	XML Icon	RSS Icon

Some used XML icon, others used RSS icon, and some used the orange icon that we see everywhere today. Until one day it was decided by web giants that we should make this icon a standard And so came the RSS icon.

These days there is a variety of websites every offering buttons that you can add on your blogs or websites and allow your site's visitors to share your content with their social networks, bookmarks and email contacts. Some websites offer fancy buttons that expand over to accommodate the dozens of social sites. Each of these websites used their own style, design, logos and icons for sharing and it became confusing to figure out how to share quickly without leaving a webpage.

There was a definite need to have something that tells the visitors that if you click on this button or take your mouse over it you will be then showed a list of sharing options that you can choose from. The purpose was to avoid confusion and make it easier for web surfers to share the information.

ShareIcon  Project, offered the solution to the problem. Alex King creator of the Share This sharing service shared the ShareThis icon with the web community to freely use as the standard sharing icon.
The icon of Share this is shown below:

However, there is another project called Open Share Icons a project run by ShareaHolic. They also suggest that there should be a common icon for sharing and they offer their own icon for this purpose. However they oppose the idea of using the ShareThis icon for the purpose. Since ShareThis icon has copyright restrictions, they suggest that a more openly licensed icon should be used for the purpose.

OpenShareIcons recognizes Alex King's efforts but they present their case in these words:

The design of the Open Share Icon is inspired by Alex King's original Share Icon - . The original Share Icon, designed with community input, driven and popularized by Alex King was later sold to ShareThis/Nextumi, Inc.

Since being acquired, that icon has been subject to take down notices by ShareThis/Nextumi, Inc, and its original intended usage restricted in practice. We, as a community, felt these actions by ShareThis/Nextumi, Inc did not reflect the original spirit with which the original share icon was created, and hence felt the need for a new, truly open, free and more flexible community-driven alternative.

I personally go for openness when it comes to technology and ShareThis icon is definitely not open. So I personally recommend using the Open Share Icons.

Calm and Soothing - Logos of Spas and Saloons

It really fascinates me how so many logo design artists come up with the same idea when designing a logo for a particular type of business. For example, when they are designing a logo for a law firm you would see that a great many of them will come up with the idea of incorporating the lady justice or her scale into the logo.

Some might argue that it is such a shame that these cheap logo design companies come up with stereotypical ideas. Well actually it is not that they are lazy, its just that they have professionals who do not care much about creating something a new instead they would just stick to the rule book of logo design that they have hidden in their desk drawer.

For example lets have a look at the logos of Spas and Saloons created by some logo design companies and the artists. Notice that almost all of them incorporate the same style element into their logos. These elements are elegance, femenine touch, colors, curves and lines that represent female body.

This is the logo os some Real Spa Thalasso. Notice the colors and the curves. 

This is the logo of Maiden spa, instead of using the shades that i mentioned they used black and white but a figure of female body and elegance element is still there.

Now have a look at a non typical logo of a Spa.

This is the logo of a Girl's Gotta Spa Inc. Visit their website 

This logo design is different and creative. It uses a combination of different colors prominently pink, even though it does use a female figure but the femenine curves of the body are replaced with a fun looking portrayal of a comic character. The typeface is not so deadly elegant but a fun elegant. Now even though it does use the similar style elements but it is not an stereotypical logo design of a spa and people would definitely notice it and love it.

Logo Design - what is the right price?

The price you pay for your professional logo design depends on what you want to do with your business and brand identity. If you are an established medium sized corporation you might afford to hire a team of famous designers or sign deal with some marketing or advertising agency. If you are a small business with big ambitions you might want to try some expansive free lance designer.

We believe that to succeed in the wild, small businesses need to make smart decisions.  Smart decisions are those decisions which help you reduce the cost and achieve the highest possible solution to the issue at hand.
The smart decision in that case would be hiring a professional logo design company that offers these things:

1. Affordable Prices
2. Unique Designs
3. Customer Satisfaction
4. Great Support

You can easily compare the prices among different design companies. However, it might be a little difficult for you to find out which one of these companies do the most unique designs and have the most talented teams. Because you see in this case the quality of logos is a subjective term. Some might think that one design company is better than the other and other experts would disagree. So you will have to trust your instinct on this matter.  For other items in the list you can read the reviews customer testimonials and information provided on the company’s website.

Whatever you do one thing you should never forget that your logo design is very important for your business.