There's nothing we love more than a great piece of design here at Creative Bloq, but that doesn't mean we don't secretly enjoy seeing something truly awful every now and again. That's the spirit behind a new contest asking designers (and non-designers) to create the worst possible logo for a fictional organisation named SMORTS: Simple Marketing Online Responsive Tech Solutions. Catchy.
Devised by US creative agency Fuzzco, the contest (ingeniously named How Low Can Your Logo?) invites you to "strap on your mouse, throw away your inhibitions and forget what you learned in art school".
The instructions are simple: read the brief ("or don't"), design "the baddest logo ever" and upload it to the contest's website (opens in new tab) for viewers to vote for the best (worst) entry. We're pleased to announce that none of the entries so far will be entering our best logos list – but many of them are truly hilarious. But while the project is brilliant fun, the aim behind it is to help educate, picking apart exactly what makes a good or bad logo design.
(For more on good logos, see our best monogram logos and our best 3-letter logos.)
From clip art to Comic Sans, the contest is both a treasure trove of graphic design faux pas and an often nostalgic look back at some of the early design trends of the nineties and noughties. Most of the designs are extremely busy, no doubt in response to today's abundance of minimalist aesthetics.
The winner and runners up will be selected by a panel of six judges, including Pentagram partner Michael Beirut and Google Design's Carly Ayres – find out more about the judges here (opens in new tab). The contest closes at 10pm BST on Tuesday 21st April. So, without further ado, below are some of our favourite ghastly takes on SMORTS.
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