TONI ZOVA

Today’s post is different, I want to expose designers that have plagued the design industry as a whole. To expose those that piggy back ride on others hard work. To do all that, without naming names, without pointing fingers, without ruining careers. Maybe this will act as a wake up call for all those fuckers.

I guess today may as well go down in logo design history as the day everything was set to change. But first a disclaimer, I really don’t care much about what the logo design community has to say, but this is for those that are genuine, that still have morals and ethics, that still love what they do.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as a warning to many that I know read this blog, to those that dislike me for my brutal honesty and for the fact that I am a real logo designer, genuine, and passionate about what i do, while they’re just fakes, never-will-be’s. This article is not intended to offend those still in love with the industry, those who care about the industry and value it and appreciate it.

It’s disgusting you know? What’s happening in today’s design industry. Designers claiming to know it all, running around with a chip on their shoulder…What do they have to show for it? Honestly, probably a couple mortgages. But you know, I’m not going to base success on how much money they’re making, that wouldn’t be fair. After all, thanks to their none-existent marketing knowledge, business knowledge and for the most part none-existent common sense, it’s not hard to see why many of them would resort to cooking up work for pennies.

It doesn’t even surprise me that popular well known designers have now started to feel the pressure and slowly began to crack. High expectations mixed with envy drives these weak designers to that point, that little point where nothing makes sense and their judgment becomes clouded where there’s no sense of right and wrong.

No matter how smart you are, no matter where you get inspired from, how deep you dig to find it and think no one will find it, a rip, a plagiarized piece of work will always surface. You’ll be caught, remember that. It doesn’t matter who you are and how many you’ll have backing you that day, it doesn’t matter if you deny it or claim that due to your long years in the industry as one of the top designers that there’s no way YOU were inspired. It will not matter if you say you came up with the idea first or if it was a coincidence. There will not be an excuse strong enough, clever enough or legitimate enough to save you. People that forge someone elses signature in real life can end up in jail. Just because this is the internet and you’re ripping a couple graphics does not mean the law of conduct ceases to exist!

Here’s the thing, while many of you feel like reading this bit of drivel is a waste of time, I see it as a clear message, a statement. There are legitimate designers still in today’s industry, and we don’t like what we see. I’m personally gunning for you if you’re one of those rotten fucking apples, I have spare time in my day to find joy in tracking you guys down and exposing you. Even if this remains a one mans hobby, whether or not I find help, I’ll slowly but surely call you all out. That’s a promise, no matter who you are.

Why am I even bothering with all this? Because on some skewed level I feel like I owe the design community. I owe it to myself to be honest and true to the industry I work in, to not stand for the crap that goes on no matter what. If that means calling out fake designers, so be it. If it mean calling out poor design community webmasters, so be it. If that means calling out money hungry design services, that care less about a designers real worth, so be it.

Due to a lack of a better blog post title, this will have to do. I decided to redesign my prev personal logo for several reasons. I’ve always loved my own logo, but it held onto too many memories that I’d rather let go, and as corny as this might sound, the logo had to go for that to happen.

So for the past few months I’ve played with concepts on and off, some were so horrific I almost deleted Illy and called it quits (while some of you bastards would have loved for that to happen, sorry, it didnt.)
Kept on trying till I decided to drop the “toni” and work with branding myself, and my work etc as just ZOVA.

(off topic. wow, Jared had to link me to this - nsfw….I’ll get back to this post in 10min…)

Ok, back, so here’s what I came up with, it’s a simple mark but I think it does it’s job well and represents my style nicely. Bold, in your face, sharp and modern. I’d like to add perfect but while I might be perfect, I know the mark is far from it, will always remain a wip I suppose, isn’t that the case with all out personal logos? The font is also custom made for the mark, gotta thank Jared here for giving me his constant feedback, appreciate it dude (goes back to look at more links…damn it, fucker…)

Alright, that’s it, just wanted to let people know of the news. Will be sure to update you once my hot new business cards come in etc. Keep it real.