Decoding the Design: Freelancer vs. Purposeful Logo Creation by Alex Ross

‘the logo a freelancer designed ‘versus the logo I “designed” ‘with Imagine AI ‘only in a few seconds’ AI visual design ethics aside let’s take a moment to talk about how this is actually a great logo and this one is the visual equivalent of chewing on thumbtacks what’s called a ‘freelancer design’ here is actually the creation of comics artist Alex Ross who designed it for the world weary future Superman who comes out of retirement in the series Kingdom Come the in-story explanation that we’re given for the simplified s with the black in place of yellow? Superman is in mourning for a nuclear disaster that he failed to prevent that wiped out all of Kansas Brandon Routh would actually wear a version of this on the CW when he returned as his version of Superman from earlier in the century where he added this explanation: ‘even in the darkest time ‘hope cuts through darkness ‘hope is the light that ‘lifts us out of darkness’ Alex Ross would also add that it’s a bit of a throwback in fact to earlier versions of the Superman crest this one appeared in the comics but there was a similar one that also appeared in Superman cartoons at the time and as much as this is a sadder more world-weary Superman Ross also had him returning to his roots being a farmer again and so wanted his visual to be a bit of a throwback too this logo has intention behind it it has purpose there is a meaning multiple layers of meaning this one is just an eclectic unfocused mess all these spikes because I guess they um I dunno spikes look cool? texture for I suppose texture’s sake what look like 2 independent light sources I think? that also signify nothing it is very much subtraction by addition which is why you just know that there’s a corporate suit somewhere who saw this meme and thought that the image on the right look pretty good…