With the influx of Web2.0 redesigns and designers' efforts to bring the look and feel of things in general "current" there's a trend, and i repeat... trend occuring. I know you've seen it too but might not have taken note. I'm (not affectionately) referring to the wet floor effect. It's the overhauled old logo with a friendlier and more approachable lowercase type treatment, garish colors, and the gradated reflection below. This category does not include the at&t or ups identity redesigns. Although some may disagree, serious thought went into those.



There's a parody thread at http://yh.yayhooray.com/ where contributors are submitting their own web2.0 redesigns of some better known logos. A quick glance confirms it's a parody. There are other sites popping up too.

I remember briefly being impressed about a year ago by the effect in the iCorn Project flash piece and have since seen it used appropriately by Nike and others to put visual objects or elements into a space and add dimension. The notion of the effect actually being part of an identity is gratuitious and destined to quickly become dated and obsolete once the trend passes.

I've experienced plenty of instances when I felt like all the good ideas were used up. I've also gone through the lengthy process to design an original mark from scratch, only to see an almost identical treatment appear elsewhere right before a client gives final approval. Identity design should always try to seek integrity, originality and longevity for our clients. When it doesn't, the discipline as a whole suffers from mistakes that we didn't learn from.