Not too long ago we explained why your logo is not your brand. However, sometimes there is a brand so strong the only thing missing is a logo.

Consider human rights. It is a cause that touches every part of the world yet lacks a single symbol to represent it. Until now, of course. The human rights logo design competition has come to a close and the winning logo is beautiful. It brilliantly blends two universal symbols for humanity and peace: a hand and a dove.

The new identity is reminiscent of the peace symbol, which does not belong to any company or organization, but rather stands as the symbol for all things peaceful. Only time will tell if the world adopts the human rights logo with the same enthusiasm.

Learn more about the Human Rights Logo Design Competition and download the logo.

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Sandstorm Design is a Chicago user experience agency that builds intuitive web sites, interactive web applications and creative marketing campaigns leveraging a user-centered design methodology.

SD: You’ve been following design trends for a long time. Which ones do you believe have the strongest staying power?

PM: [The trends with the strongest staying power] are definitely ones that aren’t trends any more, they’re just normal ways of doing anything. I guess at some point in the history of the web putting the logo in the top left was a trend, and then it just sort of became the norm. One that you noticed popped out a couple years ago—I always called it the pitch—on a homepage you have this nice, clear, bold text that basically sums up what a site does. At some point people started doing that and now it’s just what you do so that people know what the heck they’re looking at… This new trend became a norm and now it’s a fundamental part of every site.

SD: Are there any trends that you don’t like, that bother you?

PM: [Laughs] Yeah, every trend kind of goes through that for me. For example in the whole web 2.0 craze everybody was putting badges on their sites—those little starry badges—and it was kind of like, God that’s annoying. At the time it’s just part of what you’re doing but as you look back you’re just like, I’m so glad that’s over.

The irony is now you can still use them; people just use them when it actually makes sense. Most annoying trends eventually fade away and then just resolve to what they should have been in the first place—which is very functional.

SD: Which sites have web designers been able to look to consistently for industry standards?

PM: I actually think there is an overwhelming amount of design work that’s not necessarily mainstream or the big name stuff, it’s just normal designers doing their job everyday. And in a lot of ways that’s what fills my books. I don’t focus on the facebooks or the amazon.com type of stuff because we all see that. I much prefer to focus on small studios or lesser-known resources…That’s been most definitely the source for me over and over—the unknowns.

SD: If you could give web designers one ultimate challenge for the future, what would it be?

PM: Learn to code a little bit. [Laughs] A lot of people disagree with that. I don’t expect designers to be full-on developers and coders but I think that the people who are getting the most fanfare as awesome designers can also code. They just understand both sides of the coin and how to work with the medium the best, essentially.

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We love Patrick’s books, and can’t wait for the Designer’s Web Handbook to be released. At Chicago-based Sandstorm Design, our entire team works closely to create powerful brand experiences supported by user research and a strategic marketing approach. Let us help you stay ahead of the curve with custom web solutions that are one step ahead of your competition.

Some people like to put their brand identity on business cards and letterhead, others prefer choppers. That’s right—choppers. One of our partners, Aaron Equipment, got a custom branded bike from Orange County Choppers and appeared on their TLC show American Choppers.

The bike now sits proudly at their Bensenville headquarters. Of course, after visiting their office and seeing the bike, we had to take pictures. And who wouldn’t? This is really a great example of creative marketing—getting your brand out there by connecting with your audience on their interests.

Now that summer is in full swing in Chicago and the festivals have taken over the weekends, it’s a perfect time to get creative with your marketing. And “creative” could be anything from a custom chopper to a clever sidewalk chalk stencil. If you need a little help brainstorming some creative marketing ideas, let Sandstorm Design give you hand!

Starting bright and early at 7am this morning, the metal studs were cut to unite our two spaces. When I first called the office, Zak answered the phone “It’s a loud day here at Sandstorm” which made me laugh “out loud”. If you call Sandstorm enough and are fortunate to get him to answer, he’s always got a witty and generally funny phrase for the day. I could tell in the background that the noise was annoying pretty much everyone, so to thank them all for their patience and tolerance through the noise today, I took the Sandstorm team out to Jury’s for lunch. Yum!

Now it’s nearly 4pm and our construction crew is gone. We finally have some peace and quiet to do our interactive and marketing magic, and the huge draping plastic wrap is a unique creative inspiration. It’s actually so eerily quiet in here that it feels a lot like a serious corporate environment… I can actually hear the hum of my laptop and the slight clatter of a few keyboards.

Our new neighboring space was painted today (whoo hoo!), and has such a creative, fun, lofty yet still marketing and interactive agency look to it. The old walls were gray and electric blue, which was interesting, but didn’t have our more signature sandstorm look. Plus the gray made me sad, so I just love the new shade of blond that replaced it.

In addition, we are introducing “the fishbowl”. It’s one of two new huddle rooms with tons of glass windows, with interior walls painted blue, so it kind of feels like you are in a fishbowl when you are working in it. It’s going to be great to reduce the sound of the trains on conference calls, and is a great brainstorming room. Jon is donating some old floor lamps for ambiance. Thanks Jon!

And I can’t forget our newest lunchroom. Ah… no more having to clean up the conference room or usability lab last minute because a group decided to grab lunch together, and leave random things behind. Now we have a large, bright space that will probably always have hot sauce packets on the table or tables – we haven’t decided if we want a few smaller tables or one big one.

So right before Christmas we’re going to get just the greatest gift… A new and improved, much larger space for 2010! Thank you to my fabulous and dedicated staff and to our clients for making this possible as we continue to grow as one of Chicago’s emerging boutique interactive agencies. :)

It’s a major break through moment for us. The tenants next door to our office are moving out this month. This is pretty exciting. This is our chance! This is our moment… to break into that space and commit to our explosive growth. It’s our opportunity to embrace change, and start to design the newly added space. (which is the really fun part).

So I am printing out floor plans of our current loft office and of the office next door for all of the staff to draw up what kind of space they need as we continue to grow. Do we finally need a full lunchroom? Do we need a game room? A creative brainstorm room outside of our kind of cool conference room. Someone mentioned huddle rooms? Do we need quiet rooms? Or maybe a nicer place for the fantastic contractors we know and love so they don’t have to work so close to the microwave and micro their brain waves out…

When we moved into this space 2 years ago I always envisioned that we would knock out part of the wall and make a curved archway into the new space. But after visiting the layout, I think the entire wall is going to have to go to really break through. My friend Ron told me that companies are the most efficient after a move, I’ll let him know how it goes.