r/CrappyDesign • u/pnine • 4d ago

A logo that doesn’t quite work when it’s monochromatic

Post image
542 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

262

u/nalanajo 4d ago

I can see it perfectly. What’s the issue?

264

u/supertrooper74 4d ago

I read it as killStep at first. I looked up the original black and white logo to see that it is actually SkillStep.

174

u/Bry10022 ￿Graphic design￿ 4d ago

I saw it as 🧬killStep

27

u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 4d ago

Maybe « DNakillStep »

6

u/Deep_Attention_3864 3d ago

How about 8killStep?

17

u/isopode 3d ago

🧬kill issue

6

u/Bigbanghead 4d ago

Or is it Kills Tep?

I read KillStep too. I Googled it and, yes it actually is SkillStep!

10

u/exophrine 4d ago

8 Kills Tep... Sounds like a gang nickname

0

u/GuyEatsTiramisu 2d ago

If I didn’t see this comment I wouldn’t have assumed the dna was an S. Just thought it was a logo

-11

u/OreoSpeedwaggon 4d ago

I read it as "SkillStep" because why sound somebody call their business "killStep?"

15

u/MrDangerMan 4d ago edited 4d ago

If the reason you read it as “skillstep” is because you figured it couldn’t possibly be “killstep” then that means you read it as “killstep”, and had to reason out the actual meaning, lol

-10

u/OreoSpeedwaggon 4d ago

I only mentioned "killstep" because the previous commenter brought it up. I didn't read it as "killstep" when I looked at it.

28

u/Cantusemynme 4d ago

Yep, I too see it perfectly, dna strand killStep.

1

u/McBurger "I need the site to be more.... edgy" 3d ago

Same, it was only after analyzing it further that I saw it the wrong way. But it’s still crappy design because even if you and I can clearly see it, they obviously didn’t test it with more people who would have noticed

1

u/GuyEatsTiramisu 2d ago

Always that 1 comment

123

u/NastyKraig 4d ago

Is this a stairmaster gym or a eugenics clinic?

40

u/Microwave_the_fungus 4d ago

Depends on which floor you get off

9

u/One_Department4090 4d ago

Perfect business pairing

9

u/SothaSoul 4d ago

Porque no los dos? 

4

u/Matter_Infinite 4d ago

Great synergy. If you perform well on the stair master you will be reproduced

1

u/Hakar_Kerarmor 2d ago

"Please go stand by the stairs,

So I can protect you from the Terrible Secret of Space."

35

u/Azkahn616 4d ago

Why the double helix implying dna involvement?

11

u/ledocteur7 4d ago

Evolution I guess ? Kinda linked to learning since it's meant to say "Skillstep".

9

u/aalapshah12297 4d ago

Good to know I will learn whatever they teach in the short timeframe of 10 million years

5

u/StunningElection902 4d ago

I think it’s supposed to be a spiral staircase

1

u/One_Department4090 2d ago

Oh damn 😂

32

u/24-Hour-Hate 4d ago

Well…maybe it’s like an assassin’s guild.

6

u/arthoheen 4d ago

What!!

6

u/samuraijon 3d ago

also "comidas portuguess"

7

u/Giric 4d ago

The helix could have been cleaner and clearer, but I saw SkillStep right off. I don't think it's particularly crappy, but it could have been executed better.

3

u/nanosaur2 4d ago

how would adding another color help?

14

u/InfiniteGays 4d ago

Their website logo has the rest of the double helix that isn’t supposed to look like S grayed out so the entire word “skill” is in black and stands out, so it looks less like kill by itself

Technically a gray and black logo is still monochromatic but I guess you could get the same effect with any two colors

3

u/AsanoSokato 4d ago

𝄞killStep was the name of my dub ska band.

3

u/tarmagoyf 3d ago

Kind catchy to me. I was scrolling right by, thought "what is SkillStep?" and scrolled back to see what sub it was in.

2

u/dunluce1niner 4d ago

I think I saw killStep because I use camelCase a lot, but now that I see SkillStep I can’t unsee it

1

u/DaemonCRO 4d ago

This only works when it’s monochromatic. If the S / DNA was in another colour then it would be practically impossible to read it anything else other than “kill step”.

4

u/RosenButtons 3d ago

I think you'd want the S and the other letters to be the same color and the rest of the helix to be a l different color.

2

u/LossShot9999 3d ago

Yeah and what about the SS in the other logo?

2

u/r_portugal 3d ago

It's either

Kill Step
Training Academy

or

Skill Step
Straining Academy

Is it where you learn about all the different types of sieves and kitchen strainers? Or where you exercise too hard and strain all your muscles?

1

u/Moldat 4d ago

Is this a new wow forever rogue ability?

1

u/BrewbeardSlye 3d ago

Is it genetics or training?

1

u/gofereverett 3d ago

Oh I see it’s KillStep Straining Academy

1

u/JaehaerysIVTarg 3d ago

HelixKillStep?

1

u/ArmanFromTheVault 3d ago

Oh wow. That’s insane.

1

u/phoenix_has_rissen 1d ago

u/step needs to be careful here

0

u/Tim-the-Ferret 4d ago

The S is thicker than the other line, so I can read it perfectly fine. Skill issue ig

0

u/JustHumanGarbage 3d ago

I want that Portuguese food in the background

-6

u/jelybely8 4d ago

That sign isn't monochromatic, homey.

17

u/awfioj 4d ago

I’d say it is. Are you saying it’s not grayscale? My understanding is that monochromatic images are made solely of varying intensities of a single hue. In this case the hue is orange.

-13

u/jelybely8 4d ago

With white text.

7

u/awfioj 4d ago

Wikipedia’s monochrome entry has stuff like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CPT-Websites-monochrome.svg

6

u/awfioj 4d ago

Interesting, “design composed from true monochromatic color shades (one hue fading to black), and the colors created from the one hue but faded to all wavelengths (to white). This is not monochromatic in the strictly scientific meaning of the word.” (Wikipedia, monochrome)

So scientifically color-white gradients do require all wavelengths (duh) so are not monochromatic from a wavelength perspective. However from a design perspective color-black and color-white gradients are both still monochromatic in my (and others’) common usage.

1

u/ajsamtheman 4d ago

White is technically not a color, and any color can become white if brightened enough, so while it isn't technically monochromatic, white+any color is close enough to slightly off white+any color that there isn't a point in being pedantic, especially when the main flaw in the image is that the logo is supposed to have an extra color in the first symbol to denote it as an 'S'

2

u/jelybely8 4d ago

To be fair, isn't 90% of Reddit pedantry?

3

u/ajsamtheman 4d ago

Well to be truly pedantic. 90% of the 1-3% of reddit that actually comment or post

5

u/jelybely8 4d ago

Now you're getting the spirit!

1

u/rxninja 4d ago

That is not how colors work and basically everything you said is wrong. Brightness is how much light there is, which does not change color tone at all.

You're thinking of saturation. Any color (as light) becomes white at lower and lower saturation points.

Furthermore, white is technically all colors because it's an even distribution of color wavelengths that all cancel each other out. It is the presence of light where no particular color wavelength is more visible than the rest. Black is not a color, as it is the full absorption of all visible wavelength colors (and absence of light).

0

u/someguy00004 4d ago

White, grey and black are colours. Achromatic colours, but still colours.

5

u/AnorhiDemarche 4d ago

The logo is monochomatic. Their regular logo has the S stand out

3

u/pnine 4d ago

Logo, not sign. You agree that you can put a logo on different color backdrops, no? 

2

u/cimocw 4d ago

It is. It means one color (besides white)

0

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

0

u/jelybely8 4d ago

Hadn't even considered that possibility, but you could be right.