Smashing Magazine also creates posts that aggreagate design and development trends and techniques from around the web; including but not limited to, WordPress Templates, Writing Resources, and Vexel Artwork Trends and Tutorials.

A recent post, 10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design, caught my eye. This is a shining example of what I love about Smashing Magazine. The post provides a great demonstration of some of the pitfalls that a designer can come across when developing a logo.

Point number 2 Relies on Trends, is a great thought for designers to consider when creating a logo. Logos are a tricky thing, you want it to be fresh and up to date, all the while taking into consideration how trendy you want to be. A trend based logo potentially has a reduced half-life, requiring the logo to be rethought in three to five years. Their advice:

“completely ignoring logo design trends is best”

However, if every designer ignored trends, would logo design ever evolve? What about those logos that buck conformity, go out on their own, and succeed? The history of the Xerox logo is a great marker of this idea. Without a team of designers rethinking the Xerox brand, there would be no eveolution of the logo. Sure, the current logo falls in to the pit of “trendy”, but without these steps, where is the progress? So it’s really a matter of figuring out how trendy or classic you want your specific product to look.

For a great article on design trends, check out Logo Lounge. A great article summorizing the logo trends of 2009, so far.