With many of my logos, there’s a sliding scale of influences ranging from “Oh, so that’s where you pinched it from” to “What? Why?”, with a whole spectrum in between. With ‘Ignition’ the most obvious influence is probably the Opel lightning bolt, which makes sense as I was creating a logo for a car magazine and the word ‘ignition’ suggests a spark or explosion. There’s also a nod to the old ‘Backflash’ car window stickers that were popular in the 1980s (I couldn’t persuade my Dad to get one of those, but they probably didn’t make ‘Allegro’ stickers anyway). Other influences are possibly a bit less obvious. IBM’s iconic striped logo, designed by Paul Rand, was created to symbolise speed and dynamism; the tightly-kerned Knoll and 3M logos suggest precision engineering and a modernist sensibility; the adidas ‘Trefoil’ is a logo I’ve always loved so it's permanently on my inspiration shortlist; and all those hours spent sitting on the floor of Litherland Moss audio-visual room, waiting for ‘How We Used To Live’ to begin, means the ITV Schools and Colleges countdown clock is something that has lodged itself into my subconscious along with all the other 1970s regional idents, so the low-fi, slightly too thin, out of focus lines of this rudimentary digital clock often worm their way to the front of my brain when I’m working. I know some of these make more sense than others.

What’s the point of this post? I’m just saying that if you’re designing a logo for your favourite coffee shop or artisan bakery, it’s fine to be inspired by other coffee shops and bakeries, but it might be even more interesting if you drag in the illustration style from that 1970s jazz-rock album you’re always banging on about, reference the colour palette from an old cartoon about a boy and his dog, and reinterpret a bit of signage from an abandoned catering equipment shop that you briefly saw from the upstairs window of the 86 bus. Because if you don't, I will.