Comments on: Proud of their "New" Logo?

Proud of their "New" Logo?

juiceCake — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:49:29 -0800

Quark gets a new face. Problem is, it looks just like the face of the Scottish Arts Council. Via MacCentral.

By: verb

verb — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:56:58 -0800

Awesome! A completely new logo to associate with agressively customer-hostile business practices. Oracle and Quark should be locked in a room together and forced to fight.

By: herichon

herichon — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:58:04 -0800

When I first read this, I said to myself, what happened to his old face? And how on earth did they make a Ferengi look like a Scottish Arts Council? Never mind.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:02:39 -0800

Seems like a pretty obvious logo design. Two concentric circles incribed in a square that has only one corner visible.

By: Floach

Floach — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:10:09 -0800

Locked in a room and forced to fight? No, Quark should be excuted in a ditch, Chinese dissident-style. For the past five years, I've supported Quark - and nothing, in my entire experience, comes within light-years of the utter lack of quality control and customer support that Quark seems to delight in. These bastards and their wretched product can't die soon enough to suit me. Assholes.

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:10:31 -0800

Is the proper course now for Quark to sue the Scottish Arts Council for trademark infringement?

By: swell

swell — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:11:41 -0800

It's a stylized Q. Would we have some reason to believe that Quark was aware of what the Scottish Art Council's logo was?

By: Down10

Down10 — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:12:02 -0800

Quark = Old Busted InDesign = New Hotness

By: [insert clever name here]

[insert clever name here] — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:18:41 -0800

But, see, the negative space in the Quark logo is larger. So its totally different. See?

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:19:10 -0800

Nice job Quark. InDesign? You're kidding, right?

By: jonson

jonson — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:21:00 -0800

I was under the impression that NOBODY used Quark Xpress any more. But then, I was under that impression for Wordperfect, Lotus Notes, and a variety of other niche software, so shows you what I know!

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:31:35 -0800

Gies some fuckin money ya fuckin radge.

By: shecky57

shecky57 — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:42:24 -0800

InDesign? You're kidding, right? After 15 years in the business, I can say, without a single doubt, give me InDesign over Quark XPress. Any. Freakin'. Day.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:44:53 -0800

word to that. Quark is a giant festering sack of santorum, and InDesign is indeed teh new hotness.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:53:13 -0800

You're kidding, right? Uh, you're kidding, right? I've been slowly coverting every business I deal with to InDesign over the past 3 years. Initially the old print-houses would scoff and tell me to send them work using "real software," to which I would smile knowingly and say, "Mmm hmm. Just wait. You'll be flooded with InDesign work in a year." And of course, I was right.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:54:16 -0800

My workflow for print has NEVER been easier, just bouncing between photoshop, illustrator, and indesign. Me rikey.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:00:21 -0800

But Quarkxpress has web tools!!! and synchroized text!!! yet still can't control the stroke around letters. quark is the new pagemaker.

By: feelinglistless

feelinglistless — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:09:28 -0800

Someone on Quark's own forum points out the similarity with PhotoObjects.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:10:21 -0800

And now a word from a forgotten 80's cartoon show: Now, Grovel... "I'm sorry master I'm sorry..." Get up! Now you see, Grovel... "I'm sorry master I'm sorry..." Get up! I don't mean, to grovel... "I'm sorry master I'm sorry..." Get up! I mean, your name, Grovel! "I'm sorry master I'm sorry..." (Because Quark was the name of the alien - with a scottish accent! - with the annoyingly subserviant robot in Dangermouse! See, it all comes together....)

By: tellurian

tellurian — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:11:20 -0800

I was under the impression that NOBODY used Quark Xpress [sic] any more. posted by jonson Wrong impression (gained from qualification). For the past five years, I've ~~supported~~ used Quark - and nothing, in my entire experience, comes within light-years of the utter lack of quality control and customer support that Quark seems to delight in. Sorry to derail from the design side of the logo [frankly, who gives a flying fuck], but jonson, I assume you're kidding and Floach, what sort of support didn't you get over the last five years that you stayed with them?

By: prostyle

prostyle — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:12:39 -0800

This is pretty hilarious. Quark2lose

By: mkultra

mkultra — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:18:00 -0800

Quark's basically supporting their existing install base at this point. My current company, which has A LOT of licenses, is moving to InDesign. Everything about Quark sucks these days. QLA? *shudder*

By: nylon

nylon — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:19:28 -0800

Christ, every time I hover over that peroxide blonde on the Quark main page, I have an epileptic fit. That can't be good for business. [must...buy...quark...must...buy...quark...must...buy...quark] [/slackjaw] [/glazed eyes]

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:28:05 -0800

Man, 22 comments and no one has even mentioned PageMaker!

By: ScotchLynx

ScotchLynx — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:40:20 -0800

rolypolyman: exactly.

By: esd

esd — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:43:20 -0800

Don't worry, Brandon; I'm sure they didn't mean it.

By: jca

jca — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:51:56 -0800

Hopefully some third party will be releasing a "Quark Xtension" to fix Quark's new logo. ;)

By: milovoo

milovoo — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:52:48 -0800

It's good that Quark has had the extra time to improve their logo, maybe they're not very busy because every company that I know of without exception has switched to inDesign and after having to deal with them for so many years, I can't say that I'm sad to see them go.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:54:58 -0800

InDesign is teh new hotness, but it does suffer from Adobe-disease: what the fuck are those apps doing that it takes them four weeks to launch?. A PDF plugin that takes an entire summer holiday just to open? Photoshop could almost be excused... but, eh, not really. MAKE THE THINGS LAUNCH FASTER. Ahem.

By: spilon

spilon — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:55:26 -0800

Quarksie, you're doing a heck of a job...

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:01:25 -0800

how on earth did they make a Ferengi look like a Scottish Arts Council? Huh... Star Trek humor.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:05:18 -0800

quark is the new pagemaker. It's true--and sad. Adobe stole their whole business and they were asleep. (and i'm with you, bonaldi--InDesign needs work. I'm hoping something will force them to make it better before they become the new pagemaker themselves, but it looks like they just want to be the Microsoft of the field and not bother.)

By: alicesshoe

alicesshoe — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:29:31 -0800

All that Yak, on Quark's press release, new face, big schmiel. No mention what they're doing to their software, eh? Oh, and what of that nocking SAC logo? Nothing new, huh? slack. Bloody "Quark green", indeed. amberglow, yes, but is it a good MicroSoft? re:inDesign

By: bobbyelliott

bobbyelliott — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:43:19 -0800

But then, I was under that impression for Wordperfect, Lotus Notes, and a variety of other niche software, so shows you what I know! Lotus Notes is still used in lots of large corporates. And makes millions of people grow to love Outlook more every day.

By: verb

verb — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:51:35 -0800

Reading this article about Quark 7, due "sometime in the next year or so," reminds me of nothing so much as an abused spouse who really wants to believe.

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:13:55 -0800

I've been stuck in a Quark ghetto at my publisher for five years, and they're afraid to switch to InDesign, no matter how much Quark keeps screwing them. Plus we are saddled with more than a few old farts in the art dept who bleat shrilly at the thought of learning anything new. Evolve or die, people! I would love for Quark to be successfully sued by the Scots. Also to have boiling oil dropped on whoever's in charge of "customer service." And maybe some leeches.

By: ddf

ddf — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:45:29 -0800

Oh man, reading the press release about the new logo almost made me vomit.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:52:03 -0800

Note that I don't want Quark to die per se. I'd rather seem them evolve and become good again, so we have some balance with Indesign. But that doesn't seem to be happening. I use Quark 4.1 at work, and I seriously see no need to upgrade. If I had to, I would switch to Quark 5 for better PDF and Microsoft Word compability, but there's no way in hell that I would use Quark 6 at this point, it's slow, has few new AND useful features and seems to produce bloated PDFs that scrw up a RIP. The Quarkvista plugin is kinda cool, but I ALREADY OWN PHOTOSHOP along with every other graphic designer. Indesign is very nice, but I don't want Adobe to have the only professional DTP app on the market. That just breeds arrogance.

By: Stan Chin

Stan Chin — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:52:18 -0800

Yeah... "It really was an evolution. The more I played with the green, the more it came to represent so many things that Quark has gone through: rejuvenation, growth, and rebirth. It just seemed to make sense." Speaking as a graphic designer, this is why I hate graphic designers.

By: spunpup

spunpup — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:53:56 -0800

People still use Quirk, I mean Quark?

By: ?!

?! — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 15:21:12 -0800

I remember in 1976 when NBC debuted their new logo with much fanfare, and was sued a month later because it was almost identical to Nebraska Educational Television's logo. NETV won that fight. You would think someone would have already started a service to search every copyrighted logo. It would have to be cheaper to hire such a company before the new logo debut. At least cheaper than creating a new logo and having to drop, change, or buy it from another company.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 15:51:31 -0800

Speaking as a graphic designer, this is why I hate graphic designers. Thank god. I thought I was the only one, Stan.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 16:39:33 -0800

Excuse me: The Scottish Arts logo is blue Quark is green (Unknown Pantone. Reload) Spinning beach ball The Scottish Arts Council uses a condensed face. Quark uses a bold face only (Font not installed) Force Quit The Scottish Arts Council neglects to add a "TM" Quark adds the appropriate TM symbol pending ® (unknown meta characters from Word doc) Crash The Scottish Arts Council is more horizontal Quark's logo lockup is more square (link to .eps not found) Lockup Please print this for future reference (No printer found) Restart

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 16:42:39 -0800

Bailed on Quark pretty fast after InDesign came out, after using it from 1992, when it was the best. InDesign kicks Quark's ass. At my previous job, I used InDesign to redesign and almost completely automate the production of two different automotive price guides - which we would have had to blow $20,000 on Quark Publishing System to pull off with Quark. It took myself and one programmer about a month for each book to nail down the process. We turned what used to be a 6-week production nightmare requiring 4 people working (in Pagemaker 6.5, dear lordy) full-time and overtime into a 1-week job requiring only 1 person to handle the InDesign chores. This is possible because every function of InD can be automated using whatever scripting language you have, and it also handles XML really well. The pages generate from our huge database, including photos, and get spit out straight to press-ready PDFs. Takes about 3 hours to do the full process. I'll never go back, not ever. RIP Quark, you gazed at your navel too long. hal9k: ROFL! You forgot "This feature requires that you load WhateverWidget XTension. Please install the XTension and restart." Bomb! Error (-1337)

By: pantload

pantload — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 16:51:48 -0800

Stan, Thorzdad...we make three. Please tell me you all don't belong to the AIGA.

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 17:07:14 -0800

So two logos look similar....................ah, it's a Mac thing so it's somehow worthy of an FPP............

By: jeremias

jeremias — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 17:37:21 -0800

So two logos look similar....................ah, it's a Mac thing so it's somehow worthy of an FPP............ Um. No. Quark is a Mac and Windows program (as is Indesign actually).

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:06:57 -0800

Belonging to AIGA doesn't automatically make you one of THOSE graphic designers, hehehe... :) (I don't, btw.) But yeah, that BS drives me nuts too. However, it seems to be what you need to do to make a 6-figure design fee for a "highly visible" corporate logo - speak the graphic design wizard BS language speak. Joeforking, this is about the formerly-top-notch page layout behemoth falling by the wayside due to their inexplicable inability to actually look at their market and their competition (as opposed to their own belly-buttons), and crapping all over their customers in terms of service and attitude, for nearly 10 years now... and then "lipsticking the pig" with a new logo that may or may not have been swiped, uh, "borrowed." A lot of us used to be passionate about Quark, back when they were pretty damned innovative, but they got arrogant and complacent and abandoned their market. That press release with all the marketingspeak about "a major transformation to become more open and customer-focused, and we have a focused vision to go with our new attitude" won't fool anyone, if it still takes them another year to put out XPress 7. Blah blah blah. Anyone who has switched away doesn't care anymore.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:09:47 -0800

Hmm, I should have added "see: Hughtrain."

By: lodurr

lodurr — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:18:10 -0800

It's not funny because it's a Mac thing. It's funny because it's an incompetence thing. From the way y'all are talking, it sounds like Quark and their design consultants deserve one another.

By: just a monkey

just a monkey — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:54:54 -0800

Haha, hal9k :)

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 19:00:10 -0800

A PDF plugin that takes an entire summer holiday just to open? Disable the add-on plugins. Man, I thought everyone knew about that one.

By: verb

verb — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 19:25:04 -0800

From the way y'all are talking, it sounds like Quark and their design consultants deserve one another. Biscuit! lodurr gets a biscuit!

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:06:26 -0800

Is that press release all about self-gratification, or what?

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:30:18 -0800

Our new logo is one of the most articulate symbols of the new Quark. If it's not Scottish, it's crap.

By: disgruntled

disgruntled — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:36:42 -0800

"It's fresh, inviting, and open," said Glen Turpin, Quark's director of corporate communications. "It's radically different from our old logo. That's why it's the perfect symbol for the new Quark. Our company has changed dramatically. Like our new logo, once people catch a glimpse of who we are today and where we're going, we'll be impossible to ignore." Impossible to ignore? Oh please, I wish these corporate communications nutbars would give it a rest. I switched to InDesign CS two years ago and haven't looked back.

By: jedrek

jedrek — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:57:06 -0800

InDesign, other than being a pretty decent piece of software, has the added advantage of being FREE. Free? you say, it's not free! Alas, for most corporations it is, the Creative Suite (which includes Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) is usually slightly cheaper than Photoshop and Illustrator bought seperately. So why would anyone who doesn't have to buy Quark, shell out another couple of hundered bucks on it? Winning through intertia, gotta love it.

By: quadog

quadog — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:31:25 -0800

Dear Quark, I left you because you stopped caring. I'm with InDesign now and my life is much better. Don't bother calling me. -q P.S. Your new logo stinks!

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 02:54:47 -0800

Apologies, I was just being snarky. Miserable wet Saturday night blues.

By: miss tea

miss tea — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 05:36:34 -0800

There's absolutely no reason to use quark any more. It makes me crazy. InDesign absolutely has some annoying features, but in the past 10 months of using it, I've only had it crash twice. Regarding the logo, that's awfully close. I'd like to hear the graphic designer explain his process.

By: strawberryviagra

strawberryviagra — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 06:14:07 -0800

Quark bought mTropolis in 97 - which at the time had a very bright future (out featuring Director - in many ways) - I had built a number of titles with it and also had at the time, a shiny future. The motherfuckers buried it - they didn't have the decency of telling anyone they were going to bury it, just put out a press release one day and that was that. Motherfuckingfuckers. When I was working in Japan, we lost the fucking dongle for their stupid piece of shit buggy product (Quark Xpress) - we had to pay FULL price to get another. This company deserves to eat massive loads of shit.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 09:05:49 -0800

Graven Images of Glasgow did the SAC logo, and judging by this comment on my website, they're not overly bothered by Quark's possible imitation, and, interestingly, consider Quark 'essential.' (Er, assuming that comment was left by someone who really works for Graven Images.)

By: kindall

kindall — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 09:58:52 -0800

I find it amusing that the Quark logo is supposed to be a "Q" and the Scottish Arts Council's logo is supposed to be an "a." At least I assume that's what the two of them are going for. But it's the exact same shape.

By: sklero

sklero — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 22:19:00 -0800

HA! Fuckers.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:08:37 -0800

Oops. Whoopsie.

By: Macboy

Macboy — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:28:27 -0800

Dear Quark, I'm sick of calling India when your program bombs weekly. You are getting exactly what you deserve. Thank god for InDesign.