Just the right kind of scrappy
This week, work by How&How, plus the best historical logos added to LogoArchive.
Just the right kind of scrappy
Opinion by Emily Gosling
Big Cartel launched in 2005 as a low-cost, easily customisable ecommerce platform specifically aimed at artists and other creatives. In the two decades since, the platform has quietly revolutionised what it is to be an independent maker, powering more than $2.5 billion in sales from ceramicists, jewellery designers, illustrators, and the occasional medieval tapestry revivalist.
But as the marketplace for, er, online marketplaces has become increasingly crowded, Big Cartel started to face competition from other slick services looking to court that same creator economy. As such, Big Cartel needed to reassert itself – a clearer, more ownable voice was required, and duly delivered by How & How.
The London- and LA-based agency was tasked with giving the brand a visual and verbal overhaul that could reconnect with its maker-first spirit while bringing it meaningfully into the present.
The new identity leans unapologetically into the independent ethos that unites Big Cartel as a brand with its users: the look and feel delights in being a bit rough around the edges, but always feels self-aware, energetic, and just the right kind of scrappy.
How & How has said that changing the logo was a no-go in the initial client brief, a point that the agency managed to quash – and rightly so. The former logo, known as ‘Fletch’, was a sharp chevron, vaguely reminiscent of arrow feathers or perhaps a stylised badge. It wasn’t terrible, but it could feel a little severe and corporate for a platform rooted in maker culture…
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Discover 4700+ of the world’s best historical logos with LogoArchive.
LogoArchive is the world’s largest online historical logo book with 4600+ examples, with more added every day for endless inspiration. Above, some of the recent logos added to the archive.
→ Join LogoArchive
Brand Archive: Lyft, 2025
Be inspired by the industry’s latest and best. Brand Archive has the logos, colours, typefaces and applications from some of the world’s best brands. It’s a resource like no other. New additions this week include Lyft, Tripadvisor, Flaum and Gemini.
→ Visit Brand Archive
Logo Histories: Greater Manchester Transport
Discover the story of the story of Kenneth Hollick's 1974 logo for Greater Manchester Transport. Find this and over 150 other stories of logos from the past on Logo Histories.
→ Discover more
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