Blink-182: Logo #15

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker designed this icon for their eponymous Geffen album in 2003. Barker credits The Jam and Pop art with the arrows; still, some fans were vexed enough to cry plagiarism and let slip the dogs of blogs, accusing Barker of stealing the happy-face idea from Nirvana's somewhat like-minded logo. Nirvana, however, could well be accused of the same thing, seeing as their happy-face logo was preceded by those of The Weirdos and Social Distortion. Not exactly a brain-busting concept, that happy face. Regardless, it's an effective, simple image, suggesting action in the face of unconsciousness - or, alternately, that sleepwalking through life is just peachy in a post-Reagan reality-TV world.

Negative Trend: Logo #1

Formed in San Francisco in 1977, Negative Trend's logo was designed by founding member Rozz Rezabek and future Flipper vocalist / bassist Will Shatter (born Russell Wilkinson, June 10, 1956 - December 9, 1987). Rezabek recalls looking at the bad news in the business section of the newspaper, and then at the worse news on the front page - as always, two perfectly good bellwethers of things as they are, and things to come. As with most good ideas in pop, it's simple, immediately striking (red, black and white were the first and only colors used by primitive printing presses) and easily propagated through knife on desk or paint on wall. The negative symbols also disrupt the circle's usually comforting psychology, anticipating a change in mantra from the "Fuck you - I got mine" of the '70s to the "Fuck you - I want yours, too" of the '80s.