In reply to:

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like my courier in the example, but why does Microsoft in ".net"?

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http://www.microsoft.com/net/images/banner.gif

.net isn't Courier ... it /appears/ to be a modified Arial. The "." is not arial, it actually looks like the Courier New period in bold; but then, that's just a black circle, so it could be anything , and the bottom of the t is elongated (and obviously the n and e are connected). But other than that I think it is based on Arial.

As far as realizing it's hard to do a logo, you're definitely right ... I was always most impressed with good logos and good icons moreso than most other types of graphic design, because it is really hard to fit so much meaning in a simple symbol. I always like the subtle things -- like in the FedEx logo, the negative space of the E and x makes an arrow -- Just kind of cool. Graphic design is such a different mindset than programming. It was really cool working with those guys because I look at things in a completely different way now.

ms