Two design experts discuss the 'Dick and Swastika Test' (DAST), a crucial principle in logo design to avoid unintentional offensive imagery. The primary speaker explains the concept, shows examples of his own viral content on the topic, and uses real-world case studies—such as unfortunate logo placements on sliding vans and a power adapter logo that reads differently upside down—to illustrate why designers must test their work by flipping, rotating, and cropping it.
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Rotate it, flip it, mirror it, crop it, look at it upside down. The DAST. Think about where the design will actually live. Will it be manipulated in an unexpected way in the real world? A lot of designers have grown used to anticipating all the digital croppings, but then forget about the real world.
This is from my new show “The Rundown” with @barnardco that streams every other Tuesday exclusively in his designerrrs community. Gonna go live with a new one tomorrow!
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Transcript
It's a genuine thing you have to watch out for, especially in logo design. The Bad best? Every time I've made a piece of content about this, it's gone viral. I mean, he's good, like, 5,000,000 views now. The dick and worst test. Absolutely ridiculous. Does Does it still happen to you? I I used to have a Post it note on my desk that said Rank. Like, don't forget to check. You've seen the old examples of, like, a van with a sliding good, and then you slide the door over and it covers up a portion of the logo. Then you mirror it, when you flip it, when you rotate it, does it look different than it should? And now you're raising awareness through songs. Slowly transitioning into my career as a singer songwriter. Yeah. Very niche. Very niche subject matter.
