Hmmm another logo gets created where I am truly stumped and can’t figure out what kind of business/industry this is? If your logo doesn’t describe at the very least what you do or what your industry is…the prospects of getting clients are kinds of hard. Take a look at logo guru David Airey and his article on “What makes a good logo design.”

In the meantime….can anyone figure out the logo above and tell me what kind of business or industry it is?

Wikipedia’s definition of a logo (ideogram), is an image embodying an organization. Logos are meant to represent companies’ brands or corporate identities and foster their immediate customer recognition. A logo is an integral part of building your business identity, it is the face of your business. With that being said, why are there a multitude of companies so unwilling to budget for their corporate identity?

There are countless websites out there offering logo design, some even offer logos as low as $50 dollars. However there is a BIG difference between paying for a logo and paying for a brand identity. Fortune 500 companies spend huge dollars developing a brand, why? Because when you are out there running around, busy as ever and forget its your Mother’s birthday – you will remember to “say it with flowers” and FTD will pop in your head. If you want to send her a card you will remember Hallmark because “you care enough to send the very best.” That’s the power of branding. These logos along with their ad slogans have grown into identities that create a sense of loyalty and trust.

Logo design is not just about having a good graphic and some type. It’s about appealing to the audience, a visual suggestion of your service. It should represent your company’s image, and should be instilled into your customers repeatedly — so that when and if your business services are needed, they will think of you first. Stay away from sites trying to sell you cheap logos, all you get is a bad logo as opposed to a well thought out look suited to fit your companies character.

This logo to the left is an example of a website offering cheap logos. The owner’s testimonial said “I don’t need to explain anything here. The crispyness of my logo explains it all.” I have stared at this a few times…I finally found out what kind of company they are.

Can you guess? I would love to hear your comments.

While perusing the web today, I came across an interesting article written by Nick Rice over at Small Business Branding. The article has 9 Branding Tips for Small Business and some are excellent points. I do have to totally disagree with Tip #1 that states “The design of your logo really doesn’t matter”. What are your thoughts on this? I would love to hear all your comments….

Here is an interesting article about what seems to be a rush on large brands updating their logos. “…big businesses…overhauling their images in an effort to beat the economic downturn by staying fresh to existing clientele—and attracting new customers.”

See how we can help you! Follow the design process for one of our clients that was looking to redo their marketing materials. We redesigned their logo and brochures and gave them a more appealing, streamlined look to help them market their services.

We were approached to do a redesign the corporate identity for a non profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children and families through mental health counseling and substance abuse prevention and treatment.

The old logo was very simple and ineffective at conveying a message of outreach, warmth and renewal. We met with the client to identify the clients’ goals, found out the message they wanted to convey, defined and gained knowledge of their services and we were given a tour of their office so we can see where some of the counseling happens. The tour was great because each room was geared towards a specific age group. This counseling center mainly dealt with troubled children and teenagers. Some rooms had lots of toys and bright colors, meant to evoke a happy place and some rooms were purple or blue meant to evoke feeling a safety and calmness.

Our logo concepts – as always begin as sketches or doodles – we started with a few ideas for an icon. The client really wanted to keep an image of a tyke and a teen, so that was the initial task to develop and redesign the logo.

After some pencil sketches, the computer process begins, taking the initial doodles and better defining the icons and adding letter styles and color to them. Picking the right font is extremely important as it gives weight to the entire logo.

The client was swaying towards using blue and green in the logo concept, to set a tone of calmness, hope, renewal – so the initial ideas were presented to get a feel as to which style and approach felt they would like to pursue.

Concept A. The little icons were actually the letter “t” converted to show images of a tyke and teen. The styling was kept clean, and open to give a more corporate feel. Concept B was more ideaology, symbolizing new growth and renewal, a tree made up of 1 teen (the trunk) and many little tykes (tree leaves). The final concept C sprung from the tree leave image from B, combining different sizes, and gave a brought together a corporate and freestyle feeling which the client wanted to pursue.

Upon further reiterations, a final logo was chosen and to our delight not to far off from one of the original concepts. We moved on to their brochures, which explained each service they offered. Below you can see before and after images. The aim was to come up with an image and a message that will lodge in people’s minds.

Remember your company’s identity should be as consistent as possible. The corporate identity is the pieces, aspects, ideas, methods and techniques a company uses to differentiate itself from the rest. When a brand is associated with a color, a combination of colors, shapes, pictures, phrases, music, etc. a corporate identity is built. It’s well known that a company or business that has a consistent corporate identity is taken much more seriously and are much more successful than those that don’t use own style guidelines.

If you are thinking about refreshing your corporate identity or budget for your marketing items, please contact us now! We are here to help you!