How to design a logo

An interesting video from Karen Kavett for all those budding designers, or maybe you already are an established designer.  This will show you some basics on how to design a logo… if you are finding yourself in a slump with your technique? or want to try another one, or maybe just want to get back to basics then watch it.

$80,000 for new Columbia Association logo

Columbia Association spent US$80k on their new logo. Part of that cost was the marketing of the new logo and why they did it.

Here’s a video they created to explain the new logo.

Part of the reason for the change was that the CA didn’t own the copyright to the image of the People Tree and after exploring options to purchase it decided a new logo was the best option

CA Board Member Tom Coale wrote on his blog, HoCo Rising, the “CA decided to move forward without soliciting proposals from the community. While Columbia residents were a high priority throughout the process, they were not a decision-maker here. That was a risk and one I think the CA staff overcame with a successful product.”

See the full article here

Good Brand Checklist No. 5 We have a good logo that represents our brand and we use it consistently.

Remember a logo is not the brand, it’s just an icon that represents it.

Once established a customer sees the logo but the brain registers the brand behind it.  Nevertheless a good logo is important. 

• It should be technically correct, as simple and iconic as possible.
• It should be easily reproducible on a range of different media, but in particular on your product or wherever you deliver your service.
• The most important element of the logo is typically the logo text or “word”.
• It must be legible and pronounceable. The overall logo lockup is typically a mix of letters, shapes and colours.
• It should be should be unique and distinct.

Once you have a good logo, it’s most important that you use it everywhere, consistently and that you resist the call to tweak and change it.

Attributes of the ideal logo

The ideal logo should:

• display the brandname as text 
• favour legibility over style
• work well in one or two colours
• be vector based (easily resizable with loss of quality).
• be horizontal (as close as possible to 2.25 x 1 proportions).  
• be the opposite colour of your competitor(s)

The Kellogg’s® logo is a great example displaying a number of these ideal logo attributes.

But what about the Swoosh?

You might be looking at the simple ideal logo attributes list, above and wondering about famous brands you know.  Some of those brands don’t necessarily follow these basic principals.

One of those is Nike® who moved to use the Nike Swoosh as their primary logo. There’s no doubt that Nike are a succesful brand and they had their reasons for taking that decision. However Nike have also spent a lot of money and time, ensuring that people understand that the Swoosh is shorthand for the brand “Nike”. 

You probably don’t have that luxury for your brand.

Do this simple exercise

Look at the logo above and say back to yourself the brand name.

Did you say “Swoosh” or “Nike”?

It should have been “Nike”.

The most important thing is your “name”. Your name is what people see, repeat and remember. It’s the name that has meaning in the minds of the customer, not the symbol.

So unless you have a Nike sized marketing budget - you better make sure your logo has your name in it.

My logo sucks, Should I change it?

Sometimes you may feel that your logo is out-of-date, old fashioned or just plain ugly. You feel like a change and the agency is pushing you to let them come up with something new.

What do you do?

You have a very close relationship with your logo. It’s easy to tire of it and want something new.  We all like new right? 

However, it’s really important to recognize that most of your clients are not so close to it. Your logo doesn’t fill their day, like it does yours. Instead it’s fighting with hundreds, thousands, even millions of other logos for recognition.

Remember a logo is shorthand for your brand name, so the most important aspect of a logo is it’s ability to be recognized, NOT its aesthetics or design.

Therefore, if your logo is established, in most cases you should NOT change your logo.

But there are exceptions.  It’s OK to consider changing your logo when:

• You’ve changed your business significantly (e.g. a merger) and want to signal to the market that there has been a significant change in your offer.
• There’s a legal problem with your current logo.
• You’re entering new markets and there are cultural issues with your current logo.
• There are mechanical problems with applying your logo to your products or services.
• People have trouble  associating your logo with your brand (e.g. it doesn’t have the name in the logo).

Do this (not so) simple exercise

If you’re considering a logo change, ask yourself:

What is the return on investment from a logo change?

1. If you spend $X on a new design, new Stationery, Uniforms, Signage, Brochures, Advertising, Rebranding product inventory, Forms, Website, Social sites not to mention explaining and communicating the change, will your return be greater than the sum of $X?
2. If you spent the same amount on a new advertising campaign or on product development, or on market development, or on a new web presence, or on social marketing, would you get a better return?
3. Consider any lost business or inertia as a result of customers not recognizing or trusting the new logo.
4. What happens if you don’t change it? Is there a quantifiable downside to the status quo?

There are no easy answers - but I suspect in the majority of cases, there is not a sufficient ROI to justify a logo change.

Sadly there are many cases where the desire for change for the sake of change, overides common sense and neither ROI nor respect for good branding practice, was considered when commissioning a new logo.

Don’t get me wrong, we love new logos. However, you need to be able to justify the need for one.

Still want a new logo?

Try a service like Logosauce.com where you can find a logo designer or run a logo design competition, at an affordable rate.

Remember the real value of a brand is the idea of it.

Initially the logo artwork has no real value. It’s only once a brand is established and the logo has been used for some time, that the logo itself,  becomes a valuable asset.

Next

If you can check this item off, pat yourself on the back.  You’re on your way to a good strong brand.

If not, then your brand needs work.

Consider getting your team together, preferably away from your place of work to discuss and arrive at some conclusions. You need to be crystal clear and concise. Use simple, easy to understand language with no ambiguity.

Note: This is ideally an internal process. But if you get stuck, we can help get your team moving in the right direction. Contact us.

Happy branding.

p.s. To receive the next in this series by email, join our mailing list here

Crowdsourcing for Liechtenstein

We have recently come across a crowdsourced project initiated by the Liechtenstein government. After receiving 6072 submissions they have a winner.

Out of the shortlisted logos this was our favourite. Followed closely by this one (which retains more of the old logos style)…

A successful crowdsourced project for Liechtenstein even though it discards 2004 Wolff Olins logo.

Story found via Logo Design Love

Another logo rip-off site.

We’ve just come across another vector logo site with, most likely, illegal storage and delivery of vector artwork for logos.

logoeps.com claim over 200,000 vector logos from all sorts of brands.

That’s pretty scary if you’re the owner of one of those brands.

Sure it’s very hard to stop people copying your artwork, but do you really want to make it that easy - by allowing free-for-all downloading of your original logo artwork ?  

I didn’t think so.

And to top it off they’re placing Google ads for legitimate logo sites on their pages. I wonder whether the folk at BrandCrowd (an ad I saw there) are aware of their association with these guys. I even saw a display ad for Xero on there.

What can you do?

1. Contact them and ask them to remove your logo artwork
2. Have your lawyers/IP Attorney write a takedown letter.
3. Report copyright infringement to Logoeps’s site hosting company.
4. Consider suing for damages (there have potentially been thousands of downloads of your IP)
5. If you’re advertising - block this site from getting your advertising revenue.

Personally I’m amazed that sites like these (BrandoftheWorld is another one) can survive.

They’re using the IP of brands to sell advertising on their sites while providing a service to encourage illegal copyright and trademark infringement.

Beautiful product packaging

I just stumbled across this great blog about Packshots.

Packshots is a blog featuring a curated list of beautiful product packaging images. Simply gorgeous.

If you’re product marketer, photographer or designer you should check it out.

Good Brand Checklist No. 4 We have a clearly defined brand personality.

Think of this as the humanized attributes of your brand.

• What’s your brand’s personality?  Cool, Hip, Stylish, Professional, Loud, Quiet, Scary, Empathetic, Funny, Charitable, Creative, Young, Mature, etc.
• How do people describe your brand?

Your brand promise delivered with personality is what makes your brand truly unique.  It is the basis of much of today’s advertising.

This (your brand personality statement) should influence and include the expected behaviour of the people that deliver your brand at all touch points.

Apple’s “Get a Mac”

One of the most recognizable brand personality campaigns in recent times was the “Get a Mac” series that Apple ran in describing Apple as hip, individualistic and scrappy vs Microsoft (PC) as grey, corporate, drab, frumpy, reserved, dispassionate.

Try this:

A great way to check that the right brand personality is being communicated, is to remove your brandname or company name from the marketing copy on your website, in your brochures, emails, etc.

Re-read the copy and see if you can recognize your brand. Or does it make you sound like a confused schizophrenic or worse, any one of your competitors.

The idea is to create a personality that people want to work with, that supports the brand goals and has a clearly identifiable character.

Donald Trump (aka The Donald)

Love him or hate him. He’s flawed, big, brash and loud. He stands for according to an article in adweek: luxury, success, fearlessness.

This personality is parlayed into commercial projects and the business of Trump Inc. such as Trump Tower, Trump Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal Casino, The Apprentice TV show etc.

So he (The Donald) is the brand certainly. But his personality has enabled Trump branded products to stand out despite the fact that he has been bankrupted 4 times.

Charlie’s

We think Charlie’s is a great New Zealand example, where they created a strong brand personality (Honest, Straight Talking, Street Smart) right up front.

It sets them apart from other Juice companies.

Try these.

Here’s 4 exercises you can do with your team to help identify your brand’s personality.

• If your brand was a car, choose which car it would be. A high performance, expensive high maintenance Ferarri or a reliable, tough, economical Toyota? What colour, what year, model. Be as specific as possible.
• If your brand was a famous celebrity, choose which celebrity would best represent you and why. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Sir Edmund Hilary, etc.  What traits do they share with your brand?
• If your brand was an animal, which animal would best represent your brand. Again try to be specific. If it’s a dog, what breed of dog, male or female? Are you king of the jungle like a Lion, cheeky and playful like a Monkey, fast like a Cheetah, beautiful like the Peacock?
• Make a list of adjectives (used to describe peoples personalities) that you think describe your brand, then have staff and management rank and rate them. Here’s a list of adjectives to help get you started.  Don’t be afraid to use negative adjectives. You’re looking for an accurate picture of who you are. Sometimes negative attributes strengthen your brand position.

Now - do these for your own brand AND your competitors brands. This will help you identify your personality and how it’s different from your competitors.

Document it

It’s important that you document what your brand personality is. Put it in your brand standards or guidelines document, ensure staff and management understand who you are and how to behave.

For Example, in their brand book, OnePath writes it this way.

Our personality reflects the way we speak to our customers and includes our voice, our language, our imagery and the overall experience we want our customers to have.

Each of us will have our own unique way of delivering the OnePath personality but at our core we are:

• Warm
• Approachable
• Down to earth
• Energetic
• Optimistic
• Caring

Good Brand Checklist No. 3 We have a written brand promise.

This is where you convert your brand mission into a brand promise that you can communicate and that your customers will value.

• What does your brand promise to customers above and beyond the products/services you provide. 
• Why do/will customers do business with you?  Remember brands are never about the product or service but always about the promise. 

Don’t use generic words or obvious things like; saving money, good quality or excellent service. Those things are baseline requirements and they don’t resonate with customers.

An Example:

“FEDEX™ - When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.”

When Federal Express (FEDEX™) burst on the scene in the US in the early eighties. What was it that made Fred Smith’s new company such a sensation?

The answer: It promised delivery of packages by 10:30 a.m. the next day, no ifs, buts or maybe’s. It was a brave but definitive promise in a world that previously knew only the Post Office. It was FedEx’s measurable brand promise.

Remember

A promise is good only if it’s kept.

Your brand is the essence of who you are, but it means nothing withoutcorresponding action. Once you know your promise to customers, you need to deliver on that promise. That’s what branding is all about.

Every time you keep the promise, you strengthen your brand. When you break the promise, you diminish the brand.

Next

If you can check this item off, pat yourself on the back.  You’re on your way to a good strong brand.

If not, then your brand needs work.

Consider getting your team together, preferably away from your place of work to discuss and arrive at some conclusions. You need to be crystal clear and concise. Use simple, easy to understand language with no ambiguity.

Note: This is ideally an internal process. But if you get stuck, we can help get your team moving in the right direction. Contact us.

Happy branding.

p.s. To receive the next in this series by email, join our mailing list here.

Good Brand Checklist No.2 We have a written brand mission that clearly states our purpose.

It answers the question of why I exist for customers. 

• What do you want to accomplish for your customers? 
• How are your customers better off by doing business with you?

It must be authentic and it should come from the inside . Don’t use generic words or obvious things like; saving money, good quality or excellent service. Those things are baseline requirements and they don’t resonate with customers.

Your brand mission is not necessarily for public consumption, its primarily for internal use, but share it publicly if you wish.

An Example:

The Coca‑Cola Company Mission

• To refresh the world - in mind, body and spirit.
• To inspire moments of optimism - through our brands and actions.
• To create value and make a difference everywhere we engage.

Next

If you can check this item off, pat yourself on the back.  You’re on your way to a good strong brand.

If not, then your brand needs work.

Consider getting your team together, preferably away from your place of work to discuss and arrive at some conclusions. You need to be crystal clear and concise. Use simple, easy to understand language with no ambiguity.

Note: This is ideally an internal process. But if you get stuck, we can help get your team moving in the right direction. Contact us.

Happy branding.

p.s. To receive the next in this series by email, join our mailing list here.