Skip site navigation
Home
All Articles
Tutorials
Freebies
About
Contact
Subscribe: RSS Feed
Follow on Twitter
Tweet
126
Like
163
Jan 12 2010 by Fatima Mekkaoui | 64 Comments | Stumble Bookmark
advertise advertise here here While many articles try to dissect the process of designing a logo itself, I will attempt to share tips from my experiences with branding-focused logo design for the real world.
With the surge of "stock" logos, the quality of branding for new companies is literally going downhill.
Many new designers fail to see that a logo, unlike any other design element, is literally the face of a company, and hence attached to a much larger beast. You can’t peel it off from a book and slap it onto things like a sticker.
A logo versus a brand
Let’s begin with the fine difference between a logo and a brand:
Logo
"The logo (ideogram), is the image embodying an organization. [...] Logos are meant to represent companies’ brands or corporate identities […]"
- Logo as defined by Wikipedia
Brand and identity
"[A] burning scar [with] bankable value"
- From BusinessWeek
1. Research, research, research…
Research is everything. It’s your first and last name, as well as your food and bed, when you are creating a brand.
Research is the most important part of designing a logo, and branding as a whole. Logo design with strong branding focus can easily push the limits of a five-figure budget primarily due to extensive research. Whether you are a solo freelancer or part of a branding team, your client’s target audience will heavily influence the decisions you make and the direction your design goes towards. Understanding a company’s marketing strategy is as important as placing the keystone in a building foundation. Research encompasses everything from typography selection to presenting to a focus group.
Photo by Stuart Chalmers
Giving an identity a name and then giving the name a face. These are your bottom line goals when planning out your design. In that order. A strong name, with or without a mark, has to be recognizable without any taglines. It must carry weight of its own.
For the life of me, no one can remember my last name, much less how to pronounce it (it’s Mekkaoui by the way). But, say for example, I had you write it and pointed out that it included all the vowels in the alphabet, then you might remember me next time you come across it.
In branding however, we don’t have that luxury. I would have to be able to catch your attention as you zipped down the supermarket aisle. Hence, I made a short, rare name that I identify myself with and use persistently all over the web: Imokon.
When Coca-Cola briefly changed their formula in 1985, people flipped over sabotaged history. Can you imagine their reaction if Coca-Cola changed their name to Sanscoca Fizzola? Exactly.
Coming up with a strong name can either be fun or a complete burden. Regardless of whether it’s made up (Skype), a misspelling (Google), or a simple word (Borders, Apple); it all goes back to marketing strategy. You can read more about brand name types here.
3. A good logo builds trust
The logo is the first impression, of not just who a company is, but how trustworthy it is – and in turn, how much a consumer will open up.
Let’s say you point your browser to go.com.
2 a. PRODUCTS, pg. 2 b. PRICE, pg. 3 c. PROMOTIONS pg. 4 d. SALES, pg. 5 e. DISTRIBUTION, pg. 6 f. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS, pg. 8 g. THE CURRENT MARKET, pg. 9 h. ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES IN THE MARKET, pg. 13 i. MARKETING STRATEGY GRID, pg. 14 j. THE MARKETING INFORMATIONS SYSTEMS, pg. 14 B. MARKETING STRATEGIES, pg. 15 a. MAJOR STRATEGY STATEMENT, pg. 15 b. OBJECTIVES, pg. 16 c. BASIC SELLING IDEA , pg. 16 d. THE MARKET: SOURCE OF BUSINESS, pg. 17 e. PRODUCT STRATEGY…
Analysis Marketing 304 Section 12382 Group# 5 Nancy Alonzo Yavon Irving Salvador Bustos Cory Lashinsky American Apparel is a vertically integrated clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer. AAI is best known for making basic, solid color T-shirts and undergarments. They have expanded into dresses, denim, bedding, pants, and accessories for men, women, children, babies, and dogs. Their long-term goal it to become the #1 destination for basic apparel – the first name that consumers think…
producing certain products and then attempting to divert the consumer’s desires to this product. Marketing is what each organisation has that targets the consumers to desire the product through marketing awareness. The marketing team and department of every organisation are anticipated with customers’ needs and wants which are discovered through market research. Main aspect of successful marketing is the attraction of new customers and the maintenance as well as expansion of relationships with existing…
process will become blocked and be unable to do any more work until the I/O is complete. In a multitasking environment, a process is not allowed to use the CPU all the time. At intervals (maybe signalled by a timer interrupt) it will be stopped by the O/S so that another process can run. In this state it is not running, but is runnable. 1.13 Strategic management Strategic management is the process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy. Strategic management operates…
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM/STUDY Branding is one of the most important aspects of the marketing arena. In this world of ever increasing competition and removal of barriers to trade due to the enforcement of the WTO (World Trade Organization), branding has become even more important. In a situation where a multitude of alternatives are available to the consumer at lower prices, the establishment of a strong brand name is extremely important. A strong brand…
VS 1 A COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF MARKETING STRATERGIES FOLLOWED BY NIKE AND ADIDAS TEAM MEMBERS ANUPAMA VENU CLAES JOTORP DEEPAK TUSHIR GUSTAV TENERZ SAIRAM KRISHNAN SANJAY SHARMA SUNANDA SURESH 09014 09126 09032 09128 09088 09090 09112 2 INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. BRIEF ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRY 1.2. BRIEF DEFINITON OF INDUSTRY 1.2.1.TRENDS IN THE INDUSTRY 1.2.2.MARKET ANALYSIS 1.2.3.MAJOR PLAYERS AND MARKET SHARES 1.3. MAJOR FORCES SHAPING THE INDUSTRY 1.3…
Tsutsumi, which proved to be of great interest. However, due to the nature of the discussions and for the sake of facing off against the shadowy world of organized crime, the majority of what was said unfortunately cannot be committed to writing. PRODUCT 5: Principle Prohibiting Appraisal of Authenticity – Part 1: Second-Hand Store Version The reader must not sim plistically think that counterfeits are flourishi ng because appraisals of a uthenticity are not performed. Rather the opposite is the right…
Management Philip Kotler – Kevin Lane Keller SUMMARY PART 1 Understanding Marketing Management 4 Defining Marketing for the 21st Century 4 Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans 5 PART 2 Capturing Marketing Insights 13 Collecting Information and Forecasting Demand 13 Conducting Marketing Research 16 PART 3 Connecting with Customers 18 Creating Long-term Loyalty Relationships…
INDUSTRY PROFILE INTRODUCTION 70% of world rubber consumption goes into the tyre industry. The growth in world tyre production has been in response to the growth in the automotive industry. Consequently, tyre production has been a driving force behind growth in the world elastomer industry. At the same time, the improvement in quality and variety of elastomers has enabled the tyre industry to achieve its goals of providing grip, control, safety, comfort and other important features of tyres. The…
marketing strategies to achieve marketing objectives, which in turn will achieve business goals Elements of the marketing plan - such a plan will consist of 5 steps 1. Performing situational analysis, including SWOT and product life cycle analysis 2. Establishing market objectives 3. Identifying target markets 4. Developing marketing strategies 5. Implementing, monitoring and controlling Strategic marketing planning Step 1 – Situational analysis: Investigates the marketing opportunities and potential…