One of the services we offer as a design agency is logo design. No surprises then when we recently stumbled upon another agency offering the same service. So far, so average – the majority of graphic design agencies throughout the world do exactly the same. The difference with this one, however, was the costing of their work.

$42. That simple. For $42 you can get a logo designed with two rounds of amends and a number of different files formats sent to you. Sceptical of the quality of the work and a little surprised at the pricing structure and business model, we shared the find with our loyal Twitter following in our usual measured and level-headed style…

In short, the ever opinionated ‘design community’ weren’t too happy about the idea of logos being punted out like Happy Meals. The general consensus was that the time it takes to research, brainstorm, design, develop, artwork and subsequently amend a logo of a relatively decent standard could not be sufficiently covered by such a small cost. This got us thinking. We decided to conduct an experiment. Googling ‘cheap logos’ gave us plenty of options for ‘quality logo design services for a fixed low cost’ so we pulled on our fictional overalls and got in touch with a company offering said service to enquire on behalf of our newly-imagined company – ‘Dolphin Plumbing Services’.

Commissioning a cheap logo simply to sneer about how we reckon we could have done a better job would be too easy and not achieve a huge amount. Instead, we wanted to approach the company as if we had no experience or interest in graphic design and see what the process is like for the ‘average punter’. Also, how the experience differs from the service we offer. We made a point of letting them lead us and not getting all ‘designer-y’ with them. This wasn’t an opportunity to lecture them about kerning, for this experiment we didn’t care about the quality of design, we simply wanted to explore the process of purchasing a logo to stick on the side of our non-existent van.

The first company we contacted offered, among plenty of other things, bespoke logo designs and unlimited revisions (which we thought was rather excessive) for only £8.99+VAT. Bargain! It seemed too good to be true and, drum roll… it was – they are yet to return our emails. Not a good start.

Undeterred, we found another company offering a similar service. Yet again, they offered unlimited revisions, so we thought we’d give them a fair amount of feedback to deal with, nothing too unreasonable, just enough to get our money’s worth. They also promised a 1-3 day turnaround for all artwork and amends, so we decided to hold them to that and chase them if they were late. Dolphin Plumbing Services – firm but fair. They were slightly more pricey at £25 but we thought it was worth it in the name of investigative journalism, so we sent the email.

The very same day, we received a response asking for payment! If nothing else, they were quick, and at least they’d replied. We eagerly handed-over our bank details (without any guarantees, to the random internet company we’d never heard of two hours previously) and waited to see what happened next.

Less than an hour later, we received an email granting us access to our own personal account. We were told to wait for 48 hours before receiving the initial designs. So far the process hadn’t been too painful, we’d done our bit and the real work was now down to their designers. All that was left to do was wait…

Two days later, an email with the subject ‘Your first design samples’ was sitting our inbox – the experiment had started to get interesting. We logged into the account and saw these six designs (below) awaiting our feedback.

The quality of the logos is something we’re going to comment on later, but regardless of how good the initial designs are, we have a starting point. Regarding the first of our unlimited revisions, we wanted to ensure what we were requesting was reasonable and similar to the kind of feedback the company would usually get. We weren’t interested in testing their patience for the sake of it. Our first round of feedback was as follows:

Once again, we sat tight, staring at our inbox waiting for what could potentially become the brand new Dolphin Plumbing Services logo. Can you feel the tension building? This time we only had to wait one day! Another email arrived letting us know that all we had to do was log into our account and we would find the latest logo designs waiting for us — we did, and they were!

This time around our feedback was pretty simple:

This didn’t prove too much of a test for our new design slaves, who responded with the changes, yet again, in just one day. Here’s what they came back with.

We were getting to the point where the discussions had gone far enough to get a reasonable idea of the process and it was time for us to wrap this baby up. We issued one final round of feedback, for good measure:

Which resulted in the following. Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to proudly present, the logo for the finest fictitious plumbing outfit since Super Mario Brothers – Dolphin Plumbing Services:

—

Job done.

The feedback about the colour of the circle had been completely ignored but we pretended not to notice and responded with a grateful approval and requested the logo as high resolution JPGs, PDFs and vector EPS / AI files. These were promptly sent the next day. One techy point to make – the vector logos hadn’t been outlined and there were no fonts accompanying the files. This means that if we did in fact have a van or signage in need of vinyl lettering, we’d be a bit stuck. We would guess the vast majority of customers using these services wouldn’t have the knowledge or inclination to specifically request fonts, let alone own the software to discover they were missing. It seems like the company we used fell at the last hurdle somewhat but perhaps the rush to complete the job and move onto the next artwork carried out at light-speed is to blame for the oversight.

Anyway, the experiment had concluded, now for the analysis.

The easiest thing here would be to tear the design work apart and criticise how it simply wasn’t very good. It wasn’t. But it seems as if that would be over simplifying the point. We paid an incredibly small amount for what must’ve taken somebody, somewhere, a reasonable amount of time to do. Even a competent designer bashing out the work as quickly as possible would’ve had to spend a while producing six logos with three sets of revisions. There’s also the time it takes to read our emails, save the amended files, upload them to our account and let us know they’re there. It’s impossible to say how long that would’ve taken (and we’re under no illusion that the lovely emails we received were personally written to us) but was this time and labour all covered by our measly £25?

As designers, our time, creativity, experience and technical skills are the only things we’re actually selling. And we’re not surprised that how anyone with the right software can do what we do and sell it for a fraction of the cost proves irritating and perhaps even insulting to the majority of designers. But does the plumber who simply wants something to stick on a business card really care when he can get the job done for such a small amount of money? The process we went through was quick, easy and required very little hassle on our part. Once we found a company who actually responded to us, all we had to do was pay, look at designs and tell them what we wanted them to change. Assuming the role of someone with limited knowledge and opinions on typography, layout and colour, the service offered to us was more than agreeable for what we paid.

However, there is still the angry mob of designers to deal with. First off, it’s worth thinking about what they’re actually angry about. We don’t think it’s because their cover’s been blown and they can no longer charge huge amounts of cash for knocking up a quick logo. The issue, in our opinion, is more the fact that taking shortcuts that allow the work to be produced for a sum as small as £25 both creates work of a lower quality and lowers the value of what we do in the eyes of those outside of the design industry.

Like many other products and services, it’s never going to be too hard to find a cheaper option. But, as the painfully obvious saying goes, you get what you pay for. Buy a cheap car, it’ll break down more often. Buy a cheap meal, it won’t taste very nice. Buy a cheap haircut… you get the idea. If Phil the plumber decides to go for the £25 logo purely based on cost, his service simply won’t look premium. Maybe this won’t be a problem as many of his customers aren’t going to care too much about the typography when their kitchen is flooding, but design matters, and we’re sure we’ve all instantly disregarded companies based solely on the look of their logo, website or shop-frontage. It’s similar to pizza menus on your doormat – you’re not going to pay much but you know it won’t be fine-dining.

Maybe he doesn’t want his service to look premium. He’s a down-to-earth guy making an honest living for a fair price and he wants his logo to reflect that. Fair enough. But at no point throughout the process were we asked any questions about this. It was far too easy to let the designers get on with designing what they thought was right for a company they knew next-to-nothing about. Without this knowledge, can you really create something of any value, or are you simply choosing random fonts and adding clichéd clipart images based on the name of the company?

So, the design is never to going be considered at any great length – because there simply isn’t the time to do so – and there’s a good chance the final design may not be appropriate for its purpose.

The end result? Cheap design that looks cheap and is less effective.

But is there a place in the industry for logo design being sold in this way? Unfortunately, we think the answer is yes. People or companies who aren’t particularly interested in the way they present themselves can’t be blamed for spending as little money as possible on a service they don’t see value in. Is it damaging to the industry as a whole? Again, I’m afraid the answer is yes. Poor design can never be a good thing, for obvious reasons.

So what happens now? Do we rise up and fight back against these companies? Do we boycott? Do we drop our prices to £20 a logo, no questions asked? Feel free, but we won’t be joining you. A far better defence is to produce well-considered, fairly-priced design that includes the client in the process, asks the right questions, challenges the brief, considers the problem from the clients perspective and provides an effective solution. This, done well, is the only thing that can differentiate what we do from the ‘lowest price gets the job’ outfits.

The conclusion of our experiment? You get what you pay for. The important thing to remember is to make your service good value, regardless of how much it costs.

Tom and Phil
Mat Dolphin
@MatDolphin

Published on Logo Design Love

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When should a CEO choose a wordmark, and when a symbol?

In general, consider a symbol only when:

• Your name is too generic, too long, doesn’t translate well globally, or is hopelessly deficient in personality.
• You need an emblem on the product, as on a car hood, or a sneaker.
• You need to link subsidiaries to the parent and can’t easily use the name. (The Bell symbol served this function for the old AT&T and its operating companies.)
• You have (or can afford) ample media, to teach us what the symbol means.

Choose a wordmark when:

• Your name is reasonably distinctive but not (yet) a household word.
• You want to associate products or subsidiaries with the parent more clearly and directly than a symbol permits.
• Communication funds are limited and should be focused on name recognition.

—

More on Tony Spaeth‘s website Identity Works. Worth a visit.

Renault symbol photo credit

Published on Logo Design Love

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“We all get stuck as designers. Don’t forget that.

“No matter who you are, the number of accolades you’ve received, or the past successes you’ve had, it’s still hard. You can look at this a few ways, but I largely take comfort in it.

“Becoming a good designer is, in my mind, directly related to one’s curiosity and willingness to work. If you keep asking questions and deliberately practicing your craft, you get better. It’s that simple. So when it feels difficult and you want to scream, grab a pencil and a big blank sheet of paper, and just start drawing. With each iteration you’re closer.”
— ERIC KARJALUOTO, SMASHLAB

Quoted from Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities.

Visit smashLAB. Follow @karj on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock

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—

Many big name brands have recently tweaked their logos in a crowd-sourced craze to connect with their customers (think Gap and JCPenney). Seemingly brand owners have devalued the importance of their logos through their adoption of these online easy-do-it-yourself-generic-creativity-generating portals. As a result, web sites like HP’s Logoworks have become thriving businesses.

On the other hand…

Creating a logo that brings enduring value and differentiation to the business enterprise it represents requires deep insight and highly specialized talent and skill.

As our world gets smaller through the technology advances in how humans interact and communicate, logos that are instantly recognized and clearly understood are more important and more valuable than ever.

—

Excerpted from The Logo Remains Supreme, on Branding Strategy Insider.

Via Believe in.

Published on Logo Design Love

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Whilst looking through some design portfolios online earlier this month I came across a fantastic poster promoting “Mill Valley Film Festival” by Mine™. It was the perfect Christmas gift for my son (a film student) so I contacted Mine™ and asked where I could get hold of one. Just five hours later I got this reply; 
“We have some samples here. If you give me your address I’ll send you one.” Slightly stunned, I emailed my address asking if they were sure this was okay, I live in Australia, Mine™ are based in San Francisco. The postage would not be cheap, so I sort of forgot about the whole thing.

Yesterday, only three weeks later, a courier arrived at my door with a container sent first-class by Christopher Simmons. Inside carefully wrapped in tissue like a special gift were two posters (I’ve paid $35 for an unframed print to be shipped from a gallery in the US and it wasn’t presented like this). Although I’ve never met Christopher, been a client of Mine™ or sent clients to them for branding, their message came over loud and clear. Not only do these guys work on creating amazing, innovative, clever and original design, they are actually good people who care about what they do.



So what’s my point? The point is there is no formula to being successful. There is no one way or magic bullet to building a successful design business. You can surf for “how to” links, follow marketing gurus looking for ideas about how to promote your business, and use a ton of great online and offline tools and tactics. Those tools and tactics might help you to interact, but what makes the quality of your interactions, messaging, or promotion is you. Bringing your personality and your humanness (yes, it’s a real word) into your business is what will make it fly.



“There is no map.”
— SETH GODIN

The word promotion is defined as a message issued on behalf of some product cause or idea. Promotion then is just a way of signalling the world about what we want the world to believe and ultimately act upon. In many ways it was a heck of a lot easier to be heard in the old days. Although we had fewer channels through which to send our messages to a tiny audience, we also had a lot less noise to compete with.

We’ve gone way beyond the point of no return as far as promotion is concerned. You, the business owner, vendor or artist no longer decides who will listen to your message. People are switching off to the old messaging signals of advertising and selfish look at me tactics. Sure, you can decide how to shout but shouting isn’t going to get you very far. Consumers are now choosing to work with people they trust and not just those who can shout the loudest.

Building trust into messaging is a new way (for some) to reach the ideal audience, client or customer. Earning trust is actually scalable and is built interaction by interaction. Yes, there are a bucket load of tools, apps, communities and networks you can use to do this. The key though is to use them to build connections based on genuine trust. How do you do that?


Find and build an audience that wants to hear from you


Commit time to interacting with people both online and offline. Enable your interactions with people by telling a consistent story that is authentic. Everything about you from your blog comments to your website design and the tone of your emails is part of the story. True stories work best.



Create something people want to talk about


Focus on doing great work. Design things that people love and can’t help sharing. Allow your work to speak for itself. People like you who give form to ideas have the opportunity to be unique. That’s an edge in itself.



Make it easy for people to spread word about you


Consider how people interact with each other. Work out new ways to make it easy for them to spread your work, ideas and designs.


Although there is no map, here’s a short list of potential routes to think about.

• Help people out where you can.

• Look for problems to solve.

• Create an amazing identity for yourself, something worth talking about.

• Reflect your expertise and values to your potential clients (not just your peers) through your website branding.

• Write a blog.

• Connect using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hashable and on and on.

• Guest post on other blogs.
• 
Leave valuable comments on blogs you respect.
• 
Send samples.

• Run a competition.
• 
Become a speaker.
• 
Publish books or ebooks.

• Share your knowledge.

• Host a networking group locally for designers.

• Attend business networking events where you are based.

• Take a genuine interest in people.

• Be interesting.




“Find your voice. Inspire others to find their voice.”
— STEPHEN COVEY




How have you made it easier for people to hear about you? How could you do it better?

—

My sincere thanks to Bernadette for sharing her knowledge here during the past few weeks. It’s been a pleasure having her as a guest author.

Paradox logo created by Mine™

Published on Logo Design Love

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Selling design is very different from selling tall skinny lattés, boxes of cereal, or tubes of toothpaste, unless you own a logo warehouse that is. Great design is not a mere commodity and this is what makes differentiating your product a challenge at times. As a designer would you want it any other way?



Many designers struggle to define their product because it is more than just the sum of its’ parts, logo, website or layout. Your product is something pretty special. You give form to ideas. Your ‘art’ is the ability to take something abstract or imagined and create the visual connection which helps the world to make sense of that idea, product or company. Designers are the conduit between the imagined and reality. You are not just selling logos, identities and websites. You are enabling your client to tell their story better.

It doesn’t matter what product you choose to market there are three steps to understanding the placement of the kind of product you want to sell to the type of customers you want to attract.



1. Understand yourself

What do you love to do?

Why do you do what you do?

What do you care about and believe in?

What are your strengths?

What are your weaknesses?

How can you best play to your strengths?

How will you mitigate against your weaknesses?

Who do you want to work with?

Which designers do you admire and why?

How could you emulate some of what they have done to become successful?

How are you different?

What will make you better?


“You do better work when you believe in what you do.”
— LEE NEWHAM


2. Understand your target market

Who is your ideal client?

Where will you find them?

How will you reach them?

What drives them?

How do they choose?

What communication channels do they use?

How can you nurture professional relationships?

How can you package your product to meet the worldview of the audience you are trying to reach?

What are the tools you will need to create a presence in your chosen market?

Are you designing for everyone or perhaps creating things that some might dislike?

Are you asking people to switch to you or are you creating a whole new market?

Why would I buy from you and not the designer who ranks in the top ten in Google?




”It’s not a matter of who can benefit from what you sell. It’s about choosing the customers you’d like to have.”
— SETH GODIN



3. Understand how to differentiate your product



What story does your product tell?

Does your story really define what you do?

What makes your design stand out?

What makes your work blend in?

How is your product different?

How is your service special?

Are you delivering on your promise, original, unique, timeless, flexible, enduring?

Can you create a new market and do something that hasn’t been done before?

Can you reinvent something that’s already been done and do it better?

What is selling right now?

What’s not selling today that could sell if it was marketed in new ways tomorrow?

Could you produce something that’s scalable?

Is it possible to create scarcity?

What makes your product remarkable?

Does your design start conversations?

If not how could you make that happen?




“It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.”
— PAUL ARDEN

Designers have the privilege and the power to change how people feel about an idea. Your work not only influences others to make a myriad of choices each day. It moves people. Your product breathes life into ideas. You galvanise, captivate and woo. I can’t think of anything better to market.


—

The ‘Building your design business’ series:

1. Perceptioning (published earlier)
2. Product (this post)
3. Promotion

 (to follow)

Bernadette Jiwa is an Australia-based brand and marketing strategist. You should follow her on Twitter.

Video of the Plumen bulb courtesy of Plumen.

Published on Logo Design Love

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The first in a three-part series discussing how to build a better design business. Written by Australia-based brand and marketing strategist Bernadette Jiwa.

—

You have the skills, you have the technology… (to quote a famous TV show from the 70’s), but knowing how to sell them (and you) requires another kind of aptitude altogether. The commercial reality for designers is that having talent isn’t always a guarantee of attaining success or making a living come to that. Man cannot live on artistic brilliance alone.



In a Googlised world where the potential customer based in your city is as likely to choose a designer from Mumbai or Melbourne it is important to formulate a strategy for building your brand as a designer. These days that’s as much about selling ‘you’ as it is about showcasing and demonstrating your talent.



There is a lot of talk out there in the blogosphere about the dumbing-down of the design profession with the advent of increasing amounts of spec work and cheap and cheerful online firms selling logos designed by poorly-paid outsourced workers. Have you ever considered though that this might just present wonderful opportunities for the best designers to differentiate themselves? This might just be your chance to be known for doing great work, choose which clients to work with and leverage your other talents at the same time.



Of course building a brand doesn’t happen overnight, it never has done. But the good news is that anyone with talent and vision can make a start from the bottom with little or no marketing budget and take responsibility for crafting their own credibility.



Building any brand is an ongoing process with much tweaking and re-alignment happening along the way. Therefore, thinking about new ways to increase your profile, nurture professional relationships, and extend the equity of an established business is vital for any brand’s ongoing success.

Instead of asking, “What should we do next?” try asking, “How could we do this better?”



Building your design business: perceptioning

Before perceptioning there was positioning. Jack Trout first wrote about positioning back in 1969. Decades later many still tout it to be the worlds’ number one business strategy.



Positioning was defined as a process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its’ product, brand or organization. The words to remember here are ‘try’ and ‘mind’. From that starting point businesses were meant to go on and identify a market niche for their brand, product or service utilizing traditional marketing placement strategies (i.e. price, promotion, distribution, packaging, and competition).


Traditionally there were a lot of ‘how’ and ‘what’ tactics involved. How do we identify our customers? How do we dominate the market? How can we eliminate the competition? What can we tell them that they will believe? What message are we selling?

Positioning as a strategy was designed to gain mindshare of consumers. Businesses strove for their products to be uppermost in consumer’s minds and achieved this by pushing their message out relentlessly through advertising promotion and the hard sell. Fighting a battle for people’s minds is a traditional old message supported by a world with just three TV channels and no remote control. Shouldn’t we be trying to woo our way into their tweeting hearts?



“It doesn’t matter what people think about you. What matters is how you make them feel about themselves and their decisions.”
— TOM ASACKER



Perceptioning is the means by which you convey the truth and understanding about you, your product, business or brand to the world. It is the basis upon which people (clients, consumers, friends) create expectations and thus act on what they sense to be true.



Perceptioning is the quest for people’s hearts and not something that can be managed or manufactured as it is based on how people feel rather than what you can make them think. It is not a science but an art and a new strategy for thinking about how not to compete in the market. The foundations of perceptioning are what you say and what you do to make people feel that they matter.


Random acts of perceptioning in no specific order: (might be an idea to read first then come back and click on the links afterward… your call).

1. Be different

2. Do something you love
3. Work with people you care about
4. Look for niches and edges to work in
5. Spend time listening to customers

6. Show; don’t tell

7. Be generous; share your insights

8. Stop worrying about the competition
9. Fulfill the unexpressed desires of your clients

10. Build relationships
11. 
Look for opportunities to interact

12. Deliver value

13. Do something unexpected

14. Speak human

15. Surprise
16. Delight

17. Connect people to each other
18. Compel clients to say, “I love this!”
19. 
Compel clients customers to say, “I love this, who did it?”
20. Be Yourself

What else…..?



As designers you are not trying to corner the market in washing powder sales or own the words “whiter whites.” You are not boxes of cereal competing for shelf space at Walmart. You don’t have to be the same. It’s your job to be different, not just to think different.




“Original ideas are created by original people, people who either through instinct or insight know the value of being different and recognize the commonplace as a dangerous place to be.”

— PAUL ARDEN

The next parts in the ‘Building your design business’ series will look at;


2. Product

3. Promotion



Watch this space.

—

Other Logo Design Love articles by Bernadette Jiwa:
Beyond the logo… “I love this!” moments
Beyond the portfolio — why being a great designer isn’t enough
Sell what Google can’t optimise

Necker cube image by Yazid Azahari.

Published on Logo Design Love

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When approaching the design of a new logo, it’s easy to be intimidated by the blank canvas of the whole thing. A company or business has invested their time and money in you, and your client is expecting something unique, creative, and personal that will produce the “thumb print” of the business. Simplifying the process and narrowing your focus is essential with creative briefs and when sketching, but there are three factors that will go a long way toward determining the success of your design. Ask yourself, does this logo design truly express the 1. personality, 2. culture, and 3. history of your client’s business?

Personality
— noun. 1. the visible aspect of one’s character as it impresses others

The visual personality, or attitude, of a logo can be the same as in any human and reflect a number of different moods and traits. There are logos that are fun, angry, happy, calm, energetic, flirty, geeky, smart, etc. A logo must capture the right personality of its owner. This also plays a major role in branding, and is why its good to establish a brand archetype(s) for each project before any sketching begins.

Line weight, colour, shape, and typefaces are the major things that I use to influence a logo’s personality. A small change to either of those can drastically alter the mood of a design.

Culture
— noun 1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

It sometimes helps me to think of a brand as its own country. Like many countries of the world, any given brand will have its own unique values, traditions, language, and beliefs. If personality defines “who they are” then culture could define “how they do it.”

When representing ones culture I use colour, patterns, style (hand-drawn, illustrative, emblem, etc.) and other symbols to reflect individuality. Each can be a powerful trait to any brandmark design.

History
— noun1. the branch of knowledge dealing with past events

History is usually the easiest of the three to represent, yet also the most varied from project to project. For a company that has been around a long time, has an established identity and some equity in their logo, all they may need is an update of sorts to their current mark. For a new design, it becomes harder. I recommend finding a story about how the business came to be, something about the owner, or perhaps the area in which they are located. Everyone has a story to tell and if it can come through in their identity, that’s a beautiful thing.

The typeface, brand story, and previous logos can be major factors in your representation of history.

Overlapping importance

There is some overlap between each of these three factors. History and culture help shape the personality. History and personality define the culture. Personality and culture stem from history. They are all intertwined, each with its own separate importance. Picture each factor as a slice of pie. The pie isn’t complete if one slice is missing.

Let’s look at an example of these factors put to good use, and one that misses the mark.

BMW is known for building cars that look just as their logo suggest: Clean, simple, stylish, etc. my favorite part of the logo is their history representation. BMW originally made airplane engines in the early 20th century. The white and blue in the logo could represent one of two things; a white propeller spinning with a blue sky behind it, or the Bavarian flag, which is made of a blue and white checkered pattern.

There’s no doubt McDonald’s has one of the most recognizable logos in the world, and for a company as large and successful as them they need nothing more. But let’s try to look at it as if we are seeing it for the first time, knowing only the basic information you would have in a design brief: they’re an American hamburger fast food restaurant targeting mostly children and young adults. You have to love the friendly, warm smile-like quality of the arches, so the personality is there. Now, is it just me, or is there a total lack of visual culture and history here? To me, this mark would have been just as good for any other business with an “innocent” or “caregiver” brand archetype.

The “personality, culture, and history” philosophy can also be applied to typography. So on your next project keep your client’s business personality, culture, and history in mind. If you can represent all three, you’ll be on your way to providing a very strong identity.

—

Brandon Moore is a graphic designer based in Orlando, Florida. He designs, blogs, and tweets, and recently graduated from Full Sail University.

Header photo courtesy of china.sixty4

Published on Logo Design Love

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• Building your design business: perceptioning
• Logo warehouses, crowdsourcing, and a lack of understanding

Logo design should not be approached with the goal of filling that blank spot on the top of your letterhead. It is not the time to recklessly do something trendy and cool. Most importantly, it is not about getting a task off your to-do list so you can move on to selling widgets to your customers.

The logo design process should provide value far beyond the delivery of a symbol.

Design is not a product

Many logos however are being sold simply as a graphic. Crowdsourcing and online logo warehouses make the purchase quick and easy with little need for any true understanding. Both the client and “designer” are released from investing in developing a deep understanding of brand, strategy, marketing and design principles.

By removing the requirement of understanding, logos can be sold as if they themselves are widgets with plug-and-play compatibility — a generic product that can be applied to whoever wants it.

Understanding is a service

Logo design should always be considered as part of a larger brand strategy. It is an opportunity to develop cohesive and consistent messaging tailored to a specific set of customers. To accomplish this requires customization, knowledge and skill. It demands that design is viewed as a service and not a product. It requires strategy.

Without a complete and well thought out strategy, you can’t successfully influence where a company is heading. A bank won’t hand money to a company that operates without a strategy, and, over time, neither will customers. They will choose to buy from a company with a solid strategy, a consistent message, and a defined direction — one with a strong brand.

While a graphic designer can help with the nurturing, a logo alone is not the solution to developing a strong brand. This strength can only come from understanding. The company must understand their business, competition, market space, preferences, trends, strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly why customers should care about them.

Understanding goes the other way, too. If their customers can’t understand what it is that makes the company unique and why they should care, then they cannot develop a connection. No connection, no strength.

One of the greatest values a graphic designer can provide is the ability to successfully translate this understanding into a visual brand.

Understanding is the missing link

Online logo warehouses and crowdsourcing put the onus on the client to ask the right questions, to validate the answers, and to translate that information into the selection of a graphic. In doing so, they remove the most critical part of any identity project — the focus on developing an understanding.

A graphic designer must provide a bridge of understanding between a company and its audience. They must ask the right questions, pushing the client for authenticity. They must then validate the responses, making sure there are no gaps in understanding or differences in thinking. They must provide direction and guidance built on strategy.

Logo sweatshops and crowdsourcing websites pretend this “little detail” has no value. They thrive on clients believing a logo is only meant to fill an empty space.

So I need understanding and not a logo?

No. You need an identity built on understanding, and the cornerstone for that is a logo. At the end of the logo design process you want:

1. A Creative Brief. A document derived from answers to hard questions. Developing the creative brief is vital to solidifying direction, objectives, audience and tone. In almost all cases, this is not an easy document to create.

2. A Partner. The designer should become part of your team. They should be available to provide support and advice throughout the project and into the future. As a partner, they must remain aware of your evolving brand and how best to leverage it.

3. A Logo. The obvious deliverable, the logo is part of a larger branding strategy and must meet all technical and creative requirements for the foreseeable future.

4. A Roadmap. You need to be armed with a strong sense of where the visual brand is heading and how it integrates with your marketing plans. At a minimum, this may be in the form of guidelines for the use of color, fonts and the logo itself, but often involves mock-ups of the brand in action.

But it costs more

Yes, but you receive better value. Hiring a graphic designer ensures there is a solid foundation for your visual brand built on understanding. This is certainly worth more than a graphic that looks cool but leaves you floating with a hollow and unauthentic reflection of your brand.

The most loved brands, the ones that last, are authentic. They are not a cheap veneer that peels away over time. Authenticity requires understanding. Understanding requires experience. Experience requires time. Time costs money.

Logo design and branding are not about getting an item off your to-do list. It is an ongoing exercise in fostering understanding and there is no $99 solution for that.

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Steve Zelle is a designer and brand identity consultant based in Ottawa, Canada. He operates as idApostle and set-up a blog that I’ve enjoyed browsing — Processed Identity. You can reach him through his website or here on Twitter.

Published on Logo Design Love

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• The designer and the tech guy
• How LO can you GO?
• Building your design business: promotion
• Building your design business: product
• Building your design business: perceptioning

A Google search for logo design turns up 150 million results and we already know that these are skewed towards big average Joe. Those longstanding firms that sell cheap and quick design or DIY services to ‘the average person’ in a hurry.



You already know there is not much hope of people finding you amongst the 150 million needles in that backlinked haystack.



But here’s the thing, the kind of businesses you want to create identities for don’t judge you by the amount of backlink muscle you flex. They don’t find you this way either.




Google can’t optimise your best offering. It can’t optimise what makes you and your designs unique. And most of all Google can’t really optimise what the non-average, exceptional, client you would kill for wants to buy.



Google can’t optimise your purpose, your heart or your soul, your art or judgement, your professionalism and enthusiasm.



Google is terrible at defining your talent and your edge, your clarity of vision or communication skills.



Google SEO will rarely demonstrate your work ethic and dedication, your inspiration or your ability to solve problems and overcome obstacles.



Google can’t tell clients who will be the best in their world. Only you can do that.



Might be an idea to stop competing for average and just concentrate on being great.

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Also by Bernadette Jiwa:
Beyond the portfolio — why being a great designer isn’t enough
Beyond the logo… “I love this!” moments

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• How LO can you GO?
• Building your design business: promotion
• Building your design business: product
• Building your design business: perceptioning
• Design with personality, culture, and history