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One problem that applies across a wide range of marketing design work is:
How will this actually look?
Some examples:
1. Print design depends on the quality of the print job. Your beautiful black and white photo can suddenly develop a sickly greenish cast.
2. Print ads appear in a context. How will it look against the backdrop of the other ads or copy on that page or in that periodical? Will your ad disappear because it looks like all the rest?
3. How a web page looks depends heavily on the monitor on which it is being viewed.
4. Signage and packaging aren't going to look the same lit by sunlight as by indoor fluorescents.
This is not a new problem - marketers have been struggling with this for ages, as this photo from 1955 illustrates.
Taken to an extreme...
(A free Taco Bell crunchy taco to the first person to correctly guess the exact number of different fonts.)
If you are mailing something in an envelope, it is worth putting some thought into the outside of the envelope.
There is one crucial idea in mind:
Maximize the number of people who open the envelope.
If you can put something on the outside of the envelope that people will notice, which makes them curious, and which appeals to a vital problem or interest - then you will have a likely winner.
When designing an envelope, we start with this goal: Make opening the envelope irresistible to any serious prospect.
David Ogilvy again:
Always design your layout for the publication in which it will appear, and never approve it until you have seen how it looks when pasted into that publication.... A layout must relate to the graphic climate of the newspaper or magazine which is to carry it.
Yellow Pages too. We try to always have a copy of last years Yellow Pages, the section in which the ad we are designing will appear. If everyone else is using blues and greens, yellows and reds will make our ad much more noticed.
This rule applies just as well to the Internet. What do competitor websites look like? How are they structured?
Then make sure your website looks different but not too different.
Legal website are particularly bad in this regards. They are virtually indistinguishable, one from another. And certainly no one will remember one over another.
The International Space Station and Shuttle Atlantis against a backdrop of the Sun (click on picture for full-size image and description).
Metropolitan Block, Lima, Ohio. A fine example of Romanesque Revival architecture.
One of the most common and widely used marketing items is a brochure. If you are going to have any print materials at all, brochures are right up there with business cards and letterhead.
It is an oddity that the word brochure is used most commonly these days for something that is not, technically a brochure at all. The 8-1/2x11, single sheet, tri-fold brochure should really be called a flyer. Brochures by definition are supposed to be multiple sheets (look up the derivation of the word!). But that is a losing battle.
Brochures can range from the very inexpensive to the extraordinarily expensive. Custom sizes, classy paper, multiple pages and all sorts of special effects such as cutouts and spot UV (shiny coating in select areas) can drive up costs as high as $10 each.
It all depends on how you are going to use them, what your budget is and what kind of impression you need to make.
An 8-1/2x11 trifold on cheap paper just won't do if you are trying to promote a multi-million dollar piece of equipment.
Another important point about brochures. Just as the home page of a website needs to get the viewer into the site, the face of a brochure needs to get the reader into it. Everything on the face of a brochure should be designed to make it inevitable that a true prospect will open it up and read on.
Barnum & Bailey circus poster, dated 1900.
Full size image from Wikipedia.
A good piece of design can sometimes make the entire point without a single word.
(Painted ceiling of a smoker's lounge)
What emotions does this image evoke in you?
I don't know - in fact I'm sure it won't be the same for everyone - and who knows what the Creator intended.
But as all great art, whether fine art or commercial art, it resonates and speaks to the heart and to the soul....
(View the full-size image for maximum effect.)
There are a few solid rules about logo design which are often violated and are pretty much guaranteed to create problems.
1. The difference in sizes between the largest and smallest text shouldn't be much more than 2 to 1. Logos are used at many sizes, so any text needs to be readable when used small; on the other hand not look overly "horsey" at largest size usage.
2. Most logos should be wider than tall (emblems an exception). This fits with the way they are mostly used.
3. Logos should be designed in such a way that they will work in black and white or possibly in two colors (possibly with some adjustment from a full-color version).
4. Logos should be designed in such a way that they work at a great distance or at a glance, as well as close up.
5. Don't try to make a logo do too much work!
Art doesn't have to be representational to be great art. Balance, color, mind-wrenching shapes....
Click through, the small image doesn't do it justice...NGC602
Thank You, Hubble Space Telescope!
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Symbols don't have an impact until they've been given a meaning.
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So don't count on a logo to hang your hat on. When you are starting out, the best logo means absolutely nothing to people.
You have to create impact with direct visual communication such as photos or illustrations of what you are trying to sell, its features or benefits (happy customers). A logo can have some impact even before it has any meaning, but it isn't going to have much.
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Over time, your logo can come to mean something.
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Words do have meaning and the right "button" in a headline or your Google listing can make all the difference in the world.
It's still a big plus to have graphic elements that stop people so they DO read your headline.
A young Moon edged by The Pleiades (Seven Sisters star cluster). A fine example of asymmetrical design (click on image for original picture and more info):
To anyone who, like me, grew up on equal doses of Galaxy (Science Fiction) and Popular Science Magazines, the architectural oddity known as Raygun Gothic or Streamline Moderne never seemed strange.
Now, for those who want to explore the great art of this "future that never was", the entire collection of Popular Science is now available online.
"Dreamland" at Coney Island, 1905. Stunning architecture, fabulously shot.
From Shorpy, a great site for old photographs.
The Milky Way and Zodiacal Light. Click through to the original for a larger image and explanation.
Welcome, Spring!
Is it an amoeba? No, it's a nebula, many light years across. Follow the link for the spectacular details....
I've restrained myself till now. I give up.
It's rant time.
We didn't win any Addy's this year, not even for our own website.
Now why is that?
Actual people, the clients and prospective clients you know, LOVE our website.
I get comments like "I didn't know there was anyone that good in Tampa Bay." I mean people just gush.
We get calls from people who have already decided, before talking to us, that we are doing their website.
The menu system of the website is unique without being confusing. The branding is impeccable.
Then there's the stats. The conversion ratio of our website - the percentage of visitors who then contact us - is so high I hesitate to say it as unbelievable.
So then, what's wrong with our website as far as the judges are concerned? There's really only one answer. It fails to satisfy some arbitrary, and I might add, FADDISH standard of creativity.
Phooey.
Oh, we'll keep submitting for awards. They give great credibility with a lot of people. But the real award - and the best judge - is the positive effects for our clients, and the testimonials they write about our work and results.
Okay, I'll shut up now.
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Green may be the most varied and versatile of colors.
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From an ethereal pale translucent green, to nauseating "puke green", to lush Emerald Green - you can say almost anything with green.
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It's the color of growth, health, of vegetables and moldy bread.
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And it's the color of money. And shallow water.
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"Turning green" can mean you're envious, sea sick, becoming environmentally conscious.
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Copper turns green as it ages.
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And don't forget Green Eggs and Ham.
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What can Green do for You?
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Pushing the amount of negative space as a design technique.
A Life magazine cover by Cole Phillips, from 1910, and, I might add, simply a stunning work of art:
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White is the most vanilla of colors. But, like vanilla ice cream, it has its variations.
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White is a tool to set off and show colors to their best advantage. Designers speak of the importance of "white space", the unused blank space that surrounds and helps give value to your featured design elements.
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A Picasso on a blank wall is more noticed than a Picasso on a wall with 20 other paintings.
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But let's speak of variations. Here are just a few names for shades of "off-white", those pale tones that are distinguishable often only in contrast to one another or to plain white. Yet these shades add flavor and emotion to the overall design. And this is without even getting into all the slightly darker shades, such as variations of beige or light gray!
Cream
Oyster
Pearl
Ivory
Alabaster
Skimmed-Milk
Bone
Eggshell
(Fascinating how most of these are biological in origin.)
White is mostly something we don't see. How about for a change looking at it? There's a depth and richness to be found there.
There are no words....
Nature outdoes itself in this stunning necklace, over 200,000 light years across. Pearls, eat your heart out.
Most architecture since the 1930's has been garbage.
Not all:
The Creator designed this galaxy for perfect viewing from Earth. Great proportions, boundless beauty, it oozes style, has a wonderful color scheme and a tasty minimalist backdrop. As good as it gets:
Nature and ancient man join to create a stunning design (click on image for larger picture and more info):
Time Lapse photography of the sun over an entire year.
"If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun appear to move? With great planning and effort, such a series of images can be taken. The figure-8 path the Sun follows over the course of a year is called an analemma."
(This one includes a total eclipse.)
Here's an unforgettable rendition of Mona Lisa. Click on the image to see how it was done.
(Hint: That's 3,604 cups of coffee.)
Here's a perfect example of how industrial design doesn't have to be horrible. This is in fact, one of the few things artful and enduring to come out of Communist East Germany: East German Walk / Don't Walk Symbols:
I was looking at common household items and commercial equipment, and I felt like ranting.
Look at them. Thermostats. Doorknobs. Coffee pots. Sure, they WORK. But they could look GOOD too.
There is no excuse in the world for Hideous Industrial Design (hereinafter known as HID, because it spreads from person to person and has no known cure). I can only think it's laziness or lack of talent.
In most cases, an aesthetic design would cost no more to manufacture than a cheap ugly design. And guess what, manufacturers. They would sell better! Who wouldn't rather purchase a sexy looking Heart Rate Monitor?
Apparently in most cases industrial designers are art school rejects.
Sigh.
One subject that doesn't get enough attention in marketing is readability.
There's not much point in using cool looking fonts or design if the copy ends up being hard to read. People will just skip it.
A few basic rules:
1. Serif fonts are easier to read than sans serif, unless you are dealing with very tiny print or low resolution (as in non-HD TV).
2. Standard capitalization is easier to read than ALL IN CAPS or other non-standard capitalization.
3. Black on white or dark on light is easier to read than reversed lettering such as white on black.
4. Regardless of color, low contrast of text to background makes it hard to read. A medium Blue against a medium Red shade for example.
5. Older people need more contrast and larger type sizes than younger folk! If you are younger, the fact that it is easy for you to read doesn't mean it is going to be so for a lot of your viewers / readers.
6. Anything other than standard left-to-right text is going to be harder to read (such as vertical or following a curve).
There's more to readability, but this will help avoid the worst errors.
It's hard to believe. Images so rich and beautiful, created through mathematics. Such beauty built into the very fabric of the universe.
Designers, take inspiration from the natural world.
(click on image to see more)
In a way this is a phony dichotomy. Good art - what in the advertising world is called "production values" - is very important to the effectiveness of most marketing.
BUT I can't stress enough that art is there to SERVE marketing. Art Gone Wild wins Cleos (Ad Industry awards) and loses business for their clients and accounts for agencies. This is called The Curse of the Cleo.
Encourage designers to knock your eyes out with their artistic conceptions and execution. But then step back and see if it communicates or confuses.
This is only half serious but it makes totally valid points on design considerations.
The design of pro football team helmets.
(click on picture to go to article).
Product design - as any marketing - can be timeless art, with a forever appeal.
Anyone doing or reviewing designs should be aware of the fact that things aren't necessarily what they seem.
Did you know that the "visual center" of a square is actually slightly above the actual center? If you put a dot in the true center it'll look like it's below center.
This picture is a classic example. I know it is completely unbelievable that "A" and "B" squares are the identical shade. But they are (click on picture to see enlarged).
The moral of the story? Design for how things appear to the eye. There is no absolute reality you are designing for.
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Fonts come in different flavors with different emotional connotations (some different script fonts here).
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One of the worst and most common errors in design is using many and incompatible fonts (type styles).
I think it is just too much of a temptation to designers.
I've seen a small card with 5 different fonts - and that was just on one side!
It's a distraction at best. At worst it prevents the piece from integrating. Viewers will wander off or feel like there's something wrong without, since they aren't typically trained in typography or design, having any idea why it bothers them.
It's so easy to avoid this error:
Resist. Temptation.
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Another reminder to step back and cast an independent eye on your designs - in their actual environments.
It'll prevent lots of embarrassing moments.
I guarantee it.
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Orange is the warmest color.
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The color of fire and fun, there is no shade of orange that doesn't speak of life and vitality, if not downright wit and sass.
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Unless for kids or you are designing detergent boxes, it is best used in small quantities, as an accent color.
Consider it the King of Spices of colors.
Like pepper, it transforms the entire flavor of a design. From staid to lively, somber to cheerful, motionless to top gear.
Sure, there are cases where orange doesn't work.
Aren't there?
I've commented more than once on trying to make a logo do more than it can.
I'm reading a truly incredible book, "Designing Brand Identity" - the best book on branding I've ever read. The whole back third of the book is examples, and one of them is Amazon.com and the re-branding done in 1999 when their current logo was developed.
Now don't misunderstand me, I think it is a terrific logo. But the design team put things into the logo that won't be noticed or even subliminally absorbed by one person in a thousand. I mean, did you ever notice that the orange line under the name makes a smile with a dimple that pushes up the "z"? Or that the line connects a to z, signifying the fact that Amazon.com sells everything?
It reminds me of the way significances are assigned to modern art (great book on that, "The Painted Word" by one of my heroes, Tom Wolfe). They make a great read, and sure help sell something, but they don't make it better art.
Since we're on a roll on the subject of logos, it's worth noting that especially in recent years, logos have evolved from static visual symbols to often including motion and other senses - sound, even smell - or being simply a shape or color.
Of course logos with motion and sound in them have been around for a long time in the movie industry. Think the famous MGM lion at the opening of their films. That dates back to 1924, and with sound, 1928. But this has become far, far more common in other industries.
Harley-Davidson tried (unsuccessfully) to trademark the distinctive sound of their motorcycles. But the Harlem Globetrotters have successfully trademarked their use of the song "Sweet Georgia Brown".
UPS has trademarked their distinctive brown color.
Toblerone's triangular chocolate bar shape is recognized as a trademark in Europe.
Animations in logos are now frequently seen on the Web.
So when it comes to logos, feel free to "think outside the box."
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To follow up on yesterday's post on types of logos, there is one particular "combination" logo that is very common. |
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It is called a "signature".
It consists of a graphical element plus an adjacent wordmark (name of the company or product in a standardized font, color, etc.).
The CBS eye plus "CBS" would be an example. Here's another.
As I said, very common, to a point where sometimes people think that is what is meant by a logo. It is very useful, but not always the best in any given situation.
The generic word is "logo" for a symbol that represents a company, service, product, etc.
Logo is actually short for "logotype" or "logogram" which literally mean struck or written word. Of course a logo doesn't necessarily consist of, contain or stand for a word at all. "Logo" "Brandmark" "Trademark" "Symbol" "Mark" "Service Mark" are more or less synonymous.
There are several different types of logos and it helps in thinking about or designing logos to know from the beginning what kind of logo you are looking for. There are different terms used but I like this classification:
1. Words: The company or product name, presented in a certain color, font, etc. (Coca-Cola, Disney, Tide)
2. Emblem: Company or product name as part of a unique graphic representation (Starbucks, Harley-Davidson).
3. Pictorial: A stylized image that becomes recognizable as a representation of the company, product or service (NBA, Apple)
4. Abstract: At most loosely based on anything real (Nike, Mercedes-Benz)
5. Letters: One or more letters represented in a unique graphical form to stand for the company, product or service (Unilever, GM)
6. Combinations of one or more of the above. The AT&T symbol is pictorial, but is usually presented with the company name, similarly for the NBC peacock.
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Gray may seem boring. It isn't even a color, really. It's a "neutral" or "achromatic." But oh, how it can make a piece of art sing!
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Gray is supposed to be the coldest of "colors". But there are warm grays and cool grays.
And just add touches of color to go with it, and you have a broad range of emotions you can paint.
Gray, especially charcoal tones, is classy. It tends to communicate dependability, to be associated with time and antiquity - solid, enduring, timeless. But silvery grays can be very futuristic, modern, techno, sleek, minimalist.
And look at the range of gray! My color dictionary lists some 200 different names of shades of gray - including pearl gray, aluminum, oyster white, cement, beige gray, silver, battleship gray, asphalt, dove, charcoal gray, gunmetal, steel gray, slate and ebony to name a few.
You can even spell it two different ways.
Gray! Grey!
The truly versatile color that isn't a color.
We were presented with an interesting design problem the other day. The company was very well-known and branded nationally on a conservative blue color scheme. There was also some pewter in their logo.
The design was to be for a trade show display. But these must first and foremost grab eyeballs with dramatic colors and images. Reflex blue isn't going to do that. And it made no sense for the company to change their whole color scheme.
This is where the color wheel comes into play. There are other colors that will work with their basic colors and yet be much more vibrant. Done right, you end up with a group of colors that work well together, provide the correct kind of visual effect, look different than the competition and which have the correct emotional associations.
That group of colors is what is called a "color palette." This normally involves one or two main colors and one or more other colors to be used in smaller amounts.
The choice of a suitable color palette for a company or project, is one of the most important steps in marketing.
Art at work.
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I've done a study of color recently. Fascinating subject! Did you know people can distinguish something like 10 million different colors? (The full size version of this picture contains 1 million pixels, each little dot a different color.)
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There is something very mysterious about the color purple.
It is the color of royalty. It is both sensual and spiritual.
It is the only "non-spectral color" amongst the major colors of the color wheel. The spectrum (colors of the rainbow) run Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet - we learned the acronym Roy G Biv to remember that when I was growing up, but Indigo and Violet are omitted when it is turned into a color wheel. (Color wheels are used by artists to work out color combinations.)
Of course the spectrum is a line. It is actually a gradient scale of frequencies or wavelengths. Red is the shortest visible light waves (any shorter and you get "infrared" which you can feel as heat but is not visible) and violet the longest (beyond which you get "ultraviolet", again not visible to the human eye).
The color wheel is a circle which raises the question: how do you turn a line into a circle? By connecting the ends in between. And what do you connect them with? Purple,
If you mix red and yellow you get orange, which is in between them on the spectrum and on the color wheel.
If you mix yellow and blue you get green, which is in between them on the spectrum and on the color wheel.
If you mix blue and red you get purple, which is in between them on the color wheel. But there is no "in between" red and blue in the spectrum.
Purple is a non-spectral color.
The mysterious color purple.
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I recently did a study of color. Fascinating subject.
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One thing I learned was that a vital concept in design has so thoroughly disappeared the word doesn't even exist anymore.
"Color Depth" refers to the fact that objects can appear closer or farther because of their color. Cool colors such as blue and gray tend to look farther away. Warm colors like orange and red tend to look closer.
But the term "Color Depth" has come to refer to how many different colors your monitor or software can display (number of color bits to be technical).
A design, painting or photograph where the "other" color depth is badly handled will tend to look flat, primitive or cartoonish.
Actually, in my study, I found that the last time this was routinely well-handled was in the great Renaissance Masters, such as Raphael.
Fascinating.
If you are getting something designed, whether it is a website, brochure, product packaging or whatever, it's helpful to understand the process.
There's a natural sequence that if followed smooths the process and contributes to a stellar result. This applies to any visual art, not just marketing. It includes photography, fine art painting and video amongst other venues.
1. The first thing is who is it addressed to? You can't make ANY design decisions without knowing whether you are trying to reach Inuit speaking Eskimos or Manhattan attorneys.
2. The next thing is the message. What are you trying to communicate? As that controls EVERYTHING, whether images, copy or the paper it is printed on.
3. The third thing is the dominant image. There is always going to be some main image around which the piece will be organized and that is a major factor in determining color scheme as well as many other things.
Sometimes you don't initially know what the dominant image should be and you have to go back and forth between this step and the next two before it is finalized. Sometimes your dominant image is established in stone from the start.
4. The idea. The designer has to get an idea of what the design is to be.
5. The comp. "Comp" is short for "comprehensive". Another word for the same thing is "mockup". In the days before computers, "dummy" was another synonym. We also use the term "look" especially when we are talking about a website.
This is a rough execution of the idea. Sometimes it's done with pencil on paper. Or, most often, in Photoshop.
It has just one purpose: to see if the idea works or try and adjust until it does.
If it doesn't, go back to #4 or #3 and come forward again until you have a basic design for the piece or item that looks good and will do its part to effectively communicate the right message.
In fine art painting and sculpture, this step is called a "study."
WHEN THESE STEPS HAVE BEEN PROPERLY COMPLETED, THE DESIGN CAN NOW MOVE FORWARD INTO THE DETAILS STAGES.
If it is gone at any other way, lots of time is likely to be wasted and the quality and effectiveness of the end result may be severely compromised.
We try to make sure our clients understand where we are at in the process. Otherwise, we get complaints about typos when we are still at the mockup stage. It's also why designers use Latin text as fillers in mockups - the text is meaningless at that point.
Once the mockup has been settled, there should be at most minor changes in the overall look of the piece or item. Now all the work is on writing and polishing copy, building website pages, getting the pictures to look just right, etc. etc.
Every detail now counts, but it's all done within the framework of the established look.
| It's easy to give viewers / readers / visitors the wrong idea.
The result can be amusing or destructive. |
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So pay attention to whether you're saying what you meant to!
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An amazing amount of the time, a really classy look works.
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(Image: the Morgan, a classic British roadster. There's a year's waiting list to get one. This is a 2002 model.)
A brand is an abstract concept. It is really something in the minds of your buyers and potential buyers. How do they think of you? What is your reputation? What do they think you do?
It is communicated mainly by consistent words and visual elements (other senses can play a roll. Think the sound of a Harley motorcycle).
Many major brands are known by their logo - the McDonalds golden arches, Rolex's stylized crown. See the three pointed star and you know Mercedes is being referred to - and that is a prestige, well-engineered luxury automobile.
People often think the way you start to establish a brand is with a great logo or other design elements.
In fact, those logos meant nothing until the brands were established. FIRST you know that BMW means "the ultimate driving machine". THEN you know when you see the BMW logo you are looking at a vehicle that is going to have superior power and handling.
Nevertheless, if you are going to build a brand, you need to establish design elements that are appropriate and use them with consistency. Then over time, they can come to mean something:
1. Name.
2. Type style.
3. Logo.
4. Color scheme.
5. Any particular shapes.
Of all of these, name is most important. If your name isn't memorable, your branding isn't going to be salvaged by a fancy logo.
| It's worthwhile spending some time to come up with a bright idea.
The ordinary is the enemy of good marketing.
Clever imagery can make a marketing piece all by itself. |
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The flip side of our last post is sometimes a competitor is doing something intelligent.
Look at your competition not only for what NOT to do, but for:
what is so accepted that you'd better imitate it, or you'll look weird
bright ideas you can copy or where you can do something similar
It is also common to do a complete imitation of a successful marketing campaign, not just to borrow on what they are doing right, but to try and capitalize on the brand awareness they've built. They see your ad and think, oh yeah, I've been seeing those ads, think I'll call them.
One hazard of that is instead, you may just end up reinforcing the competition branding and the prospects end up calling them not you. They never even notice it was you, not X-Y-Z company, running the ads.
Before you can get your message across, you have to get noticed.
Part of getting noticed is standing out from the crowd. If your ad, mail piece, website or other marketing item looks like everyone else's in your industry, chances are no one will even notice it. It becomes just one more ho-hum.
When we design a website, we look at what others in the same industry are doing. Often there is a fad in designs which isn't necessarily a bright idea. So at the same time we can do something better and which is distinctive.
When we design a Yellow Pages, magazine or newspaper ad, we always try and see what other ads in the same publication or YP category look like. The same rule applies.
Again, sometimes it really opens the door. We were designing a Yellow Pages ad for a dentist client of ours. NOT ONE of their competitors ads showcased a large image of a person. You can guess what our design looked like.
Visual impact is a huge factor in every form of marketing other than radio.
There's a fundamental at work here:
The first barrier every marketing piece has to overcome is getting noticed at all!
I know I've said this many times, but it remains a central factor in all marketing. If someone doesn't stop and look at your ad, website, mail piece or commercial, you never get a chance to get your message across. It doesn't matter how brilliant your pitch is if it is never heard or seen.
And it isn't words that make people stop and look. FIRST they have to stop. THEN they'll see your words.
It's the appearance of the ad - size, placement, colors, images and their arrangement - that impinges and make people stop.
This is the first consideration in design.
Logos are one of the most misunderstood elements of marketing. People expect more of them than they can ever hope to do.
Let's see if we can shine a little light on the subject.
Though it comes from the Greek word for "word", it doesn't necesssarily include any words or letters. It's just a symbol meant to represent a company, product line or product, idea or process.
A logo:
1. Should be easily recognizable even at a distance.
2. Needs to be distinct from and can't be confused with competition logos.
3. Should be memorable.
4. It needs to be suitable to the company, product line or product it is supposed to represent.
5. It should give a desired impression or reinforce it.
That is all a logo does or can do.
The McDonalds's stylized "M" logo is simple, recognizable from a distance (by color and shape) and associated with McDonald's worldwide by literally billions of people. No one seeing that logo is going to think they are at Burger King.
A person who has eaten at McDonald's seeing that logo, knows at once that McDonald's is being referred to. He also knows what he can expect - inexpensive fast food hamburgers, fries and other items. An American, seeing that symbol in Sweden, China or Kuala Lumpur, has a pretty good idea what he is going to get. With minor variations. They use more ketchup on the burgers in Sweden, and beer is amongst the drinks available.
The Nike "swoosh" is a good example of a logo that communicates a certain impression - a sense of motion and grace.
What can't a logo do?
No one is going to know what your company or product is like, know what it does, know that it is cheaper or better or prettier than the competition's. They are not going to know it is what they need -- unless they have previous familiarity with what the symbol stands for!
No one is going to rush down to the store to buy a product because they like the logo or because the logo causes some kind of subliminal effect on them.
Logos are valuable, and any company should have a good logo. Just don't try and make them do more work than they are capable of.
They are liable to go on strike.
Logos, like many things, have their fads and trends.
What looked modern and cool in the 1950's looks old-fashioned and stilted now.
So logos tend to evolve over time. Some great examples:
Hollywood Studio Logos
Technology Logos
Automobile Logos
Is your logo out-of-date? Take a look at it with "new eyes" as though you'd never seen it before.
What kind of impression do you get of the company whose logo that is? If it isn't appropriate, it's time to take action.
If you've never worked with the Web, you may be in for a bit of a rude awakening.
By its nature, websites are not going to look the same on every computer.
You are not going to be able to control exactly how they look.
Colors especially are going to vary wildly.
Your choice of fonts is going to be limited.
Now that is not quite 100% true. The problem is, the cure is usually worse than the disease.
Continue reading "Print versus Web" »
One of the first steps of my design process is to research my client's competition. After all, what I want to accomplish is to not only attract customers, but to differentiate my client from their competitors. If I can make them look the best, the potential customer will pick them over the other guy.
Continue reading "Graphic Design Competitor Research" »
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