Lets start with your image to the outside world:

• A poorly conceived/executed logo (1.) will not connect with your prospects; (2.) can deliver the wrong message about who-you-are and what-you-do; (3.) give the idea that you have poor quality standards; (4.) may be too generic to be memorable; (5.) is hard to read on business cards; (6.) will confuse people about what you do
• A logo that hasn’t been updated in years (1.) will tell your customers you are too cheap to keep your image fresh; (2.) may no-longer represent the company and its values; (3) will project a lack of interest in your own business and brand value; (4) looks boring and not fun to work with

Now, let’s consider, more importantly, the image to your employees:

An old logo that hasn’t been updated will tell employees  (1.) “We don’t care about the future of the company;” (2.) “We are cheap and don’t understand the intrinsic value of our Brand;” (3.) “We don’t understand what the current Brand represents or where it is headed;” (4.) “We fear or are against change or improvement.”

A poorly conceived/executed logo tells your employees (1.) we do not connect with our employees; (2.) delivers the wrong message on who-the-company-is and what-the-company-does; (3.) gives the idea that we have poor quality standards; (4.) steers potential applicants away from applying by having them think, “If they don’t invest in their image, they probably won’t invest in me either.”

Next Printing Cost:

I’ll have to preface this with some basic info – a professionally developed logo is successful in black and white, one color – possibly two color. When contrasted with some poorly planned logos that are full-color for no good reason:

• Printing cost for full-color, all of the time, will normally double or triple any printing job’s cost (Example: business cards for a two-color logo can run about $100, but the cost can easily jump to $200+ for full color on the same paper stock)

Imagine printing letterhead, envelopes, and business cards for an office of 10 people. If you have professional designed stationery with a two-color logo, your cost may be $2,000 depending on paper stock and quantities. For similar paper stock and quantities, using a logo that is full color, you will easily spend $5,000. So, you can see that anything you saved on the logo redesign is eaten away by poor planning and execution.

Another problem with an unprofessional logo, we have seen this more times than I like to admit, is when the logo is created in a non-scalable format. They had a friend put something together in a desktop publishing program and they only have one file format and it isn’t scalable. Each time the logo is used on different media such as on letterhead, then billboards or shirts, the company they contract with has to re-make the logo, OR turn it into a two or one color, OR (the worse) stretch the logo to fit the size so the final print/production is warped, fuzzy or pixelated.

We have encountered several poorly conceived, badly executed logos that are not helping the companies they are supposed to represent. So, if you are concerned about how much a good or great logo will cost you, it is nothing compared to what a BAD LOGO will cost you.

Think about what big prospects have walked away from your company because your brand looks old, confusing, or poor quality. How much did that logo really cost you now?

Professional designers shouldn’t be overly influenced by their personal
interests when considering a logo design. Designers get paid to solve
other people’s problems, not chase down our own artistic pursuits. On
the other hand, designers who become indistinct from business people run
the risk of losing a creative dominance, so finding a balance is essential.

Attempting to describe the process of logo design is similar to trying
to answer the question, “How long will it take to generate a good idea?”
Some designers wrangle with a visual branding project for almost a year
or longer. Other designers will have a workable solution in mind after
the first client meeting. Because timelines can be dubious, designers
learn to trust a creative method. Usually, this method starts with the
knowledge and appreciation for the project’s vision and context. Then
the designer draws from research, goal-oriented creative briefs, and
industry trends.

Good designers prefer to not touch a computer until the idea in mind is
mostly resolved and crafted, instead sketching dozens, up to hundreds of
thumbnails. Creating many ideas throughout the creative process can be
an effective way to reach a great solution, but quantity doesn’t assure
quality. Visually and conceptually refining the idea and/or initial
artwork will follow this period of brainstorming, providing a period of
careful evaluation and resolution before being considered for a logo
design option.

Current Logo Design

New Rebranded Look for 2010

The Holiday Inn rebrand shown below was genius and it went far beyond the company’s logo. Many times people confuse a new logo for a rebrand. A rebrand is a new look across the board and that is exactly what Holiday Inn did. Holiday Inn required all of their franchises to update their properties to the new look or leave the company. As the recession was really developing, Holiday Inn had little mercy for the franchise owners dragging their feet and the company cut ties. I have seen many former Holiday Inns and I see why the company cut ties. Holiday Inn upscaled their company image to be a preferred place for families to stay for vacations as well as frugal business travelers. The former Holiday Inns can mostly been summed up as “hell holes”. [I can not account for every one of them since I'm obviously not seen all of them, but the ones I've driven by or the few I've stayed at as a last resort where just horrid.]

Classic Holiday Inn logo

Revamped Holiday Inn Rebrand in 2007

Just remember a rebrand is not just a new logo, but a new company attitude, a position change in the market, or a rebirth of a very historic logo. Also, many small companies fail to inform their brand community that they made the change so they look like they were bought out or worse, a different company altogether. Obviously a small company is not going to international news like Gap, DoubleTree or Holiday Inn, but a simple email, letter, or small advertising campaign will go a long way.

As a designer & marketer, I love seeing rebrands. Some are very successful and others are not so much. At least Gap listened to their fans and brand community via social media and public mockery on TV, radio & print. Some advertising experts say this may have been a stunt to get media attention. Just this morning, the Today Show on NBC mentioned the brand going back to the classic logo then immediately asked why that was considered news.

Do you have a favorite brand that did a great rebrand or maybe another brand horror story? Do tell.

A logo design by David Carson.

Copying an artist’s or designer’s work is one of the best exercises to learn design techniques. It is one of the most effective ways to learn such things as spacing, the way colors interact with each other, font design, etc. You are literally taking what an artist has become good at and having them teach you their strength in design. Every designer has their strengths and weaknesses, and the best way to learn something is by doing it, so it stands to reason that if a designer takes a work by David Carson and literally creates right over the top of his original, you will learn an enormous amount about his layout, and sensibility of design.

It was always frustrating to me that design schools so avidly push students away from any form of copying for fear to plagiarism. Plagiarism is very serious and designers need to be held accountable for where and how they reference work. But ignoring copying as a teaching tool due to fear does a disservice to teachers and students alike. As long as  designers are copying design for the sake of learning something, and not passing it off as their own, copying can be incredibly effective.

Copying can be a great teaching tool to learn almost any technique. It should be used by students and veteran designers to expand the abilities and add to their range as artists, just don’t sell it as your own.

A more appropriate font would have been a traditional serif font like Garamond or even a script font.

Why, oh why do people use these horrid fonts? Please stop the insanity.

So the goal of a logo redesign for an existing business that wants to update the look of their logo is to walk the fine line of pushing the design as far as you can while maintaining some core elements of the existing logo. Doing this will help a design retain an overall recognition to the brand. You can do this in a number of way using similar colors, images, and/or typefaces. As designers, we try to find what people are visually responding to in the design of the original logo and try to transition that element to the new design.

When redesigning the logo for the local French Quarter Candy store Laura’s Candies, we identified two elements that we wanted to transition into the new design. The sensibility of the “L” that underlines Laura’s and the color red. Also, we wanted to develop a modern design that had an older sensibility because Laura’s Candies is the oldest active candy store in New Orleans.  Using these elements, we redesigned a logo that we feel improves on the original design without losing too much of the existing design.

As with Laura’s Candies, re-designing a logo often implements changes to refresh the look while considering customer recognition.

Green Serene is a new eco-friendly retail store on the famous Magazine Street. At the shop, you can find innovative and stylish designs made of 100% organic cotton and bamboo clothing, repurposed and recycled beauty products, and hand-made jewelry. Our goal was to develop an identity that represented the company’s mission and purpose with a unique flair so it would not get lost in the green jungle.

There are a lot of great design blogs out there, but if you have not heard of this blog, you should check it out and then subscribe. They post every day, often many times a day, and it always seems to be something unique. They have all sorts of articles for inspiration, they have tutorials for a ton of different software, they interview great graphic designers and have regular best of the week summaries. The goal of Abduzeedo “is to be an open channel to the design community, encouraging feedback.” This blog is a great resource for all designers.

abduzeedo.com

Guess what Brinks is doing? No, they’re not buying a stadium; they’re rebranding! I do not understand changing a powerful brand that has household name recognition. I flipped when I heard the Cingular brand was on it’s way out, but it was being replaced by the even more well known and powerful AT&T brand. Brinks is changing their home security and business security to Broadview Security. I do not think Broadview Security has the same brand dominance as AT&T. I do like the additional of the term “security” to the name, but when you have a brand that is synonymous with an industry like Brinks is to security, I am okay not having the descriptive word in the name. I agree having a different look for the personal and business sides of the security business, but I would never suggest a name change for a company with as much brand collateral as Brinks.

According to their website, Brinks is keeping the name for their “Global Security Transportation and Cash Logistics Company” so the brand will still be around. When doing some research for this post, I was even more surprised to find The Brink’s Company had a different logo.

We’ll see how this pans out over the next few years. One benefits going for Brinks & Broadview Security is the amount of money they can spend in advertising and branding the new company name. A  smaller company with a similar name recognition in a local or regional market would have a tougher time without that kind of spending power.