Enjoy this week’s blog post by graphic designer, Clare Parfitt, and learn about the power of logo design for your business.
Reflections on Logo Design
A logo is the “billboard” of your company. It provides an immediate first impression. The most well designed logos convey an easy to grasp concept and look and feel, which generates a clear association with your audience.
On the other hand, a poorly designed, poorly executed logo can have the opposite effect – generating a negative impression of your company, products and services.
Before hiring a designer to create your logo/branding, it’s important to first have a sense of the look you are aiming for, know who your target audience is, what needs that audience has, and have some concepts in mind.
The Power of a Good Logo
The most enjoyable logo design project I ever worked on was for Sequoia Soils, a start up company selling organic compost. My client had a clear vision of what he was aiming for – a logo showing mountains and a sequoia tree.
I am also a fine artist, and this project gave me an opportunity to use my illustration skills. I illustrated the elements by hand, then incorporated them into an oval motif, creating a woodcut feel.
This logo was designed for a psychotherapist in private practice. She had established a niche for her practice – focusing on the three areas of psychotherapy, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), and neurofeedback. She also had an expertise in treating ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Her company name of ADDing Solutions was a clever take on this focus.
She also had a clear concept in mind for her logo. She wished to integrate the three areas of her practice visually in a universally recognized symbol. I created the abstract yin-yang concept that represents these three areas, which are defined in the tagline below her logo and emphasized by the different bullet colors which correspond to the logo.
Logo Design Fails
These are examples of well known logo redesigns which were considered failures, sometimes creating disastrous results for the companies involved.
The GAP decided to redesign their logo back in 2010. The GAP had a distinctive, elegant yet simple logo with huge brand recognition, which had existed for 20 years. For some unknown reason the store decided to rebrand. There was intense and immediate backlash from the public. The new logo was justifiably criticized as being amateurish, looking like it was created with Microsoft clip art. The criticism was so intense that the company reverted back to their original logo only 6 days after the rebrand was launched, but not after first spending $100 million!
Kraft is a well known company that has been around for years, with their logo offering instant brand recognition. The logo is immediately associated with the ubiquitous Kraft macaroni and cheese. Kraft launched a rebrand in 2009, incorporating the new name of Kraft foods and a tagline. Again, harsh criticism resulted in reverting back to the original brand 6 months later, with a small modification of making the Kraft name lowercase and a little softer. The old logo was described by one internet commentator as “a big slap in the face with one of their single American cheese slices.” The new logo was too much of a departure, adding too many elements and colors, and created confusion in the marketplace.
I believe the moral of both of these examples is “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!”
The Point
Knowing your audience and your vision is important when designing or redesigning a logo. Your logo is often the first impression a potential customer or client will have of your company. Make sure it is a good one.
Clare Parfitt is a seasoned graphic designer, with over 20 years of experience translating complex ideas into effective, fresh and clean design solutions. Clare has developed branding, print marketing communications and social media campaigns for a large variety of small businesses, as well as large corporations. You can connect with Clare on LinkedIn.
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