Re-bumping logos
A logo re-bump injects new life and passion into your business. Using a professional designer or art consultant for your graphic arts requirements ensures you get exactly what you want and that it’s completely unique to you and your business.
Colour has a subtle psychological effect on customers’ perceptions of you. Use the wrong colours and you convey the wrong brand image: too muted and your creative personality doesn’t come through; too neon and your customers have a hard time taking you seriously. A graphic artist has studied the effects of colour on mood and perception and creates your logo accordingly and most of the time he will suggest the best approaches.
Unfortunately, the colours you like may not be the right ones for your new logo. The target customer is the most important consideration as you discuss colour with your graphic designer. How old are your ideal customers? What do they do for fun and work? What is their income bracket? Will your customers access your website through their cell phones? Your boutique graphic artist should consider these and many other questions for your logo design.
Simplicity is key to using colour properly in a logo. A simple logo is a powerful and memorable message that sticks in your potential customer’s mind, and reducing visual clutter makes your brand image easier to recall. Defined lines and blocks of colour that make sense together are pleasing to the eye and don’t get “lost” amid all the other information in your customer’s life.
Always let your graphic designer know how you’ll be using your redesigned logo because colours reproduce differently in different mediums. A four-color printed logo might look spectacular until you try to put it on your web page, where browsers do weird things to colours they don’t recognize. This new logo will be applied to every aspect of your business—make sure it works everywhere.
Simplicity and instant recognition are the goals. Think of all the most memorable logos you’ve seen and borrow their strong points. Talk your logo redesign over with a boutique graphic artist and learn how a fresh design can improve your brand image immediately.
The 5 Rules of Logo Design:
Here are five things to keep in mind when evaluating your current logo—or considering a redesign—to align your logo with your brand essence.
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- A Logo Design should be simple and readable. The viewer should “get it” immediately and be able to get a “sneak peek” into your brand through the mark itself. The challenge then, is to create a logo that is simple and immediate without being boring or institutional.
- A Logo Design should convey a sense of emotion and personality. Think of it as the layers of an onion. As you peel away each layer—the typography, the symbols, the shapes and textures, and color palette—you learn more and more about the brand (the company) behind the logo.
- A Logo Design should express the appropriate tone and voice articulated in your brand strategy. When you think about this critical alignment, consider the necktie. If a businessman walks into a boardroom with a loud and garish pink flamingo-print tie, that tie would speak clearly to everyone in the room even before the businessman uttered a single word. Conversely, a conservative silk tie will “speak” in an entirely different voice. Your company’s logo can act as the reputation that precedes you into the marketplace.
- A Logo Design should be flexible and work well in a multi-channel sales environment—not just on letterhead and business cards. It should work in all mediums from black and white, tiny, low-resolution, fax, web, and full-color printing. With today’s broadband delivery, animated logos—or avatars—can also be a desirable option.
- A Logo Design should look different than other logos—especially those who share your same marketspace or prospect base. Having a “me too” logo design will weaken your organization’s uniqueness and the differentiation you tried so hard to establish in developing your brand essence.