Why does Rapid Realty reward employees for getting the company’s logo tattooed anywhere on their body?

Image source: mix967.ca

The concept of the “human billboard” is not exactly novel. We have all seen people sandwiched between a couple of boards, or racers proudly wearing dozens of logos all over their clothes. It is only logical the next step would be logos tattooed directly on someone’s body.

I don’t like any of the samples I have received! This company must be terrible!

Sometimes you can receive a group of samples that just don’t appeal to you, it happens. Most of the time a client doesn’t know or can’t precisely describe what kind of logo he wants or what image he is looking for. For that reason, a good designer will try to question the client as much as possible regarding their preferences and tastes in logos, but this is not always sufficient. Also note that sometimes an idea may seem good at first thought, but looking at the results on paper you could realize that you don’t like them at all. It is natural to get upset if you have received a package of samples that don’t suit you, but it`s important to understand that since you are not buying a premade product, bad surprises are not impossible nor improbable. Look at a batch of bad initial samples as just another step towards a great final design. It is highly unlikely that you will utterly hate everything about the samples presented. You can pick and combine different elements from them - font, color, object, layout – into one great logo. Even if the samples are really terrible, you could tell the designers precisely what you don’t like about them, which will help them avoid similar mistakes in the next samples. A bad batch of samples, depending on your view of it, can be a glass half empty or a glass half full. It’s a setback, perhaps, but the second round has a much greater chance of success.

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In this article, I wish to discuss some issues with abstract logo images and identifiable ones. We often get requests from clients asking to create an image that identifies their companies’ business. It is a perfectly proper request. But the client also wants it to be unique, something that no one else is using rather than a common and overused symbol. However, this creates a problem. What do you consider an identifiable symbol? A red cross, in North America, is associated with medical service and ambulance. When you see this symbol you recognize a medical service, despite the fact that it doesn’t show a hospital bed, a doctor treating a patient, or a car driving to a hospital. Most identifiable symbols do not really show the service, yet they are so commonly and often used that they become a standard. Now let’s get back to the client’s request. Take for example a dentist. What are the most common and standard symbols identified with dental health? A tooth and a toothbrush, obviously. When a designer receives a request from a dentist who wants an identifiable logo for his business, but doesn’t want to have overused symbols such as a tooth and a brush, what exactly is the designer to do?

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There is a big debate over the complexity of a logo. There are some obvious benefits to simple logos. They are by far the most versatile and easily identifiable. Just look at the logos of Apple, Sony, Honda, Nike, or Guci.

These logos are easy to reproduce in any size and any color, even black and white. They are easy to embroider or emboss on nearly any apparel or material. These logos are easy to make out from afar and easy to identify.

Not everything about simple logos is so great, though. It is extremely difficult to come up with a new shape and make it interesting. If you look at Nike’s logo, it is not a piece of art per say, but it is a unique shape, which makes the logo timeless and original.

From a client’s point of view paying money for a simple square or half a circle just isn’t worth it. We often hear our clients say: “Well this is not very creative” or “I could have made the same logo myself”. Indeed, simple logos (sometimes just a letter or a simple geometrical shape) just don’t look like much work has gone into them. And yet, take a look at the most famous and recognized logos out there: IBM, JVC, Google, DELL, IKEA...





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1)      The company’s name is the inspiration for a lot of great logos!
What do the logos of Apple, FireFox, Taco Bell, Shell, Puma all have in common?





 

All of these logos include an identifying object directly related to the name. This technique presents its own benefits and challenges. The benefits are obvious: it is very easy to identify the company name just by looking at the symbol and it makes the logo look clever. It also makes it memorable. The challenges come into play if you have a company name similar to that of one already on the market. How do you make your “apple” look different?

2)      There are logos with a recognizable object not associated with the company name.
For instance, Playboy, Starbucks, Lacoste, Bacardi, Michelin, Peugeot...





These logos have an identifiable image not related directly to the name of their company. This is really not less effective than the previous way, and many successful companies use this technique. Some of those logos have a hidden meaning or a story behind them, but if you don’t know that story already, it is usually hard to connect the dots: why is there an alligator on a fashion garment, exactly? Others can be related to the enterprise’s field of business. The Michelin Man logo was a great success. Even though it has no story behind it, it does convey the feel of a company producing tires filled with air. Usually, it’s very difficult for a designer to come up with an identifiable image not connected to the company name without getting some kind of story or meaning behind the concept.

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One of the most important things for any business is to develop a brand. A brand is made up of a combination of everything your business entails, including; customer service, product quality, marketing materials, and of course, the logo. A brand is the way customers perceive your business and service as a whole. The logo on the other hand, is what identifies a business or product. It is the trademark symbol that quickly identifies who you are.

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Having an eye-catching company logo is a great start to promoting your business, but how do you plan to connect with your target demographic once you have the logo? How will potential customers learn about your business? Traditional advertising media—television, radio, and print ads—can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses, and marketing on the Internet is easier said than done. That's why promotional products are such an attractive alternative to businesses just starting out.
 

Promotional Items Advertise When You Can't

We have all seen promotional items—custom t-shirts, printed coffee mugs, personalized water bottles, and so on—but have you stopped to consider just how powerful they are? For example, in the Advertising Specialty Institute's annual Impression Study, the organization found that the standard tote bag registers over 1,000 unique impressions every month! What's more, such items are often perceived as less "pushy" than traditional advertising forms. Indeed, promotional items represent the most effective form of ambient advertising available today.

Promotional Items Are Cost-Effective

To extrapolate the example above a little further, let's say each promotional tote bag costs $2. This would put the cost per impression at 0.002 cents a piece. When considering the life of the bag can run upwards of 2-3 years, the products become even more cost-effective. When comparing that to the cost of running a television ad, renting a billboard, or running a pay-per-click campaign, it's easy to understand why so many businesses employ promotional items as one of their marketing methods.

Promotional Items Drive Business

In addition to being cost-effective and effective ambient advertising, promotional items can also contribute directly to additional business for your company. The ASI study mentioned earlier also found that recipients of a promotional item were at least 50% more likely to do business with the company that had sent it. If that weren't enough, in simply receiving the gift, recipients' opinions of the company also improve. So whether your business wants to stir up some goodwill among your client base or needs to generate more sales this quarter, make sure you think strongly about ordering promotional items.

Microsoft Windows 8’s simplistic logo ushers tough times for logo design companies.

If you wish to receive a brief history of logo design fashion and graphic program capacities, all you need to do is to take a look at the gallery of Microsoft Windows’ logos. Read the rest of this entry »

Is any design that looks somewhat like yours necessarily stolen from you? When to be genuinely alarmed, and when to calm down?
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“Crime doesn’t pay”? LogoGarden proves an old saying wrong by obtaining 2 million dollars worth in financing, even after having been rightfully accused of design theft all over the internet.
Lately, LogoGarden and its unorthodox “design” tactics have been all over the internet, including our blog. You may remember our article on this infamous company  in which we discuss its habit of lifting logos from other logo designers and offering them to their clients for cheap. Read the rest of this entry »

Some alleged logo design companies, such as Logo Garden, blatantly rip off logos from other logo designers and sell them as their own.

You wouldn’t steal a purse.
You wouldn’t steal a watch.
But would you steal a logo?
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There are many different types of software available for graphic design work which can also be used for a logo design. Let's start by discussing the two types of digital imaging:

• The first type is a bitmap image system that you are probably most familiar with. This system of storing digital images is very simple. It is a "pixilated" version of the image. Basically it is a visual image divided by thousands of different colored dots and each dot has its own color and coordinate. It is a very memory consuming system, and of course the more dots you have stored in your image, the bigger and more detailed it will become.

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Over the years, LogoBee has been designing logos and accumulating articles and resources for its clients. Finally, they've released a concise set of logo design tips to help you along with your project, and ensure that you end up with a logo that will perfectly suit your needs. So without further ado, here are LogoBee's top ten tips!

Keep it Simple!

These are probably the best words of advice, and it ties into almost all of our upcoming tips. A complicated logo will not only make your logo difficult to reproduce and maintain, but you will also fail to engage your audience. The logo is the ultimate 'elevator' pitch to your potential clients and business partners. You don't have time to recite your entire business plan in an elevator pitch, and the same concept applies to corporate logo design.

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After making sure that you are dealing with a legitimate company there are few more points to look at:

-There are two different types of logo design companies that exist on the Internet:

One is a company that sells pre made logos. What they do is very simple. They design a collection of logos related to a particular field of business and if you like one of them you can buy it. These logos are mostly iconic logos, or have a special font in it. There is usually very little work done on these logos and are the cheapest that you will find. There are downsides to going this route. First: you have to be very cautious about registering or even thinking of registering this type of logo. These are pre-made logos and usually are sold to many different clients simultaneously which means you may not be the only company that owns the logo.

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Often the designers will hit a roadblock when the exact vision of the client isn`t met. Rather than expecting the perfect logo on the first, second or even third time, look for elements in each of the samples that you like. Such elements can be fonts, color schemes, layouts, graphic elements. From there, you can make a note of the items you like from each sample (for example, the font in sample #3 with the color scheme of sample #8 and the layout in sample #4 etc….) The beauty of graphic design is that we can mix, match and change these things quickly.

Patience IS a virtue

When working on your project, it is important to consider that your logo design will, more often then not, take time. Logo design is a creative process, and it is important to remember that. Personally, I have dealt with patient clients and impatient clients, and I have found that trying to rush the process often results in the client not getting exactly what they asked for.