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Thinkology Newsletter - Summer 2009

• Logos That Empower Your Brand
• A Style-Guide Primer
• Design Tips for Logo Development
  

 

Logos That Connect You to Your Customers

Effective branding and the right company logo can go a long way towards helping you build brand loyalty between you and your customers. A good logo will provide an intuitive link to your product or services in a way that speaks to the direction or motivation behind your company. A great logo will illicit an emotional response that provides an instant connection. What is your logo saying about you?

Refreshing a logo can be as simple as selecting a new color scheme. For example, Think Marketing refreshed the look of Techtonic Group’s logo by revising the monotone color design with a fresh and modern two-toned scheme. This simple color change instantly updated their logo in a way that still provided a connection to their company’s past. Small changes that gently move customers without alienating them are usually best.

However, there are times when an entire brand makeover is warranted. We typically see this when a company gets new ownership or is considerably altering the products or services they are selling. Sometimes re-branding is necessary when it becomes clear that the old brand is simply not connecting with customers. Our logo redesign work with Family & Youth Services (FAYS) of San Joaquin County is a perfect example of this.

In redesigning the FAYS logo it was important that it express the idea of a community working together. As you can see in the new logo on the right, this ultimately took shape through a circle of stylized people connected together, emerging out of a space of positive growth-the flower and star in the center.

Looking back at their previous logo, one can see how disconnected it was from their organization’s mission of helping foster healthy families in the San Joaquin Valley of California. As our client, Linda Mascarenas-Colgan of FAYS, put it, “Our new logo is a much better representation of our organization’s goals and aspirations. Our previous logo didn’t do a very good job at expressing the spirit of community and optimism that is at the core of everything we do. Our new logo does. We love it and feel as if we have moved forward in time.”

If you’re considering refreshing or redesigning your company logo, contact us. We can work with you to create a logo that elevates your brand, motivates your team and connects with your customers.

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Writing with Style

One of the biggest tools a writer can utilize in their work is a writer’s style guide. A style guide is a book that outlines a particular set of standards for writing documents. It covers things like punctuation, grammar usage and prose style. There are many style guides to choose from and each presents its own set of linguistic rules. For example, academics might follow the guidelines set forth in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers while lawyers might follow the standards outlined in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. In the U.S., most books found in bookstores and libraries follow The Chicago Manual of Style while most newspapers base their styles upon The Associated Press Stylebook. A classic style guide for the general public is The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White (known simply as “Strunk and White”) which has just been released in a 50th-anniversary edition. Adherence to a particular style of writing provides uniformity in language and formatting that can ultimately clarify your communications to your audience.

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DARREN’S DESIGN TIPS: More Insights on Logo Design

From a design perspective, there are many important things to consider when creating a logo. To begin, you should think about how and where your logo is going to be seen. Will it be appearing mostly online, or will it need to be printed on marketing collateral? The overall style and layout of your design should be guided by how it will be used. For example, many of the newer logos created for online and technology companies now feature a three-dimensional look with highlights and shadows. While they convey a sense of cutting-edge modernity, they may not translate very well to a printed piece. Hip highlights and shadows can be a problem when being embroidered onto a polo for your sales team. Some other important things to consider are:

• Will your new logo be a treatment of text, symbol(s) or, more commonly, a combination of the two?
• Will your logo be appearing with a tagline?
• What do you want your logo to say about your company? Remember that thick fonts and bright or bold colors convey a feeling of strength and confidence, while thin fonts and pastels convey simplicity and have a calming effect.

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