Branding – Professional graphic designer to create your logo? why do you need one
You need a logo for your company and your nephew’s neighbor’s wife’s friend said she likes to draw… and would love to design the logo for you. Sounds familiar? After all, if Nike can have a Swoosh logo, how hard could it be to draw one? You even know what you want! You call it and a few days later you have a wonderful drawing. But is this really the best way to do it? What is the real monetary value in the design of a logo. Have you ever tried to get a quote for a logo design? Like many things you buy these days, there is a variety, and in this case, it’s huge.
I was once asked in a meeting with a potential client if I could design a logo that would have the same recognition that Nike enjoys in the marketplace. Without hesitation I said I guarantee it. They were surprised until I told them that it would be directly tied to their marketing budget being the same as Nike’s.
So, you ask, can’t I save on logo design? Can a logo be pretty much anything as long as you put in a lot of marketing effort to promote it?
What is a logo? You also have to ask yourself, what is a brand? I’ve read somewhere that brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product. That’s a mouthful. In other words, what comes to mind when you recognize the company logo is very important. And it is very important on an emotional level.
Like the excellent book, The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson schemes, 12 archetypes are very applicable to brand building. Here’s a rundown of 2 brand archetypes, including some of their core attributes. is your company The innocent? (Healthy, pure, indulgent, trusting, honest, happy, optimistic, enjoys simple pleasures) or is The Explorer. (Seeker, seeker, adventurer, restless, desire excitement, Independent, self-directed, self-sufficient, Values freedom). I won’t go into all 12 here, but I would suggest this book as a great read in order to learn about the brand. Ask yourself if you can think of a company that fits The innocent category. What’s up The Explorer, who could it be? (What about Disney and Nokia?)
Now let’s get back to designing your logo. Before you gave your nephew’s neighbor’s wife’s friend the green light to design your logo, did you think about whether the image you have in mind for him to use as inspiration really represents your company? Combine your choice of archetype along with some very basic questions you might be asking yourself:
- What is our business category?
- What are the most important features and benefits?
- Who are our competitors and what makes us better?
- Why do we want/need to reposition your company in the market?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?
- What kind of relationship are we trying to establish with our customers?
- What is the “image” of us that our customers now see?
- Who is the customer: The person who reads the brochures or attends trade shows. Talk about his views on life. What about your workplace? Is stable? How likely is it to be morally? What factors influence the success of your work? [just list key words]
- What are the needs of our customers?
- And what is the best way to meet those needs?
- Imagine we’re at an industry trade show: what do we hate most about displays and brochures?
- And what do we like the most?
- What could make our company stand out visually?
- Who are we or could we be strategic allies?
- What opportunities are there for our company to make a difference?
- What kinds of things make us NOT want to do business with a company?
- Make a list of some keywords that summarize how we want to be perceived, for example, conservative, picturesque, anxious, etc.
- Please list the colors you think represent our company right now.
- What image/photo would we like to see on the cover of the brochure? Positive BIG BANG or TEASE.
- What promise can we make to your potential customers?
- How do we NOT want to be perceived? for example, aggressive, conservative, etc.
- If our budget was big, what would be the most innovative thing we would do with our marketing materials? (eg, ‘make the trade show booth come down from the ceiling and drop talking brochures into the hands of attendees’)
- What makes us proud to work for the company?
Logo design is a creative process. We say that good graphic design is both art and strategy: it is an art form with a commercial purpose! As I wrote before, the brand is the emotional, rational and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product. A good logo backed by a tagline is a visual shortcut to your company that you want to create in the eyes of everyone as they look at you. It is an icon that people will associate with your company.
I will not answer the question if you need a professional graphic designer for your logo design. I’ll let you make that decision. But I urge you to at least talk to a graphic design company and see if they can answer your questions about the process they use, their pricing structure, their research, and their project management.
