Posts Tagged ‘logo design’

Logo Design: The Perfect Peanut Brittle Company

October 12th, 2011

A small, family-owned gourmet food business approached us about upgrading their existing logo.

The Perfect Peanut Brittle Company had been using a piece of clipart for their logo that was not working out. The only version they had was not high resolution and it looked poor. When the client talked with the clipart company about upgrading the art and using it as a logo, they were told they did not have the rights to do so. Therefore, a new logo logo was in order. However, they wanted to maintain a tie to their current brand identity.

Old logo

As you can see, the original logo was a historical looking portrait, framed like a cameo. It recalled a certain era that tied in with the idea of good, old-fashioned, home-made peanut brittle.

So we worked to maintain that historical feel as we upgraded the design. I did research to find images of women from the Victorian period. I also was inspired by Mary Poppins and some of the outfits from the Disney movie.

Research and inspiration for the logo design: Victorian women and Mary Poppins.

I found lots of crazy hats and collars which were a bit more elaborate than the original, but the general lines of the hair, hats and collars worked.

The original logo also featured a script font for the logotype. It was hard to read and was not grouped with the logo; it was a separate element. Our client wanted to have at least one variation that tied the portrait together with the type. We also decided it would be the type of logo that could be split into two pieces when necessary.

First round of logo designs

First round of options for the logo design.

As you can see, we kept the design within a narrow focus. The first option (upper left) was quite similar to the original. The second option (upper right) was a close take away from that, but with a more elaborate hat and the script type put into a ribbon banner. Both of these followed the original’s downcast eyes and I found it a too dour and sad looking.

So, I started from scratch with a much more optimistic rendition (I was channeling Mary Poppins). I thought adding a peanut to the hat would also be a fun little extra touch.

Finalizing the logo design

The client agreed that the newer version was much more appealing with the smiling and upward gazing face.

We did a few rounds of revisions to tweak and adjust the logo design and this is what we ended up with. We chose the more readable non-script font, but placed it within the ribbon. We adjusted her hairline, neck and collar and made a few other minor adjustments to the design elements.

Final logo design for The Perfect Peanut Brittle Company

In addition to this version that groups the type and logo together, we also provided files for the elements separately. As I wrote in a recent post, we feel it’s OK to have more than one version of a logo, as long as they are very consistent. The client knew he would have several different applications for this logo, and there would be times when it would be better to separate the logo and the type.

Finally, we provided the client with a complete logo library including: eps files, jpegs and gifs in various sizes and small avatars to work with. Not sure what files you should get from your designer? read this.

The client’s reaction? He sent me a note saying:

Thanks so much for creating a fantastic logo for me!

And, I highly recommend the brittle. Buy it online or find it in stores and markets in and around Maine.

Tags: Branding, identity, logo, logo design, peanut brittle
Posted in Branding, Logo design, Portfolio, Recent Work | No Comments »

What Is The Best Shape for a Logo?

September 8th, 2011

We are currently in the midst of a large branding project. It started with an analysis of the client’s competitors and target audience and is now in the final stages of logo development and refinement and the beginning phases of the web site design.

As we are refining the logo design, we’ve had some interesting conversations about “What is the best shape for a logo?” And “Is it OK to have multiple versions of your logo?” such as one that is predominantly horizontal and another that is grouped more compactly.

I’m not ready to share the client’s in-progress work, so I will use other examples to illustrate my point.

The wide rectangle

When I was in design school, we were taught that the ideal shape for a logo is a horizontal rectangle. That doesn’t mean that the actual shape of the logo needs to be a rectangle, but the live area should be like a wide rectangle.

An example of a logo we created that fits the wide proportion, but is not actually a rectangle shape.

This is the normal viewing area for the human eyes, which is why they use it in movie theaters. This format is now becoming more mainstream as TVs and computer monitors are also more commonly created with this widescreen format. That shape can quickly and easily be seen, whereas a more tall & skinny or overly wide format may take longer for the human eye to see and recognize the information.

The square

Nowadays, there are many applications that require a square version of your logo. Favicons, and avatars are two common places where you may need to represent your company or brand with a small, square version of your logo. Some designers are trying to create logos that are specifically square to start with. Other shapes that fit within a square would be a close second choice, such as circles or triangles. They should have the same height and width dimension.

A logo with a square shape as the live area (although it's actually a circle)

**Working with your business name**

A critical problem (and one for this client project we’re in the middle of) is businesses with long names. In that case, it can be difficult to make a version of the logo that is grouped tightly. If you’re starting from scratch, you may want to consider a short name. There are many benefits to a short and snappy name and one of them is that you’re able to create a very compact logo design.

With a name like Visible Logic I understand the issues!

One company that overcame this issue was FedEx. For years, they fought to be called their full name: Federal Express. But eventually they decided to change to the nickname that everyone was using: FedEx. This opened up a world of opportunity when they rebranded. What started as a weak logo, was redesigned and is now praised as one of the best.

You can see with the FedEx example, that choosing a short brand name can be beneficial. But, it is not the only consideration. The name needs to make sense to people, it needs to have an available domain name, etc. You also may have a company that has successfully been in business for a long time and it doesn’t make sense to shorten your name! (You probably don’t have FedEx’s budget for marketing, nor their promotional opportunities on the sides of trucks and planes across the globe).

Should you have more than one version of your logo?

Harkening back to design school days again, I remember being told that while a wide rectangle is the ideal shape for a logo, you should always have a version that can fit on the side of a pen. Pens are frequent giveaway items at trade shows and some businesses do rely on this type of promotional item. Nowadays, it’s more common to need a horizontal version within a web site banner or header.

It is reasonable to have more than one version of your logo. You probably already have more than one version— such as a full color version and a black and white or one color version. With careful planning, you should be able to create several, tightly related versions of your logo so that you always have the best fit for the application at hand. Here is an example of both a wide and stacked version of British Airways logo (note there is also no highlight on one version, which might be necessary depending on the application).

Looking around on the web I was also able to find a picture of the British Airways headquarters that had the stacked version, but with white type.

On this page you can see a complete run down of all their planes with the logo applied. It is always the horizontal logo, but the actual placement of the ribbon graphic and the size and relationship between the graphic and type changes based on the physical structure of the plane.

Click here to see British Airway's fleet and how the logo changes slightly on each plane.

6 Tips for logo usage

The fewer the variations, the better. It is still ideal to have one version of your logo and be able to apply it in every case. This is the easiest way (especially for a small business owner) to ensure the correct usage and maximum impact.
But… make sure you have different versions that present your brand in the best light. Just like you have different color versions, based on ouput, you may need to have different lockups (the groupings of the typography and graphic). For example, if you only have a circular version of your logo, and you have a wide rectangular space to work with, your logo will appear very small. This is probably not ideal in a place where you are trying to maximize exposure. Having a secondary, wider version is good.
Consider the applications that are critical to your business. For someone like British Airways, a wide logo is great for placement on their planes. If you give away a lot of pens make sure you also have a good horizontal version of your logo. Think about the applications for your logo: large scale signage, uniforms, business cards, etc.
Create masters and then stick with it. Try not to make too many variations of your logo. This will weaken your identity. Ideally, have your designer create a complete logo library that includes things like: color version, black and white version, square avatars and logos with and without the tagline.
Prioritize your logo options. It’s best to consider one version of the logo to be the “master” and then the rest are secondary versions. The master has the ideal grouping of type and icon and is in your corporate colors. Always attempt to use the master first.
Make sure people understand the importance of consistency. Whether it’s the business owner, the marketing department personnel, or your web site designer, make sure the people who apply your logo have access to the right files and understand which version is the best to use.

Tags: British Airlines, FedEx logo, logo, logo design, logo shapes, square logos
Posted in Branding, Design Basics | 11 Comments »

Logo Development Process: Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce

November 18th, 2010

Starting a new Chamber of Commerce is tricky. There are people who want, and would benefit from, the Chamber, but who is in charge of getting it off the ground? You need enough commitment and momentum from the volunteer base before you can go out and hire executive staff. Yet, there are things that need to be created, and that help in the recruitment and building of the chapter before the chapter itself is a full entity. It’s a catch-22, chicken-and-the-egg situation.

A web site, signage, and advertising were all part of getting the Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce launched before they had the leadership, time and budget to take a critical look at their logo.

Visible Logic was hired by the Freeport, Maine group to design their logo—after a web site had been live for a few months and signage had been ordered. Obviously this is not ideal, but that was the reality.

Knowing that a brand identity was already alive on their web site and in their signage, we had to incorporate elements of those pieces into the final, new logo. To do otherwise is wasting any brand equity they had built.

Assessing the current identity

The Chamber had a temporary logo on the web site. It was the Town of Freeport, Maine’s logo with the words “Chamber of Commerce” placed on top of it.

The temporary logo which was the town logo with Chamber of Commerce added at the bottom

While the town was fine with the Chamber using the logo temporarily, the Chamber wanted to make sure it had a distinct identity and logo separate from the town. They were representing businesses both in and out of Freeport and were the mouthpiece of the Chamber members, not the town itself.

Meanwhile, a sign had been purchased for the building.

Photo of the signage for the Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce

I took this snapshot of their signage on the outside of their building. It had just been ordered when I got involved with the logo project.

Not a Usual Logo Process

I highlight this all to say that this was not the clean slate that we dream of as a graphic designer embarking on a logo design. But, to throw out everything that was already in place was mistake. While it’s easy to change a logo on the web site, redoing large scale building signage was not going to happen. And while you can change the logo on the web site, you must remember that it has already been viewed by lots of people. Brand equity, visibility and trust were already starting to grow.

So the sketching and researching phase centered on assessing what we could take from these existing sources.

Both graphics used a Script F, although they were different fonts.
The typography on the signage was much more professional and traditional looking than the words on the temporary web site logo.
The temporary logo had a gritty, yet ephemeral feel that the new Executive Director liked.
The sign had a bold, more masculine look that the Executive Director liked.
The temporary logo had a washed out, pale color palette, whereas the new signage was a deep green.

Pulling the Elements Together

This is how we pulled together the existing identity and created something new, that still harkened to the their current identity.

We used elements from each current identity piece and pulled them into something fresh and professional looking. The new logo design:

Features a script F, it was closer to the signage F, but reminiscent of both
Uses the same typeface (Trajan) as the signage, but minimized the type size changes to make it cleaner looking
Uses the dark green from the signage (the two colors are pretty similar when accurately phtoographed/printed)
Has a new montage of photos that gave the ephemeral and gritty feel of the temporary logo, but showed imagery more recognizably from the community and participating businesses.

We also created a couple of other versions for other uses:

The all green version is a one-color version that can used when printing one color is more economical, or when the photo montage background would not work with the other design elements. The version with the black text is to provide more consistent of color reproduction across across different media.

This logo design process started with a lot of “baggage”, but we were able to create a finished logo that really works for the organization.

Tags: logo, logo design, logo development, logo redesign
Posted in Branding, Business, Portfolio, Recent Work, Starting a Business | 3 Comments »

The Logo Development Process: New England Breeze Case Study

October 22nd, 2009

If you’ve never worked with a professional graphic designer, you may have no idea what goes into designing a logo. Even if you have worked with a designer, you’re probably curious about what goes on behind the scenes of developing a high-quality logo for a small business owner.

Below is an outline of the typical process that we take at Visible Logic for the design and development of a logo. We’ll be using New England Breeze, LLC as our case study.

Project Summary

Create a logo for a new business—New England Breeze. The company sells and installs wind turbines and solar panels for business and residential customers. The owner wanted to make sure both energy sources —solar and wind—were obvious in the logo, especially because the name of the business only suggested wind.

The logo should be one-color so that it is easily applicable on a variety of items and economical to print.

The target market is individuals interested in the environment and specifically alternative energy sources. Buyers would be buying systems for both business and residential usage.

Key words

To help me understand their brand position, I asked the client to provide adjectives or phrases that described the personality of the business. The following list was provided:

Approachable
Patient
Excited
Knowledgeable
Concerned
Flexible
Creative

Additional words and thoughts:

Willing to teach
Concerned for the environment
Amazed by nature’s power

One thing that I found interesting about this list was that their was nothing about technology or being cutting edge or anything in that area.

Sketching, generating ideas

I believe in sketching both on and off the computer. Each format uses the creative process differently, and therefore the forms that emerge from each tend to be distinct. Each process suggests new shapes, connections and direction. Whether it’s done with pencil and paper or using Adobe Illustrator both are considered “sketches”.

The goal is to explore as many different thoughts, avenues, forms, ideas, etc. is possible. Because graphic design is a commercial endeavor the designer does have to be conscious of how much time to spend in each phase of creating a logo. Several focused brainstorming sessions can be very fruitful.

Sketches for the New England Breeze Logo. (click to enlarge)

Refining the preliminary designs

The process of refining the logo options take several steps. I begin by sorting through the sketches to highlight the strongest options. From there, each design is translated into Adobe Illustrator.

Then, I edit, alter, and adjust to create multiple adaptations of each initial idea. I believe that—in most situations—the strongest logo is the one that reduces the design elements to the most essential. It should also work at a very reduced size.

Finally, I want to show a broad range of styles for the client to choose from.

Refining the logo sketches (click to enlarge)

First round of logo designs to client

After narrowing down the field of options and refining each, these five logo designs were presented to the client. I generally work only in black in white at the beginning because introducing color can be confusing. If all the options are black/white/gray we all can focus on the ideas and basic graphic elements.

The first round of logo designed presented to the client. (click to enlarge)

Finalizing the chosen logo design

If all goes smoothly, the client chooses one logo and then we make some refinements to finalize the logo. In this case, the client choose the logo in the bottom right (above), however he asked to make the wind streamers more elongated. Additionally, I felt that the thin areas in the center were going to be too thin in some reproduction techniques. So I refined the logo, and below are two options that were presented.

Further refinement and finalizing of the logo design. (click to enlarge)

Adding Typography

In this case, the logo was designed to work separately from the type, sometimes type is incorporated into the logo at a much earlier stage. Below are the type options I showed to the client.

Adding typography to the logo. (click to enlarge)

The final logo

Because the client specifically asked for a one-color logo from the start, I decided not to introduce color until the very end. More frequently, color options are introduced earlier in the process. Once the black and white version was finalized and approved by New England Breeze I showed a variety of color options. A bright blue color was chosen. Below is the final logo.

The final logo design

Tags: Design Process, logo design, logo development, must
Posted in Branding, Design Basics, Portfolio, Recent Work | 18 Comments »

What Should Your Logo Do For You?

July 22nd, 2009

Last week I was at an in-person networking event of the LinkedIn Maine Entrepreneurs group. I met someone who had recently started their own company and he told me that he gave up on trying to get a logo designed and decided to move ahead without a logo. I’m not going to mention names or go into the details of his business, as it’s not important for this story, but let me tell you the gist of what he said.

“We tried working with two different designers and neither one produced anything we liked.” He continued: “I think that a well-designed logo should be able to stand on it’s own. And that someone looking at it, without seeing the business name, should know exactly what the company does.”

Honestly, I was floored. I do not think this is the way to judge the merits of a logo, and here’s why:

You can’t illustrate all business concepts: If a logo is supposed to illustrate specifically what a company does, what about companies that do very abstract things such as business consulting, or human resource counseling?
There will be a sameness with your competitors: If a logo should clearly show the line of business would all bookstores, book publishers, libraries and maybe even authors have a book for their logo?
What do you decide to illustrate? If you try to clearly show the specifics of your business, where do you stop? If you are a carpenter, you might show a hammer, and a saw, and a level, and some wood and a house and and some shelves, etc. But then you realize that every other carpenter would be showing those same things.

However, your logo can be a tool for your business. I would argue that there are very few instances where your logo will be shown without your business name, or that someone will have no idea what business category you are in. And, if they have no idea, they really are not a prospective client at that moment anyway. Therefore, use your logo to be unique, different and memorable.

What a high quality logo can do

Differentiate. If you are a book publisher, it is likely that someone will see your name within a certain framework (the spine of a book, on your web site, etc.) so there is context. Therefore instead of just making sure that everyone knows you are a publisher (and show a book), you pick a differentiator. This could be something with your name (a monogram for example). Or, something highlighting the genre you focus on (a flower for gardening books).
Focus. As you choose how to differentiate yourself, this is the chance to focus on one of your strengths that may not be initially considered. For example, every carpenter does not need to show a hammer and saw. They could focus on their specific end result: a framed house, a piece of furniture, etc.
Stand out. Most of all, your logo can be a place to be memorable and stand out from the crowd of competitors. Use an interesting angle or an interesting style to set yourself apart.

Tags: identity, logo design
Posted in Branding, Design Basics | No Comments »

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