Thursday, February 16, 2012

Wearing the brand

Logos are powerful. They are a symbol for everything your company stands for. They are a vessel for your company's mission, vision, values and attributes. 

Maybe that's why creating a new logo is so damn hard.

The process is fraught with pitfalls and roadblocks as everyone from the summer intern to the chairman's wife has an opinion on what it should look like.

While there's no fool-proof method for creating a great logo, I can offer these three pieces of advice before you get started.
  1. Know what your company stands for
  2. Hire a great designer
  3. Keep the approval team small
While you don't want a thousand voices guiding the process, when it comes to selecting the winning design from two or three finalists, it's important to have a logo your employees and partners are proud of.

How do you tease that out?

Rather than just asking them which they like, spend a few bucks and put the logos on a t-shirt or hat. Then tell them they have to pick one to wear over the weekend. This takes it from being a rational exercise to an emotional one. If they know their friends are going to see them wearing the logo, they'll start to think about how it makes them feel.

If they're forced to wear it out in public, there's a pretty good chance the one they pick will be the one that makes them feel the proudest. And, if your logo can do that, you have a good one.

1 comment:

  1. Great advice! By following your advice, one other very important detail is also accomplished. Very often when a logo is designed, the technical detail of application, such as screen print, embroidery, deboss etc, as on a T-shirt, hat, piece of leather or any of a myriad other items is overlooked. By investing in having the options for the new logo put onto a physical product you will quickly discover if the new logo needs tweaking.

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