Wednesday, September 28, 2011

6 Ways to Ruin Your Corporate Identity

1. Have a Complicated Logo Too many colors. Too many lines. Too much detail that it is simply a complicated illustration or worse the actual use of a photo as a logo. All of these things will either be very difficult or expensive to reproduce consistently or the company will start making alterations to some reproductions to save costs. This will lead to have a wide variety of logo variations.


2. Have an Amateur Looking Logo Too many times I have heard the story that small business adopts their business logo by deciding to have a “design contest” among the company’s employees, friends and family. in turn, they offer a small monetary prize to the winner. On the surface, this sounds very prudent. The owner gets many more designs to consider than if they hired a professional and the cost is a tenth or less than the cost of a professional. Let’s look at the logic of this. Would you have a contest among those same folks on who is going to fix your computer? Or how about a contest on who is going to rewire the building expansion. What about having a contest for... and he list can go on and on. We simply wouldn’t do it with any other aspect of our business. So why leave it to rank amateurs to create the image that will be the face of your business? Your prospects makes instantaneous and subliminal decisions about a company upon FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Do allow your first impression to be that you skimp on quality! If they perceive that subliminally – they will move on to the next company!


3. Have an “Clipart” Looking Logo You’ve seen these logos. They simply look like a dozen others. The problem? You need to stand out from the crowd! That means that you need a logo that jumps off the page. That cannot be done by using a generic globe or a simple initial in Helvetica. You need a logo that is unique, powerful and has meaning to your company!


4. Allow Vendors to “Make Improvements” Vendors want to impress upon you that they have a creative staff that can rival any ad agency or graphic design firm. So what they do is to “tweak” your logo, name, font or colors to give you a “new look”. But what they are doing, if you let them, is to destroy the consistency that you have created.


5. Having too Many Variations I know of a company that I am very close to that has so many logos that it looks like they have personality disorder. Right now this company is close to being a half billion dollar company and they have at least 3 completely different logos....and variations of those! They seem to trot a new one out every time they have a new “event. Any company, regardless of how large or small needs only two variations: Its logo in a horizontal format and one in a vertical format. These two configurations should be almost identical with the exception of the relationship of arrangement of the name and symbol.


6. Not Protecting the Integrity of the Corporate Image I don’t know how many times that I have seen a logo pulled off of a website and enlarged for a print job. This will NEVER work. You must always have your logo in a vector image format for reproduction. Also, give any printer the format and the specs that they ask for because they are trying to watch out for the quality of your brand.


In short, in order have a Strong and Powerful Corporate Identity you need three things:

1. A unique and bold logo that will stand out in a crowd.

2. It needs to be used consistently EVERY TIME.

3. The integrity needs to be protected so that it is reproduced crisp and clean...No exceptions!


Monday, September 26, 2011

New Logo for One in a Million Company


A new Art Gallery, with designs on promoting new and promising artists, realized that the best way to get noticed themselves was to stand out from the crowd with a Powerful Logo. They chose the name, “Blue Lobster Gallery” because a blue lobster appears in nature one in 2-5 million. They wanted a logo that was unique and bold and that fit the one-in-a-million meaning of their name. The logo that they chose is a simplified bird’s eye view of the head and claws of a lobster. To add impact and individuality, the logo utilizes a positive/negative effect which creates a dramatic feel.


“The professionals at VIVIDesign Group took my limited ideas and gave me a logo that I would put up against any corporate logo out there hands down. Very professional and methodical approach to design. Great work”. - Jon Walker, Blue Lobster Gallery