Dariela Cruz | Featured Contributor
talks about how important your company logo is and how to check it’s efficacy!
Your company logo is already evoking emotions and feelings to your potential customers. The question is, are those emotions and feelings the ones that will attract them towards your product or service? or away from them? Hopefully the first option.
1. Clarity Upfront
You want to make sure your potential target can tell right away what your company does by looking at your logo. If the name of your company says it already better! if not, a visual image should. And as a last resource a slogan should clarify everything! (see image below). You are probably thinking, but what about Nike, apple or Target? As a small business owner and entrepreneur (Less than 50 employees) stay away from comparing yourself with big brands, the marketing reach of this companies and their time in the market makes up for any Brand recognition issues (if any).
Show your logo to 5 random people, can they answer right away what type of service or products your company offers?
Can you already guess what is this company about?
2. Qualities and Adjectives
When you look at an image or word depending on how this image is presented it will evoke different feelings in you according to many different variables. For example curves, straight lines, different colors, bold and script type, symbols, fotos, etc can all make you experiment hundreds of thousand of different feelings and emotions. Show your logo to 5 random people that have never seen it before and ask them to express 3 to 5 qualities or adjectives to describe it. For example if your company offers children entertainment party services, you wouldn’t want people saying adjectives like, sophisticated, classic and serious after looking at your logo.
A casual lifestyle latin mom blog. What adjectives can you use to describe this company based on the logo?
3. Brand cohesiveness
Your brand is more than your logo. Your brand is composed by tons of other different pieces such as slogans, embellishments, fonts, colors and add-ons that will accompany your logo in a versatile way yet always making sure your target identifies you right away. This group of tools that make your brand is essential. I like to see it as your logo’s wardrobe and style, is always recognizable and helps you present yourself for different occasions. However this doesn’t mean add crazy swirls to your logo. Keep your logo SIMPLE, it just means, having styling tools for your marketing needs help your logo come across with the same identity in all occasions. Present an audience with 3 collateral pieces of your company. Maybe your website, a business card and a flier. Do they have any doubts that those are from the same company?
A stationery set that conveys the brand styling beyond the logo.
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Design Guru / Dariela Cruz, co-founder and Art Director of Dari Design Studio
Dariela is an established graphic designer and blogger based in San Diego, California. She worked as a Junior Designer, Senior Designer and Art Director in the corporate world in Venezuela, Mexico City and Los Angeles for 15 years. After that she co-founded Folklore Eye -A paper arts company- with her sister Dariana in 2006 and then rebranded to Dari Design Studio in 2010 which now provides more ample services for the graphic design industry.
Since 2007 Dariela keeps a personal bilingual (Spanish-English) blog: Mami Talks, where she captures the family life, culture, and inspirations with an original and unique touch.
Connect with Dariela:
Twitter: @daridesign / @darielacruz
Facebook: DariDesign and MamiTalks
Design Blog: Dari Design Studio Blog
Lifestyle Blog: Mami Talks
Linkedin: Dariela Cruz
Google+: Dariela Cruz
Thanks to Dariela Cruz for this insightful post about one the most important branding devices you have for your business. Without a solid logo, people might not understand what you do or even remember you. Take her tips to heart and check out YOUR logo!!
