What’s in a logo?
More and more people with significant commercial skills are setting up small businesses. This is to some extent a result of the boom in business-oriented internet services, such as affordable payment systems (PayPal, NoChex, etc — see here for a listing), and to some extent a result of the health boom where retirees can look forward to ten or even twenty years of active life. Relatively cheap access to wide markets and low start-up costs make a small business more attractive to the risk-averse — which includes many former senior executives in large companies — and reduces the requirement to turn a tidy profit. The traditional aspiration was for a one-man venture to grow into something larger. In the current climate, many ‘micro-businesses’ are not one man, but half-man or 1/10th man, with an aspiration to grow profit rather than volume of trade.
One area in which neither the personal computer nor internet services has had much to offer, however, is that of the business logo. It’s true that anyone can buy Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw and have a go, or surf the net for budget alternatives, but a hard-headed business person is unlikely to want to spend so much on what is (for them) a one-trick pony, and probably shrewdly recognises that there is a lot more to logo design than simply owning the relevant software.
To the rescue — perhaps — then, comes an application priced to sell which makes just one claim: the creation of that elusive logo. The Logo Creator, now in version 5 for both Mac and Windows, claims: “Create incredible logo designs that look like a Photoshop guru spent hours laboring over! It’s like having your own logo design studio… without the studio! With The Logo Maker - you’ll get a portfolio full of logos that you can modify and customize yourself… for far less than what a designer will charge.”
So is this the answer to this perplexing pre-business problem, or does it follow the pattern of many things which seem too good to be true?
Actually, this article is not really about “The Logo Creator”. At $39.95 it seems a bargain, but once you factor in another $39.95 for “The Corporate Identity Creator” to get your artwork onto templates for business cards, letterhead, etc, and another $59 to get it converted to vector format so that a real designer could use it, you’ve probably realised that you could have paid a design-school student or the bloke at the printers down the road rather less for a rather more informed job. The samples on The Logo Creator’s home page are also rather less than inspiring, unless your business idea is another cable channel for pre-teens.
But it does raise the question, what’s in a logo? What are the criteria, and how do you go about commissioning one?
The fundamental criteria for good logo design are:
i) Identifiability (you see it again, you recognise it)
ii) Uniqueness (sets you apart within your target market)
iii) Reproduceability (in CMYK ‘full colour’, spot Pantone colour, black and white,)
iv) Representation (of your corporate style — not a picture of what you do)
v) Simplicity (it’s a brand, not an illustration)
These are the things which a competent designer will have in their mind when they start on your artwork, and they should be in your mind when you select between different options.
However, in themselves these criteria will not help you very far with the task of briefing a designer. If you were a major corporation looking to develop a brand for a new venture, you would probably commission a branding agency, which would conduct the entire process from understanding your aims, through establishing your name, and on to the final creative package. Naturally, though, a corporate service of this nature would command a corporate price — from £thousands to £millions, in certain cases. A regional design or PR agency might well offer to the same kind of work, albeit on a smaller scale, for a more pocket money sized price, typically £3,000 to £10,000 in the UK. But this is still out of kilter with the efficient, low start-up costs that are tempting experienced business people into micro-enterprises. It might leave you looking at “The Logo Creator” again, or simply telling a designer “Just come up with some things, and I’ll pick the best.”
There is, however, a simple process which you can follow yourself to get to the point where you can give a designer an intellligent brief, and expect a useable result.
The name
The first thing you need to do is adequately define the name of your business. It’s surprising how fluid names can remain until a logo pins it down. Your name should be short, memorable, and say something credible. So “John Smith consumeables import and export” is unlikely to be a winner, but neither is “Trust Me — used car sales”. It’s not necessary to encapsulate everything — or indeed, anything — you do in the name, since you can do this in a strap line. Your own name may be your strongest brand choice if you are essentially selling knowledge or expertise, perhaps linked with the word for what you do. A locality name can also be highly credible. “Ledbury organic vegetables” or “Aldershot Telecommunications”. People looking to market a product worldwide — for example, something which can be sold via download — often look for a more ‘global’ name, but this is generally a mistake.
As you look for a name, prioritise what you are looking at in this order:
Short. Typically, the eye takes in 18 letters in one go. If your name is ten letters long, for example “Slumbertec”, a headline or marketing slogan has only got eight letters left to make its point. “Slumbertec delivers!” might work, but “Sleeptec” gives you more space, which may explain why “Sleeptec” is the name of a real business, and “Slumbertec” isn’t.
Credible. Exaggerated claims are unlikely to give you an edge over your competitors, and are most likely to put off potential customers. “Ultimate solutions”, “Design Universe”, “Maximum Investments”. They also have a potential for unintended humour. “Chocolate Universe” does not bear thinking about.
Functional. A name that gives the customer a good picture of what you do is generally helpful, unless what you do takes too long to explain, in which case, stick with short. “Jennifer S Smith Craftswoman made Mint Chocolates” might be a good tag line, but “Craftsmints” would be far better as a name.
Attractive. All other things being equal, attractive names give you an edge. Of course, what is attractive depends on who you are trying to attract.
To get to the point of selecting, try randomly brainstorming fifty (yes, fifty) names. Imagine that you have done this, and now have on the table:
Jennifer S Smith Craftswoman made Mint Chocolates
Craftsmints • Jenny Smith Chocolate • Jenny’s Mints • Handmints • Minted!
Smiths Mints • Smints • Chicolate • Chickolates • Mintolated!
Of these, “Craftsmints”, “Smints” and “Chicolates” are probably the best choices.
However, there is one more essential stage in choosing a name: you have to check whether it is available or not.
A quick Google search will tell you that “Smints” is a substantial brand name, while Chicolate is the name of a restaurant in South Africa. Craftsmints returns no hits. Google is, perhaps, not the right place to look, though. If you intend to trade from the UK, you can access for free the UK Trademarks Database. This will confirm that Smint has been registered for classes 05, 30 and 42, and by another company for class 09. The classes refer to which product areas the name is registered for — you can reuse someone else’s name provided that it is not in a product area they have regiestered. In our case, Smint’s class 30 precludes use for cacao (ie, chocolate). Chicolate, on the other hand, is not registered in the UK, notwithstanding the South African restaurant.
If you were a major company, you would want to conduct substantial further research in our potential customers respond to your name. As things stand, having ruled out all the names which are either too long, not credible, or not functional, you can still benefit by asking a few friends which name they prefer. Don’t let them analyse it too deeply — an off the cuff response is what you are after.
Style
Once you have your name — let’s assume we are sticking with ‘Chicolate’, you need to determine how you want to be perceived in the market place. Begin with your constraints. If you are selling hand-made chocolates, then volume of production and means of shipping will be key constraints. If you are selling downloadable software, then after-sales support, alongside protecting yourself from piracy, are likely to be far more important. With the constraints in mind, your style needs to resonate with what kind of business you want to be, and what kind of business your target customers are likely to want to deal with. If you were a new venture by a large corporation, you would want to set your style to exactly mirror that of your principle audience. However, one of the attractions of going into business for yourself is the ability to do something that you are personally proud of. ‘Chicolate’ could take you in one of two directions. It could refer you to ‘Chic’, as in French, stylish and in fashion, or it could refer you to ‘Chick’, ironically referencing the gender of Jennifer S Smith, or you could opt to try both.
As an exercise to help clarify your thinking, and to help you explain what you want to a designer, try describing to yourself a 30 second TV advertisement for your main product. It could go something like this: “Young, good looking man sits in expensive sports car. It is dark and it is raining, he looks at his watch impatiently and hoots the horn. Cut to elegantly (but fashionably) dressed young woman at door of her apartment. She is ready go out. She looks at her watch and sees it is two minutes past the hour. Then her eye goes to a bar of Chicolate chocolate on the dressing table. She takes a bite, and then savours it, while her eyes drift to the clock on the wall. When it is five minutes past, she carefully rewraps the chocolate bar, touches her lips with her tongue to make sure she has the last of the taste, and then makes her way out of the apartment. Cut to the road outside. As she opens the car door, the young man says ‘you’re late’. She looks wistfully/mischieviously back up to apartment. ‘Not late.’ She says (soft French accent). ‘Chicolate’.”
What about my unique selling proposition?
Any discussion of marketing and branding is likely to throw up the ubiquitous USP. Strictly speaking, a USP is characteristic of a product, not of an enterprise. A micro-business, of course, may be a single product enterprise, at least initially. But it may not stay that way. Clearly your style and logo should chime with the USP of your product, but an attempt to tie them more closely than that might prove shortsighted.
Finding a designer
Ideally you want to talk to a designer at this point, not to a design agency. All the usual means apply — Google, Yellow Pages, asking around. Ask to see some examples of previous logos which the designer has come up with personally. Make a point of asking for work they have originated — it is not uncommon for someone who has ‘worked on the logo’, that is, changed the colour, or scanned it in and vectorised it, to include a design in their portfolio. Use the earlier list to check out their work, and be especially careful of anyone who produces complex ‘illustration’ style logos, and anything which uses more than two colours, unless a two colour version is also supplied. Ask them about the sort of timescales to come up with three rough drafts, and the associated costs. Typically, a designer will look for something in the region of £40 per hour in the UK.
Briefing the designer
Once you have selected a suitable candidate, make an appointment to see them at their studio. For many independent designers, this will be their house, but that should not be a problem. Explain your business name, what it is you will do, how you intend to market your products, and sketch out your imaginary TV ad (make sure they understand it’s imaginary, or they will smell big money), and give them other comments about your style. Then ask them how long they think it would take to come up with three rough designs, and how long to work one of them up into a final. Explain your criteria for selection (Identifiability, Uniqueness, Reproduceability, Representation, Simplicity), and make it clear that you will want an EPS file, a TIFF file and a GIF file, and that you will be the owner of the copyright of the finished work, once you’ve paid for it.
Once they’ve agreed to all that, give them the job. They should not need more than a week to get the drafts ready. Meet them again, and pick the one which best matches your style and is simplest. Ask for any refinements, and then agree when they will deliver the finished version. If one or more of the drafts don’t match your brief, be ruthless and say this — it’s not uncommon for designers to recycle old, rejected logos from other clients, and then bill you for the time it took to create them.
And finally
Once you are satisfied with the final logo, ask them for their invoice, and ask them to quote for designing you a business card, letterhead, anything else you need. This will tend to ‘help’ them, if they are wondering about charging you a little bit extra for the work already done. However, don’t just take their quote — go round to your local printer and ask them how much it would cost to have them lay out these things for you, based on your logo artwork. Often they won’t charge you any more than the cost of the print itself.