When you hear the name of a famous brand, you suddenly associate certain colors with the brand. One of the 4 C’s of Marketing is for Creating, and creating a great logo acts as a great beginning for your business.
McDonalds yellow and red, the multi-colored Google, and the orange and white Soundcloud, for example.

Colors have a very powerful effect on our brains and the colors that you choose for your brand are going to be the key for your brand image a very long time. Color psychology plays a huge role in how humans perceive ideas and things, which makes it one of the most interesting and controversial aspects of marketing.

For example, the color red is often perceived as the color for excitement, boldness and youth in the marketing field. Brands like Coca Cola, Lays and Cannon have opted for their logos to be in these colors. The color gray gives out a peaceful and balanced vibe, and brands like Apple and Honda have their logos in these tones.
Choosing the colors for your brand or business can be a tricky task considering the color psychology behind every color and every color combination. Designers from across the world get their inspirations from various things including natural color palettes. However, mixing up too many colors to create a logo can be confusing. Most big brands across the world stick to one color.

Nobody knows your business better than you, so you should be the one in-charge of setting the logo color schemes. Knowing the tone of your business and maintaining it can go a long way in the creation of your business logo. In this article, we’ve picked out 10 best logo color combinations for you to see
and learn from:

1- Yellow & Red

This bold color combination draws the viewer’s attention to the center of the logo design. The colors help create a sense of energy and playfulness.

DHL and Shell are two of the many companies that stick to these colors when it comes to their business logo. Yellow is one of the colors that are most often used by the automotive and food industries. Both of the above companies are connected to automotive and transport industries, so yellow is a perfect color choice along with red here.

2- Black & Yellow

If you take a look below, the bright yellow smiling monkey emits vibes of energy and fun. The black color is often used as the symbol of authority and mystery. This color combination is great for the entertainment industry, as it portrays excitement and mystery at the same time.

Another variation of these colors is implemented by Caterpillar. Caterpillar is a manufacturer of industrial
machinery and equipment along with the accessories required for industrial operators including shoes and clothes.

Source: https://logojoy.com/blog/logo-color-combinations/

3- Blue and Pink

Baskin Robins uses soft tones of blue and pink in their logo design. The brand is best known for its 31 flavors that it serves to its consumers. The logo is meant to convey fun and energy of the brand as well as the iconic number 31. The number represents the brand’s belief that the customers should be able to have a different flavor for every day of the month.

4-Blue & Green

These colors are perfect for establishing trust and putting the viewers at ease. These colors are majorly used across banking and financial sectors. The internationally renowned chain of banks, Standard Chartered, use the same colors across their brand. The color blue is used to represent stability and the color green represents tranquility. This goes very well with the financial sector that needs to establish customer trust.

Source: https://www.webpagefx.com/logo-colors/

5 – Orange & Purple

FedEx is the first name that comes to your mind when you hear the colors orange and purple. The colors are unique and send out a message of royalty and success. The purple color is associated with wealth and luxury as it was the color that was often donned by the kings and Monarchs. FedEx embodies the same elements as a brand:

6- Purple & Yellow

Where purple represents wealth and success and yellow brings excitement and warmth to the table, these logo colors are of the best combinations that can be used for your logo design. We think one of the best examples of the usage of these colors is done by the logo of the NBA basketball team Los Angeles Lakers.

7-Black & Red

This fierce logo color combination instills a feeling of power and energy among consumers. KFC has successfully used this color combination among their logo design. The red offers excitement as the color is often used in the food industry and the color black adds authority. This goes really well along the brand’s identity of providing quality food.

8- Blue & Turquoise

If you are trying to instill confidence and trust among your customers, these are the colors that you should go after when you’re creating a logo for your business or brand. PayPal uses the same colors in their logo and it goes along with the company values of creating a safe and secure means for transactions.

9- Orange and Blue

The color orange is associated with happiness and creativity. It also inspires enthusiasm. The color blue adds trust. If your brand is fun and exciting and you want to create a trustworthy environment of doing business, these are the colors that you should go for. Fanta uses these colors in their logo as the drink is exciting and is targeted towards the youth.

10- Blue & White

These colors are surely crowd pleasers and establish tranquility and trust among the customers. Volkswagen uses these colors in their logo design, after replacing the black and white logo that the company used in the past.

Wrapping it up

We understand that ‘it depends’ is not the answer you’re looking for when it comes to the logo design for your business. The fact of the matter is that it really depends on multiple factors when you are creating a business logo.
To help you out, we’ve presented the best logo color combinations above that we feel that can be used as good, inspirational examples when time comes for you to create your own.

best color combinations

Just as errors occur in our lives, they also tend to happen on the websites. The 404 page is a page with an error code which means the web page your visitor is trying to get to can no longer be found. There can be multiple reasons for the occurrence of this error; this could be because of a broken link on the website, or the type in website address.
Having a fun 404 error page is just as important as having good CTAs on your website. A friendly 404 error page has basically two components: the 404 server header status required to manage the indexation part on various search engines, and the user friendly design that is required in protecting the user’s experience and preventing bounce outs.

(Source: www.pixabay.com)

404 pages are one of the most overlooked facets of any website design, and once they are overlooked, then the tendency is to create some fun— in mere hope and anticipation that a touch of humor will facilitate in reduction of visitor’s anger and irritation at the missing information.

Importance of 404 pages

There has been a lot of discussion in recent times regarding the handling of 404 errors, and the significant impact they can have on SEO. The thing which needs to be understood is these errors are quire inevitable. It is a common practice to simply redirect all 404 errors to the homepage or another relevant page, which is a wrong idea, as it is exactly the opposite of what should be done. It is a wrong idea as it creates a bad user experience for the following reasons:
• Users can be in a state of confusion as to how they wound up on the homepage when they have clicked a link to a different page.

• Users will not be getting access to the information they were committed, and will not be aware of the reason.

• There can be a high probability of your users ending up on a page that could be completely irrelevant to the information they are looking for.
The use of 301 or 302 for redirecting to your homepage is also considered to be a bad and unprofessional SEO practice. Such habits portray a negative image of the company. It has been observed that few website owners and SEOs are doing this to preserve any link juice acquired by the removed content.

404 Pages for Good

Although, the 404 pages can be a real source of frustration and annoyance, but the trick of the trade is to turn the potential negative user experience of encountering an error into a positive one. The fundamental tactic in this is the extensive and effective use of links.
Links present on the 404 page are of utmost significance, because they prove to be instrumental in giving users a way out of the error page. The user can be facilitated in search of helpful and potential relevant resources on another page, instead of closing the window and navigating away from the site to a new destination.
Below are some of the links you can add to your 404 pages:
• Your most popular blog pages
• Most renowned product pages
• An HTML Sitemap

Tips and Ideas to Create an Inspiring 404 Error Page

It is highly advisable to invest time and optimize your 404 page text and to craft an on board design that can significantly reduce the bounce rate and help in boosting conversions.
Following are some of the examples that can inspire and help you in formulating your own custom 404 page.

1. Lego- Page Not Found Error

The way Lego displays its error is quite interesting. It’s also fun and easy to understand. The good part is the page is extremely simple and understanding. There is no technical wording and no reference to a 404 error.
This helps in broadcasting an image of your brand. A good image is quite crucial to the company’s existence. All your visitor needs to know is that they didn’t get the page they were initially looking for, and they are only interested in the solution of it. An easy going page can help them understand it and move on to the other relevant site.

(Source: optinmonster.com)

2. Magnt

The firm uses the help of a Venn Diagram to broadcast their error page. Their first error page with just the Venn Diagram went viral, and which prompted them to redesign it keeps the concept intact. The use of text on this page is quite on the higher side which is being compensated by the bountiful set of information provided.

(Source: www.uxplanet.org)

3. Jamie Huskisson

Their 404 page is quite unique in the way that it has come up with a good blend of creativity and functionality. The colorful image grabs your attention, the text is full of humor, and then you are served up with a search box. The page also has a link to Jamie’s post archives.

(Source: www.managewp.com)

4. EmailCenterUK.com

The firm has been credited by the experts on its error page. As soon as you land on the main page of the website, you can smoothly navigate to the other sections of the site. This helps in creating a great way to encourage user engagement on their websites.

(Source: www. uxplanet.org)

5. List25

The error page of list25 is quite famous these days. A good User Experience design practice is to come up with an explanation of what went wrong when delivering an error message. They have a search bar at the top so that the visitors don’t have to scroll all the way through the list.

(Source: www.optinmonster.com)

Wrapping Up

Every once in a while your visitors may face a 404 error page while surfing your website. There are countless reasons for the occurrence of these errors and majority of them are out of your control. Regular occurrences of these errors tends to increase the frustration levels among your visitors.
The traditional error pages are a snooze fest and creative designs for these pages are the need of the hour. It doesn’t take long to come up with a fun, useful 404 page that, with the passage of time, can turn potential bouncers into regular visitors.

In the rapidly advancing online environment, there may be a lot of potential points of interest for the engineers, the writers and the enthusiasts but for the investors and the purely business-focused teams, it’s only about one clear and distinguishing factor: the popularity of the platform or the number of visitors accessing that platform. With this core strategy in mind, there remains two primary means of generating revenue and both are quite different in what they present and how they perform. Today, we take a look at the much asked question in recent times, ‘what’s the difference between Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay-Per Click (PPC)?’

Though most might be expecting a clear winner but that’s not the case here. There are a lot of variables that are taken into account and at the end of the day; it depends on how you really want the business to function or what your plans or objectives might be right from the start. In other words, there’s no good or bad as long as you’re using either strategy sufficiently and the results reflect in how well your business performs.

The key here is obviously the awareness of the target audience, their liking and demand, coupled with what works best for the company within those limits of the viewer’s demands. Below, we’ll take a look at what are the most essential differences between the two digital search systems and how each can be utilized suitably for the promotion of the desired platform.

What exactly are SEO and PPC?

First let’s take a look at what those two acronyms represent in the sense of their larger meaning in the digital business. SEO is a score attached to every article you write, every post that you publish and every report that is sent out from your website. The score determines the viability of your content and how ‘optimised’ the piece of writing is in order to show up higher when you feed Google the related keywords in its search bar.

The SEO score depends on the clarity of your writing, the accessibility and readability of the text and if the content matches closely with the title and the solution the users maybe expecting. There are also other various aspects including the useful links embedded in the article, how organized things are including headings and subheadings, and lastly a lot of images for reference since books without illustrations are boring and not only kids think like that anymore.

The popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing makes use of this technique to sort out the results and provide the user with the most authentic and precise content available across the World Wide Web.

Looking at the other branch of the digital promotion tree, we’ve got PPC. This marketing strategy is much easier to explain as this is what the guys over at the advertisement department are used to. Though less organic than its counterpart, PPC is when you basically pay these search engines to secure a place on the results page, mostly taking the upper half of the page above the SEO results. Of course, there is still some SEO aspects involved between these ads themselves to decide which one secures the top spot but chances are you will definitely get the word out if you pay the top dollar.

So whenever the typed keywords have some sort of relation to the ads, they show up with a rectangular ‘Ad’ tag next to the respective URL to help visualize them differently from the SEO results.

Now that we’ve talked about the two in their elementary sense, let’s delve into what factors set them apart and what impact will those differences have on your strategy of advertising and promoting your platform.

What makes PPC different from SEO?

First and foremost difference is how PPC can help companies utilize the space they paid for however they want to.
This includes anything you would expect in a typical advertisement along the lines of illustrations, contact details, quick-links and pricing information. All of this complements the subtext or the snippet below the URL. This is only exclusive to PPC results and that, coupled with the fact that the results always appear on the top portion of the page adds at least some prominence to them.

PPC can also be highly effective for targeting specific geographic areas. By focusing on Local PPC, businesses can ensure their ads are shown only to potential customers within a designated location, increasing the chances of conversion and maximizing ROI.

Furthermore, unlike SEO results which depend on long-term progress and feedback of the users, PPC are much faster to produce and bring up high enough on the charts of the results due to their different procedure. Though it may appear, from the above facts, that a loss is imminent for SEO results but that’s not the case when you analyse SEO’s potential in detail.

As many internet studies have shown, most of us are subconsciously ignoring paid search results whenever our eye meets the ‘Ad’ tag. Though it’s still unclear why that might be the case even after images being introduced in PPC results, but what’s apparent is apparent and there’s evidence to back that fact. Moreover, when talking about costs, the PPC strategy is based around the whole idea of paying. The more you can invest in your ad campaign, the longer you can keep those results up and high. Things get especially worse when fierce competition lies within the field and there’s always this race to stay on top.

Thankfully, those utilizing SEO don’t have to worry about investing too much in their promotion game. As long as the content is backed on by the support of the community and the content itself follows the guidelines of SEO closely, there’s a good chance the audience will notice your platform among some few others. Moreover, competition still exists but it can only be won fairly without having to invest huge sums of money. Keep producing those articles just the way the audience likes it and you’re all good to go. With that said, it’s a high priority among many platforms and businesses to hire an expert on SEO guidelines who can highlight and educate other employees on how to maintain a good SEO score in their content.

This is where SEO really shines because it feels like a platform by the audience FOR the audience. What trust and credibility can create, no sum of money can even attempt to do so. Even when the platform pivots into new directions and introduces new products and ideas, there’s always a good portion of the community that’s willing to at least give it a try. This dedication and dependence on the user feedback leads to both a higher percentage of click-through rate (CTR) and ROI when your business is really up and running.

So who wins the race?

In spite of weighing the various pros and cons of both the strategies, the victory of either is still not clear cut. For smaller, more focused and specialized businesses, or platforms looking to try out something new before actually delving into it, SEO strategy seems to be the ideal option. With low costs involved and focus being on quality of content, even a person starting out his business venture can find a footing. As for those big businesses and industries which have been in the field for a long time now and can’t see their competitors rise above, PPC is the way to go. PPC also works if you’re looking to rush things a little and plan on building and developing your business gradually with the head-start you get.

Proceed with the strategy that has principles that relate and apply to your business plan. If done with credence and a firm, relentless dedication, the cons won’t hurt as much and if you’re still unsure or you don’t asses your marketing plan correctly enough, even some major pros will appear insignificant.

What are call to action buttons? They are actually digital canvases. You can create your art on them. There is a very simple reason for this analogy. What is art? It is someone’s skill put together to create such an appeal that invokes emotions. We all feel something when we see good art, don’t we? Now, what’s the purpose of a CTA? It’s a small box that you need to fill with as much creativity as possible so that it makes people feel things and they take action – precisely, the action you want them to take. So, CTA is indeed a canvas.

CTA’s are very self-explanatory anyway. I mean, what can you explain in a three-word call to Action which is, quite literally, a call to take action?

CTA buttons are those little ‘Buy Now’, ‘Add to Cart’, ‘Register Now’, and ‘Download Now’ buttons that you use on your website. Even those little Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp buttons that allow you to share with just one click are CTAs.

Yes, they are everywhere.

Source

They guide visitors towards conversion – they are the actions a brand needs the viewers to take so that it helps them achieve their goals. These buttons are very goal-oriented, and the goal is to make the user click and then complete the conversion. The conversion may be in the form of a purchase, email capture, or signup.

CTAs are mostly part of the landing pages, but they can be placed anywhere you like.

If you send out newsletters, add a CTA to them for people to subscribe. If email marketing is your thing, people will readily signup for more if there’s a CTA. You are placing an ad on social media? Well, guess what, place a CTA so people land directly on the product. Not only these, but a CTA finds its usage in blogs, and on websites, people even go as far as saying hyperlinks are CTA as they redirect you to a new website which is exactly why they were placed in the first place.

Source

This is the most effective of all call to action button examples. I know most of us don’t see this screen because our Netflix accounts are always signed up on our phones or laptops. But this is Netflix’s CTA for new users. See how simple it is? Smack in the middle of the page, an overlay of popping red with white prominent text – the deadliest text and color duo – on a faded background. New users cannot miss it even if they open the Netflix app with their eyes closed. This is the power of a strong CTA.

Crafting a strong call to action button

Let’s go back to that analogy of a CTA button being a digital canvas. When painting something on a canvas, you have to be mindful of several things like colors, brushes, strokes, shades, etc. Similarly, the art of crafting the best CTA buttons needs a careful eye for color scheme, words, fonts, size, and placement.

Use action-packed words

You would never see a CTA saying, ‘Click if you like’. No! They always have a sense of urgency, as if your life depends on it. ‘Click here’, ‘Buy Now’, and ‘Download Now’ are the terms used on a CTA.

If you’re running an e-commerce website, your CTA buttons should include words like “SHOP”, “BUY” or “ORDER”. This gives out specific instructions to the visitor about the result of the action that they take on that button. If you want your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, your CTA buttons should start with words like “DOWNLOAD” or “SUBSCRIBE”. If you want your visitors to get more information about your brand or business, the CTA buttons should include words like “FILL OUT THIS FORM” or “FIND OUT HOW”.

Using such words or phrases to give out specific instructions to your visitors is a must. The call to action should be direct and encourage the user to perform the action. For example, if you want your users to sign up for your newsletter, using the words “Our latest newspaper is available” would not be as effective as “Subscribe to our newsletter today”.

The second wordplay puts out a strong and direct message to the user. A good call to action button example would include something like this from OfficeVibe. Simple, effective, and offering an incentive.

Source

Size, shapes, and colors

A CTA is all about a good color that catches the eye, a good shape that doesn’t look ugly, and an ideal size that fits perfectly on the screen.

Every CTA has a background and a foreground. The background is the color, and the foreground is the text. You have to contrast those colors for an eye-popping CTA.

Also, CTAs need to stand out. So, their surrounding should be a light color with plenty of space so that it accentuates the CTA’s colors.

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Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, once said, “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

People think writing long essays is laborious, well, they never tried shortening it. It’s a test of your skills. So, what about when you have a box barely two inches long, and that’s all you have to convince people to click and purchase your product?

Now, you have to be vicious with your words, choosing only the most essential ones. Your words need to give them an incentive. For example, with a Buy Now CTA, add, avail 50% discount, or with a ‘Subscribe Now’ for your sales newsletter, you can write ‘Join 500,000 who are growing their sales with our exclusive marketing insights’.

Invoke Fomo

Fear of missing out, aka FOMO, is one of the important elements of human psychology. When people think that they might lose the opportunity and that it might not come around later, they are more likely to hop on the bandwagon.

A key tactic in this would be to offer an instant discount or a sale that wouldn’t come around too often. Most of us receive marketing emails with discount or sale offers for a limited time, and they’re hard to ignore. When there’s a limited-time opportunity or a sale, it prompts the audience to take action right away. As a result, the store gets more visits and conversions.

A great implementation of the above is being done by River Island. They have up to 60% sales on their store, and they have placed the sale banner on top of the fold. See the size of that red banner? This creates an urgency among people that if they don’t buy anything while the sale is on, they’ll miss out on something huge, and hence are compelled to click the CTA buttons associated with their offerings.

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Optimize for Devices

Creating an amazing CTA is important, but for more mobile internet users than ever before, your CTA must be optimized for handheld devices.

Desktop and mobile users have different user behaviors, and mobile searches are more inclined towards user intent instead of direct search terms. Users searching on mobile devices are usually looking for instant fulfillment and are highly likely to take action within the next few hours. Phone call-centric CTA buttons for mobile devices can be the key to generating more leads and sales.

But crafting a CTA for mobile is a vast difference than making one for desktop. See, people scroll on a computer or a laptop using a cursor, so the entire screen is within their reach. On mobile, they are holding the device in one hand and scrolling with the thumb. It means that they can click on anything that’s within their thumb’s reach.

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Research shows that the right hand is the dominant hand in holding mobile phones. Around 67% of users have their right thumb on the screen, while only 33% place the left one.

So, taking the right thumb as our benchmark, the size of an average thumb is around 2.6 inches. Compare this with our giant smartphones, whose screen size is 5.8 to 6.2 inches on average. It means most of the screen is out of range for the user’s thumb.

The ideal placement of a CTA is at the bottom fold or a 60-40 ratio, with 40% distance from the bottom and 60% from the top.

A/B testing

No matter what design, color, or text you use for CTA or wherever you place them on the website, if the users are not clicking them, they are useless.

It is better to test with a number of options and placements before putting a CTA on your website. A/B testing tells what color is catching users’ attention, what font is getting the most clicks, or what is the ideal placement for your CTA.

A/B or split testing is not frequently deployed as it is a complex endeavor, and it takes time to give results. But research has shown that A/B testing boosts conversions by as much as 25%. So the benefit clearly outweighs the complication.

For A/B testing, you must give each CTA iteration ample time on your website. Use two to three colors with varying fonts. Place them at separate locations and then give each one considerable time to see if they are getting clicked. Say you have three options, place each one of them at a particular location for three weeks. This will tell you which is the most hit CTA and where it should be displayed for maximum conversions.

Final Words

A call to action button is the smallest but most effective cog in the whole sales machine. If crafted carefully, this button of a few inches in length can turbocharge your sales and give a boost to your conversion. Implement these CTA best practices and see the magic unfold.

Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Google; do you know what is common among these companies? All of them started with just a garage for their entire operations! As we know, now these companies have grown and evolved into industry behemoths and dominate their respective industries.

We all know the value and importance of the small business industry. In the United States, small businesses make up 46% of private-sector output and 43% of high-tech employment. Especially in the digital industry, if not for startups, the industry wouldn’t be as evolved as it is today.

PNC Logos’ Startup Empowerment Program

PNC Logos specializes in design, development and ecommerce solutions; primarily a tech entity. Fully understanding the plight of up and coming entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas for a startup but insufficient resources to do so successfully, we have launched a startup empowerment program that gives startups the tools required to set up a digital brand identity.

The main purpose for launching this program was to foster a spirit of innovation and show support to startups and small businesses. Obviously, this program is selective in nature and only the 10 best startups will be selected based on the potential of their respective business ideas.

A Plethora of Branding Services

Coming to the details of PNC Logos’ startup empowerment program, the aforementioned ten winners will benefit from PNC Logos’ design prowess. The design team will assist with the following components of brand identity:

1) Corporate Logo

A logo is the face of a brand as well as its most recognizable element. PNC Logos has years of experience creating logos for businesses from a myriad of different industries. Premium logo designs can cost a company a pretty penny and startups will definitely appreciate this cost saving.

2) Business Cards

Business cards are probably one of the most exchanged forms of marketing collateral. Business branding is simply incomplete without a business card design. The design team at PNC Logos has years of experience of branding and business card designs.

3) Package Design

For a company with tangible products, packaging has a big impact on how you communicate with your target audience. A unique and recognizable packaging design will make businesses stand out from competitors.

4) Letterhead Design

Business letterheads are used in both internal and external communication. Established companies spend quite a lot on branded letterhead designs as it has an impact on brand identity.

5) Envelope Design

Similar to letterheads, business envelopes have the same impact brand identity. If branded the right way, envelope design could communicate a lot about the way a company brands itself.

6) Social Media Cover

Social media platforms are a very popular marketing platform. Design and branding has a huge role to play on highly visual platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. PNC Logos will design branded social media covers for selected startups.

Giving Back to the Community

Starting off from humble beginnings, the team at PNC Logos believes that it should support small businesses and startups so that they have the chance to make it big as well. This in turn helps the overall industry grow and increase its pool of groundbreaking ideas. Unlike venture capitalists, PNC Logos’ startup empowerment program equips startups with the right digital tools to launch their business to the next level.

The details of PNC Logos’ startup empowerment can be found here. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to provide their business ideas in the most detailed way possible so as to stand a better chance of getting selected as one of the winners and receiving free branding services courtesy of PNC Logos.

A brand’s identity, much like a personal identity, defines what it stands for; it’s characteristics, qualities and how it differs from other brands. However, unlike human beings, brands are not born with innate identities and this presents business owners with a blank canvas on which to craft a brand identity from scratch.

While it can unleash creativity, it also poses business owners with a great challenge as they need to design an identity that is detailed, pertinent and memorable.

The reason for this is that a unique and authentic brand identity is guaranteed to capture the hearts, minds and imaginations of your customers much like a robust and unique individual who is forever remembered by everyone he/she interacts with.

According to Paula Scher, the brain behind the brand identity of The Museum of Modern Art; “identities are the beginnings of everything, they are how something is recognized and understood.”

So, how do you create the perfect brand identity? Here, we elaborate on the details of brand identity and how you can go about crafting an exquisite and distinct one for your brand.

It is important to note, however, that the outlined techniques are subjective, and would require you to mold them according to your specific industry and offerings.

1. Lay the foundation on your core values:

All great things are constructed from the bottom up. Here too, you will start by defining the very foundation of your brand, .i.e. its core values. These values define what your brand stands for and should be something that your target audience can connect with.

When you begin the process of outlining your core values, the chances are that you will find some options that seem to fit the bill.

However, you need to screen out irrelevant options and identify ones that are the most significant to your brand. To do so, we recommend this approach by Paul Hitchens. This method entails the categorization of all relevant values into three categories:

a. Core values:

These are integral values that capture the essence of your brand such that if they are altered, it will affect the very nature of your brand.

b. Accidental values:

These are the values that will attribute to your brand due to the very nature of the product/ service that you are offering or the industry that you are in.

c. Aspirational values:

These are values that you wish your brand to have, but you are currently not able to deliver on them with consistency. It is essential to segregate them from your core values because if they remain included, they will lead to a brand promise that you might not able to fulfill.

d. Expected values:

These are the values that customers expect from any reliable brand, for example, professionalism, transparency, value for money, etc.

Once you have categorized all contending values, you can now use your identified core values to lay the foundation of your brand identity which in turn will serve as the basis of all your marketing efforts.

Here, we can look at the example of Villaway that struggled to identify its core values as demands of the online travel industry seemed to change ever so rapidly.

Eventually, Villaway set aside all industry demands to isolate the one value that was guaranteed to stay a top priority i.e. customer satisfaction, and crafted their tagline “the best way to stay.”

2. Craft your brand’s personality:

With the core values in place to guide you, it is now time to craft your brand’s personality. At this stage you can take inspiration from the following factors: 

a. Your ownership and staff:

This factor is particularly significant in the case of small and medium-sized businesses where the ownership and staff are so heavily invested in their duties that they develop unique work values and goals. For bigger firms, however, you can take inspiration from their history, stories about their inception or by looking at how their corporate culture has evolved over time.

b. Your line of work:

You can also look at preferred traits within your industry to get an idea of what your customers look for.

c. Competitors:

In addition to this, you can also analyse your competitors to ensure that you craft a persona that will stand out from the crowd.

Once you have outlined a generic persona you can now start to identify its intricacies. You can do this by filling out a mood board that describes the essence of your brand and also entails the vision that you keep for your brand. This information will then allow you to outline your vision, mission and positioning statements.

3. Identify your purpose and positioning:

Next, establish your purpose and positioning. But before we discuss how you can do this, let’s first understand what these terms mean. A brand’s purpose is quite simply the reason for its existence. Whereas, positioning refers to the specific market segment that your product/ service will serve and how your offering is better than that of your competitors.

To unveil your purpose, we recommend that you consider the method followed by Google veteran Arielle Jackson. She upholds that your purpose should describe how you intend to change the world for the better; an approach can be visually represented as follows:

The circle on the left represents the current state of the world that is relevant to you. While, the circle on the right depicts what your brand is capable of delivering at its best. According to Jackson, the intersection of these two domains will present your purpose. For example, when we take the example of Apple, their purpose is to make the best possible products on earth and leave the world a better place than when they began.

Positioning, on the other hand, is the practice of making your purpose attainable. You can do this by identifying your target customers and differentiating your brand from your competitors. So, how do you accomplish this? Well the key to developing a potent purpose and positioning it is to capitalize on extensive market and consumer research.

This will enable you to understand the current situation of the world around you (as stated by Arielle Jackson).

4. Understand Your Target Audience

During your research, you can conduct phone interviews with a representative sample of your target market. This will give you access to detailed and informed discussions that will help to unveil valuable insights about the human aspect of your business.

This can be a gold mine considering that your underlying aim is to establish an emotional connection with your customers. You can also use online survey tools as they provide a quick and easy means of acquiring huge amounts of pertinent information.

Moreover, you can also use government tools to understand your customers and industry in depth. These techniques are recommended as they will provide you with insights into your customers’ main personas. These personas will in turn allow you to understand the needs that your customers wish to fulfill by using your offering. They will also highlight the personal and professional traits of your target customers.

This deepened knowledge of your customers will allow you to craft a brand personality that your customers can relate to. Once you have gathered all the information you need, it’s time to boil your brand persona down to a single sentence. It will give you a clear point of focus for your marketing efforts.

This is crucial because complicated or vague accounts of your brand persona will ultimately cause you to send mixed messages to your audience that will only confuse them.

5. Create your brand’s visual components:

The final stage of crafting a unique and winning brand identity is to create your brand’s visual components. These include the following:

a. Memorable logo:

The significance of a logo that complements and enhances your brand can’t be overemphasized. Your logo is a central visual element of your brand identity that your customers will be exposed to the most. This is why your logo should embody all elements of your brand identity.

Each of these meticulously crafted logos instantly triggers a unique set of emotions that clearly define what the brand stands for. So, how can you craft a memorable logo that will champion your identity and burn down into your customers’ subconscious to be remembered forever?

Well, you can begin by creating a logo that is simple and easy to recall. The reason for this is that a simple logo provides your consumers a blank canvas which they can use to associate positive experiences that they have with your brand.

Lindon Leader, designer of the FedEx logo also states that “I strive for two things in design, simplicity and clarity. Great design is born with these two things”. It will also go a long way in helping you craft a logo that is versatile and would look equally good on a billboard and as a social media icon.

b. Signature color palette:

One of the most challenging customer-facing components is the signature color palette of your brand. This is because you need to use the emotions that colors convey to devise a palette that will strengthen your logo and will be remembered by your audience.

According to research, the purchase decision made by customers can depend up to 80% on the color scheme of the brand.  We suggest using your 3 primary colors by carefully tinting them to fit your brand image. For example, if you wish to project trust you can combine blue with a tint of black. Conversely, you can combine blue with white to give off a tranquil feel.

In addition to your primary colors, you can also define secondary colors that can complement the former in your marketing collateral.

c. Typography:

Fonts are powerful and easily remembered by your customers, even when they are taken out of context. Therefore, it is crucial that you invest time and energy in identifying a font that works brilliantly with your logo and color palette.

To do this, take into consideration the essence of your brand and then try to identify two typefaces that reflect it the most. These typefaces should include one for the headings and the other for the script.

Needless to say, the heading font should be expressive and more prominent in size while the one for the script should be subtle and easy to read.

You can also go for the time-tested approach of using one font but using different sizes for the headings, sub-headings, and scripts. This approach has been successfully implemented by Nike that uses the sans serif font in uppercase and bold across the board. This allows Nike to express a sense of strength and impact which resonates perfectly with the style of its call-to-action images. The choice of only one signature font will also help you design the graphical components of your social media campaign as they don’t require a substantial amounts of text.

To elaborate the importance of choosing the right color palate let’s take inspiration from PepsiCo’s ordeal of 2009. The company’s popular juice brand Tropicana altered its branding strategy and consequently changed its rather classic font to an upbeat sans serif.

Within 2 months the company experienced a 20% drop in sales which cost it millions of dollars in revenues. The company quickly rectified their mistake and switched back to its old typeface.

d. Brand language:

Your brand language defines how you reach out to your customers via all possible modes of communication including your website, adverts, social media platforms, emails, packaging, etc. According to Melissa Lafsky, “brands that communicate successfully are successful, and to communicate successfully, you need to distinguish and define your voice.”

Here are some tips to help you identify your brand language:

I. Use first person plural in your marketing material as it indicates the presence of a united and happy team behind your brand. This is advisable as people tend to opt for brands that are run by cohesive teams.

II. Try to be definitive in your communications as it will help you establish yourself as an authority figure in your industry.

III. One thing that can you can’t afford is to overlook spelling or grammatical errors as it will undermine the credibility of your brand and the quality of your offering. According to a study, one spelling mistake on your corporate website leads to the reduction of your online sales by 50%. Therefore, be sure to proofread, and edit your content many times over and use multiple people so that no such error is missed. You can also make use of grammar tools that are becoming increasingly efficient in detecting and rectifying mistakes.

IV. Customers prefer a casual tone, so try to capitalize on a friendly and approachable voice to engage your clientele. However, if your brand identity is playful or humorous, feel free to incorporate these attributes in your communication but be careful and do it in a way that doesn’t diminish your professionalism.

Designing a brand identity is a complicated endeavor; however, the key lies in conducting thorough research in all the aspects mentioned above before you introduce your product to the world.

Check the boxes below that apply to you before you invest time in reading this article:

If you checked two or more of the items above, then your time will be spent productively in reading what follows.

In this article, you will understand what you need and want from your online presence.

The goal of active online presence

The purpose of your online presence is to generate qualified leads. You need to attract the right kind of people to your website and social media to engage with your brand.

For an active online presence, you need to have SMART goals, i.e. goals that are Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

For example:

• 30% increase in unique visits to your website by March 2018

• 15% increase in product awareness through landing pages

The measures you take to achieve your goal of generating qualified leads to your site should be able to motivate you to keep going steady.

Aligning the resources

To be able to manage the mix of programs to achieve your objectives, you will need to align your marketing, sales, customer service and product development programs to create a unique user experience.

For example:

• Content development: You will need to create resources and content that will interest your visitors, including but not limited to videos, tutorials, social media posts and updates, and newsletter content

• Product development: You will need active mechanisms to inform your product development team of consumer feedback for iterations and improvements

• Customer service: Develop and use customer care and management services, such as FAQs, product specifications, feedback mechanism, response time, query and complaint management, among others

• Marketing and sales: Offer the right kind of deals and packages at the right time [seasonal, weekend specials, etc.] to reach out and engage more customers

• Brand name: Inspire trust by developing a tangible and palpable feel of your brand

Get Set & Go!

Target your audience to get them to your site and use the right tools to get the job done.

When you understand the goal of your online presence and align your resources to realize your goal, you will be ready to make your website a conversion hub.

Tip # 1 – Your neat website

Your website’s visual appeal is the first impression-maker. If done right, your site can be most favorable for your brand image, conversions, and ultimately, sales.

Since conversion complements lead generation and acts as the next step in the sales funnel, your website should be designed in a way to facilitate your users’ responses, thoughts and actions on becoming a customer.

So first, review your own need to improve your website. You’ll need to think of many things, and a good website development team [or template for DIY-ers] will help you do so. You’ll need to focus on the following:

•  What purpose is the website achieving for the user?

•  Is your user able to understand what your brand is all about?

•  Is your website regularly updated?

•  Does it showcase a complete catalog of your products?

•  How quickly does your website load? Is it responsive and compatible with all tech devices?

•  Is your website too cluttered or does it offer a vibrant and balanced design?

•  Is it easy for your visitors to navigate through your website?

•  How are your menus arranged? Are the contact numbers, search bar, sign-up forms, testimonials and blog all functional and readily available?

•  Is your website intuitive in design?

•  Is the call to action button[s] visible?

•  Are there social media link buttons and share buttons for cross-platform transitions?

•  Do you test each page for optimization? If so, how?

Asking these questions and testing your web pages, landing pages, CTA buttons, contact buttons and mechanisms will help you create a website that is a conversion hub.

While it is fundamental to have a great user experience with a great website, your goal is to increase sales and generate qualified leads. If your site is not achieving this goal, you need to critically re-think your strategies.

Tip # 2 – Optimizing your site for conversions

We talked about how to improve the design and navigation on your website to increase conversion rates. With CRO (conversion rate optimization), you will be able to review each page and how your visitors perceive the content and look of your website.

This review activity will make your website pages simple to navigate and intuitive, all the while leading to a logical conclusion or end action, i.e. to sign up for updates or newsletters, download a free resource, or register for a webinar.

The different tools you will be using for your lead generation and conversions – such as SEO, content and video marketing, blogging, advertising and promotional activities – will prove to be far more effective with CRO. CRO will audit your website and help you plan and ensure effective means of engaging visitors to become customers.

Tip # 3 – Conversion path

Whatever action you would like the visitor to take on your website, e.g. sign up for newsletters, webinars, product reviews, or surveys, you will need to create a conversion path for it.

A conversion path will invite and encourage the visitor to willingly give you information in exchange for something valuable. You will need to create:

•  CTAs [call-to-action buttons] on your website for the visitors to find and get attracted to the right resource[s]

•  a landing page after clicking on the CTA button that will have advertising content and images of your product or resource

•  a short form on that landing page that your visitors will fill to avail the advertised product or resource

•  a thank you page following the form to close the transaction formally

•  content for a confirmation email to stay in your visitor’s inbox for future reference

This conversion path begins with a call-to-action. Call-to-action is the pivot that changes the game and converts a lead into a prospective customer. Of course, your product and services will weigh in on the prospect of creating customers – but as the phrase goes, “Well begun, half done,” we think you should focus on CTA as diligently as you would on creating solid marketing content.

Tip # 4 – Share-ability

One of your aspirations is greater visibility for your brand and a compelling online presence.

While your website is the hub of all your content from product listings to resources, videos to subscription forms – social media outreaches in multiple directions. Utilizing an influencer platform can further amplify your reach by connecting with key voices in your industry.

Make sure your active online presence enlists an active social media presence as well.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Your visibility and outreach can increase exponentially with the shareable design of your website to the visitors’ or customers’ social media. For example, satisfied customers should be able to share their experience and be able to refer your brand to others on social media. Happy customers and influencers can be far more authentic and compelling lead generators than other conventional methods.

All too often we see sites not having these options, thereby restricting their growth and possibilities. Many smarter websites are now offering ready made tweets for users to click, share, and return to the site. Then these same brands make an effort to “heart” your tweet and thank you for mentioning them on social media.

For all your articles, make sure there’s a share button. For all your videos, forms, products and services, webinars, addresses and contact details – make sure there’s a share button!

Tip # 5 – Curate excellent content

Your online presence is dependent on unique content that you can use to market your product and services, increase your brand visibility and generate qualified leads.

Paradigm shift: The advent of search engines and the continually revolutionizing purposes and methods of looking up and interacting with the world – the focus is solely on premium user experience.

Long gone are the days when the content was self-glorifying and fixated on the product.

Your content must be unique & educational, enlightening & informing, questioning & probing into usability and sustainability, all for premium quality and genuine user experience.

How to begin?

Magnetize visitors and users of your website with valuable content. Just make good content that will satisfy a need for your reader. If you’re a marketing firm, then your content will include tried and tested tips on marketing strategies, research reports, white papers, and eBooks for your visitors.

Interact with your readers and customers to find out what they need. Offer them content that solves their problems and needs. You could publish product demo videos and tutorials, recordings of webinars and even influencer/testimonial videos to create better understanding and engagement.

Free trials and limited time offers can anchor many leads and turn them into clients. Many people are fascinated by professional courses and content, and get hooked on to websites for more. Leverage on this tendency to generate leads and convert them into customers.

Tip # 6 – Be found

Most users end up seeing your brand in search results and social media. Hence, you should focus on search engine optimization [SEO].

SEO tells search engines that your brand exists; and with targeted and organic keywords, your brand increases in visibility in search results.

SEO will also inform you of user preferences, and you will be able to create content that your readers need.

With CRO and SEO, you will be able to gauge which pages get the most visitors. You could leverage on this information and update your content frequently to keep it relevant to information perusal. Many websites have timestamps that indicate when the page was last updated and for even when the next review is scheduled. A proactive approach informs the user of your stance and professional attitude.

Also, use branded merchandise or collateral to spread the word in more conventional marketing ways. Your stationery, visiting cards, and other mementos could carry your website address to different places and customers.

Public relations, referrals, testimonials, reputation management and influencer marketing, are all powerful methods of getting noticed.

Try customer testimonials as an enticing call-to-action. Customer testimonials can convert leads into buyers. In a 2017 survey, 97% buyers read online reviews before making a buying decision.

This trend is an indicator that your website and social media should have ample reviews and testimonials for users to get in-depth knowledge about your brand. Use statistics to show growing number of satisfied customers and clients.

Tip # 7 – Test your website. Revisit your goals

Lead generation is a continuous process and mainly dependent on market trends, new competition, and modern consumer needs to name a few.

Learn from competitors and the best in the industry. Keep testing the efficiency of your website. A highly empirical and result-driven approach comes from A/B testing.

The A/B test simply puts two models of, let’s say, your landing pages with different positioning of the call-to-action buttons, logo, graphics, content, colors, and even typography, to get exact information on how users interact with & respond to each of the two web pages. By juxtaposing two different variants, you could get accurate information on what to improve on your site.

And lastly, but most importantly, keep revisiting your goals to track your objectives and initiatives. All too often we are tempted to dive into something new and seemingly promising than persistently following a plan. Be consistent and calm – lead generation, conversion strategies and similar initiatives take months to deliver desired results. Define your goals in realistic terms of achieving results over months and not days.

A Bonus Tip: with our favorite advice!

Branding is essential for your identity. Branding is the voice of your business entity. And a brand is created and sustained in two significant ways: visual aesthetics and brand interactions with the community.

Your brand logo must essentially depict and represent what your business entity believes and upholds. The colors, imagery, uniqueness, and typography leaves an indelible mark on your brand’s identity.

Think of the most significant brands known to the world – all have iconic logos that quickly surface in your mind:

Source: Apple

Source: Mercedes

Source: Toyota

While some brand names used great fonts as brand identifiers:

Source: Coca-Cola

Source: Ford

Source: ASUS

All of the above logos bring the iconic products and experiences to your mind the moment your eyes see them in your environment. And their merchandise is something you use [and flaunt] eagerly.

If you are a new company, spend time with experts in the field and explore options for your brand logo, brand colors, typography, along with every minute detail that links to your company.

If you are an established company, and looking to change your brand identity for greater visibility, spend twice as much time to understand what your brand needs, and test all options with sampling groups before implementing any permanent changes. We have many major brands’ mistakes to learn from, e.g. Yahoo! And Gap.

Conclusion

Turning your website into a conversion hub is a trans-formative process; it takes time, diligence and perseverance.

•  We talked about how to align your resources of marketing, sales, customer service and product development to create a unique user experience. We talked about how these resources will be reflected and spaced on your website for an informing and inviting user experience.

•  We discussed methods of getting your site listed in relevant search results using conversion rate optimization and search engine optimization tools. And more straightforward ways such as shareability for greater outreach.

• We also talked about how satisfied customers could be empowered to share their satisfaction with their peer groups.

• Content, of course, is king, and curating excellent content is the supreme strategy for a substantial online presence.

• Towards the end, we talked about how you should keep testing your website for ease-of-access, the simplicity of design, the effectiveness of content and approach for the visitors.

• And how you need to stick to the plan and revisit your goals to strategize and re-strategize according to your needs and the milestones achieved against each initiative.

• And, most importantly, the brand logo, styles and imagery to create a memorable impact.

So turning your website into a conversion hub is a transformative process, as well as a continuous journey.

How will you prefer to embark on this journey? Have you tried something else and has it worked for you? Share your stories with us.

Be it for a small start-up or a large franchise, all designers know the importance of a professional logo design. It represents the brand, communicates their story and symbolizes their product identity to the world. Hence, a poorly designed logo can veritably jeopardize the success of the company it personifies.

No matter how great the products or services of your brand are, if your logo fails to make an impact, you are going to have a hard time attracting customers to your business.

This is one of the primary reasons why many businesses today are investing so much time and effort in hiring the best logo designers and brand agencies. However, we all very well know that designing great, distinctive logos is not so easy.

Even the most renowned planners in the industry encounter challenges when it comes to creating highly professional and effective logos for their clients. Graphic designers are fully aware of the important role  a captivating logo plays in a company’s brand identity.

A good, practical logo should definitely be attractive visually but the deal just doesn’t end there; it has to communicate its brand’s strategies, ethos, and core message effectively. Even the simplest, smallest logo blueprint can take days, weeks or even months to materialize. After all, a skillful design takes a lot of patience and hard work.

The Role of a Logo Design in Building a Brand

As a marketer, graphic design is perhaps one of the most important things you pay attention to as the success of an online business depends on it to a large extent. Mentioned ahead are a few tips that will help you understand why creating a relevant logo is so important for a rising brand.

• Brand Recognition

Your business is a brand, and it’s crucial for every brand to have a logo.

The collective emblem and overall design of your product are what make your company standout and communicate with your target audience, in a way that is professional, attractive and functional. And a good logo design is capable of doing all these things.

The design services by Ballyhoopro, for example, form an instant connection between the consumers and the products provided to them.

• Company Unity

Building a brand’s identity should begin from the inside.

Webpages, publications, advertising, stationary and more should come together with the design image you pick to represent your brand. There are many professional graphic design services available that can create a business from the ground up, or in case your brand already exists, they will give it a boost, making it stronger.

• Professionalism

When it comes to presenting a service to the target market with set expectations, the first impression is usually the most powerful one.

It only takes a fraction of a second for your customer to have a positive or negative perception about your brand.  So, a design that looks cheap, hurried or complicated will make potential customers think that your business cannot afford a professional graphic design. Many agencies out there offer reasonable pricing options without sacrificing quality.

• Communication

Graphic design is not only limited to your logo and website; it also facilitates the development of images and other visual aids that communicate your brand’s vision and ideas. A perfectly designed image can send your customer the important message you want to convey without the need for words. Therefore, using images designed professionally will aid in creating an effective impression.

Since your brand’s logo is not just a ‘fancy portrait’ but an essential element of business reputation management, it should only be handled by expert planners and those with similar expertise. However, hiring a professional designer can turn out to be a costly proposition. This is one reason why crowd sourcing design marketplaces offer a cost-effective alternative to new businesses.

Why Businesses Fail at Designing Logos?

Good logos shouldn’t ever be difficult to figure out and comprehend, or it’s pretty much pointless to have one – unless perhaps your target audience loves solving puzzles. Even then, a label should tell the story of a brand in such a way that it’s vivid, non-patronizing and instant.

Source

Gap’s infamous redesigned logo, which was launched in 2010, was so poorly received that it was hastily scrapped within a week of its launch.

This proves that logo designing is tough and even some of the biggest organizations can get it wrong. Gap’s new logo was reversed in less than a week and more recently, Yahoo! also faced a problematic reception to their rebranding. It is never an exact ‘scientific’ process.

Besides entailing a standard of creativity, a good logo design also involves the knowledge of knowing how to transmit a message using imagery and colour, which means a certain degree of theoretical wisdom, is also needed when creating a logo.

Keeping this in mind, let’s have a look at some of the common mistakes businesses make when designing logos and why they don’t work.

1. Copyright Infringement

From ideas and logo designs to media and intellectual property, copyright and trademark infringement is rife on the internet. One particular excuse that we usually hear from the logo design companies is that the planner is unable to research and develop a unique blueprint. This obviously hints at crowd sourcing companies, where hundreds to thousands of designers compete to ‘win’ the chosen label, with the rest of them not even receiving a dime for their time.

Any professional and serious designer, regardless, will know it is unacceptable to knowingly steal someone else’s work. And crossing your fingers, hoping to get away with it is definitely not the best strategy.

Try putting yourself into the client’s shoes, who has just paid you to create a new logo. If it turns out to be infringing or stolen from another business label, there will be possible legal ramifications which will require you to spend time and money to fix the problem that shouldn’t have come up in the first place.

Some of the brand labels, created for clients, are often blatantly copied from other businesses. For example, one Russian company used Inkbot design’s logo from graphic design portfolio, without altering any of its elements.

A sane person would obviously feel sorry for the company since they had no idea that their own ‘designer’ had stolen it for the client who was also notified about it. According to a few reports, they sent a polite email to the company, removing the label apologetically and getting in touch with their ‘creative genius’ to sort the matter out.

2. Following Gimmicks and Trends

Whether it’s of web, graphic or even fashion, in the design field, the trends are always changing. Take, for instance, the modern trend of flat and minimalistic design. While there are some stunningly captivatingly sites out there dealing with such designs, you have to ask yourself ‘is this a fad or is it going to last?’

Source

Getting a brand new logo is almost like buying an expensive, designer dress. It is an investment that should last you many years.

Skype designed their logo at the peak of the faux-gloss plasticity of the ‘web 2.0’ period. It was white-hot in 2006, rest assured, but has since then aged like a quarterly eaten apple. This is a logo forever anchored to a time in history.

Keeping this in mind, it pays to know how exactly the brand wants to be represented. It is, however, more critical to know what its users and customers want.

3. Too Cliched!

This mistake is way too close to plagiarism, but the only difference is that it does not lead to litigation. The temptation to avoid risk and not stand out from the crowd is wrong: After all, why should any customer come to you if there are dozens of similar offers easily available in the market?

Source

Gap wasn’t really the first company to face severe repercussions from an attempt at re-branding. Tropicana released a new package design for its orange juice in January of 2009. Consumers didn’t like the new label, in fact, they despised it. Sending emails directly to Pepsi Co, the brand that produces Tropicana, and posting on social media, people complained about several aspects of the redesign.

Amongst the complaints, people also felt that it looked like a cliched store brand; one that made it difficult to distinguish the different varieties of Tropicana. Pepsi Co eventually withdrew the packaging and replaced it with the old packaging within a span of just two months.

4. Ill-usage of Typefaces

Being a graphic designer, containing your excitement when working with different fonts can garner benefits as well. After all, a bad pairing of fonts can actually look silly, and picking one that is inappropriate to the brand persona can be fatal.

Designing a logo for a lawyer that uses Comic Sans, for example, appearing too light-hearted and fun, is unlikely to please a client. Therefore, when sketching out an initial blueprint, think carefully about what you want the font to portray, not just in words, but in feeling as well.

The aforementioned, hypothetical lawyer, would then presumably look for something that conveys a certain sense of trust and high-deemed professionalism. Alternatively, a child’s clothing manufacturer might prefer something that seems fun, while also conveying a standard of quality for parents.

Source

When choosing a lettering to utilise, take into account the following:

• The company you’re designing for – what do they do, how formal you should be and what is the primary message you want to send
• How can you use negative space to gain phenomenal results?
• How will the font work with the overall design?

A good example of the second point is the famous FedEx logo, which utilizes negative space in the lettering to create the shape of an arrow, overtly representing speed and direction.

5. Being Over Simplistic

Sometimes, it’s tempting to create a logo design that aptly shows off your skills, but if it gets too complex, your clever design can fall flat on its face. It may not be used in all scenarios, such as web and print, especially when scaled right down as it will lose its details. Simplicity is the key for a lot of reasons including:

• Instant impact: You want the consumer to be able to understand what the logo says in an instant
• High memorability: A logo that can be comprehended straightaway will allow people to remember it more easily
• Easy reproduction: It should have the ability to be reproduced in any size, for any medium, without losing any of its impact

Source

As an example, let’s compare Food and Wine Festival logos: EPCOT vs. Newcastle.

EPCOT tells its story using 2 very different typefaces, 10x colours, and a logo made up of pasta and fork, a set of chopsticks, croissant, plum and a cork screw.

Newcastle, on the other hand, narrates the plot with a single typeface, two colors at max, and combines two visuals (the fork and wine bottles) into a single design form. They didn’t need the entire fork – just the essential bits to make it look like one.

Great logos are often about what’s left over, once you have stripped every other non-crucial element off the page.

Simplicity need not be minimal. However, at the same time, it is a good idea to ensure that all elements work well together and there is not too much going on with font and color.

6. Being Over Literal

Source

As mentioned in the last point, make sure that logos are not instructional drawings or diagrams.

Impactful logos often suggest a theme, but don’t need to literally illustrate it.

For example, The London Symphony Orchestra does not need to draw cellos, kettle drums or violins. Their famous LSO lettering conveys emotion and energy, but also brilliantly hints at a conductor in plight.

The masthead for Families, likewise, does not require to carefully illustrate specific parents and children, or even human faces on its label. Why bother when our brains are naturally designed to deduce human figures?

Source

Hence, try to capture the essence of an object or organization. It is highly important to be original but also to keep it brief, using colors and fonts prudently and avoiding stock images. Anybody can get hold of them, after all.

Last word:

For many businesses, a strong logo is what consumers associate with your services. Successful logo designs act as recognizable bait for a brand, helping your valued customers identify your products. When it comes to honest and good branding, the right logo design is a quintessential component.

Up to a certain point, design is subjective. But doing your research and knowing exactly who your logo is addressing, makes it less so.

If you’re thoroughly aware of what your target market wants, chances are that you will get it right. That, eventually, leads to a happy, satisfied client; branding that gets consumers and a great portfolio for you as a designer.

A logo serves as the graphical representation of a company, which is the key identification feature of a brand, most visible to the target market. Logos form an essential element of businesses’ overall brand identity as they are a mandatory imprint on the company’s website, advertisement and collateral.

Generally, the colors and design of a logo also serve as a focal point of reference for the designing of its packaging, business cards, and even the outlook of the brand’s offices and other marketing materials.

Importance of a logo

The styling of a logo provides visual insight into a company’s vision and the product they sell. Consequently, the design element of a logo is largely dependent on the perception a company wants to generate about itself among the general populace.

Sharp angular logos exude trailblazing, innovative companies while rounded colorful logos are associated with trustworthiness and exuberance, and cursive typography and solid color depict flair and panache.

Furthermore, when loyal customers come upon a logo of a reliable brand they swear by, it can trigger positive emotions that are more likely to convert into increased sales.

Your accidental encounter with the golden arches of McDonald’s can prompt hunger pangs and cravings for a cheeseburger and fries; such is the power of a widely recognized logo.

A well-conceived design of a logo can also narrate the prosperity and professionalism of a business while a substandard looking logo can become a hindrance when you are trying to appeal to potential customers through it. Thus, various factors come into play during the designing of a logo including its color scheme, fonts, typefaces and accompanying images.

All the basic components that amalgamate to form a logo have a role to play, including the typography which sets the tone of the logo.

Importance of the font in a logo

Before highlighting the impact of a font on the credibility of the logo, let us discuss the basics of typography to better understand the importance of selecting an appropriate font for a logo.

Difference types of fonts

There are thousands of font styles, each distinguished by distinctive features. However, most of these typefaces can be categorized into five broad categories:

Serif: This type of a font is characterized by a small line present at the end of a stroke in a letter. These slight projections at the end make it easier for the eyes to flow through the sentence thus increasing the legibility of this font. Serif is further divided into four sub categories namely Old Style, Traditional, Didone and Slab Serif.

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San Serif: In French, the word san means “without” hence the name San Serif denotes the absence of serif or minor projections. This font has a more constant line thickness as compared to Serif which conveys simplicity. San Serif is also considered to be a contemporary font, primarily found on the display texts of computer screens. It is most commonly used in headings rather than the body of the text.

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Script: It is a more elegant font with fluid, cursive strokes, making it most suitable for formal text such as the ones on wedding invitations and certificates. The font is unsuitable to be used in lengthy texts or small spaces as it gets straining to read.

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Display: As the name implies, the font is intended to be used for large displays and headings. It is a relatively simple typeface most commonly found in prominent headings rather than extensive passages. It is designed to draw immediate attention, which is why it is used in banners, posters and newspaper headlines. The font does not have a fixed style; it comprises various eccentric styles.

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Hand Lettering: This font appears to be written by hand. It is most famous with designers and illustrators and it has a certain charm and spontaneity about it which adds a little character to the words. Hand lettering also imparts a human touch to the words making them more relatable while also channeling a particular mood. There are endless variations to this form of writing which is only limited by the imagination of the creator.

Essence of a brand

In addition to the different types of font used for particular purposes, the font in a logo also represents the core essence of a brand. Each typeface can communicate a different meaning to the same word; these differences can be minimal or drastic and can be the reason for changing the implication of a single word. A font not only channels an emotion but it can also has the ability to signify a particular age and gender.

While the following words do not directly communicate femininity, the font is more suited for female oriented brands as it is elegant and with certain panache.

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The font in the following image is a direct nod to masculinity due to its ruggedness and distressed state. Its sharp-edged lettering channels toughness and exudes power.

The logos below provide a stark comparison between the fonts of two brands that make products for opposite genders. The logo on the left is sharp and more angular while the one on the right has lettering ending with a flourish. The logos instantly indicate the gender they cater to without exhibiting their products in them.

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Thus, it becomes crucial for brands to explore different font options. They should experiment with various combinations of fonts and typefaces to see what best narrate the true identity of the brand and is approachable for their target market.

When you come across a logo of Rolex, the first thing that can come to mind is “timeless classic”. Their sleek, minimalistic design in watches is also depicted in their logo through a dignified, traditional font. If the company had instead opted for a more informal font, it would not have been able to retain its aura of quality and luxury.

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On the other hand, Toys R Us is all about children, thus, they have a more rounded font that comes across as friendly and exuberant. It has softer edges and a non-linear letter placement that perfectly symbolizes the easy-going, fun image of the toy brand.

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Tone of a font

The font and typeface can also narrate the tone of the text quite effectively; consider it to be a form of visual language. Large, bold fonts depict a loud, alarming tone that demands attention while tiny fonts which channel subtlety sound more demure and polite. Tone of the font is of utmost importance as it provides a distinctive perspective to your brand. Therefore, your chosen typeface should be in sync with the tone of the message you intent to convey through the logo of your brand.

Jessica Hische, a well-known illustrator and letterer, noted in Upper Your Type Game:

“Typefaces definitely have personalities…I usually want something even-tempered and laid back but not lacking in personality. Finding typefaces with the right personality balance can be incredibly difficult…”
Hence, the ideal logo should have a perfect balance that gets the point across effectively without appearing to be too aggressive or too overbearing. On the other hand, you don’t want your logo to be too casual for it to lose its impact. When the textual part of the logo is prominent and not overshadowed by its surrounding illustrations and designing, only then will it be comprehensible to the customers. Simply put, the visual characteristics of a logo can actually speak to the readers hence careful consideration is needed when deciding the typeface.

Competency and legibility of a font

A brand’s logo is a visual representation of its name which also highlights its products or services; hence another important characteristic of a good fond is its legibility. If a logo is hard to read and comprehend, it loses its key purpose, which is to convey the brand’s name.

Therefore, when deciding the font of a logo, most brands prefer font specifically designed to be easily decipherable even from a distance. Such fonts have linear, evenly spaced letters making them simple to understand and stand out on a cluttered background such as on a billboard.

John Hopkins’ logo is a perfect example of the above mentioned point. It denotes traditionalism and professionalism with its simple yet striking logo. Each blue-colored letter projecting from a stark white background is of even thickness and positioned at a constant distance from each other.

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In retrospect, a logo’s legibility is not bound by the linearity of its letters; certain logos have a cursive font but are still very simple to conceive.

Coca-Cola is a world renowned beverage company so it is of no surprise that its iconic logo is widely recognized. But let’s separate the popularity of the brand from its logo for a second and view it like a word you have recently encountered. The two words embody a cursive style but are still very clear due to even spacing and a stark contrast between the font and the background color.

Effects of altering the font in a logo

As surprising as that sounds, the font of a logo is a big deal. If you find the statement to be difficult to comprehend and somewhat exaggerating, consider the following incident:

Pepsi Co. is another notable beverage brand. In 2009, their popular orange juice brand, Tropicana, underwent major package redesigning and changed the face and the positioning of its logo on the carton. The alteration in the font, from its classic look to a more contemporary San Serif, had a major impact on how customers perceived the brand causing rift in their customer relations.

This impact was projected on their sales which saw an astonishing 20% drop costing the brand millions of dollars of loss in just two months. The brand moved smartly, surrendering to the consumers’ demand and immediately discontinued the new design.

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On the other hand, if you want your logo to evolve with the passage of time and emanate modernism without causing detrimental effects on your customer-relations, take a leaf out of Chevrolet’s book.

One of the most famous automakers in the world, Chevrolet, began its operation way back in the early 1900s. So, it is no surprise that their logo designing process wasn’t well thought out, in fact, it is widely believed that the logo was actually inspired by a wallpaper design in a Parisian hotel. However, they implemented slight modifications over the period of time, all the while staying true to the brand’s identity.

Apart from one major alteration in the beginning years, the logo retained its classic bowtie look, fine tuning it after every few decades. The current logo is sleek and ultra-modern, perfect for the automobile dominators of the 21st century.

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Conclusion

A logo serves as the visual representation of a brand that helps consumers form an opinion about it. An important part of a logo is its font and the typeface that represents your brand’s personality, values and tone.

Whether your brand epitomizes class and style or channels loyalty and friendliness, whether the people behind the brand are astute and smart or naïve and incompetent; all these aspects can be judged by a single glance at a logo.

Due to this very reason, some organizations go as far as to create their own bespoke font that distinguishes them from their competitors. Hence, when establishing your brand’s identity, give the logo, particularly the font, its due time, resources and attention as they form the foundations of positive and healthy customer relations.