When you delve out to make a logo, what are the things you start wondering about? Design, colors, graphics, outlay, texture, shapes, fonts, they are all integral parts of the logo design process, but is there something missing in there that is important?

Yes, something is missing, but the highly surprising part is that its beauty lies in being ”missing” all the time. “Negative Space” or more simply put the space leftover in between the different design elements after the process is completed, is one of the most important design components that can make a logo look infinitely great.

Negative space is quite different from the subliminal design elements in that it’s the nothingness here where the brilliance needs to lie. The Amazon logo has an arrow showing the connection from “A-Z’ which signifies that it houses all types of good for consumers and a happy smile. The connection is the subliminal message while the smile arises from the perfect optimization of Negative Space.

The negative space can be used simultaneously in two very different yet equally effective ways:

To Help Increase the Focus:

Take out a family photograph from around 30-40 years back, a time when digital cameras were not in the groove and Polaroid ruled the world. The photograph might have blurred out a bit at some places and remained sharp and stoic at the others. The human eye would automatically zoom in on the clear ones and leave out the blurred part, thereby increasing the amount of focus the clear parts get.

Negative space serves on the same premise. When you want to keep it insanely simple and not make it gaudy so that it repels people off, you let the negative space engulf the visual you have created, enhancing the effect against the nothingness behind its color and lines.

In minimalistic designs, the use of negative space is highly influential as the design itself is so subtle, that it requires the negative space to support it to make a nice impact. Logos are no different.

A lot of firms require smaller and more intricate logos that look a bit more edgy and nifty. Tech firms rule the roost with such designs as they intend to represent the quality and smoothness of experience they inhibit.

The designer and the firm who wants the logo needs to understand here that the negative space is just as important as the main element of design in the overall graphic to make for a better and much more attention grabbing logo.

Playing in together with the Design:

It takes a master or matter of perfect communication to come with a logo design inspiration that perfectly assimilates the design with its negative space to create a complete logo, where each one has its part in portraying the meaning behind the logo.

See this logo design for instance:

The logo represents a brand named Anthony Lane and the logo works on the premise of using negative space to use both initial letters from the two words in the design. The “L” from Lane is portrayed in the negative space that arises in the Letter “A”, take anyone away and the design appears incomplete and irrelevant.

Using the negative space in a logo boils down to acknowledging the space that exists and then panning out a strategy to involve other elements by slightly tweaking this space to create another image altogether. Powerful logos like these stand a far better chance of serving your purpose of branding than other conventional ones as they portray that the brand made an effort to portray itself in not only the best manner but also with a hugely ingenious design.

Missing is not always bad, it’s down to the perception of the people involved in the logo design process on how they incorporate the negative space into their initiatives to make for a compelling and powerful logo.

Logos are at the forefront of your brand campaign serving as personifications of your vision and ideology as an organization but each different sector in business serves a different purpose, does that mean there should a different set of rules and niches for designing a logo in a certain domain?

The answer is Yes! Different sectors invite diversity in the logo domain and designing a logo for a certain sector requires the designer and the client to follow the well-defined guidelines on how to make a logo work perfectly and suit their domain. One of the most well-defined sectors that logos serve is the banking and financial sector, where the design gains much more importance than in other areas due to the nature of business.

Trust, commitment, balance, insight, integrity are all different types of strong emotions that logos from this sector need to elicit to successfully serve the business. The logos here can neither be too funky nor too sedate and serious; they have to strike just the right balance. Simplicity is the main tool to focus on here as in this sector the name of the business is an integral part of the logo, which makes it harder to initiate another sort of bright and loud designs around it.

The best logo designs in the financial and banking sector which have served their businesses and have become hallmarks of these institutions have subtlety at their command. Here are some great design inspirations that will work great in the financial sector:

The Merill Lynch Logo

This logo is intensely powerful as it contains the name of the organization and uses a bull as a side graphic. The bull signifies a powerful market in financial terminology as it’s connotation is with rising prices indicating profits.

The bull has its front leg and its tail up signifying an aggressive stance that goes perfectly with the company’s work of providing the best of profitable investments to its clients. Simplicity is of high significance here.

Barclay’s Logo:

Barclays has been a highly trusted and well known financial institution for many decades and its logo which shows an eagle alongside the text, represents being high and powerful. The eagle is also shaped like a knight’s armor shield which gives it the provocation of power and protection making Barclays gain a reputation for being a company that is head and shoulders above its contemporaries and provides financial protection to all kinds of investment in its foray.

Deutsche Bank:

The logo here is one of the best examples of innately powerful simplicity and utter creativity in a minimalistic design. As I told you earlier in the post, the text is immensely important in financial logos but the accompanying image, if any, should be intrinsically beneficial to the cause of the logo without overdoing it.

Here we see a square with a diagonal line going in the middle which subtly represents the “D” of the Deutsche brand and the easy feel of the look make for great brand recognition making for an instantly recognizable logo.

Off Market Design Inspiration:

If you want to veer off the serious minded track in logo design for your financial concern and are looking for a more colorful and vibrant design which doesn’t go over the line, then this design inspiration is for you.

The Design shows a tree growing amidst the pebbles, signifying growth in the real estate opportunities the business offers. Considering the fact that people invest in real estate in the hope of leveraging their money for high returns, this logo has the perfect symbolization to serve that purpose. A must consider for those who like to go offbeat and break from the norm.

Off Market Design Inspiration:

If you want to take your logo a more upbeat level that portrays less seriousness as compared to other financial logos then this logo design is a must-consider option for your business. Firstly the color purple is a paradigm shift from the dominating palettes of blues and greens in the financial world and secondly the circular design gives a feel of a “Smiling Face”, which other financial institutions won’t opt for, giving your logo its own identity.

Logo designs are at your discretion as a business owner and depend on the initial brief you give to your design team about how you want it to look and feel like. It’s your call at the end of the day, but it would be advisable to look for sustainable designs according to ongoing trends and previous preferences across your industry to have a fairly good idea of what will work and what won’t for your brand.

Since prehistoric times, our minds have been hardwired to understand and respond to different kinds of stimuli that aided us in our survival in those wild times. But those psychological underpinnings still do hold value as we elicit the same kind of emotions after seeing certain colors as we did back then.

The perception a person takes away after being exposed to a certain logo is largely dependent on the color of the logo. Yes, the design is immensely important, but color is a stimulus that can change the immediate outlook of your logo to the extent of altering its meaning by eliciting different passions and emotions.

Most of the iconic logos out there are more associated with their colors than they are with their design as a Mcdonald’s logo will be immediately recognizable at even the haziest of days just because of the yellow color that constitutes a major part of the minimalistic logo.

When opting for a new logo design, color is dependent on what vision you are trying to portray to the onlooker and what does your brand stands for. The key here is to pick the perfect color or a combination of colors to match your brand ideology perfectly to make a powerful impact.

To understand the different emotions that each color elicits, we have some of the most popularly used colors in logos for you here:

The Subtlety of Monochrome:

The colors black and white do not exist alone as one cannot be present without the other although the hues used each time may differ.

Black signifies formality and the elucidating darkness of the night while white is a proponent of peace and composure and together they portray a silken image that is not present in any color making it a perfect color palette to apply when you want a vintage logo for your brand.

Monochromes are great when used to signify technology and innovation and are used mostly by companies that do not want to give away what they do with their logo but just act as a personification of their vision.

The logos of Apple and Nike are built on a monochrome theme but they just signify the calmness of being great at what these companies do without making too much of pomp and noise.

The Power of Red:

When we talk about the color red, the power here is innate and it portrays passion, aggressiveness, and intensity to the fullest making it a powerful candidate for any brand that vouches to look as a constantly active entity with élan.

Companies like YouTube and Coca-Cola have red as their primary logo color to signify the dynamic nature of these brands and the product or service they offer.

The color red stands to increase or stimulate appetite and consumption which stands to explain its use in so many food and beverage products.

The Harmony of Green:

When used wisely, the color green can create an instant connection with an onlooker as it is one of the most abundant colors in nature and stands to elicit the feelings of earth and relaxation just like sitting under a tree.

The connotation is evident in all forms of this color when used in a logo as it provides the logo with a feel that it is fed by natural flavors or possesses a growth-oriented approach.

Money and financial products have long been associated with the color green and its use in such companies is great as it makes it easier to portray the phenomenon of prophesizing sustained growth that will remain fresh for long.

The color green has also been used in the Android bot logo by Google as it portrays the wealth of applications and functionalities that the domain offers.

The Authority of Blue:

Blue is symbolic of governance and professionalism and is one of those colors that elicit integrity and trust in the brand logo that aims to incorporate it.

Blue is present in the horizon and the sky and brands with such a vision should opt for this color to give more weight to their cause by the use of their logo.

When using blue, keep in mind that it implies faith and trust which is the main proponent of companies like Samsun and Ford that reek of quality in all of their products making blue the perfect candidate for portraying a confident yet conservative stature of a brand.

The list doesn’t end hereas there are other colors you can use when you get a logo like orange and purple which are used on an equally consistent basis in logo designs and have their own set of emotions with them but what we intended to make you understand here is the power of colors in making your logo impactful which has the ability, if done right, to transform the chances of success of your brand in the marketing world.

A logo is an insight in what your brand promises to give the customer, what it stands for, what the brand is at its core. In short, the logo is the accumulation of your brand identity in a beautifully designed package that appeals to your target market. This is not something you can make with just good Photoshop skills. Let us give you an example of what true depth is.

The vast pyramids of Gaza and Mona Lisa, both very different but yet they have something in common. One is the symbol of grandeur and vastness, and the other a work of art, personifying a mystic beauty but both of them are designed using the “Golden Ratio”. And once you realize that these works have such depth in them you appreciated them in a completely new light. But even if you never find the genius behinds such works, research has shown that the human eye and brain interpret and process images built on the golden ratio a lot faster than the norm. This helps us to prove that the appeal of Mona Lisa is in part of its well thought out design. Now think if you put this much thought into designing your product logo – that would give you a constant edge. For example, if you are in fashion retail, and if your quality is on par with the competition, a logo could make or break you. So in no way can we underestimate the importance of a good product logo design.

However, how do you convince top management that Design is something that should be focused upon? Well, first of all, remember that design is something that makes the pros stand out from the amateurs. Designs that are planned well will resonate with your clients. When you cut corners in the design phase it does not say anything good about your business. It says that you are doing a “patch job”; you are here to make a quick buck not make a mark for yourself.

Understand the brand and remember simplicity is king

Before you start your quest of making a logo, you have to literally make it crystal clear what your brand stands for, what is delivering to the customer. You have to decide how you want your brand to be perceived as. Once these ideas are jotted down on paper and are coherent with each other, then you can work on how to reflect them in a logo.

Last but not the least, the logo should be beautiful but it should be a work of art like the Last supper. Keep it simple, making it easily recognizable. Plus simple logos also make sense financially as they are easier to recreate (very important if you are in the retail industry). So when you hire a digital agency, the first thing they should ask you is about you. If they start pitching designs from the get go, its time to hunt a new partner.

In business, it is important to look at your competitors and see what they are doing – what’s working for them, what’s bringing them sales, or what’s helping them create a buzz. This is what you commonly call competitor analysis. Take this one step further, and you have what is known as benchmarking. Simply put, it means you’re taking something that has been producing results for others and emulating it so that the same success comes your way, too. While benchmarking for business practices is common, benchmarking logo can also work wonders for a company’s branding strategy.

What is benchmarking in business

Benchmarking is a systematic and strategic management process that involves comparing an organization’s performance, processes, products, or practices with those of its peers, competitors, or industry leaders. The primary objective of benchmarking is to identify areas of improvement, set performance targets, and implement best practices to enhance overall organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Sometimes, people use benchmarking and competitor analysis interchangeably. But the key difference between them is ‘focus’. In competitor analysis, the data is collected from your rivals within the industry, but when you benchmark company logo, it gives a more holistic understanding and transcends the industry boundaries to get a broader view of what we call “best practices”.

Logo Benchmarking

For any company, the logo represents its identity. However, the process of designing a logo and then redesigning it is a constant and ongoing process. These changes are sometimes made to indicate a shift in priorities or to alter the company’s identity in line with the changing priorities and tastes of the targeted audience. Sometimes, logos are revamped as part of marketing strategies to rejuvenate the business.

Every major brand has tinkered with their logo from time to time. Some even have modified it more than once. In the past five years, 78% of major brands have undertaken logo redesigns to refresh their image and stay relevant in  the market.

Source

Why benchmarking is important

While looking for inspiration to design a logo or make changes to it, benchmarking is considered an ideal practice to help with the process. In this way, the company evaluates the process and sees the effectiveness, visual appeal, and overall performance of the logo relative to industry standards and competitors. This process is crucial for determining the logo’s ability to represent a strong and effective brand identity.

Benchmarking tools and metrics

Benchmarking tools and metrics are a set of parameters and strategies that help you compare your logo with that of your competitors. These tools and metrics offer a data-driven approach to logo benchmarking, allowing companies to make informed decisions about the logo’s design, performance, and its impact on the brand’s image. Some of these metrics are:

Aesthetic indices

They are quantitative measurements designed to evaluate the visual appeal of a logo. These metrics take into account various design elements such as symmetry, balance, color harmony, and proportions and give a numerical score or rating to compare the logo’s aesthetics. One common aesthetic index is the Golden Ratio, which measures the harmony of proportions in the logo’s design.

Brand recognition metrics

These metrics assess the logo’s ability to create brand awareness and recognition. Tools like brand tracking surveys or recognition tests can be used to measure how well the logo is remembered and associated with the company. Metrics may include unaided and aided recall, where respondents are asked to name or identify the brand when presented with the logo.

Eye-tracking studies

Eye-tracking technology can be used to analyze how people visually interact with the logo. By tracking where viewers’ eyes are drawn to the logo and how long they spend looking at different elements, businesses can gain insights into the logo’s visual hierarchy and effectiveness in conveying the brand message.

Color analysis software

Various software tools are available for assessing the colors used in a logo. These tools can provide data on color contrast, color harmony, and accessibility. They help ensure that the logo adheres to best practices in color theory and is suitable for different contexts, including digital and print media.

Usability testing

Usability testing, typically used for digital interfaces, can also be applied to logos, especially when they are part of a website or app. Users’ interactions with the logo on a website can be tracked to determine if it effectively guides them to important areas or actions. Metrics may include click-through rates and user satisfaction ratings.

Social media analytics

In the digital age, logos are often prominently featured on social media platforms. Businesses can use social media analytics tools to track the engagement and reach of posts that feature their logo. Metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates can indicate the logo’s effectiveness in generating online engagement.

The process of benchmarking logo

Define the scope

To start, you would need to identify the scope of the projects. Do you want to create a new logo or want to tweak specific aspects of the logo? This could include color, typography, design elements, etc. It also helps set benchmarking criteria for assessing different logos. Some would pique your interest with their color scheme, others might have fascinating typography or iconography that might inspire you. If you get into this process without defining the scope of your project, you’d focus on other elements that might not need to be changed, and it runs the risk of jeopardizing the whole process.

Identify competitors

After determining the scope, the second step is to choose a competitor(s) for logo benchmarking. Research and identify competitors and industry standards to compare against. This could include analyzing logos of similar companies or organizations in the same industry. There are two types of competitors you can consider in your analysis: direct competitors and indirect competitors.

Direct competitors are those who are your rivals in the same industry. For example, for Starbucks, Tim Hortons is a direct competitor.

Indirect competitors are those businesses that offer different products or services but target the same customer base. For example, Apple’s indirect competitors are Samsung and Huawei.

You can even look out of your industry for benchmarking. Sometimes, the best inspiration can come from unexpected places. What if evaluating the logos of businesses in completely different industries could help you to come up with new and innovative ideas.

Analysis of competitors’ logos

Getting a hold of your competitors’ logos is easy. You can find these on their websites, marketing materials, social media pages, and even product packaging. Now, you can collect data on the logos and analyze it to identify strengths and weaknesses. This could include analyzing design, color scheme, relevance, uniqueness, typography, symbology, and scalability.

Design: While evaluating the design, you need to answer two questions. Is the logo visually appealing and memorable? Is it consistent with the overall brand identity? You’ll get your answers by looking at the balance, symmetry, contrast, and unity within the logo’s design. Elements like line thickness, shapes, and negative space also needed to be looked at.

Color scheme: Benchmarking logo will also delve into color assessment to understand the color choices because colors have a profound impact on how a logo is perceived and how it communicates a brand’s message. In color analysis, you’d examine the psychology of colors used, their combination, and consistency.

Relevance: You’d also need to see how relevant to your industry is the logo you’re benchmarking. For benchmarking examples, consider the M&M’s logo. It can work wonders on candy packets, but it’d be a bummer if pasted on Rolex watches. Right? So, the benchmark logo design needs to be relevant to your identity, the audience you’re catering to, and the product/service you’re selling.

Uniqueness: The logo you’re benchmarking should be unique. It must stand out from the competition. Otherwise, how would it help improve your design?

Typography: The selection of fonts and typography is also assessed in terms of legibility, appropriateness for the brand, and how well it complements the overall logo design. Here, you’d scrutinize various elements like font, kerning and spacing, typeface pairing and tracking, etc.

Symbology: Symbology is a critical aspect when evaluating and benchmarking a logo. The art and symbols used in a logo are a form of visual communication that inspires memorability and universal recognition. The logo you’re looking for benchmarking should be culturally relevant to your company and have a storytelling appeal that evokes emotional resonance among your customers.

Scalability: The need for availability is different for different companies. For example, an e-commerce app will have to consider logo scalability on multiple devices, while a plumbing company wouldn’t have to worry much about scalability. So, it is important to evaluate the logo’s effectiveness at various sizes and in different contexts while benchmarking. The logo should be analyzed for its clarity when scaled down to very small sizes and its adaptability to different mediums such as business cards, billboards, websites, and mobile apps.

Identify areas for improvement

After gathering data on the benchmarked logos, the next step will be to take a step back to assess your own logo. How does it stack up? Are there any areas where it could be improved? Now that you have a good understanding of the design, relevance, uniqueness, and scalability of your competitors’ logos, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Is the logo visually appealing and memorable?
• Is it consistent with the overall brand identity?
• Does it accurately represent the business and its products or services?
• Does it stand out from the competition?
• Will it look good in different sizes and on different media?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then your logo is in good shape. However, if you think there are any areas where it could be improved, don’t be afraid to make changes.

Here’s an example of the Airbnb logo redesign.

Source

The old logo was visually appealing, memorable, and consistent with the company’s brand identity. However, it was not unique.

The new logo is more visually appealing and memorable than the original logo. It also uses a distinctive font and design elements that set it apart from other travel and hospitality logos. The new logo is also more scalable. It looks good in different sizes and on different media.

Implement changes

Once you have identified all the shortcomings of your logo, now is the time to implement the changes. It is ideal to hire the services of a professional design company and give them a brief of the results obtained from your benchmarking process. Tell them how you’d want your logo to be redesigned around these parameters. The professional designer of the company can aptly implement those changes and give you a logo that reflects the brand identity and values.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different designs. The best logos are often the ones that are unique and unexpected.

Legal considerations

During the redesign, make sure you are not violating any copyright and trademark laws. Your logo must not infringe on any existing intellectual property rights and should be culturally sensitive and appropriate for the target market.

Stakeholder feedback

After the redesign, it is important to gather feedback from internal and external stakeholders. It is an essential part of the benchmarking process. This involves surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand how the logo is perceived and whether it effectively communicates the brand message.

Monitor results

After you have implemented the changes, monitor the impact it is creating among the consumers and whether your investment into branding is paying off or not. Keep track of different metrics and audience feedback and make changes to the logo if needed.

Conclusion

In modern times, when design and branding elements are vital in determining the company/business’ success, brands should routinely be benchmarking logo to determine its effectiveness and appeal among the customers. This process also helps to gauge the industry’s best practices and evaluate the expectations consumers might have with their favorite brand.

They key towards successful branding is to envision your business as an individual that is going to meet people and wants to leave an impact on them. If your business fails to create a personal feel towards the consumer, then your business won’t survive for very long. But the question that arises first is not how but when does a personal feel develop in this relationship?

It happens, just like in the case of individuals, on the very first impression that your business has on the prospective customer. If it succeeds there, then be rest assured, you are definitely going to feel your cash registers ringing.

But how are first impressions formed in business? It requires a change of perspective to view it in that manner and No! It’s not about being as flashy as you possibly can. Would you develop a good first impression of an individual if he/she is wearing gaudy and loud clothes and has a punk-style hairdo?

Probably no and more so if they are there to sell you something. You would be turned off by it and won’t be interested in what that individual has to say even if it’s good because the first impression was so lax that you didn’t want to proceed any further.

Most businesses commit the same mistake and it reflects in their bottom line results. So to successfully create a great first impression on the online consumer, make sure that you follow these guidelines:

The Feel of the Home Page Holistically:

Before zooming in on what specific areas of the landing page say, our subconscious mind makes a snap judgment on the website after seeing it as a whole rather than a sum of its parts.

This is where the power of branding and First impression kicks in and is at its most powerful so make sure that your landing page or the home page is looking great, which means that the branding done there is seamlessly blended there be it the website logo or any CTAs. If something looks out of place and jumps at you, it would serve to be distracting on your other features, which makes it harder for the visitor to stay long enough.

The impression goes out that you are trying desperately to sell by being so over the top with your antics. Make it smooth and easier to the eyes.

The UI Design and Customer centric UX:

After the eyes have done their work, the hands come into play and the navigation and scrolling starts. Here the customer is developing a feel of how you have designed your website by keeping the ease of customers in mind. The harder it is to navigate, the more chances of inducing a redirect to another site.

Make your website clutter free and employ easier navigational tools like interactive drop-down menus and re-directing slideshows. Videos and pictures work great to create a good first impression of your site by increasing user engagement. Integrate your website logo strategically in your interactive tools and don’t overdo. Overkill might be bad for everything but it’s devastating for your website logo.

Offering your Product:

The chain of first impressions continues as the user heads on towards your product category page and further on to individual products.

This is where the magic is supposed to happen. Most businesses share a common misperception that the pictorial representation of the product is where the whole emphasis should be. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The pictures need to look attractive, yes, but it’s not the whole deal. The display of information related to the product should be clear and easily readable as should the price, payment options and the delivery methods offered by you.

Keep in mind that the customer is not there to just buy your product; it is there to fulfill a need. It’s not there to buy a jacket; it’s there to buy warmth and good looks. Make sure you focus your strategy towards catering this need of the customer. This is part of the overall initial customer experience and the formation of the first impression towards your business, make it count!

In the end, it would be great that if a sale is made, you could put up a thank you message in the same shape and design of your website logo to make it look like you are creative as well as friendly. Your goal should be that once the site is closed by the consumer, a reverberating impact has been made by your branding strategies enough to make it come again soon to make your business flourish.

What are the essentials of a winning brand? How do you ensure that all of the internal and external people associated with your brand are on the same page? The modern business dynamics have redefined the way the “brand” word is used in multiple contexts. Your brand undoubtedly personifies your businesses personality and is crucial to the existence of the company. Consumers intend to be able to connect with the brand on an emotional and personal level and for that,a logo and complimentary color scheming is not the only takeaway as it is not successful in establishing a meaningful dialogue with your brand. And hence the concept of a Logo Style Guide comes into play.

What Is a logo style guide basically?

A logo style guide is like a roadmap for your business in the form of a document that assists your company to deliver a consistent brand image across all company collaterals whether visual or text. The way your brand identity can be leveraged is set out in a series of rules and guidelines in this document and features basic sections like logo usage, typography, corporate trade dress which is determined by the color scheme and if your brand has a specific editorial tone that needs to be followed or not.

The Logo Style Guide portrays multiple facets of your logo in creative versions and alignments for you to choose from. This helps you perceive the logo in various scenarios so that you can justifiably decide which works best for your brand. For example, it may include the main typeface, a secondary serif typeface and the color palette which was used.

What’s in it for the business?

What businesses aim for all the time is that their target audience buys their marketing pitch and ultimately makes that purchase. Consciously or unconsciously you are marketing your brand message across multiple platforms and you need to keep in mind that the perceived value of a brand in the eyes of the consumer is as important as the sincerity with which the work is executed. It is the first thing that people visually encounter process and stores it in their memory. Visual identity is something that stands out well-pronounced and hence it should be well-formulated. That is why a Logo Style Guide is a ‘must-have’ tool when working to build your brand identity.

Attention to detail

Your logo style guide categorically lays down the brand elements that come together to define your brand and how they should effectively be put into action across your marketing collaterals. The in-depth details that they are believed to hold can range from the photography style that needs to be adopted, the precise measurements of the logo from the borders, the guidelines to compile the copy and the mode of communication that should be used to disseminate information regarding the placement of furniture and fittings in the real-world scenario.

The more holistically and comprehensively you present your company image the more favorable it will prove to be for your business. This one document self-presents your company to anyone of your in-house staff whether they are designers (internal or outsourced), workers hired on acontractual basis, freelancers or external stakeholders like suppliers, vendors (such as printers), to help communicate the brand message to your target audience in a seamless and well-integrated manner.

Why do you need a logo style guide?

The logo style guide also commonly known as the brand guide or ‘brand bible’ effectively coordinates between the product or service, the logo and the brand equity that it projects and the corporate identity so that all of the elements connect together in a fluid manner and is perfectly synchronized with the image in the minds of the existing and potential customers.

Establishes a brand personality

The tangibleelements of the brand like the poster ads, business cards, packaging and the signage need certain instructions to be implemented in the right context and not come out us inconsistent with the brand image. The guide helps the designers and the marketers steer the way in helping to put together the ideal logo, make ads that grab consumer attention and also maintain brand integrity across a range of platforms. Your brand values and every possible communication with the customer should go hand in hand both on an emotional and visual level.

Ensures consistency over various platforms

The benefits of a style guide can be viewed from the viewpoint of a prospective customer who struggles to put the information he receives about your business in bits and pieces. Your success lies in the fact that your style guide removes all sorts of ambiguity from the minds of consumers by familiarizing them with the core values and competencies that your company believes in and sets the overall tone for your brand. From the color scheming to the positioning of your products on the website makes a whole lot of difference. Make sure there are no visible or subtle contradictions amongst your core areas of expertise and presents a fair picture to prevent any harm to your business in the long run.

The existence of a guide will help the entry of new products or services or penetration into newer product lines. Any product that does not comply with a business brand value may create confusion both amongst the employees and in the eyes of your esteemed customer as well.

Remember that no two businesses are alike and you need to understand the unique branding needs of your business to do justice to your value proposition. A brand identity that exudes professionalism is sure to go a long way and can serve as a very impactful asset. Successful business pride on their clear and consistent brand image.

When we start talking about logos, we stop looking ahead for a while and stop our association with it on the borders of the branding frontier but logos have had a deep, rich and an immensely interesting history with most of them having intriguing histories into their formation and budgets.

A logo is an artistic personification of your brand ideology and it is used to serve the purpose of providing a “Face” which people can associate with the name of the brand but there is more than which meets the eye in some of them which are sure to make you interested in finding more about them, let’s look at some of the most amazing stories that iconic logos hide beneath their immense popularity and mass appeal:

Coca-Cola:

Who would have thought that one of the most recognizable logos would be made in Spencerian script, which was one of the types of fonts used by people pursuing penmanship at the time. Frank M. Robinson was an initial partner and a bookkeeper by profession when he designed this logo as he believed that two C’s would work wonders in marketing the soft drink, hence the logo came to life.

It might now be worth billions of dollars as a trademark of the company but it was designed for $0, funny thing isn’t it?

London Olympics 2012:

The organizing committee shelled out £400,000 to acquire a logo for this iconic competition which still retains a massive audience over the whole globe. The committee assigned the task to Wolf Ollins in 2007, but it didn’t live up to its hype, instead became controversial due to its resemblance to a woman performing oral sex and being quite untidy at the same time.

The BBC Logo:

Commissioned in 1997, it is still in use due to its wide application capability that allows the organization to use it simultaneously to represent every department, whether it’s television or radio but the price tag is a bit more complex as compared to the logo’s simplicity and brevity. Designed in Gill Sans font, the cost of the BBC logo was a mind-boggling $1.8 million when it came out.

British Petroleum (BP):

When it comes to spending through the nose when acquiring a logo for your brand, BP outstrips everyone by a distance by getting a logo for nearly $211 million from Ogilvy and Mather back in 2008 in an effort to revamp its image in the mind of the people as firm which is committed towards people’s concerns as an energy company. What a belligerent attitude this firm retains when it comes acquiring the best!

Interestingly when there was an oil spill related to BP around the same time this logo was commissioned, it caused image problems which couldn’t be solved by this logo alone.

Google for Zero:

When it came to designing a logo for the now most famous search engine on the planet by a fair distance, Google’s co- founder Larry Page designed it on the free graphics program GIMP with a vibrant design using a lot of color iterations. The logo has undergone major transformations but it still retains immense resemblance to the original one prepared by Larry.
The green color used for the letter “L”in the Google logo signifies Google’s ideology of not follow predefined rules as all the other colors used in rest of the letters are primary colors.

A logo certainly has avalue which cannot be ascertained in monetary terms but having said that logos are certainly influential in building your brand image and positioning in the mind of the consumer. Each company has its own ideology to follow when it comes down to getting a logo as these logos have just as rich stories as works of art, so when the next time you need a logo for your organization, try to get a story going behind it as well as in its portray of your brand to create a mesmerizing and memorable effect which can linger in the minds of the consumer for the times to come.

It is an unarguable fact that businesses do not need an online presence to reap benefits, rather an online presence has become an absolutely vital need if the business is to compete in today’s world. Many small businesses are now getting their websites developed to make a mark on the online world. It is nice that people understand the value of having a website, but now just “having” a website will not cut it.

So what do you need after you get a website?

Let us talk about a retail store and how it is arranged for success. First thing you pay attention to is the location of the store. It has to be easily accessible for your customers. Once you get the store, you then set up a good looking entrance. After that you arrange the shelves, checkout counter and a couple of special products in their special shelves. You also ensure that the shop looks good overall to the customer. That is all of the things you need to do after you get a website. All these things make for a good website and that is exactly what is needed to get an edge in today’s world.
If you had a store, you talked location. For your website you talk about where is your website hosted and how fast it loads for your customers. Once your website is up, then you go about its design. Are the menus user-friendly? Which products go where? Do you make banners for the special products or products on sale? Where do you keep the check-out button, or do you give an instant checkout option? What are the payment methods that shall work on your website? Setting up these requires technical knowledge but knowing what you need for a good website, requires more business acumen than technical knowledge. A good designer will get you the website, but you should be actively involved in the design process to get a website that the customer will love.

Some of the main features that you should focus on are:

• Get a professional logo designed. This should be visible on the top of your website. It should be easily readable and yet look good.
• Put your phone number somewhere it is easily visible and put a call to action button right next to it.
• Invest a good amount of time in how the menu bar will look like and the pages that it shall lead to.
• You cannot make banners for each and everything. Choose which things you want to show-off to potential customers. Work on where should you place these banners on the website, so they are visible but do not feel like they are being thrusted in ones face.
• Ensure that in the footer you mention all necessary contact information, business/support hours and social media buttons leading to all of your social media accounts.
• Choose a reliable hosting plan that has credible reviews. Also ensure that you have an auto website backup feature and check at what interval is the auto website backup taken.

Last but not least you should choose an agency that does not out-right tell you what would be right for you. Choose an agency which first makes an effort to understand your business model and then explain to you with examples the option you have.