Some Thoughts About Logos

If you’re a savvy business owner or manager, you’re likely already aware of the importance of having a logo to represent your company. Just as you almost certainly wouldn’t have a storefront with dirty windows or drive a dilapidated clunker with your company name on it, a logo says something about your company. It also says something about you.

A logo represents your business. It speaks of your values and reflects your image to your clients (and potential customers).  That’s why a logo is often referred to as a business identity. Quite literally, it is the public face of your organization and, as such, needs to make a consistently good impression. For that reason, it’s an important — even crucial — consideration when you are starting or upgrading your business.

As with many services, logo design offers a dizzying array of providers and that, in turn is a source of confusion and potential disappointment. With neophyte graphic designers, ready-made (or “pre-designed”) logos for purchase, do-it-yourself logo services, and other more questionable options available, it’s easy to make a mistake in making the momentous decision to explore a business identity, part of the process of developing your brand.

Without getting into the myriad (albeit interesting) details of branding, it’s important to note that a logo is one of the most visible aspects of a business or organization. You’ll see it on letterheads, business cards, product labels, advertising, web sites, and other media. To your current and prospective clients, it’s a credible symbol of your product or service, and provides a measure of reassurance that what you offer comes with a degree of quality. For that reason, that same symbol should manifest quality, too.

A logo, your business identity, should be taken seriously enough to ensure quality. There are a few, vital considerations to take into account which any design professional will automatically effect when working with you to develop your logo design. Your design is not merely a picture, but the embodiment of the merits, values, and even personality of your service or product. For that reason, the development process should involve a fair degree of dialogue, with your designer coaching and you, the business person, providing very important input. Beyond the dialogue, your designer will ask pertinent questions to formulate a design brief from which he will determine the requisites before applying his artistic touch.

An important point, too, is that with the increasing abundance of choices, you still should be aware of major logo design pitfalls and things to avoid. Fundamentally, it boils down to getting what you pay for, and trusting a professional to ensure success. After all, it’s your logo and you’ll have to live with it!

If you have remarks or suggestions regarding this post, I invite you to add your comments here below. Thank you for reading!

Graphic Design Quality and Managing Expectations

It’s not always easy to make promises, and sometimes it’s prudent not to. After all, who wants to disappoint?

In my business, the flow of work can be exceedingly chaotic, frequently with clients appearing in droves, and, as luck would have it, all needing things at the same time. To make things even more challenging, they’ll all reveal an exceptionally difficult deadline! So, what to do?

Being the type who wants to delight all my clients, I’m often tempted to perform miracles and deliver completed work within unheard-of timelines.  I realized though, that I can only perform a finite number of miracles every week and that someone’s project will just have to wait… until next week!

Honestly, I absolutely hate having to disappoint, but it’s so much better to be realistic up front and discuss the more plausible outcome of my existing work queue. It’s a question of looking at what’s already in the queue and weighing the respective clients’ target deadlines against outside factors (upcoming exhibits, magazine deadlines, upcoming grants, etc.) over which they have no immediate control. Naturally, I want them to succeed and I’ll do all in my power to prepare their work or complete their project in time for their needs. Unfortunately, more often than not, they’ve just procrastinated or simply lost track of time and now desperately me to “rescue” them.

The reality is, however, not every one is going to meet their target deadline. That’s just not possible given the immutable properties of space and time, and the limitations imposed by being human! Talking with a client about what can physically and realistically be done is vitally important, and is what I call managing expectations. Feasible timetables and a clear understanding of best and worst-case scenarios with regards to meeting deadlines should be made very evident. This may not always be what a client wants to hear, but it’s better that they are clear about this up front and can at least rest assured that the target date I offer is fairly certain.

It’s also a good idea to have a Plan B. If we can’t finish our project in its entirety, can we at least get part of it done in time for pre-press? What about other options, if they exist? I’ve always believed that there is a solution to nearly every problem; it’s just a question of applying your brain, and maybe thinking laterally as well as logically.

Ultimately, for me, it’s a question of wanting to provide the ultimate quality in all my clients’ projects, whether large or small. It then becomes a balancing act, trying to provide as much initial quality in the work and then reviewing the project for accuracy and completeness, and testing for functionality where required. No matter what the circumstances, I’ll try to maximize the level of quality for the amount of time given for any project, and that’s the very least I would want for my clients. I’d definitely want that for myself, were the shoe on the other foot!

Having said all this, more often than not, however, I can save the day by completing the project in time.  It’s just something I usually manage to do, perhaps a bit of a magical touch. At the end of the day,  it’s always so nice to offer a client a pleasant surprise!

Zen and Clients

Working as a freelance graphic designer and web site developer can be wonderful most of the time. It’s not always roses and sunshine, and you often have to work extremely long days, weekends, holidays, etc., but, at least for me, it’s very much worth doing something you’re passionate about and being appreciated for your work. It’s a challenging, yet wonderful way to achieve balance in your life and create harmony within the range of people whose businesses (and, let’s face it, lives…) you touch.

After reading Jack Knight’s excellent and amusing article on Freelance Switch, I realized that he was bang-on in his depiction of general categories of clients and that I couldn’t have done a better job capturing the varieties of people we regularly have to deal with as freelancers. Whether you’re a designer or a potential client, it’s worth a read. What’s interesting is that it’s so accurate, and often clients can belong to more than one group.

I find that, over and above Jack’s very astute observations and sage advice, it helps to nurture a sense of trust in the relationship you have with your client. Listen carefully, ask pertinent questions, and then offer your expert assessment with the confidence that comes with being a professional. If your client wants to override your ideas or suggestion, that’s their prerogative, although I feel it’s a designer’s responsibility to point out any potential shortcomings that may arise from their choice. After all, they don’t know what you know, although many might think they do!

Regardless of the outcome of your discussion about solutions, directions, technology, aesthetics, etc., one fundamental necessity, as far as I’m concerned, is caring. I am passionate about my work, but I also deeply care about making sure clients get what they need. Consequently, I’ll do my best for them, usually throwing in some extra “freebie” stuff for goodwill, especially if they are nice, appreciative folks. Conscientiousness and caring invariably blossom into good relationships, and, because being at peace with yourself, your business and, ultimately, your client, is a worthwhile goal, I’ve found that caring leads to genuine harmony and happiness for all involved.

I’ve always believed that the hallmark of a true professional was a conscientiousness that resulted in honest counseling and confident advice. If nothing else, that’s rare value that’s bound to be appreciated by most people, and certainly by clients, regardless of what category they might fit into. Something to think about — it certainly works for me!

Preparing for your Business Web Site

 

At some point, you, as a business person with a sense of progress and desire for profit, decide you’re going to have a web site. You weigh the pros and cons of hiring a professional to do it for you as opposed to trying to tackle the job yourself. Whether you decide on one approach or the other, there are some things you should consider doing in preparation for building the site.

Purpose 

One of the first things you might want to determine is what will be the purpose of the site? Will it simply provide information about you and your product or service (like a 24 hour information kiosk), or should it be more interactive, perhaps with feedback forms or even an e-commerce (online shopping) facility?

Intended Audience 

Next, think about who will be your intended audience, where are they located, and what sort of experience should they receive when coming upon your site? If you’re selling your own products or services, you may try to envision the sort of potential buyer you might want to entice. Bearing this in mind will help you pick out a general feel for your site (serious, arty, fun, confidence-inspiring, technological, etc.).  If your prospective clients are going to be mature people, for example, you should consider graphics, photo images, and text that will appeal to them, and allow them to identify readily with your commercial offerings. In terms of feel, think about masculine versus feminine, conservative versus youthful,  technical versus lay, etc. Consider that if your use of words or images alienates your visitor, he almost certainly won’t do business with you.

Your Image

What sort of message do you want to convey about your company, or even yourself? Are you a trend-setting entrepreneur, a reliable and conservative provider of a professional service, or something in between? Your site needs to have a “voice,” too, and that may very well be your own. By this, I mean that you need to be consistent in the way you communicate with your visitor, with either a very formal tone and choice of expression, or maybe something friendlier and more intimate. This can really affect your visitors’ perception of who you are and what sort of company you represent.

Site Map Planning

Before you start writing tomes of Pulitzer Prize-worthy text, you should stop to think about what major topics your site should contain. This should be a balance of what your potential client would want and what you feel they need to see. Ideally, you should have both.

Then, start thinking about what pages you’ll need to have, each page representing an aspect of your company, as well as your product or service. Typically, every web site needs a prominent and attractive Home page — a place to greet your visitors and inform them, succinctly, of what you can do for them. One or more Product (or Services) pages dedicated to some (or all) details of your product/service is equally necessary, as is a page (or part thereof) displaying your contact information so that potential clients can reach you. Additionally, you may want to have a page describing your background, or maybe some details or the history of your company. Sometimes, it’s handy to have a page devoted to legal disclaimers, and maybe one for terms and conditions regarding usage of your product or services.

Once you’ve decided what pages you’ll need, think in terms of creating your site map, i.e. floor plan, of your site. Consider each page a room, and then determine where each lies in relation to the others, the order in which they appear, and how a visitor gets from one room to another. This planning stage will help you (or your web designer) in setting up the page navigation (or “menu”) system that lets your visitors view the pages of your site logically and intuitively.

Content

Although this may seem like a no-brainer, the quality of your writing is extremely important. Few things can undermine a beautifully designed web site like textual errors or poorly written information. Spell-checking isn’t enough, either, since you may have inadvertently used a wrong word that is actually orthographically correct. As well, does it read well? Reading your writing out loud often helps point out possible problems and run-on sentences. Don’t be stingy with commas and other punctuation marks either — they can make a huge difference in meanings sometimes!

As well, you need to write your text in as concise and straightforward a way as you possibly can. Most people are busy and have little patience for longwindedness. As well, you should try to sound convincing and authoritative without coming across as boastful or pedantic. If it seems, even remotely, like you’re full of hot air, then you might as well be, as far as your readers are concerned, because for most of them, that’s all they’ll know about you: what you’ve written will represent you almost entirely.

Design details

Now for some of the more fun part! Your site must look appealing and credible to function to your advantage and benefit your business. A visitor must be convinced of your professionalism, sincerity, credibility, dedication, integrity, and attention to detail. Think of your site as your online workplace, or perhaps your online showcase. This will often been their first and everlasting impression and it should “wow” them. Colour schemes, images, graphics, and choices of text fonts will transform even the most mundane pages into something that will impress a prospective client and reflect your values (or amplify them) in such as way as to help sell your offerings.

 For ideas, look closely — really look — at other web sites. Don’t just skim over other sites, but examine and appreciate them, noting aspects that you find appealing and positive. As well, don’t limit yourself to scrutinizing only your competitors’ or related businesses’ sites. Any sort of site that appeals to you will have characteristics that can be applied to your own site.

Goodies and Graphics

Being primarily a visual medium, think about the positive impact that some custom photography will have. Consider hiring a professional to accurately and tastefully capture important facets and features of your business, and maybe even some photos of the company’s principals and staff. Graphics and stock photos can command a great deal of attention and make for wonderful “eye candy,” designed to win the hearts, imaginations, and, hopefully wallets, too, of your prospective clients.

Another consideration is animated graphics, like Flash media. Flash was invented by a company named MacroMedia (now owned by Adobe, the people who make the Acrobat Reader software, Photoshop, and many other industry standard programs). Though not a tool for beginners, Flash allows a skilled user to create very slick and sophisticated animated graphics , slide shows, movies, and interactive applications that can be very impressive to view and use. When added to a web site, Flash can create a very powerful impression, especially when combined with sound or music, when appropriate.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is, in itself, an immense topic. Scores of web sites and hundreds of books have been dedicated to this topic, although its relatively esoteric nature remains somewhere between science and alchemy. Put very succinctly, a web site that can only be viewed when the domain address is typed into the address field is relatively useless. Ideally, your web site should appear on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engine listings when pertinent search terms are entered. These search terms, called key words or key phrases, should be researched carefully by you, as the business owner or manager, at the outset of your web development.  These terms are incorporated into the text (also called “copy“) of the site, as well as inserted into the hidden web page header information (“metadata“) visible to Google and other company’s robotic search programs (“crawlers“).

Basically, to do this fairly well, you’ll need to put yourself in the position of a potential client seeking your product or service; they don’t know you’re there, so how would they find you in a Google search? What words would they use to find what they’re looking for, assuming they don’t know of you? When searching for a used car, for example, I might consider searching for “used car Annapolis Valley,” or “pre-owned vehicle Halifax” to find a list of dealers that would be useful to me. In this case, for an automotive dealer to improve his chances of appearing on a search listing that I would end up seeing, he would be wise to include key words like car, vehicle, auto, new, used, pre-owned, and some geographical descriptors that would encompass his target market or sales area. Think of maybe about a dozen key words to use in the creation of your site and, as much as possible within reason, include these terms in a natural way in the body of your pages’ text.

There’s more

These are indeed just some of the things you should consider in advance of designing a web site for your business, or, like many busy firms do, hiring a professional to do for you. Some other important considerations are: selecting a domain for your company, finding a good hosting service, and setting up your domain-based company email accounts. I will devote some time to exploring some more of these topics at a later date. In the meantime, I hope that you’ll find some of the information above a helpful point of departure in your steps toward acquiring an Internet presence. Contact me if you have questions or need help!

Here are some links you might find useful:

• W3 Schools
• eHow Learning
• Vincent Flanders’ Web Pages That Suck
• About.com

Win $4000 in Prizes in David Airey’s Fabulous Blog Contest Giveaway!

David Airey, a graphic designer specializing in logo design, is holding an unprecedented anniversary prize giveaway. There’s more than $4,000 worth in free prizes! Find out how to enter by reading the details on David’s logo designer blog. Don’t miss this incredible event!

Here’s just a small selection of prizes (and there are many, many more):

• Logo design from David Airey himself (worth entering just for that alone!)
• Blog review from Aaron Russell of miLienzo
• Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com.
• Website critique from Randa Clay of Randa Clay Design
• Revolution Premium WordPress theme package (personal package) from Brian Gardner
• One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography
• Logo Design designed by Tara Roskell at Graphic Design Blog

To see the full list of prizes and how to enter see David Airey’s Blog! Don’t dawdle — the contest ends September 26, 2007…

Logo Design Process

 Logo design has become a popular item with my company! Business people, especially in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, are starting to realize that an elegant, quality design is a worthwhile investment. With so many  ready-made logo companies and wannabe designers doing this work part-time, people seem to appreciate experience, focus, and professionalism.

One of the things I do is try to get inside my clients’ heads. I do this through a number of techniques, one of which is to ask interesting and sometimes unusual questions, some of which will elicit some surprised looks. Usually, I’ll meet with a client for at least one hour-long “interview,” during which I’m liable to ask them, among other things, about their:

• colour preferences
• company vision
• marketing goals
• target market demographics
• life passions
• favourite foods or music
• preferred time of day (dawn, morning, afternoon, dusk, night)

My aim is to learn about the person behind the business, as well as about the business itself. After all, to me a logo is supposed to symbolically represent a person, business, or organization, so why not tie it into the one who’s making the decisions and seeing the whole picture?

I explain that the process becomes very much a dialogue during which I accept input from the client, spend time researching their product or service, come out with some preliminary designs running the range of possibilities derived from my ideas and inspirations, and then come back to them with some basic ideas. We meet in person, whenever possible, to discuss the drafts. Based on their initial visible reactions and then including the discussion feedback, I return to my studio and further refine the designs. We may have to repeat this process one or two more times, but, in the end ,  the quality of the result invariably makes it all worthwhile for both parties.

From a business/philosophical standpoint, I want clients to feel they have a large say in the design process, as I feel it’s very important for them to embrace the final result, especially since they are, after all, spending money on this process, and they will have to live with it for perhaps a very long time. From my perspective, too, I want them to succeed, since, after all, their success becomes mine as well…

I’d be interested in learning how others choose to work with their clients. There are likely as many approaches as there are designers!

Busy is as busy does

It seems to me that over the last few weeks (or is it months?), any time someone has asked me how I’ve been, I’ve consistently answered the same way: ” incredibly busy.” The truth is, that’s actually still a huge understatement. I typically work every single day, from roughly 8 AM to about midnight, or whenever I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Please don’t get the wrong idea, though, I’m utterly delighted to be blessed with this much demand for my services and to be capable of meeting my clients’ expectations.  I realize that as a freelance designer, you’re probably wise to maximize your work opportunities when, and as, they arise. After all, you never know what tomorrow will bring. For some, the expression “feast or famine” likely applies all too well.

As designer Bryan Zimmerman put it, in Tara’s excellent and highly informative regular feature, Freelancer Focus on her Graphic Design Blog, “make sure you have at least 3 months salary put aside to sustain you. ” How true — you would need a buffer to cushion the leaner days (or weeks, or… gasp… months?).

When you are passionate about what you do, you are more likely to motivate yourself to tough out the times when business activity levels dip. Like many people I’ve come to know here in the Annapolis Valley, diversifying your business can reap its rewards, too, and bring in additional income when you could use it. In addition to graphic design, creating logos and developing web sites, I have been training individuals and groups in web site design as it relates to business. It’s quite remarkable how many aspiring merchants and entrepreneurs need to know (and want to learn) about the Internet and web sites.

I would be curious to know how others cope with their very busy times, when clients are keeping you busy and new clients want to engage your services to the point that you need to work 16 – 18 hour days, seven days a week. Do you keep them waiting, do your best to juggle them, or do you turn business away? What sort of strategy or philosophy do you employ?

Do you need a Web Guru?

After discovering, to my amazement, that I had posted the 3000th(!) comment on graphic design guru David Airey’s blog, I realized that I have a long way to go with my own, humble fledgeling blog. As well, it showed, once again, that there is always room for constructive criticism, and despite my many years of working experience, I could always learn something. One should humbly accept others’ views and gracefully decide what action to take, if any. Almost Zen-ish of me, isn’t it?  *smile*

If you are a web designer or just have a web site you’re using, there usually comes a time when you might ask yourself: “does my web site work,” or, as California-based web design guru Vincent Flanders would put it, “does my site suck?” I remember coming across his very entertaining site as long ago as 1997, and coming away with a great deal of knowledge as a result of his lampooning scrutiny.

In my case, I learned about what didn’t work and why. Vincent does this with a fair amount of acerbic, often politically-incorrect, humour and he sure doesn’t mince his words! Although you’re unlikely to get him to do a personal critique of your site, he does offer a handy checklist that you can use to assess your own chef-d’oeuvre, and decide for yourself… privately and without fear of public humiliation!

Looking for a way to improve your site, or just interested in finding out where you stand in the eyes of one of webdom’s design mavens? Then visit this site for some useful and often amusing insight.

Helpful CSS Resource

It’s amazing what a knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can do for your web design. CSS can govern a great number of design parameters for a site and make life a lot easier. It does take some time to learn and it’s not entirely intuitive. However, I’ve come across a site that is just fabulous for its compilation of useful and well-written articles aimed at designers from novice and up.

Here’s the link: http://www.artypapers.com/csshelppile

Have fun!

Free PDF Program Download

In the course of my research, I come across a variety of useful (although many more useless) links and resources. As a public service, I would like to mention some I feel are worth sharing.

For those of us who need to create PDF files but don’t want to shell out hundreds of hard-earned dollars, especially when all we need is the basic conversion function, here’s a company that offers an affordable (i.e. free) solution:

 Primo PDF

I hope you find it as useful as I do.