How to Entice Clients with a Good Logo
Paul Rand was one of the most prominent designers of the 20th century, an art director and graphic designer, he created, amongst other things, the logos for IBM, UPS, Morningstar, ABC, and NeXT. He is often cited as one of the three most influential American graphic designers, alongside Saul Bass and Milton Glaser.
Visuals are a powerful way to communicate. Great visuals can entice a new customer to buy your product and even recommend it to friends. Bad visuals can make your business look unprofessional and unappealing. How many times have you visited someone’s website and concluded, purely from the design, that the company wasn’t for you? Bad design costs you customers.
What inspiration can we take from these iconic American designers to improve our web design and visuals?
Logo
We all want a logo that is simple, memorable, and iconic. This logo will represent your company for years to come and create instant visual recognition. Easier said than done, right? So, what makes a great logo and how can you create one?
“The only mandate in logo design is that they be distinctive, memorable and clear.” - Paul Rand. Rand designed the, now famous, IBM logo.
There were many variations on the design, but the final logo introduced the notion of stripes. These stripes conveyed a sense of movement and progress. IBM describes its philosophy as, “IBMers believe in progress—that the application of intelligence, reason and science can improve business, society and the human condition.” These stripes helped to convey the values at the heart of the company.
“Design is so simple, and that’s why it is so complicated.”
Nike’s infamous Swoosh logo was originally conceived by a young design student, Carolyn Davidson, in Portland, Oregon, for a fee of $35.
“Carolyn wanted to convey the message of motion in a design that would look clean and classic when placed on the shoes. It was important that the design needed to differ from rival company Adidas.
The Nike tick/swoosh mark is created using two curved lines, depicting motion with onomatopoeia attached also. If you say “swoosh” aloud. What do you imagine? Even the word has an element of movement included. Carolyn worked by sketching design concepts on tissue paper and then placing those designs over a shoe drawing.”
When designing your own logo, think first about the underlying meaning. What aesthetically would you like the logo to convey about your business? What values and philosophy are at the heart of your company?
“One way to create a versatile logo is to begin by designing it in black and white...”
Start by brainstorming images and shapes that relate to these values. This is a moment for you to experiment and be creative. “One way to create a versatile logo is to begin by designing it in black and white. This allows you to focus on the concept and shape, rather than the color,” Jacob Cass, a graphic designer from Sydney, Australia, says.
Color
“I want everything we do to be beautiful.” Saul Bass
Saul Bass is considered to be one of the great American graphic designers of the 20th century.
“I want everything we do to be beautiful.”
His use of bold color is part of his iconic style. Alongside designing logos for Continental Airlines, AT&T and Kleenex, Bass designed some of the most famous movie posters of the 1950s and 1960s, including “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955), “Vertigo” (1958), “North by Northwest” (1959) and “Psycho” (1960).
‘‘Try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story.” Saul Bass
Color offers an instantaneous method for conveying meaning and message,” writes Erik Peterson in Logo Critiques. “It’s probably the most powerful non-verbal form of communication we can use…Our minds are programmed to respond to color. The subliminal messages we get from color shape our thoughts.
As humans, our very survival is hung on the identification of color. We stop our cars for red lights and go on green, we look at the color of certain plants and animals to determine whether or not they are safe for us to eat or touch, the bottom line is that color is a very important part of our daily lives. It’s important for us as designers to use color appropriately and understand the meaning behind the colors we choose.”
For a little more info on the importance of color, check out Website Planet’s article, 4 Reasons Why Your Logo Color is so Important.
Color Psychology
“Have you ever wondered why companies like Facebook drown themselves in blue while organizations focused on growth and creativity choose green? The answer is in the psychology of color and design. Each shade resonates with us on a different, and unique level…
When it comes to the psychology of color in branding and marketing, research suggests that colors improve brand recognition by up to 80%. The chances are that when you envision big businesses like Coca-Cola, Facebook, and Starbucks, you can automatically recall the way they use color,” writes Stephen Peate in Fabrik.
Peate advises considering the following factors:
Customer expectations: Which shades seem the most “appropriate” based on your brand history, personality, and position.
Customer preferences: Are you choosing a color that evokes trust in your consumers, and represents the hues they like most?
Brand message: What kind of emotions and characteristics is your brand trying to portray? Your use of color should match these as closely as possible.
Competitor colors: The last thing you want is to be lost in a sea of competitors that look the same as you. Pay close attention to the color of other brands, and try to make your company stand out.
Consistency: When you’ve come to a decision about the psychology of color, and chosen the hues you want to use, you should ensure that they remain consistent over time. Constant colors can solidify the picture of your brand in your customer’s mind.
Fonts
Amongst the many great designs attributed to Milton Glaser are his well-known logos for New York Magazine, DC Comics, Brooklyn Brewery, his iconic Bob Dylan poster, and the “I love NY” motif.
Glaser created the motif in 1976, when crime in New York City was up by 13.2%, the worst rate on record. New York wasn't the tourist destination that it is today. "The place itself had become so difficult to live in," Glaser told the Guardian's Ana Terra Athayde. "I wanted to say 'I'm gonna stay, I love this place, I'm not gonna be defeated, I'm going to make it better'."
Glaser selected the American Typewriter as the font for the “I Love NY” logo. “I thought of it more as a love letter than as a logo type,” he says. “And the reference to typewriter seemed more intimate and personal. It also contrasted with the voluptuousness of the heart.”
Getting Started with Your Logo
Professional designers recommend trying to limit the number of fonts you use to three or less when creating a design. You also want to use different fonts, and font sizes and spacing to create contrast. “Type forms the foundation of a design just as much as images, colors, and components do,” says Communications Specialist and Graphic Designer, Allie Nash.
“A good typeface system uses visual hierarchy to influence the order in which we notice what we see. When you look at words on a page or a screen, your eye has to start somewhere. A design that features text that's all the same size, font, and weight won’t effectively draw focus to anything.
Start by picking two typefaces that complement each other. The ideal combination should harmonize, without risking being too similar. (The more similar they are, the more likely they will clash.) Marry them to your projects. You may be tempted to experiment with other fonts, but don't! (Remember, you're married now!)
Not only is consistency crucial for building brand recognition, but maintaining the same pattern of variations across platforms helps to diversify, not dilute your key messages. To compel people to stop scrolling, use larger or bolder styles for titles to frame your most important pieces of information as focal points. Make your body type much smaller and lighter to create an overall composition that is easy to read. My favorite combination is Montserrat (in uppercase bold) with Lora (in lowercase italics).”
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