Logo Design and Branding Points To Remember – AdvancingWomen.com

A good logo design is highly instrumental in establishing a business brand and creating a long lasting impression among its customers. It should be able to create a powerful impact on the viewers and successfully exude the nature and attitude of a business. Ideally, a company logo design should be able to communicate your company ethos, principles, mission and the nature of product/service offered, to the viewers

AdvancingWomen.com went through a lot of soul searching creating it’s logo, working alongside  Lara August, branding guru and Creative Director of Robot Creative, an award-winning creative marketing firm in San Antonio, Texas.  We settled on the above graphic of a woman in the act of leaping over, or transcending a barrier, which is what AdvancingWomen.com is all about, supporting women in leveling the playing field, crashing through the glass ceiling and transcending those obstacles and barriers we all face.

Lara August had this to say about our logo:
“AdvancingWomen.com‘s  logo needed to work well when used as a masthead on their website, when reduced to a thumbnail to accompany their syndicated articles on the internet and also when standing alone in printed materials for seminars. A woman stepping over a barrier in a very modern, sleek style helps convey their meaning with a professional finish.

The stripe format is extremely versatile and works great at the top of their website, as well as on paper. The otherwise corporate mark is given a feminine touch with its vibrant colors – hot pink and bright orange.”  A tip of AdvancingWomen.com‘s hat to Lara for her creation.

And Sandra Sellani has some interesting points to make about the thoughts you might want to put into creating your own logo:

What Does Your Logo Say About You? |  Ladies Who Launch.

Sandra Sellani, a member of the Orange County, CA, Incubator, the author of What’s Your BQ? (Brand Quotient), and principal of The Sellani Group Brand Strategists gives the following savvy advice about creating your logo:

7 Ways to Avoid Logo Liabilities

“Be financially prudent when possible, but don’t pinch pennies on your logo. Use these seven steps to creating a logo that reflects your company’s image in a distinctive and memorable way:
1. Avoid “clip art.” Clip art consists of no-cost or low-cost graphics that are available to pretty much the entire world. Use it and I can guarantee that someone, somewhere, will be using it too. Choose a clip art flower for your landscaping business, and it might just pop up on the Web site of a wedding chapel or a mortuary.
2. Hire a professional designer. This doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune. Identify several designers who will work within your budget. Interview them, review their portfolios, and ask about the rationale behind each logo they designed in the past.
3. Don’t change your logo (if you can avoid it). Especially if it’s well-recognized. You’ll be tossing brand equity out the window. Consumers don’t want your logo to change any more than you want to see the pink arches of McDonald’s. If your logo is outdated, consider a face-lift to keep it recognizable and relevant. The Morton Salt umbrella girl has been around since 1914, and despite six “makeovers” is still perceived as the icon of a trusted brand.
4. View your logo in black and white. Color can hide a bad design. Also, there will be many occasions when your logo will be reproduced in a one-color format—for a newspaper ad, a promotional pen, or an embroidered T-shirt. If it looks good in black and white, it will look good in any medium.

5. Colors communicate messages about your brand and should be selected accordingly. Purple may suggest wealth; dark blue, authority; white, purity. Your designer will recommend colors that reflect your image.
6. Don’t be trendy. Logos should have a timeless look. Jumping on the latest trend can come back to haunt you (like a woman I know who, in hindsight, regrets going with the “Miami Vice” color scheme).
7. Be consistent. Have your designer create a logo standards manual which indicates the exact specifications of the logo image, size, font, placement, and colors. Don’t reproduce your logo without adhering to these guidelines.

Long Live Your Logo

There is much more to consider with the design of a logo and other visual elements of your brand. Get it right the first time and create a logo that you can live with for the life of your business.”

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