As mentioned in an earlier post, not everyone needs a corporate type logo.  There are many businesses that are well served by an illustrated logo. I did some research to find some famous illustrated logos and found that many of them have to do with food, restaurants, fashion, womens items, vehicles and sports. (see below)

Unquestionably, two of the most famous illustrated logos are Coke and KFC.  I know Coke is known around the world and I’ll bet KFC is pretty popular in other countries also.

In my personal experience (backed up by the illustrated logos I have done over the years) you can add to the list of types of companies well served by illustrated logos businessess to do with children, service businesses such as plumbing, locksmith, construction and music bands.

(I know there are some cool band logos, but I couldn’t think of any, besides the Stones tongue.)

Usually when you see an illustrated logo it tells you something about the business it represents, such as the bottle of coke, or something about a person or thing involved in the business such as the Colonel for KFC. Sometimes, like the Hermes logo they tell something about the history of the business. Hermes started way back in the day as an upscale saddle company and later became famous for fashion, perfumes and leather products.  The Ferrari logo was painted on the side of the plane of a legendary pilot during World War I—an Italian count named Count Francesco Baracca. He was shot down during the war, but later his mother asked that his horse be the symbol for the Ferrari, saying it would bring luck.

And then there is the Margaritaville logo…just looking at it you are ready to amble along the beach until you find the first bar serving margaritas!

There are many more reasons for going illustrated and you shouldn’t be intimidated by the common wisdom that applies to corporate logos—less is more.  With illustrated logos, they are charming little pictures that describe in some way, your business and you should be proud to put it on the sign outside of your shop/restaurant/business, on cards, flyers whatever. It speaks of your business, your taste and your style. Let the customers come!

Here is a list of of some famous (and familiar) logos that went the illustrative route, rather than the corporate simple-glyph route, such as Nike:

Fashion and Women Businesses

SPORTS AND HEALTH CLUB LOGOS

You may wonder I would want to do such a thing….trying to create Photoshop tutorials in Illustrator and I am really not sure why.  I love Illustrator and I keep trying to do stuff with it—like create an airbrush  look (like on the ‘56 Ford on the bottom of the page)—and just generally playing with it.

On the web are a million cool tutorials for Photoshop text, not so many for Illustrator. In the spirit of keeping everything Vector I like to try the tutorials to see if I can create the same look.  I can’t exactly.  They are always a tad off, but that doesn’t mean they don’t look great!

BTW, here is the link to the tutorials I found online:

6 Quick and Dirty Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

You see for yourself how well I succeeded.  The only “failure ” to me is the Plastic look.  It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t exact.  By the way, the first one—Quick Gold—took some time, which is why there is only the letter Q! I just couldn’t see myself completing the words…unless I was getting paid, of course!

]]> http://www.pa-graphics.com/?feed=rss2&p=159 0 http://www.pa-graphics.com/?p=118 http://www.pa-graphics.com/?p=118#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:11:09 +0000 Patricia http://www.pa-graphics.com/?p=118

I recently had the pleasure—and honor—of designing over 60 HERO cards for a wonderful new company called Hero Cards, Inc., created by Kathryn Alexander, the President and CEO.  An amazing and dedicated woman, she had this brainstorm of an idea and has devoted all her energies to bringing her vision to life.

You can see—and purchase—these unique and timely cards at www.herocardsinc.com The cards not only honor those heroes in the military, but also the “unsung” heroes: firemen, policemen, paramedics, doctors, nurses and more.  They also include some cute Seasonal cards, right on time for the Holidays.

I think many of us have a relative either in the military or one of the dangerous or difficult jobs in our country.  I am sure we can imagine the feelings of those receiving these cards. I have already sent a couple to my dad, who was a navigator on a B-24 in World War II.  He loved the card and really appreciated that it was “personal”. (My dad is on the far left, Henry Wilson, and his plane was the “Leading Lady”.)

I would love to hear your thoughts on the cards, as it was a job that I am really proud of. The cards were created on a deadline of over a period of several weeks, it was very intense! One set of the cards include hand-drawn art, which I did not do (and the artist wishes to remain anonymous!).  I just tried to make a charming “frame” for each of the charming pictures he drew.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the cards, so feel free to comment!

Please visit the web site and purchase some cards for those HEROES that you personally know…and let your friends know about the site, also.  http://www.herocardsinc.com

I did a wonderful logo for a client, TNT Coffee and a few years later, he contacted me to create a wonderful new logo for his new theme and style. He changed his theme to a more homey, old-fashioned style, so the logo had change with it.  If you want to  try something like that, let me know.  I will offer you a special price to refresh your logo or update the current logo in some way. If just want a color change or style change, I would love to do that also. As you can see, the original a is brighter, more modern train and mentions Expresso, while the other has a definite old-fashioned look to it, and does not mention Expresso.

Actually, I can’t answer the question as to whether or not to update or change your logo, as there are no set rules. It is a personal business decision and would probably be based on how long you have had your logo, if your business has changed in some way since you originally had the logo, whether it was actually a good logo to begin with and many reasons that I haven’t a clue about.

However, I found this great link that shows 50 different logo updates from big companies:

View 50 Great Redesigns

It was very interesting scrolling through them, for a number of reasons. Some of the changes were obvious, such as the Firefox logo, wow, the new one was so much better than the old one.  Some to me were incomprehensible, such as Business Week.  That change to me was not necessarily for the better.

Many of the new logos were updated in terms of graphics, like the the Ford and Direct TV logos. They both used the latest techniques for 3 dimensional metallic or plastic look, very popular now.

Most of my clients received illustrated logos, that personally described their business in some way.  Perhaps over time the decoration has changed at your business, and you would like a new color scheme.  Or your style is different from when you originally started.  Or you might want a more modern style logo, still illustrated, but utilizing updated graphic styles such as metallic, plastic, 3D or a style you may have seen that you would like your logo to use.

For whatever reason, updating your logo can be a good thing.  It can refresh your business in many ways: from your perception of your own business, or from the customers perception, to how your employees feel about the company and on and on.

Certainly in these rather uncertain times, making a positive step towards improving your business image can’t hurt. My personal belief is that a positively undertaken change creates a reciprocal action of good luck. In the words of Jimmy Buffett, Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude.  I break that down to mean if you change something for the better (latitude, higher), your attitude changes with it—for the better.  And a better attitude brings it’s own gifts as most of us have a lifetime of examples of this truth to testify to.

I am sure you have a basic idea, but to put it simply everything you see in print/web and quite a bit of TV are graphics, created by a designer/artist.

Most people who visit my web site are concerned about LOGOS,BUSINESS CARDS, BROCHURES, FLYERS, POSTCARDS, STATIONARY/ENVELOPES, PRESENTATION FOLDERS, ILLUSTRATIONS, POSTERS, GREETING CARDS, SIGNS, LARGE BANNERS, WEB ART/ BANNERS, T-SHIRT ART and other items, like tags, invitations, menus, etc.

Almost all businesses need a LOGO, something that identifies who they are. Add business cards, stationary/envelopes and maybe a presentation folder and you have an IDENTITY PACKAGE. When all the items are purchased at one time as an IDENTITY PACKAGE, the price is usually lower than when you purchase a LOGO, STATIONARY or other items individually.

With your logo on all your business papers, you are creating a brand for yourself….after a period of time, you will be recognized by your logo or even your tagline.

What’s a tag line? That is the little line under the name of your company that explains what you do….many times the name of the company and the logo itself doesn’t tell you what you actually do. For instance, a company called Equine has a horse head with the word Equine as a logo.

Do you have any idea what the company does? Neither do I…however, if they added the tagline “The best in Riding Paraphernalia” you  can envision crops, halters and other riding gear. I personally love to use taglines if there is the least bit of confusion about what the company does. Nike’s tagline—just do it—is a byword in our society, as is their swoosh logo.

LOGOS

Speaking of the Nike Swoosh LOGO, that is a good segue into a discussion of LOGOS. Now, I specialize in illustrated logos, as opposed to corporate LOGOS such as the Nike Swoosh. In my opinion—as well as the opinion of a few hundred of my favorite clients—there is a place for illustrated logos. Many people believe the hype that “simpler is better”, but let’s look at that. For the corporate world, this is usually true. A bank doesn’t want or need a complicated design….banks just need a simple glyph that may or may not relate to the name. I say that because as I look at many local banks and their logos, I often wonder—what the heck is that symbol and what does it have to do with the name of this bank? Some of them are a little too esoteric for me.

The point I am trying to get at is that big corporations, with branches around the world, don’t need a complicated illustrated LOGO that may only be of interest to Americans, or even narrower, to the people in that particular state or town.

And the Nike LOGO? How many billions of dollars do you think they spent to make that LOGO known around the world? Let’s take the billions they make and divide by 1% and…..still too big of numbers for us to worry about.

The people that hire me—-you, I trust—-are looking for something more personal. Other words that come to mind are “clever, charming, cute, pretty, feminine, masculine, funny, colorful, exciting, lively, happy”. There are more, I am sure, but these people are looking for something beside a “simple” LOGO to define their identity, their particular business.

At the risk of scaring some potential clients off (because they don’t fit the mold) I would say that most of my clients are starting a new business, maybe even starting a business to do in the evenings and weekends while they hold down a full time job. I can even narrow it down further: many of my clients are in their forties and starting a “second life” so to speak. And they want their LOGO to be personal to them. Not a meaningless swoosh that became famous because of the gazillion dollars spent on the little thing.

MY PROCESS FOR LOGOS

It is actually pretty simple. I have to have at least one meaningful conversation with my client. I might already know the name of the company from an email, and the name of the person. But, I need to speak personally with my client to BRAINSTORM ideas. That means we throw ideas around together.

I usually want to know if my client has any ideas for the LOGO. We discuss those ideas, in depth, analyzing whether we think they would work in a small logo, whether it gets the point across or matches with the name of the company. This leads me to think of ideas, which I toss into the mix.

I also want to find out if the client has any ideas about color choices, style and even fonts. A surprising number of clients have actually picked out a font they like! It may not end up being the fonts used, but it is a jumping off point.

By the time we are done with this conversation (and it doesn’t take as long as it sounds like…honest!) then I have a pretty good idea of what I am drawing. An illustrated logo is basically a drawing in the mini style…still a drawing, however.

They are usually a little complicated and take some time to create. Therefore, my policy is to create ONE DRAWING OF THE ILLUSTRATION FOR THE LOGO—AND THEN OFFER THREE DIFFERENT LAYOUTS.

I send this to the client and we start going back and forth until the client’s vision…seen through my eyes…is refined so the client is ecstatically happy he/she hired me to create their UNIQUE ILLUSTRATED LOGO.

I offer unlimited revisions, but there is an inherent understanding that this very nice thing I am offering should not be abused. I have found every time that the client and I are on the same page with this….just as I am starting to think I am in the Twilight Zone and this is the dread Job That Never Ends….my client goes and does something wonderful….I will leave that to your imagination!

Ok, the LOGO is done, my client is thrilled. What is next?