Logo Design Questions: Answered!
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Free PDF Download Icons For Small Business Branding - By Erin Ferree |
This time, I wanted to send over an interview that I did with Computer Arts magazine in the UK.
The interviewer, Tom Dennis, asked a lot of really thought-provoking questions, and I thought that maybe wanted to share the results with you.
As always, let me know if you have other questions that I can address in future issues.
1. Can you briefly explain who you are and your history/expertise on branding/logo design? (for background)
I started my business, elf design, inc., 6 years ago, to help small businesses design their logos and brands. I've worked with over 400 small businesses to design their logos, and I've helped several hundred of those build their brands out to include websites and other marketing materials. I've also written several eBooks on brand definition, design and websites, and my work has been published in design journals and books in several countries.
2. Some people say that logo and design doesn't matter and doesn't make a difference. What would you say in response?
In a small business, especially when it comes to 1- and 2-person businesses, a logo and brand designs have a huge role to play in the business's image.
A professionally designed logo can make a person operating a business out of their home look like a much more serious venture— it can make them look established, stable and successful.
A logo makes a 1-person company lookless like a freelancer and more like a business,which helps establish trust and can make the sales process much easier.
3. Can the right logo and image really make a difference to a brand?
A small business's logo has 2 major jobs.
The first job is to create a "face" for the business. In small businesses, this is especially important because it willdifferentiate the business from the entrepreneur running the business.It helps to establish an identity and personality for the business.
This "face" is also helpful if the business decides to grow — the business won't be so intertwined with the entrepreneur when it is time to grow, and it will make it easier for clients to accept working with other employees.
The second job is to tell the business's story. Thisvisual communication is important to instantly communicate with a prospect in today's high-speed, short attention span culture.A well crafted logo will help a prospect understand what a small business is all about.
4. Do you think the wrong visual branding can actually damage a brand? Can you think of any examples?
Sure — the biggest way that a company's visuals can damage their brand isif the company doesn't tell the truth in their branding.
If a small business logo is designed based on what the customer wants to hear instead of on the business's personality, services and differentiators, then this can backfire. If your logo has one message, and then you tell the customer something else when you're having a conversation with them, then that can reduce the trust that
Another way that the visuals can damage a brand isif they have nothing to say — if they're designed just based on trends or to be "pretty".
The next isif a company doesn't use their visuals consistently.If, for example, a small business uses different logos across their marketing pieces — one version of the logo on the website, another on a business card, and so on. Or, if the other visual elements are used inconsistently ("Visual Vocabulary") across all of the marketing materials.
Many potential clients look over the entire marketing package as they make a buying decision. If the business card they received looks substantially different from the website that it refers them to, then they may wonder if they're at the right site — which is not the first impression a business owner wants their site to make!
5. What do you think is it about first impressions that count so much?
Customers look at a company's marketing materials and make a decision about the quality of the company and about whether their services are a good fit for their needs almost immediately.
This decision is based onthe words and images in the marketing materials, the personal presentation of the business owner (if the first impression is a face-to-face meeting) and on the potential clients' instinct and past experiences.
So, it's important that a small business do all they can with the aspects of their marketing that they can control so that they can create the best first impression possible.
6. What do you view corporate identity as and why is it important?
For a small business, I view the corporate identity as all of the materials that identify the business —the business name, logo, Visual Vocabulary, taglines, and commonly-used text.All of this together makes up the face of the business, and gives customers something to visually identify with the business aside from the entrepreneur himself or herself.
These elements help the customer to see the business as a larger entity than just the entrepreneurs themselves. This abstraction of the business as a separate being from the entrepreneur can help the business to be taken more seriously.
7. What do you think is it about bad design that lacks trust and what is it about good design that can have the opposite effect and can really encourage someone to buy?
Good design will communicate the right message about the business to the prospect quickly.A good design will give the intended message to a wide range of clients in the target audience — a lot of people will "get it". And, ideally, it will also be memorable and unique, so that it will help to build lasting brand value for the business.
Good design builds trust through this communication — by making the prospect feel like they understand the design, and by extension, that they understand the company behind the design. The memorability also builds trust by fostering a feeling of familiarity with the business and the brand — the feeling that they "know" your company. Good design can put your business and your prospect on the same side — and can make the prospect feel like your business is a good fit for their needs.
Poor design will miss the mark in one or more of these categories —it may be meaningless, may require too much explanation or thought to understand, it might not tell the correct story about the business it represents, or it might be inconsistent.
Poor design lacks trust because it creates a feeling of alienation and separation between the viewer and the business. Instead of making them feel like they understand your business and that they can be close to it, poor design makes them feel like an outsider.
8. Is there anything a client can do to help ensure the best solution from their side?
I recommend that my small business clients do a few things to make sure that their designs will help them build trust.
The first is toreally spend some time working on their Brand Definition.In order to create the right design for your business, you have to know what that design needs to say to your audience.
The next is tobuild a "focus group" of their best clients and target prospects, and that they run the designs-in-progress by this group.It's essential that the members of the focus group be people in their target audience — if you put your mom and your best friend in the group, and they're not in your target audience, then that can skew the results.
The last is touse the logo and other visual elements consistently across all of their materials— this will help potential and existing clients feel more familiar and comfortable with your business.
9. How hard is it to get clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to logo design?
The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do with their logo is to have them look at the logo from their customers' viewpoint, and to take their personal tastes out of the equation.Most entrepreneurs want to approach their logo design the same way they'd pick out interior design details — they want to love every detail.
But, it's important for them to look at the design objectively, and to evaluate it from the potential clients' perspective — from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about your business, and who may be a little suspicious of you to start out with. What graphics will tell them what the business is all about, and help them to decide to make a purchase?
10. How important is consistent design for a brand? Should designers be aiming to make everything the same style?
I think that for a small business, with a limited marketing and outreach budget, consistency is important.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
Related Articles
The Importance of a Logo Design for a Company
Get a Custom Logo Design and watch your Business Grow
Why you should Select a Good Logo Designer
Creating a brand identity
Designing LOGOS Creatively
A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
A Logo to Remember: 5 Easy Tricks
Ready for a Fresh Image?
9 Keys to an Effective Logo
When Is the Right Time to Redesign
Copyright a Logo
5 Things a Great Logo Design Can Do for Your Brand and Business
Expanding A Professional Logo Design: How To Go About It?
Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
A Good Mascot Design leads to Effective Advertising
Software Programs for Logo Design
Ways to Design Business Cards
Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Logo Use in an Ad Campaign
Logos: The Marketing Success Story!!
Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help
Re: what position to request?
Re: Inspiration for Logos
Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
A professionally designed logo can make a person operating a business out of their home look like a much more serious venture— it can make them look established, stable and successful.
A logo makes a 1-person company lookless like a freelancer and more like a business,which helps establish trust and can make the sales process much easier.
3. Can the right logo and image really make a difference to a brand?
A small business's logo has 2 major jobs.
The first job is to create a "face" for the business. In small businesses, this is especially important because it willdifferentiate the business from the entrepreneur running the business.It helps to establish an identity and personality for the business.
This "face" is also helpful if the business decides to grow — the business won't be so intertwined with the entrepreneur when it is time to grow, and it will make it easier for clients to accept working with other employees.
The second job is to tell the business's story. Thisvisual communication is important to instantly communicate with a prospect in today's high-speed, short attention span culture.A well crafted logo will help a prospect understand what a small business is all about.
4. Do you think the wrong visual branding can actually damage a brand? Can you think of any examples?
Sure — the biggest way that a company's visuals can damage their brand isif the company doesn't tell the truth in their branding.
If a small business logo is designed based on what the customer wants to hear instead of on the business's personality, services and differentiators, then this can backfire. If your logo has one message, and then you tell the customer something else when you're having a conversation with them, then that can reduce the trust that
Another way that the visuals can damage a brand isif they have nothing to say — if they're designed just based on trends or to be "pretty".
The next isif a company doesn't use their visuals consistently.If, for example, a small business uses different logos across their marketing pieces — one version of the logo on the website, another on a business card, and so on. Or, if the other visual elements are used inconsistently ("Visual Vocabulary") across all of the marketing materials.
Many potential clients look over the entire marketing package as they make a buying decision. If the business card they received looks substantially different from the website that it refers them to, then they may wonder if they're at the right site — which is not the first impression a business owner wants their site to make!
5. What do you think is it about first impressions that count so much?
Customers look at a company's marketing materials and make a decision about the quality of the company and about whether their services are a good fit for their needs almost immediately.
This decision is based onthe words and images in the marketing materials, the personal presentation of the business owner (if the first impression is a face-to-face meeting) and on the potential clients' instinct and past experiences.
So, it's important that a small business do all they can with the aspects of their marketing that they can control so that they can create the best first impression possible.
6. What do you view corporate identity as and why is it important?
For a small business, I view the corporate identity as all of the materials that identify the business —the business name, logo, Visual Vocabulary, taglines, and commonly-used text.All of this together makes up the face of the business, and gives customers something to visually identify with the business aside from the entrepreneur himself or herself.
These elements help the customer to see the business as a larger entity than just the entrepreneurs themselves. This abstraction of the business as a separate being from the entrepreneur can help the business to be taken more seriously.
7. What do you think is it about bad design that lacks trust and what is it about good design that can have the opposite effect and can really encourage someone to buy?
Good design will communicate the right message about the business to the prospect quickly.A good design will give the intended message to a wide range of clients in the target audience — a lot of people will "get it". And, ideally, it will also be memorable and unique, so that it will help to build lasting brand value for the business.
Good design builds trust through this communication — by making the prospect feel like they understand the design, and by extension, that they understand the company behind the design. The memorability also builds trust by fostering a feeling of familiarity with the business and the brand — the feeling that they "know" your company. Good design can put your business and your prospect on the same side — and can make the prospect feel like your business is a good fit for their needs.
Poor design will miss the mark in one or more of these categories —it may be meaningless, may require too much explanation or thought to understand, it might not tell the correct story about the business it represents, or it might be inconsistent.
Poor design lacks trust because it creates a feeling of alienation and separation between the viewer and the business. Instead of making them feel like they understand your business and that they can be close to it, poor design makes them feel like an outsider.
8. Is there anything a client can do to help ensure the best solution from their side?
I recommend that my small business clients do a few things to make sure that their designs will help them build trust.
The first is toreally spend some time working on their Brand Definition.In order to create the right design for your business, you have to know what that design needs to say to your audience.
The next is tobuild a "focus group" of their best clients and target prospects, and that they run the designs-in-progress by this group.It's essential that the members of the focus group be people in their target audience — if you put your mom and your best friend in the group, and they're not in your target audience, then that can skew the results.
The last is touse the logo and other visual elements consistently across all of their materials— this will help potential and existing clients feel more familiar and comfortable with your business.
9. How hard is it to get clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to logo design?
The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do with their logo is to have them look at the logo from their customers' viewpoint, and to take their personal tastes out of the equation.Most entrepreneurs want to approach their logo design the same way they'd pick out interior design details — they want to love every detail.
But, it's important for them to look at the design objectively, and to evaluate it from the potential clients' perspective — from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about your business, and who may be a little suspicious of you to start out with. What graphics will tell them what the business is all about, and help them to decide to make a purchase?
10. How important is consistent design for a brand? Should designers be aiming to make everything the same style?
I think that for a small business, with a limited marketing and outreach budget, consistency is important.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
Related Articles
The Importance of a Logo Design for a Company
Get a Custom Logo Design and watch your Business Grow
Why you should Select a Good Logo Designer
Creating a brand identity
Designing LOGOS Creatively
A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
A Logo to Remember: 5 Easy Tricks
Ready for a Fresh Image?
9 Keys to an Effective Logo
When Is the Right Time to Redesign
Copyright a Logo
5 Things a Great Logo Design Can Do for Your Brand and Business
Expanding A Professional Logo Design: How To Go About It?
Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
A Good Mascot Design leads to Effective Advertising
Software Programs for Logo Design
Ways to Design Business Cards
Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Logo Use in an Ad Campaign
Logos: The Marketing Success Story!!
Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help
Re: what position to request?
Re: Inspiration for Logos
Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
If a small business logo is designed based on what the customer wants to hear instead of on the business's personality, services and differentiators, then this can backfire. If your logo has one message, and then you tell the customer something else when you're having a conversation with them, then that can reduce the trust that
Another way that the visuals can damage a brand isif they have nothing to say — if they're designed just based on trends or to be "pretty".
The next isif a company doesn't use their visuals consistently.If, for example, a small business uses different logos across their marketing pieces — one version of the logo on the website, another on a business card, and so on. Or, if the other visual elements are used inconsistently ("Visual Vocabulary") across all of the marketing materials.
Many potential clients look over the entire marketing package as they make a buying decision. If the business card they received looks substantially different from the website that it refers them to, then they may wonder if they're at the right site — which is not the first impression a business owner wants their site to make!
5. What do you think is it about first impressions that count so much?
Customers look at a company's marketing materials and make a decision about the quality of the company and about whether their services are a good fit for their needs almost immediately.
This decision is based onthe words and images in the marketing materials, the personal presentation of the business owner (if the first impression is a face-to-face meeting) and on the potential clients' instinct and past experiences.
So, it's important that a small business do all they can with the aspects of their marketing that they can control so that they can create the best first impression possible.
6. What do you view corporate identity as and why is it important?
For a small business, I view the corporate identity as all of the materials that identify the business —the business name, logo, Visual Vocabulary, taglines, and commonly-used text.All of this together makes up the face of the business, and gives customers something to visually identify with the business aside from the entrepreneur himself or herself.
These elements help the customer to see the business as a larger entity than just the entrepreneurs themselves. This abstraction of the business as a separate being from the entrepreneur can help the business to be taken more seriously.
7. What do you think is it about bad design that lacks trust and what is it about good design that can have the opposite effect and can really encourage someone to buy?
Good design will communicate the right message about the business to the prospect quickly.A good design will give the intended message to a wide range of clients in the target audience — a lot of people will "get it". And, ideally, it will also be memorable and unique, so that it will help to build lasting brand value for the business.
Good design builds trust through this communication — by making the prospect feel like they understand the design, and by extension, that they understand the company behind the design. The memorability also builds trust by fostering a feeling of familiarity with the business and the brand — the feeling that they "know" your company. Good design can put your business and your prospect on the same side — and can make the prospect feel like your business is a good fit for their needs.
Poor design will miss the mark in one or more of these categories —it may be meaningless, may require too much explanation or thought to understand, it might not tell the correct story about the business it represents, or it might be inconsistent.
Poor design lacks trust because it creates a feeling of alienation and separation between the viewer and the business. Instead of making them feel like they understand your business and that they can be close to it, poor design makes them feel like an outsider.
8. Is there anything a client can do to help ensure the best solution from their side?
I recommend that my small business clients do a few things to make sure that their designs will help them build trust.
The first is toreally spend some time working on their Brand Definition.In order to create the right design for your business, you have to know what that design needs to say to your audience.
The next is tobuild a "focus group" of their best clients and target prospects, and that they run the designs-in-progress by this group.It's essential that the members of the focus group be people in their target audience — if you put your mom and your best friend in the group, and they're not in your target audience, then that can skew the results.
The last is touse the logo and other visual elements consistently across all of their materials— this will help potential and existing clients feel more familiar and comfortable with your business.
9. How hard is it to get clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to logo design?
The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do with their logo is to have them look at the logo from their customers' viewpoint, and to take their personal tastes out of the equation.Most entrepreneurs want to approach their logo design the same way they'd pick out interior design details — they want to love every detail.
But, it's important for them to look at the design objectively, and to evaluate it from the potential clients' perspective — from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about your business, and who may be a little suspicious of you to start out with. What graphics will tell them what the business is all about, and help them to decide to make a purchase?
10. How important is consistent design for a brand? Should designers be aiming to make everything the same style?
I think that for a small business, with a limited marketing and outreach budget, consistency is important.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
Related Articles
The Importance of a Logo Design for a Company
Get a Custom Logo Design and watch your Business Grow
Why you should Select a Good Logo Designer
Creating a brand identity
Designing LOGOS Creatively
A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
A Logo to Remember: 5 Easy Tricks
Ready for a Fresh Image?
9 Keys to an Effective Logo
When Is the Right Time to Redesign
Copyright a Logo
5 Things a Great Logo Design Can Do for Your Brand and Business
Expanding A Professional Logo Design: How To Go About It?
Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
A Good Mascot Design leads to Effective Advertising
Software Programs for Logo Design
Ways to Design Business Cards
Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Logo Use in an Ad Campaign
Logos: The Marketing Success Story!!
Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help
Re: what position to request?
Re: Inspiration for Logos
Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
These elements help the customer to see the business as a larger entity than just the entrepreneurs themselves. This abstraction of the business as a separate being from the entrepreneur can help the business to be taken more seriously.
7. What do you think is it about bad design that lacks trust and what is it about good design that can have the opposite effect and can really encourage someone to buy?
Good design will communicate the right message about the business to the prospect quickly.A good design will give the intended message to a wide range of clients in the target audience — a lot of people will "get it". And, ideally, it will also be memorable and unique, so that it will help to build lasting brand value for the business.
Good design builds trust through this communication — by making the prospect feel like they understand the design, and by extension, that they understand the company behind the design. The memorability also builds trust by fostering a feeling of familiarity with the business and the brand — the feeling that they "know" your company. Good design can put your business and your prospect on the same side — and can make the prospect feel like your business is a good fit for their needs.
Poor design will miss the mark in one or more of these categories —it may be meaningless, may require too much explanation or thought to understand, it might not tell the correct story about the business it represents, or it might be inconsistent.
Poor design lacks trust because it creates a feeling of alienation and separation between the viewer and the business. Instead of making them feel like they understand your business and that they can be close to it, poor design makes them feel like an outsider.
8. Is there anything a client can do to help ensure the best solution from their side?
I recommend that my small business clients do a few things to make sure that their designs will help them build trust.
The first is toreally spend some time working on their Brand Definition.In order to create the right design for your business, you have to know what that design needs to say to your audience.
The next is tobuild a "focus group" of their best clients and target prospects, and that they run the designs-in-progress by this group.It's essential that the members of the focus group be people in their target audience — if you put your mom and your best friend in the group, and they're not in your target audience, then that can skew the results.
The last is touse the logo and other visual elements consistently across all of their materials— this will help potential and existing clients feel more familiar and comfortable with your business.
9. How hard is it to get clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to logo design?
The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do with their logo is to have them look at the logo from their customers' viewpoint, and to take their personal tastes out of the equation.Most entrepreneurs want to approach their logo design the same way they'd pick out interior design details — they want to love every detail.
But, it's important for them to look at the design objectively, and to evaluate it from the potential clients' perspective — from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about your business, and who may be a little suspicious of you to start out with. What graphics will tell them what the business is all about, and help them to decide to make a purchase?
10. How important is consistent design for a brand? Should designers be aiming to make everything the same style?
I think that for a small business, with a limited marketing and outreach budget, consistency is important.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
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Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
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Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
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The first is toreally spend some time working on their Brand Definition.In order to create the right design for your business, you have to know what that design needs to say to your audience.
The next is tobuild a "focus group" of their best clients and target prospects, and that they run the designs-in-progress by this group.It's essential that the members of the focus group be people in their target audience — if you put your mom and your best friend in the group, and they're not in your target audience, then that can skew the results.
The last is touse the logo and other visual elements consistently across all of their materials— this will help potential and existing clients feel more familiar and comfortable with your business.
9. How hard is it to get clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to logo design?
The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do with their logo is to have them look at the logo from their customers' viewpoint, and to take their personal tastes out of the equation.Most entrepreneurs want to approach their logo design the same way they'd pick out interior design details — they want to love every detail.
But, it's important for them to look at the design objectively, and to evaluate it from the potential clients' perspective — from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about your business, and who may be a little suspicious of you to start out with. What graphics will tell them what the business is all about, and help them to decide to make a purchase?
10. How important is consistent design for a brand? Should designers be aiming to make everything the same style?
I think that for a small business, with a limited marketing and outreach budget, consistency is important.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
Related Articles
The Importance of a Logo Design for a Company
Get a Custom Logo Design and watch your Business Grow
Why you should Select a Good Logo Designer
Creating a brand identity
Designing LOGOS Creatively
A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
A Logo to Remember: 5 Easy Tricks
Ready for a Fresh Image?
9 Keys to an Effective Logo
When Is the Right Time to Redesign
Copyright a Logo
5 Things a Great Logo Design Can Do for Your Brand and Business
Expanding A Professional Logo Design: How To Go About It?
Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
A Good Mascot Design leads to Effective Advertising
Software Programs for Logo Design
Ways to Design Business Cards
Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Logo Use in an Ad Campaign
Logos: The Marketing Success Story!!
Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help
Re: what position to request?
Re: Inspiration for Logos
Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
Bigger brands have the advantages of big budgets, more advertising impact and strong name recognition. For example, Nike and Starbucks often change the look and feel of their advertising campaigns. But, they've built up the brand recognition and awareness based on their company name — so consistency from campaign to campaign is less important.
For a small business, the lower marketing budget and lack of a marketing department mean thatevery piece of the marketing campaign should build off each other.Having consistent design in a small business's brand makes the overall brand stronger and more effective.
11. Can you define what you consider to be really terrible graphic design? Do you see any branding at the moment out there that is bordering on the ridiculous or you think just won't work?
Four things come to mind as "really terrible graphic design" for small businesses:
- Complete lack of consistency,which means that every piece of design for a company will stand on its' own
- Telling the wrong story:Either telling lies about the company through the design, designing what you think your client wants to see, or not knowing what story you're trying to tell
- Empty, meaningless design:Design that doesn't try to tell any story, and just falls flat without content.
- Design that's do-it-yourself,done by an entrepreneur who hasn't educated themselves on design first.
Related Articles
The Importance of a Logo Design for a Company
Get a Custom Logo Design and watch your Business Grow
Why you should Select a Good Logo Designer
Creating a brand identity
Designing LOGOS Creatively
A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo
A Logo to Remember: 5 Easy Tricks
Ready for a Fresh Image?
9 Keys to an Effective Logo
When Is the Right Time to Redesign
Copyright a Logo
5 Things a Great Logo Design Can Do for Your Brand and Business
Expanding A Professional Logo Design: How To Go About It?
Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
A Good Mascot Design leads to Effective Advertising
Software Programs for Logo Design
Ways to Design Business Cards
Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Logo Use in an Ad Campaign
Logos: The Marketing Success Story!!
Free PDF Download
Icons For Small Business Branding
- By Erin Ferree
About the Author: Erin Ferree
RSS for Erin's articles - Visit Erin's website
Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up.
She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery.
She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil.
In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them.
Click here to visit Erin's website.
More from Erin Ferree
How To Brand Your Livestream
Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help
Re: what position to request?
Re: Inspiration for Logos
Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs
Inspiration for Logos
Share this article. Fund someone's dream.
Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva.
Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
|
Free PDF Download Icons For Small Business Branding - By Erin Ferree |
|
About the Author: Erin Ferree Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She's been told that her right-brain, left-brain combination of creativity and logic is hard to come by... and that it's what small business owners need to be successful. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up. She deeply enjoys working with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and look good doing it. Who want all of their branding and marketing to make sense and speak to their ideal clients. And who want an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity - instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery. She's branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. She's been published in so many books and periodicals that she stopped counting. She's shared stages with some awesome people - like Michele PW, Linda Hollander, Lisa Cherney, Sheri McConnell and Kelly O'neil. In the rare moments when she's not obsessing about branding or design, she can be found hugging her corgi-dog Stanley, going for long walks, cooking improvisationally, or throwing parties so her friends can enjoy them. Click here to visit Erin's website. How To Brand Your Livestream |
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