“Branding is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” And boy do we know how true that statement is.
Branding isn’t only one, single aspect of your company: it’s many, and we can dive into the subject for hours, but let’s start with logos.
Take Nike, for example. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when Nike is mentioned? For designers, it’s the swoosh logo. Nike’s brand is so strong, it’s advertising doesn’t even need to mention their clothing, shoes, or accessories, the swoosh is enough. For non-designers, it’s the tagline, “Just do it.” The tagline, again, says nothing about clothing, shoes, or accessories, but relates to the feelings consumers have relating to inspirational stories and commercials. Here’s Nike’s first commercial, aired in 1988, and it focused on an 80-year-old man who ran 17 miles every morning. He never even said what type of shoe he was wearing! That one commercial was the turning point for Nike’s brand (and sales) toward one of the world’s top respected brands.
Does your business have that capability? It could, if it looks like a million dollar company. What’s setting your business apart from reaching that goal and beating competitors? For many companies, the logo is their only representation to the public, and if it’s a poor logo, potential clients assume the company is no good also.
Recently, we were excited to work with White Shutter Photography to update their branding and logo. Like many companies starting out, White Shutter designed their own logo and did a pretty good job creating a word mark which felt refined, modern, and clean. Brand equity is important, and White Shutter had created a memorable brand over the years by placing their logo on everything from photo watermarks, to wood jump-drives gifted to their clients. Together, we agreed that refreshing the logo was the best way of holding onto that investment.
As we created a refreshed logo, our designers critically dissected every letter form and line weight of the old font. Having a mark or logo that downgrades elegantly on mobile devices is now a must. Long gone are the days when all that mattered was how amazing your logo looked on a heavy business card. Our logos need to look great on our phones, tablets, and even our watches!
After an extensive search to find the perfect fonts, we were able to create a logo that felt more balanced in it’s line weights and letter forms. This specific yellow for the word “Photography” was also adjusted to be more vibrant, allowing it to stand out from the strong primary gray color. The best part of the new logo is most of White Shutter’s customers won’t even notice the change.
Thinker also gave the deserving duo at White Shutter a new graphic that could stand alone. Sometimes a word mark or logo doesn’t work in certain applications, and social media is the perfect proving point. For White Shutter, reducing their full logo down into a small square seen in a Facebook post or Twitter feed was not a viable option. Thinker helped created a strong and memorable mark from the new font and colors. Many ideas were created for the mark, but in the end, a simple circle was what fit White Shutter’s style of capturing the purest, subtle, and unscripted moments.
What does your company logo say? Let us dissect it in a free, one-hour, branding consultation and explore opportunities with us. Connect with Thinker Profit here.
Jason Todd