As most marketing professionals will tell you, and we at urgentlogo.com feel the same, staying aggressive in a down economy will pay dividends in the long haul for your company. For most companies that wisely choose to stay transfixed on maintaining a strong marketing effort, those marketing efforts will materialize in price-point sales, special offerings and value-added messages. While those types of messages work, they risk losing significant returns on investment when you factor in the hard costs of having a blowout sale.

Part of the rationale of staying consistently active during an economic slump hinges on the fact that your competitors will most likely be reeling back marketing budgets to conserve resources. By slashing budgets, companies fail to stay in the minds of customers. And really, that’s the ultimate goal of branding – stay number one your customers’ mind. In the end, those who actively work to secure top-of-the-mind awareness will be rewarded when the recession stops.

I already mentioned companies shelling out huge revenue for sales that may cost more than they are worth, but there is another way to get your name out.

Alter your look.

Changing your logo and branding methods does three important things when trying to gain mental market share. First, it shows a dedication to improvement. After all, if 2009 has spawned an attitude of change, maybe its not a bad idea to do away with the negatives in your company’s image. Second, upgrading your image costs less than blowing a budget on shaking promotions. Most importantly, it gives people a reason to reinvest with your company by exposing them to something new, but not totally different.

Urgentlogo.com has helped several companies renovate their look. The following transformations are a best of. A quick look and you’ll see what we mean.

Custom Cinema and Sound – Fargo, North Dakota

Custom Cinema and Sound provides high-end audio-visual installation. The old logo fell short when trying to give the impression of luxury. By upgrading the colors, making the font more regal and adding some subtlety to the graphic element, we were able to achieve a look that matched Custom Cinema’s client base.

Blade Security Solutions – Bismarck, North Dakota

Sometimes a logo renovation means a small tweak or a font change. Other times, it requires a complete overhaul. That was the case with Blade Security Solutions. A security provider needs to look strong and poised. The edgy patriotic themes of the eagle; red, white and blue; and a serrated blade made the company look more like Confederate bounty hunters than a professional service. Typography, a neutral color scheme and a less literal interpretation of the word blade pulls this logo together to give off the right first impression.

Agassiz Chemical – Fargo, North Dakota

A simple color change helped Agassiz go from the neon-90s to now.

D&M Industries – Moorhead, Minnesota

D&M, which stands for Doors & More, were plagued by the curse of “attention-getting red”. Though red does evoke emotion, it doesn’t always work to be the brightest. The previous acronym doesn’t give any insight to what the company does and the vague logo didn’t help. The new logo, deepens the reds. More importantly, it shows and tells what the company provides.

The following are two examples of companies making bold statements within the industries hit hardest by the weakened economy.

Private Wealth Group – Fargo, North Dakota

Private Wealth Group decided to push the limits of Raymond James’ corporate standards to promote itself to affluent customers scorned by other faulty investors. The end result is a logo with motion that shatters the rigid traditions of the old market investing.

Mary Roos Realty “The Property Patriot” – Fargo, ND

There are nearly 500 real estate agents in the Fargo market. Each REALTOR fiercely competes for hard-earned sales. The bold and energetic Mary Roos decided to take a huge risk and make a stand in her branding efforts. The result is an unforgettable image that completely overshadows any competition be it at an open house or in a book of listings.

Making an impact doesn’t mean having to change your product or give it away for free. It means making a commitment to reach people and follow the ebb and flow of our cultural evolution. For fresh ideas and a unique spin on your current look, send urgentlogo.com a message or give us a call and we’ll put you in the forefront.

Comments

For-profit logo design needs to satisfy three things.
1. Be instantly memorable
2. Explain some aspect of the business with graphic elements or type
3. Stay effective regardless of size and color constraints.

Non-profit logo design needs to satisfy three things.
1. Be instantly memorable
2. Explain some aspect of the business with graphic elements or type
3. Stay effective regardless of size and color constraints

Ta-da!

Because of that, for-profit, non-profit parity, let me share with you a few clichés to avoid when developing a non-profit logo.

Hands – The United Way did it. You will not be more memorable or have more exposure than they do. The symbolism of hands generally works to satisfy three metaphors:

Welcoming with open arms – Generally it looks like cupping water. Unless your cause is to eliminate the need for bowls, shy away.

Interracial Tolerance – Remember the Puerto Rican Sharks and American Jets from the musical West Side Story? They were joined by the hand–but their free hands were equipped with knives and Riff ended up stabbed. If done too artistically, the interracial handshake will look like a twist cone and your donors will work to end hunger–for their own race. There are much better ways to incorporate multicultural and diversity themes.

Finger Paint -  As a child, I was not allowed to finger paint because it was too messy. Did that make me an underprivileged child? Maybe in the art world it did, but I think I was fortunate to have my nuclear suburban family.

The Earth – It has a holiday of its own. People think it effectively demonstrates the following, but let me explain what it really means.

Nature - “Save the earth!” said the hippie as the forestry department cut down his tree house. Specify your element Captain Planet. Trees, rocks, air or water are still too broad, but they’re a start.

Global – “Fight hunger everywhere!” said the wealthy celebrity until he realized there were starving tribes in Greenland. “Um, I mean, stop hunger in Africa where it’s warm… like Hollywood!” If you aren’t truly global, you aren’t being truly honest with your potential donors and most importantly, the clients that need your services.

Circle – “Instead of the letter O, let’s make it the earth!” said the board. Make sure the graphic elements you choose stay true to your purpose. Maybe your non-profit hopes to expand globally someday, but for some causes, that’s simply not possible. A racial tolerance group will not work in Communist China.

This is my last and biggest cliché. Often times this one element combines with the other two and becomes the Megatron of mundane.

Kids - For a minute let me buy into this cliché that I will subsequently blast apart. Kids are our future, our greatest investment and should have every opportunity to grow up safe, happy and healthy. That said, there are a multitude of reasons to tread carefully when including kid stick figures or elements into a logo.

Cheering Kids – YAY!!!!!!! Why are they excited? Be very careful when you use cheering kids for organizations like children’s hospitals. It’s a sick irony to use cheering kids to help fight for bed ridden children. The same goes with disabilities of any kind. Children with leg braces or wheel chairs can’t cheer. Don’t let your logo mock or ostracize your clients in need.

Paper Dolls and Pigtails – They haven’t been used since TV went color. A strong logo element should last forever. If your non-profit requires grants to survive, avoiding the paper doll look and pigtail girls adds professionalism and longevity to the branding of your organization.

Crayons – There are better ways to show youth than with crayon graphics. And for that matter, stop manipulating the letter s. A learning center for “Kidz” gives the complete wrong impression. Chances are you are going to be asking a professional to design your look. Let them create a look that was made by an adult.

Endgame. You don’t have to look poor or sloppy to be a non-profit. There are a myriad of ways to show the work your organization does without slipping into non-profit logo cop-outs. Before you decide to rebrand or update your logo, discuss with staff and the board the exact message you want to portray. Be professional. The philanthropists and grant reward decision makers are in the position to donate because they have been successful in the private sector.  They understand branding. Your look should encourage them to join a cause that is serious. Make that first impression serious with a clean, to the point logo.

For the sake of this argument, I’m going to make some assumptions. I will assume you, as the entrepreneur, have invested a large sum of time and money into your new operation. I will assume you’ve spent months developing your niche and years honing your craft. I will assume your financial investment comes with a heavy dose of risk. I will assume you are fairly intelligent and at the very least, a bit savvy. If you don’t meet any of the above, you can probably stop reading.

Here’s a conversation I’ve heard more than once.

“Who did your logo?”

“My cousin. He’s really good with computers.”

Good with computers how? Make sure you know what your cousin does on them.

Spending eight hours a day online as a level 70 druid in World of Warcraft is impressive and a little pathetic, but that doesn’t make you “good with computers.” It makes you an uber-nerd who uses the Internet as a way of socializing, not as a tool to improve marketability.

Writing software programs or building hardware would make someone adept with computers. It does not, however, mean you are a designer. As a designer, I would say I’m fairly skilled with “computers,” but that means I’m solid with the software programs I use. Throw me into coding and I probably have as good of programming skills as a programmer does design skills.

Now let’s say your cousin actually shoots out some decent work. Was it original, or did he or she pull something off the web? If a graphic element is used, is it vector? Is it licensed?

I realize you’re trying to save cash by paying for your corporate identity in beer, but should you stumble into a lawsuit, you’ll be stuck sipping on Schlitz for the next decade or more.

So your cousin is a designer. That could be true. Who knows, he or she may be a great designer. But, do they do logo work? Some brilliant designers are masters with layout, photo imaging or typography, but that still doesn’t make them a great logo designer. Can they describe your business in one element? Do they use color well? Even as a relative, you need to look at their portfolio. Compare their work to other logos. Put what they’ve done at eye level in a grocery aisle. If you walk past and notice any other product above or below, it’s a weak a logo and you may want to find someone who specializes in identity packaging.

Remember, this is your company. You will be married to this logo for at least a decade. You’ve already ponied up the time and treasure to be successful, so why shave the corners on the most important marketing decision you will make?

Bite the bullet. Hire an agency or a logo firm like urgentlogo.com. We provide 100% logos that are completely yours. You own them entirely. These logos are built in a way that they can be used at any size. We consider times when only one-color applications can be done and design accordingly. And when we’re done, you don’t ever have to see us again at Thanksgiving dinner if you don’t want to.

Keep it in the family when it comes to operation. When it comes to imagination, consult and

Dagger.

She was right. I’m not going to discredit my findings because many of the things discussed still hold true, but I feel I should bring up the very obvious topic I’ve neglected in all my previous blogs.

Your logo needs to look as good in black and white as it does in color. Even though the tide is changing to a more color-minded office world, we can’t forget there are times when black and white will come into play. Email signatures, email marketing and affordable color printing haven’t slain the Faxasaurus.

Perhaps we can use that archaic device to purify our styles. Adobe has made it all too easy to create brilliant logos chalk-full of gradients, textures and bevels. Sure all those things can be seen in black and white, but look dismal next to their color counterparts.

Every class I’ve taken and every book I read pummels the same principles and advice into my brain. Keep It Simple Stupid (and that’s the polite version). And yes, that makes perfect sense. For 98% of creatives out there, there’s one problem.

It’s really hard.

Before you judge and ascertain that I’m turning the Amazon into a salt-water river with my pity tears, understand that this blog is meant to build a bond with other designers and inform interested persons. Whining about the difficulty of simplicity was my bonding moment. Everyone feel better? Good.

Let’s correct the problem with a new way of thinking. In a black and white logo you have more options than many realize. I’ll draw from two of my greatest sources of inspiration, word play and my high school show choir…or Eastern philosophy. Yeah, let’s go with that.

Wordplay means seeing the versatile 26 as shapes, not sounds. There are a few champions of this letter readjustment. T is an obvious choice. It works for ties, intersections, or anything rigid. A lowercase version works for crosses and plus signs. A lower case g works well for tails or can be used in an underline. E works great in upper and lower case. The upper case E has rigid, square elements like the letter T while in lower case, the curvature of the vowel and the straight components of the interior offer a level of diversity and flexibility. With all that said, please, I beg you, do not become boring and cliche. Do not use the obvious answers stated before as a short cut to innovation and bedazzlement.

Eastern Philosophy preaches harmony and balance. Yin-Yang anyone? That’s the easiest place to explore. Even though it may be the most cliche tattoo next to the tramp stamp butterfly (honestly ladies, if you want to show off a whale tail, draw in a harpoon) the yin-yang takes the entire universe, existence as we know it, and simplifies it into a logo. Well done. I could ramble through all the opposite symbolism the yin-yang offers, male vs female, good vs evil, on vs off, but bleh.

The point is, balance is really important when dealing with black and white logos. I’m not arguing for equal time, but I am saying that the elements should be able to hold their own and not distract from the other. For example, if the core of my logo is white lettering inside a black circle, does that lettering get lost in the void?

Kid Rock made a great statement about AC/DC drummer, Phil Rudd and his work on the song “Back in Black.” In the interview Kid Rock discusses how Rudd is a very talented drummer who’s brilliant decision to keep the beat driving and simple is the reason for the success of the song. The moral is, just because you can be flashy doesn’t mean you have to be. If you don’t have to be, you shouldn’t be.

The same should be said of designers. We can be flashy and use every tool at our disposal or we can simply think about getting back to black.

So why am I ogling over this actor like a 30-something at a New Kids on the Block reunion show? That man and his show knew more about logo design, branding and placement than any other show for kids or adults.

For those who are about to quit reading because they don’t know the show, I’ll give a brief synopsis. For those who are about to quit reading because they think I’m creepy. Check back next week, and I promise I’ll write something a little less John Hinckley.

Blue’s Clues in a nutshell:

Blue is a CG puppy that lives in a CG house with his human owner, Steve. Because Blue is a dog, he tries to express a message to Steve by leaving blue paw prints on items that are clues all over the house. After finding the three clues, Steve puts the puzzle together to get the message and the show ends. It’s the same premise every week.

So what does this have to do with logos and logo design? Let’s examine the paw print. A good logo needs to be visible, state the industry and be able to be resized to any proportion.

This logo does all three marvelously. A paw print is really three small circles floating over one big one. Color it bright shades of blue and it stands out in any environment. Sure the Blue’s Clues house is the compliment color of orange, but the colors are equally vibrant. Much like the physical world, there are a lot of vibrant logos competing for attention as are dull logos competing as a counter to the vibrant cacophony.

Even so, a three-year-old can pick it out of a crowd.

The paw logo clearly states the industry-message from a dog. Enough said.

A key component to logo design is the ability to shrink that logo tiny or blow it up. This does that. Again, a toddler can pick out this shape on the smallest clue on the smallest television. It’s genius.

Now back to Steve.

In the show, Steve draws all the clues with a fat black crayon in his “Handy Dandy Notebook.” Imagine the difficulty of drawing anything with a thick crayon.

Regardless of the complexity of the object, he not only draws it with simple lines, but teaches kids how to draw the item with the simplest lines.

Simple. Simple. Simple. Simple.

There are no gradients, beveled edges, drop shadows, serif fonts, creative typography, elusive symbols, or even colors, yet even toddlers know what they’re looking at. Two squares and four lines make a chair. A circle with two arrows make a clock.

As I develop as a creative, I make it my mission to compress my concepts. That isn’t to say I’m doing it here, as I ramble on this blog, but for core creations, I need to think in terms of the simplest lines. I need a fat black crayon.

In fact, I’ll put this whole logo design schpeel into two simple sentences.

Urgentlogo.com makes grown-up identities with childlike simplicity. Call us today.

Clip Art- Perhaps the biggest mistake made by entrepreneurs involves using hack imagery.

The problem: Aside from looking cheesy the majority of the time, Clip Art is pre-made. Though its low cost sounds appealing, keep in mind that image isn’t unique and isn’t yours. Copy places that “design” logos ask customers to choose an image from a book and then choose a font. There is no guarantee that image and font won’t be selected by the next guy. Using Clip Art in and of itself puts you in the clutter brands try so hard to break out of by being dull, cheap and cliche.

A thought about the copy store’s in-house designer: Why is he or she working there? Is this a part time job while going to school where they can learn a little bit about the print and production process or is this job the best they can get? Ask them. If they say the job market is too thick, they aren’t worth their salt. An agency will snatch up pure talent sometimes even if they don’t need it to prevent the competition from getting it.

Font – Typography needs to be functional first and fashionable second.

The problem: I’ve seen this a lot with “cute” stores, boutiques, pet groomers, cosmetic jewelry, etc. Curly, girly fonts may say “fun” but they don’t speak clear enough from across the street or on a pen. Who’s the audience? The main wearers of gold lamme are in their 60′s. Can they read the sign or do they say “that one store by…?”

Graphic Elements – Every shape, letters included, need purpose.

The problem: Most small business owners simply don’t understand how the eye reads or the subtext shapes provide in a design. That’s not a statement of disrespect. I know I’m clueless about the intricacies and nuances in most fields. Do-it-yourself logo designs often show either a loud metaphor, usually a cliche, or they have a graphic element with no purpose. Does the logo need a light bulb to show ingenuity. Why does that logo have a chevron? An old acting coach once told me, “the only wrong choice is not making it purposefully.” The same can be said in design.

Practicality and Software – A logo is taffy. Make sure it can be stretched.

The problem: At some point, every business will do advertising of some kind. It may be as simple as putting a sign up or it may be a full-blown campaign. Either way, chances are a designer will touch your logo. If the logo is made in a program or a file format that can’t be easily translated into different software, there will be problems. I ran into this exact scenario yesterday. I was handed a file on a floppy disk that was made in Publisher. That may be going over some readers heads, so let me put it this way. It’s being asked to build a castle with a Rubix cube and a shovel. It makes the task nearly impossible. Here’s a shameless plug. Urgentlogo.com gives all the formats any designer will ever need to the client when a logo is purchased. If the image is put on a billboard or onto a golf ball, the logo will be clear.

My point is this. Like any project, it’s great to try to do it yourself. You’ll learn a lot and make great progress. I sincerely recommend trying to do some marketing on your own. It’ll give you a perspective. But remember this, you’d hire a professional to pour the cement foundation of your house. Make sure the foundation of your brand is done by a professional as well.

Nearly 12% of the world’s population watched the Superbowl last year. No other event, not even the Olympics draws those kinds of numbers, proving that sports today are as important to our humanity as they were thousands of years ago in advanced cultures like the Mayan or Greek.

With sport being a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s disheartening to see so many terrible logos. I can see the challenge in both developing a name and designing a theme for any team regardless of sport, but have a little shame will you? For this week’s blog, I’d like to dive into sport logos and names to give some perspective and point some fingers at our culture’s most beloved teams.

The average person probably doesn’t invest a lot of time into the artistic aesthetics of sports team design. Generally, they simply care that the W’s outweigh the L’s by season’s end. For the most part, I’m the same way. I consider myself an avid fan of most sports and will try to be as objective as possible.

Let’s start with the name of a team. I can understand the challenges of naming a sports organization. On the one hand, you want a name to sound fierce. The Fargo Fluff couldn’t inspire players or fans a like. On the other hand, a name has to be culture conscious. The Washington Bullets basketball team changed its name to the Washington Wizards after protests the name was too violent. More recently, lawsuits over Native-American names have come to the forefront. To counteract this, teams stick with animals or things in nature. Most recently, the Oklahoma City Thunder comes to mind.

Personally, I think using nature is a complete cop-out. The Pittsburgh Penguins or Miami Dolphins top that list magically combining culture soft with nature crap. At least name your team after a predator, Toronto Blue-Jays. Luckily for all the teams mentioned, history has helped make these teams strong brands. Miami has kept its same, angry dolphin with a handicapped helmet for nearly 40 years. And it has a Superbowl to boot, something my Vikings don’t—thanks to the Dolphins.

For the worst teams names, there are always great ones. I look at storied franchises named as an homage to its fan base such as the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Yankees, Detroit Pistons or Boston Celtics. Names that aren’t plural stand out to me. Hockey is great for doing this. In team sports, isn’t it better to be one unit than a unit comprised of individuals? NHL names like the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning seem stronger. Canada has a great unifying team in the NFL Europa called the Montreal Machine. The Machine. But my point hits hardest when you think of the English Premiership football/soccer team that doesn’t even use a city in the name, The Arsenal. How storied of a franchise are you when you can cease to say where you come from?

Now that a team name has been developed that isn’t scandalous (Washington Redskins), soft (Utah Jazz, Toronto Maple Leafs…), confusing (Buffalo Bills) or downright lazy (Montreal Canadians), the real challenges begin.

Fans want a logo they can identify on the uniform. Just like the rules of any logo, simplicity is key. Though, a sports logo may be more prominent than most, it should still be memorable as if you were passing it on the subway.

Second, a challenge comes to play when the lack of color options are offered. Most teams have a minimum of two maximum of three colors to convey a lengthy message of city and team. Throughout the years, several teams have tried and failed to incorporate color. To artists, purple and gold are complimentary colors, but to the former Utah Jazz and steadfast LA Lakers, their logos are running eyesores. Remember when teal was cool? The Carolina Panthers, San Jose Sharks and New Orleans Hornets will never forget.

Third, when in doubt spell it out. Some of the best logos are simply letters. The New York Yankees have the most identifiable sport logo in the world and it’s nothing flashy. N+Y on black and white. In football, the Chicago Bears haven’t changed. The Boston Bruins reign supreme in simplicity in the NHL.

Finally, have the courage to stick with it. Unless you have one of the worst logos to start off with, I’m thinking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers circa 1976, don’t make a change to be trendy. Case and point, the New York Islanders jumped on the teal train in the mid 90s only to insult fans with an angry, orange-fleshed fisherman. Build your team. Win championships. Invest your efforts into enhancing the front office and building your product. Every time I make fun of a Cheese head in Green Bay, they hold up a fist and ask me to count how many titles my team has one. Then I die a little inside.

Featured Logo

Portland Trailblazers. 40 years of awful.

A 5th generation American growing up in the Mid-West, I have a sense of pride when I hear the term trailblazer. Maybe my ancestors were lazy and gave up at the Red River Valley, but that can-do, bold spirit still fixates in my community. Those not familiar with the basketball team would assume this logo would be strong and powerful. At the very worst, it would just a P for Portland. Instead, this storied team has an inverted percentage sign of mismatched black and red. Apparently the five lines of each shape are meant to represent the five on five competition of the sport. Frankly, it just looks terrible. So what would I do differently since I happen to be doing a blog rant? For starters, I’d update the type making it flow. I’d remove the graphic entirely or at the very least combine it into the letters of the T in Trailblazers or the P in Portland. No other team in the NBA uses the initial gimmick (except for the Pacers who make my top 5 of NBA awful) and a team with nothing to lose in the logo department could certainly capitalize on this opportunity. The closest any team has come to being represented by a simple shape are the Boston Celtics with the use of a shamrock on apparel. Portland, with Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, your team is young and ready to do something amazing. They will give Portland a facelift, shouldn’t you return the favor? ]]> http://www.urgentlogo.com/2008/11/start-the-wave-hear-the-boos/feed/ 0 http://www.urgentlogo.com/2008/10/logo-the-word-speaks-for-itself/ http://www.urgentlogo.com/2008/10/logo-the-word-speaks-for-itself/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:24:30 +0000 luke http://www.urgentlogo.com/?p=47 Future blogs will discuss all the nuances of developing a logo; it’s importance to your industry, white space, typography, color and a whole slew of topics I have yet to fathom. In this initial blog, I asked myself, “Where do I begin?”

Sure I poured over some notes and sketches, but nothing inspired me. I could discuss the technical merits of some of the strongest brands in the world and how, through branding and other marketing efforts, these signifying images have become staples in our society. It seems counter-productive and in a way, hypocritical to boast ingenuity on this website only to discuss how to copy some of the most famous logos in the world. The truth of the matter is, the large brands have solidified themselves over time. Even upstart web companies, like Google, have been around for a decade.

This is urgentlogo.com, a website dedicated to producing memorable logos fast. There’s the opulent word, logo.

She’s a beauty, ain’t she?

Logo.

When you consider the combinations available in our 26-letter alphabet, our brain does a fantastic job deciphering words from one another. Aside from onomatopoeias, words that sound how they’re spelled like boom or buzz, is there any other word so masterfully tied to its meaning like the word logo? I have yet to see one.

Why does the word logo stand out and how should it’s structure resemble your own logo creation?

Size and Simplicity.

Logo is only four letters. That means it’s recognizable by the brain quickly and easily. Because it can be recognized easily, the word logo can be placed on something as small as a pen cap and be recalled just as easily as it could be on a full-page ad. That readability comes through again if the word logo was to be put on a billboard on the Autobahn. Cars speeding past at 200 mph could still remember the word. Why do you think traffic signs use words like “stop” and “one way” versus “brake for oncoming vehicles” or “single direction traffic, follow arrow?”

Hook.

Logo. Say it. The word bounces in your mouth from tongue to teeth, then throat to lips. Graphic artists, in my experience, generally lean more progressive in terms of art and lifestyle. Your company’s name and logo should state the nature of your business from the get go. The playfulness of logo immediately triggers sensations of the avant garde. Don’t get my wrong, we are design professionals first and will make critical design choices, but without a spark of playfulness and creativity, all corporate looks would have a pre-existing font in bold red letters underneath industry specific clipart.

Typography.

I won’t bore you by going on a nerd spree about typography, but I will touch on a few basics relevant to this point. The word logo has three things going for it in terms of typography. First, it has ascenders and descenders. An ascender is that little piece of the letter l that rises above the o. The descender would be the tail of the g that goes below the o. The use of this tactic gives levels in an already tight, four-letter space. The second benefit is the difference between the straight ascender of the l and the tail of the g. One is curved, and one is rigid. A yin meets a yang and shazam! After a night of freaky Zen, we have balance. Lastly, are the o’s. Remember how I mentioned the four-letter word being read quickly. Part of that is white space offered by the letter o as it alternates between letters. All this leads to my final reason for my argument that logo is perhaps the most brilliant word ever.

Balance.

The whole word is balanced. The ascender balances the descender. The same, round letter, separates the word evenly. To take it a step further, the letter o, is a circle, often seen in Eastern philosophy as perfect balance. Logo has four letters. Even. Balanced. Even the sound is balanced into two syllables, with both having a hard consonant followed by a soft vowel. To further my twisted spiral in to nerdism, the placement in the mouth when you speak it balanced.

What does this all mean?

Your logo should be balanced and simple. Whether on a pen or on the freeway, your logo needs to be noticeable from start and remembered forever. All of these elements I discussed play a part in how your logo design should be treated. We didn’t even get to color or graphics. A lot of thought goes into to creating a company’s image. It certainly does here at urgentlogo.com

For an inaugural blog, I think the basics of what a logo needs to have were covered. Logo truly is a wonderful word.