Re: Designing a logo
“The trademark should embody in the simplest form the essential characteristics of the product or institution being advertised.” Paul Rand
I wonder if some of the budding designers who have submitted or critiqued the designs we have seen thus far could explain the significance of this crescent that many of you are saying "yes, I like that"? Why? What does this crescent signify? The moon? Islam? An omelette? What does this cresent have to do with either this word "ACT" or with storage? Nothing!
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/logos...gobasics_3.htm
A cresent is at least part of a circle. So, in design, circles are used to symbolize infinity and protectiveness. Circles could also suggest something well-rounded or complete. Circles also imply security. So far so good. The problem is, we don't have a full circle, we have a crescent, in effect an opened circle. Everything in what was our nice secure circle has been allowed to flow out. It's been released, let free, the element of 'Security' has been lost. A cresent is nothing but a tipped-over goldfish bowl.
Squares and rectangles, on the other hand, symbolize honesty, stability, equality, comfort, or familiarity, sometimes rigidity and uniformity.
People should try to understand the purpose of a logo and thought process that should go into designing a company brand? Reading this should provide you with some assistance:
http://www.ideabook.com/progress.htm
Look at some of the logos on the following website and try to understand what goes into a logo:
http://logotypes.designer.am/
Read this PDF and realise that designing a logo is almost a scinece, it is certainly an art:
http://www.smashlab.com/files/Unders...ign_screen.pdf
Just about all of the designs I have seen for this company are, in my subjective opinion, very very poor. I'm sorry if this sounds mean-spirited. It's not meant to be. I'm simply trying to illustrate that the design of a logo is a million miles away friom "Ooh that looks nice" if the person saying "Ooh that looks nice" is not the intended end customer.
The intended customer here is whom? It's somebody who wants to put something into storage. So what is Mrs Smith looking for in a company that is going to store her £3000 leather sofa whilst she is between houses? She's looking for:
- Security
- Reliability
- Honesty
- Stability
- Value for Money
As already indicated above, we could use a circle or a square in our logo. I have chosen a rectangle because I want to illustrate to Mrs Smith purerly by means of our logo that we can put her £3000 leather sofa in a secure box with thick walls and a padlock. I want her to look at our logo and feel confident that we can do what we say.
I have chosen either green or orange (haven't decided which) because although I want her to think we are solid, dependable and businesslike, I don't want her to think we are cold and corporate - beause we are approachable. Hence the use of warm, eco colours as opposed to cold greys or blues.
You'll notice I have deliberately put full stops into my letters A.C.T. This is because the word ACT reads like "Act" as in Symantec Act, Act like a Fool or the Act of a Play. We are not "Act", "Act" means nothing to anybody, but initials can mean anything, it can denote the three-word name of your company, the initials of your three daughters, whatever. But because it is three clear initials, it makes us quite unambiguously "Ay Cee Tee Storage".
As an aside, we are lucky because A.C.T. rhymes with A.D.T., who already have a worldwide reputation for security so although we are doing nothing to pass ourselves off as them this may work subliminally in our favour.
Finally we want to make sure our logo transfers well onto fax and other monotone media. Hence the black and the white logos.
Here endeth the lesson. My design is by no means the best anybody could do. I am simply trying to illustrate why some people actually make money from designing logos whilst other people make money putting stuff into containers with locks.
Last edited by Big Frank; 16 April 2009 at 12:23 PM.
If someone tried to make me dig my own grave I would say No.
They're going to kill me anyway and I'd love to die the way I lived:
Avoiding Manual Labour.
Originally Posted by pauland
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