Making a strong first impression is essential to any business, and the right logo is a key element in accomplishing this. As the first look at your business, a logo provides a lens through which customers will see your company for years to come, and you want it to be a rosy one.
Your logo creates a strong subliminal connection, and the impression it leaves will impact customer buying decisions. As a marketing and advertising agency with almost 50 years of experience, Cain & Company knows the best practices for designing a powerful logo with a positive and lasting impact.
Your logo is the base of your brand identity and is an effective tool for making yourself stand apart from your competitors. The right logo will warm customers and clients and make them more receptive to your product and subsequent marketing. However, a weak logo will undercut marketing efforts, send a negative subconscious message to current and potential clients, and require increased marketing budgets to overcome the deficiencies.
A well-crafted logo serves as a sound investment for companies and clients alike. It conveys a company’s values in a powerful image without pages of copy to be written and designed, requiring precious time and money. It’s important to get your logo right the first time. Here at Cain & Company, we have an experienced team to provide you with an eye-catching logo that will serve as the bedrock of successful marketing for years to come.
This design is an example of a strong logo representing its company well and featuring a timeless element.
If you currently have a logo, it may be worthwhile to consider a new one or have it refreshed. Cain & Company works with clients with existing logos who want to explore their logo’s merits. Some of our clients have established logos; in some cases, these were designed prior to the digital age. When clients bring us older logos, we help them translate them into social and digital media.
At Cain & Company, our own logo is a prime example of this. The first example is an original version which eventually required modernization and a bolder look. The use of font and font size, color, and arrangement of elements in the second example projects a more dynamic image appropriate to the digital age.
A logo needs to be eye catching, and one way to do that is by keeping it simple. A less-complicated design has a more lasting impact than a cluttered or complicated logo, and people of all ages can remember it. For example, you can easily associate the golden arches with McDonald’s.
Simplified logos are also easier to represent in different media formats, including digital and print. It may be difficult to scale a logo down to a smaller size if it’s too detailed. A logo may be displayed large on a sign or billboard, on a medium-sized poster at a tradeshow, or be as small as a penny on a mobile device. Logos are used everywhere, including on stationery, shirts, hats, and social and digital media. Highly detailed logos may be challenging to scale down to a smaller size. The Valley Sleep Center logo, for example, illustrates that simplicity in a logo can be very effective.
At Cain & Company we believe early communication with the client is a critical part of the logo design process to ensure we are all on the same page. Once we know your history, core values, and goals, our design team will start putting together ideas for styles, shapes, fonts, colors, and text. Our experienced team may bring a new idea or angle to the table.
In the case of Destination Machesney, a campaign promoting shopping and dining in Machesney Park, Illinois, community representatives and Cain & Company designers effectively collaborated to create a unique logo incorporating rich local history as illustrated by the biplane central to the design.
Always keep in mind any existing elements of your current company identity such as color and font. What if Coca-Cola Company decided to replace its red with green? It wouldn’t be Coca-Cola anymore.
In keeping with simplicity, you may want to consider an abstract icon or a simplified visual representing your brand. The Nike logo isn’t a tennis shoe, but instead a swoosh displaying energy and movement.
Consider taking advantage of blank space or even incorporating the blank spaces into the design. For example, the white space between the “E” and the “X” in FedEx shows an arrow depicting speed. Other unique techniques include incorporating text such as uppercase letters to show authority or lowercase letters for a more casual look. With decreasing attention spans and more brands competing for attention, you may want to top off your look with motion graphics.
The logo for the food court at UW Health – SwedishAmerican incorporates many of the elements of good logo design, particularly the use of white space and color.
