Thu, Sep 15, 2011 — KULER & Colour Lover Handy for colour palettes or add your own…
(or being sad like me and searching your name.
Posted by: Natasha Willcocks
Thu, Sep 15, 2011 — BRAND GUIDELINES… Here are some sexy brand guidelines for you…. look and learn…
these are great http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/styleguide/
bit of history on loads a logos
google carhartt brand guidelines and you can doen load a pdf of Carhartts guidelines
Loads on here- wordy ones
Logo Trends http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/february/mtv-refreshes-logo
Good article on NFP
A HORRIBLE LOGO… http://www.eurovision.tv/upload/brand/ESC_GUIDELINES_2011_highres.pdf
BUT….. http://www.logotypes101.com/guidelines/MTV.pdf 1 page gets the idea across…
Posted by: Natasha Willcocks
Tue, Sep 06, 2011 — Engaging Your Auduence By Chris Conlan, MD of Love Creative Engaging Your Auduence By Chris Conlan, MD of Love Creative – an award winning agency, famed for bringing brands to life
I’ll have a P please, Bob
I regularly read statistics telling me how many marketing messages consumers are subjected to in the average day. I don’t have any stats to hand, but you can easily imagine that the number reaches into the thousands. How do you make your brand’s message stand out against all the others?
Thinking back to my days in college we were taught about a host of attributes that dictate a product’s marketing success (it was the 4P’s in my day – product, place, promotion and price). As a creative agency helping clients with their marketing mix, you can have limited influence over some of those ‘P’s’, but a lot of influence over the P for promotion. A term which sounds rather quaint now when you consider it against the backdrop of today’s frenetic marketing buzz word arms race.
So, harking back to those more innocent days, here are my buzzword free pointers for ensuring your brand or product’s marketing success.
Engage and Entertain
As I’ve already mentioned, we are bombarded from all angles with marketing messages. More so than ever before. As authors of those messages, marketers have that most enviable opportunity of being able to brighten up someone’s day… make them smile, put a spring in their step and – dare we say it – associate our brand with some of those happy thoughts. We’ve become so attuned to screening out the majority of messages that often, only those that really entertain and involve the target audience are noticed and remembered.
Not only does that engagement create positive associations for your brand, but if done correctly it can have knock on effects of acting as both promotional vehicle and PR stunt at the same time; delivering improved return on investment for your hard earned marketing budget.
We engaged and entertained audiences with this promotional stunt for a Dinosaur exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry
Understand that everything is media
What do I mean by that? Well, it’s a somewhat hackneyed example now, but Innocent Drinks nailed this for me when they changed the sterile sounding “Use By” laser printed message on their bottles to “Enjoy By”. So ridiculously simple, but this said so much about the then fledgling brand at the time. Much more than the touchy feely copy that they employed, it showed they’d thought about every single interaction of the brand with its consumers. It’s a principle we’ve always believed in at LOVE and we encourage clients to say something about their brand and its values at every possible opportunity….the more unexpected the placement of the message, the more effective.
Our refurbishment of Umbro’s HQ allowed us to demonstrate that everything is media
Happy accidents. Increase their likelihood!
Sometimes, a campaign is so well conceived and planned that you just know it is going to go viral. W+K’s recent work for Old Spice is such an example, and I take my hat off to them. Other times, you get those serendipitous moments when you don’t just achieve what you planned to, but a whole lot more as well due to a turn of events that simply wasn’t envisaged when you set out. ‘You make your own luck,’ as the saying goes, and I have to say I agree. We’ve learned after a few successes (and, ok, a couple of failures too) that you can’t always predict what the outcomes of a campaign will be, but what you can do is try and create the conditions which will most likely lead to success. It’s not that difficult, but sometimes the simplest things can be missed in the heat of the moment. Are all of your social media touchpoints up to date? Do you feature them on all your marketing collateral? Are you inviting customers to send emails to an inbox that doesn’t get checked? What’s the thing that’s going to get your consumers to tell their friends about your brand? How easy are you making it for them to tell those friends? What are you doing to ‘earn’ a slice of their media time? You most likely can’t answer all of the questions all of the time, but at least having an awareness of them helps to give your campaign the best chances of achieving and surpassing its goals.
When we created TV spots for Sony’s PSP, we didn’t expect virtual people to be dancing to them
These are just a few of the principles we try and adhere to at LOVE when we’re helping our clients and their brands find the most interesting things to say, in the most interesting way.
Posted by: Natasha Willcocks
Wed, Aug 31, 2011 — HANDY FONT SITES… GENERAL FONT SITES…
THE ALMIGHTY EMIGRE- AS ALWAYS MENTIONED
T26 UNDERVALUED
INTERESTING BLOG
TYPO POSTERS
ISO50 ALWAYS DELIVERS
HELVETICA TO THE MAX
SOME GREAT ONES ON BEHANCE…
Posted by: Natasha Willcocks
LOGODESIGNTIPS
1. Preliminary Work Is a Must
Preliminary sketches are an important first step in designing an effective logo.
These can be as simple as paper and pen drawings or drafts made using a vector program, such as Illustrator.
The bottom line is that you compromise the final result if you rush, or skip, this step.
Start with 20 to 30 sketches or ideas and then branch out to create variations of the original ideas.
If nothing seems to work, start over and begin sketching new ideas.
An effective graphic designer will spend more time on this preliminary work than any other step in the design process.
2. Create Balance
Balance is important in logo design because our minds naturally perceive a balanced design as being pleasing and appealing.
Keep your logo balanced by keeping the “weight” of the graphics, colors, and size equal on each side.
Though the rule of balance can occasionally be broken, remember that your logo will be viewed by the masses, not just those with an eye for great art, so a balanced design is the safest approach.
3. Size Matters
When it comes to logo design, size does matter. A logo has to look good and be legible at all sizes.
A logo is not effective if it loses too much definition when scaled down for letterheads, envelopes, and small promotional items. The logo also has to look good when used for larger formats, such as posters, billboards, and electronic formats such as TV and the Web.
The most reliable way to determine if a logo works at all sizes is to actually test it yourself.
Note that the smallest scale is usually the hardest to get right, so start by printing the logo on a letterhead or envelope and see if it is still legible.
You can also test for large-scale rendering by printing a poster-sized version at a print shop.
4. Clever Use of Color
Color theory is complex, but designers who understand the basics are able to use color to their advantage.
The basic rules to keep in mind are:
- Use colors near to each other on the color wheel (e.g. for a “warm” palette, use red, orange, and yellow hues).
- Don’t use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes.
- The logo must also look good in black and white, grayscale, and two colors.
- Breaking the rules sometimes is okay; just make sure you have a good reason to!
Knowing how colors evoke feelings and moods is also important. For example, red can evoke feelings of aggression, love, passion, and strength.
Keep this in mind as you try out different color combinations, and try to match the color to the overall tone and feel of the brand.
Playing around with individual colors on their own is another good idea. Some brands are recognizable solely by their distinct color.
For example, when you think of John Deere, you think of the “John Deere green” color, and this sets this brand apart from its competitors and, more importantly, makes the brand all the more recognizable.
5. Design Style Should Suit the Company
You can use various design styles when creating a logo, and to pick the right one, you should have some background information about the client and the brand.
A recent trend in logo design is the Web 2.0 style of 3D-looking logos, with “bubbly” graphics, gradients, and drop shadows.
This style may work well for a Web 2.0 website or tech company, but may not be effective for other kinds of brands.
Research your client and its audience before you begin your preliminary work.
This will help you determine the best design style from the start and save you from having to return repeatedly to the drawing board.
6. Typography Matters… a Lot!
Choosing the right font type and size is much more difficult than many beginner designers realize.
If your logo design includes text, either as part of the logo or in the tagline, you will need to spend time sorting through various font types — often, dozens of them — and testing them in your design before making a final decision.
Try both serif fonts and sans-serif fonts as well as script, italics, bold, and custom fonts.
Consider three main points when choosing a font to accompany your logo design:
- Avoid the most commonly used fonts, such as Comic Sans, or else your design may come off as amateurish.
- Make sure the font is legible when scaled down, especially with script fonts.
- One font is ideal, and avoid more than two.
Strongly consider a custom font for your design. The more original the font, the more it will distinguish the brand. Examples of successful logos that have a custom font are Yahoo!, Twitter, and Coca Cola.
7. The Goal IS Recognition
The whole point of creating a logo is to build brand recognition. So, how do you go about doing this?
Well, it varies from case to case, but the goal with the logo is for the average person to instantly call the brand to mind.
A few examples of this are the logos for Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, and Nike.
Just a glimpse of any of these logos is all you need to recognize the brands.
The key to making a popular and recognizable logo is to combine all of the elements discussed in this article: size, style, color, typography, and originality.
Overlooking any of these during the design process will impair the quality of your final design. Examine your own logo design and see whether it meets all of these criteria.
A quick test to determine if your logo is recognizable enough is to invert it using any graphic design software and see if you can still recognize the brand. Additionally, you should mirror the logo and see if it’s easily recognizable in this state.
Keep in mind that logos aren’t always seen head-on in real world situations, for example, on the side of a bus or a billboard that you drive by.
Therefore, you should make sure to view your logo design from all angles and ensure that it’s recognizable from any direction before submitting it to your client.
8. Dare to be Different
To stand out from the competition, you must distinguish yourself as a designer with a distinct style. Rather than copy another design or style, be innovative and stand out from the crowd.
So, how can you be different? Try breaking the rules of design and taking risks.
Try a variety of styles to find the one that works best for your client. Try different color combinations until you find one that makes your design truly original.
Have fun with the design program you use, and keep tweaking the design until you feel you’ve got it right.
9. K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Stupid)
The simpler the logo, the more recognizable it will be.
For example, the Nike swoosh is an extremely simple logo and is also one of the most recognizable in the world.
Follow the K.I.S.S. rule right from the start of the design process, when you are brainstorming ideas and doodling sketches.
Often, you’ll find that you start with a relatively complicated design and end up with a simpler version of it in the end.
Work the design down to its essentials and leave out all unnecessary elements.
10. Go Easy on Effects
Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, Photoshop, and other graphic design programs are extremely powerful tools and have many filters and effects that you can apply to your logo, but don’t get carried away!
There’s a time and place for these powerful tools, but it is not necessarily to design a logo.
Of course, playing around and seeing whether they enhance a logo is fine, but just remember that simplicity is key.
11. Develop a Design “Assembly Line”
To produce consistently high-quality logos, you need to develop your own design process, or “assembly line.” This should include the following steps:
- Research
- Brainstorm and generate ideas
- Preliminary sketches
- Develop vector designs
- Send to client
- Add or remove anything the client wants
- Finalize the design and resubmit to client
Although you may want to tweak the order slightly, you should follow these basic steps with each logo design.
This will help you streamline your work, stay organized, maintain focus, and deliver better quality and more consistent results with each job.
12. Use Other Designs for Inspiration Only!
The last rule for designing an effective logo is quite simple: don’t copy other designers’ work! While there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other designers, copying another person’s ideas or work is morally and legally wrong.
Gallery websites exist that let you use vector art images free of charge, with proper attribution under the Creative Commons License, but I strongly recommend not going this route.
These websites can be helpful for getting ideas during the brainstorming stage, but you’re better off starting your design from scratch and making it 100% original.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/12-essential-rules-to-follow-when-designing-a-logo/
Posted by: Natasha Willcocks
