Google’s new look

So I am wondering around on Google today, at approximately 4pm cst,  and from one screen to the next Google changes. I couldn’t tell what the difference was right away, but if you use Google often any changes are sure to be noticed. I looked at the logo first. I thought.. that looks different. Indeed it was.

This new logo looks great. Kudos to who ever cleaned it up. With the two side by side it looks like the old one was hanging out in the smokers lounge. The new logo has less of a drop shadow, brighter colors and less of a bevel. Seeing the new logo makes the other one look so wrong. I think that is the sign of a good logo refresh. It should be obvious that this is a good move. To the point where you wonder , how did we ever put up with that old logo.

The logo is not the only thing that has changed. There is now a group of icons to the left that had originally been and still are at the top. However in the past they where only text links. Now there are these snazzy icons. This is most likely to help new or inexperienced users to find the other great things that google offers.

Beyond  the logo and the new added icons there is the new bottom that is the same idea as the old one just cleaner brighter color.

So what do you think of the new look. Let me know in the comments.

Update

As of just recently the new logo from google has disappeared. It looks as though they have gone back to the old logo and done away with the icons on the left. This may have been a beta test of the new google logo and icons. Or just a random glimpse at a better logo just to be taken away as quickly as it came.

Are you seeing the new logo still?

Logo Design Nashville Sentry Steel Services

Our most recent logo design / branding project in the Nashville, TN area was for Sentry Steel. As you can see above, the logo has changed quite a bit. Sentry Steel has been in business since 1965 and has added to there services over the years. These added services are what moved them to update their logo. Because of the Steel Services in the name, there are immediate ideas of what their company might do. There is also the issue of clients assuming they only do that one thing they did so many years ago. So the new logo takes the infuses off of the Steel Services and puts it on Sentry. This allows them to brand other parts of the business, as you can see below.

This is all to common in businesses. Most businesses start up with a specialty in one area and so there name or brand depicts that service or product. However as the business grows and industry demand changes, so do the products and services that the company offers. As they add offerings, the name becomes less representative of the company and can become an inappropriate representation of what the company does. When this happens, the brand of the company can be weakened. Your brand is what people think you are or think you do. If they think you do something that you don’t do, or don’t know what you do. Then their idea of you is not correct and you have a week brand. This ultimately translates into loss of business and missed opportunities.

Sometimes the solution is to just update the old logo to make it more current. Sometimes a complete redesign of the logo is necessary. In extreme cases a new name and logo are the answer. Whatever the issue your company is facing, be assured that there is a solution and we at Rush Design Group have that solution. We are also currently working on developing a consistent brand accross Sentry’s website and print materials.

Tropicana Recall.

In the last post we looked at the new design of the Tropicana logo and packaging and it seemed that most of you agreed that it was a step in the wrong direction. Well it looks like we were not the only ones. Tropicana has decided to pull the packaging and the logo and revert to the old version due to customer complaints. So if you are a fan there is a limited number of collector edition juice boxes at your local grocery store. This is just another example where redesign for the sake of redesign is not a good idea. Never underestimate the reputation of a long established brand.

Here is a video of the Design Firm defending the redesign.

Logo Design – Is Fresher Better?

The job of a logo is to give the public an image which to associate everything they know about a company. The logo does not have to exactly explain what the business does but it does need to have a look or feel that is consistent with the companies intended brand position.

Often busiesses work hard to imprint the image of there brand on the consumers mind. Once they have achieved that they just have to continue to offer the same great product or service that they are known for. However the urge to change is sometimes overwhelming. The need to look fresh and new is irresistible. Sometimes people start to think that since the company is so well known that maybe they are getting over looked.

In the case of Sprite, Blimpie, and Tropicana I believe they have got caught up in the need to make a change. The product has not changed or even the market but change for sake of change. And in these cases I would agrue that this change was not a change for the better.

So when is it the right time to make a change?

If a logo represents everything that your company is in the mind of the consumer than the only reason to change a logo is if you want to change what clients think about the company. For example if your company has delivered an affordable generic product for 20 years and you have decided to change to a high end specialty offering than you would not want to keep the same logo. Or if you started off selling horse shoes and now offer the whole horse with the trailer and horse food. Then a name like Troy’s Fine Horse Shoes may not be appropriate and a logo change as well as name change is in order.

Now there is something to be said in the area of tweaking a logo. For example the John Deere logo has been tweaked slowly over time. Likely the logo changed as the technology changed. They wanted to preserve what the public thought about the company but show them that they are making slight changes.

So in closing if you are a design firm and sprite comes to you wanting a new logo it may be hard to turn away the business but maybe it would be better to help them tweak the design instead of wipe an iconic image from the mind of all humanity. If you are a business owner consider what image your clients are associating you with and if it is consistent with your current position.

P.S. a note to Coka-Cola don’t even think about it !

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Why you should read about Logo Design and Graphic Design

Here is a casual video of why you should be reading this blog on a regular basis. I hope the bandage on my pinky is not distracting. I whacked it in a cheese slicer accident. Do not worry I am left handed and can still deliver great design.

Dutch Cheese is my Favorite.

YOU can have Success without a Logo.

It is true. You can have a successful business without a logo. I run into businesses on occasion that basically have no branding and no logo. They have there name in some standard font on a sign but they really don’t have a logo or a brand. They have been in business for longer than I have been alive and are making good money doing whatever they do. So here I come ,mister logo designer, trying to sale them a logo or a brand or anything resembling a marketing effort. Their response usually goes like this. Well buddy our owner Jim started this business 50+ years ago and we rely on word of mouth and good customer service. “Two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years, 44 percent survive at least four years, and 31 percent survive at least seven years, according to a recent study.” from sba.gov. If this is true than this business is unique to start with. To be in business for so long means they are doing a lot of things right. Generally after closer evaluation a few things are found to be true.

1. The business Owner is the back bone of the business and brings in the majority of revenue through personal contacts and long standing relationships.

Problem: If the owner dies. The relationships may also. Or if the person the owner has the relationship with moves to another company. The business will likely suffer. Because there is no brand in place the value dies with the relationship. If the value is in the brand then the new owner will likely continue the service that the brand represents. One other potential problem with this scenario is that if the business should decide to sale while things are good the owner will likely need to stay on to see the business through the transition. With so much of the value in the person and not in the brand the business will be valued less to potential buyers. Example if you were buying Coke. Would you want to own the drink or the name? If you could Only pick one you would probably pick the name because it is recognized world wide.

2.The company was able to carve out a niche early on and have not seen significant competition.

Problem: When competition comes, and it will, You don’t want to start a brand or marketing campaign to tell your clients about the value you bring. You want to have that in place before. Be assured that the competition will have all there ducks in a row. They will tell your customers all the things you should have been telling them coupled with a great price. It may not take much to persuade them to leave.

3.The Company has large clients that generate consistent business.

Problem: If one of those clients leaves you will have wished a strong brand had been in place so that when your new sales guy goes out people will have heard of and recognize the value in your brand. You will not need to take the time convincing them that you know what your doing you will just have to make the sale based on offering what they need at the right price.

So if you are a business that has enjoyed success, take the necessary steps to ensure your companies value and develop a professional image with a logo that customers can associate your quality with.

First Logo Design Then the Business Card / Nashville Graphic Design

This video covers a few reasons why it is not wise to start a business with just business cards and no logo. A well designed logo will make your company look professional and set your business up for success. To find out more about logos read some related categories or Contact Rush Design Group.

Reasons SEO guy and LOGO guy should work together

Why should SEO guy be in on the creative brief?

I am a logo designer. Who recently has decided to educate myself as much as possible about SEO. After diving into the world of SEO I have found that it is much more complicated than I would have imagined. Granted there are some basic things that everyone can do to help their situation. The vision in my head of an SEO guy was much like the PC guy in the mac commercials. I, of course, use a mac, so by default I get to be the mac guy. This is probably not an accurate stereo type but lets just go with it. You can tell me how off base I am in the comments. But I digress. That has nothing to do with the point.

Common Ground between SEO guy and Logo guy.

The point is that I see some common ground between the logo designer and the seo guy. ( not quite sure what to call them yet). Anyway as a logo designer I focus on the client. Who they are, who they want to be, what there goals are, how they plan to get there. Many times not even worrying about the website yet because who knows if I will get that job anyway. We are just trying to get a logo done. We are just trying to get the positioning and the branding in place. But why wouldn’t I be thinking about how this logo, or brand, or position is going to play out on the web? Does it not make sense that I would bring an SEO expert in to the creative brief? Could an SEO expert not research the competition and tell me exactly what their goals are based on their links and keywords? With an SEO expert on the job we could forecast a plan to position the client for keywords or products that show the most opportunity for the client. If there is a gap in the competition why wouldn’t we position the client from the start to fill that gap. Why not start with the logo and make sure it is appropriate for the keywords we want to rank for. Further more clients in the logo process are open, more than any other time, to the idea of changing there name. Surely an SEO expert could make suggestions as to what domains would best fit the clients needs.

As for an SEO expert. I would imaging their main target is web design firms or web designers. I have never met an SEO expert that worked for a design studio other than a web design studio. Surely everyone can benefit from this knowledge. While there are plenty of Web design studios out there, there are many logo designers that transition the client from logo to print to web and need the help of an SEO expert. The help of an SEO expert would certainly bring value to the logo process.

In conclusion I think the future relationship between the logo designer and the SEO expert is promising. What do you think?

SEO Experiment / A new blog www.logodesignnashville.com

I registered www.logodesignnashville.com a couple of years ago because it was a keyword that I wanted to rank well for. I did not have a site up, but I had it forward to my main website. It really did not help much because it was a forwarding domain. But during the seo experiment I decided to put a blog up on the domain. A couple of days after putting it up with no content it was ranking on the first page of Google results for the keywords ” logo design Nashville” So since then I have tried to get some worthy content on the site. There is not much there but I will be updating it often. And hopefully it will result in a increase in business. I’ll let you know.

Logo Design Nashville

I think there are four basic requirements for a well-designed logo.

1. Noticeable

2. Memorable

3. Reproducible

4. Timeless

First Noticeable.

If the potential client never sees your logo than the rest doesn’t matter. We have to assume that the logo is being used correctly and that there is a marketing plan in place. If so it needs to get noticed. So first look at the logo’s environment or competition. If the logo goes on packaging, look at the shelf it will sit on and make sure that it will stand out from the crowd. Look at the competition and make sure that it is different. It sounds simple, but many business look at the competition and copy what they did. Some businesses are afraid to look different from the competition but to look different is to get noticed, and every business wants to get noticed.

Second Memorable.

If a logo is to be remembered, it needs to be simple. If a potential client sees a logo before the need to purchase the product and remembers the logo, then when it comes time to purchase the product from that brand the client is more likely to consider the brand or logo they recognize . A potential client needs to feel comfortable with a product in order to make a purchase. If something is familiar, it gives a client the confidence to make the purchase. Remember simple, your logo could be in front of the consumer before they are ready to purchase, so they need to remember it until the time they need it. If the logo is too complicated to take in and digest then it will likely not be remembered.

Third Reproducible.

So you have a logo, now you need to put it on something. A logo could be put on a multitude of items and all of those items go through a different production process in order to get that logo on the item. So consider the way the logo is designed and if it will reproduce well. Will it look good on a billboard? Will it look good on a pen? Will it look good on your shirt. It should be okay on any of the media if it is simple. A complex logo at a quarter inch looks like a blurry mistake. And it would be a mistake to put a complex logo on a pen. Color should also be considered. The more color the more expensive it will be to put it on items. When you consider all of the things a business puts their logo on and the amount of money that will be spent the cost can add up. If you can’t live without color, make sure that the logo doesn’t depend on the color to make sense. If a logo doesn’t work in black and white, it doesn’t work. As a rule, I try to limit logos to two colors. In some circumstances three. The cost to print a 2 color business card and a 3 color card could be 15%. On a $50 set of card that doesn’t seem like much but multiplied by all of the employees cards, letterhead, envelope ( and a 3 color envelope could be as much as %50-%100 more than a 2 color envelope) and every other piece of marketing material.

Lastly Timeless.

When it comes time to design a logo there will always be a trend. Trends change. They become unpopular as fast as they become popular. So when designing a logo be careful of a trendy logo. Assume your business will never go out of business. So that means the logo needs to last a long time, and if it is timeless it will look good 10 years from now when the trends are very different. That doesn’t mean a brand can not be trendy. The design around the logo can be trendy and the design can change with the trends. For example you can put a logo on a trendy poster. So why not change the logo every few years? Imagine if you changed your face. Imagine you replaced your face with a different face. People you have known all of your life wouldn’t recognize. The same will happen with clients. If you use a logo correctly you will teach the consumer to associate your reputation with your logo. If the logo changes it can be very difficult to transfer that reputation to a new logo. So design a logo you can live with.

If the above criteria are met the logo will be a success. To see examples of logos designed by Rush Design Group visit our web site .

Thanks

Donald Rush