Hemphill and Moore Realty look a like ?

So if you know me you know that more times than not when I get to pick where we eat I like to pick Mexican food. I am not talking about Chi-Chi’s or Taco Bell. I eat at Mexican restaurants where the folks speak Spanish. I believe these are the best kinds. I’m sure they are all over the country. Here in Nashville we have plenty to choose from. Every town usually has 4-5 run by Hispanic families. Anyway on to the point. I find my self eating lunch at odd times like 3pm. Usually things are slow and half the staff is sitting down folding napkins and watching Univision. Which from what I can tell is the Hispanic channel of choice.

A month or more ago I was driving around and saw a Hemphill and Moore Realty Sign. At this time the sign was in black only. After seeing it for a week or more and noticing that it resembled the Univision logo. I called the company. I told them that there logo looked very close to that of the Univision logo. They said ok with no real interest and that was it. I few months later I noticed that there signs had changed to color and now look even more like the logo.

So what do you think. Is this a logo rip off or a honest mistake? To see other logo’s that look alike visit this site.

And just in case you are wondering it is not ok to take a symbol of of another logo and put it on yours. Even if you change the color up a little.

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 Day 18 of 30 Graphic Design

It is day 18 of the 30 day seo experiment.

The goal of the experiment is to:

1. Blog every work day
2. Sign up for as many social networks as possible
3. Read everyday about SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) Basically how to show up on Google.
4. Network with other bloggers and leave real comments

So far so good. I have noticed an increase in traffic as well as a better rank in search results. Throughout this experiment I have received some questions from clients and friends. Here are a few with some answers.

1. What is a blog? Surprisingly not everyone is familiar with blogs or how they work. Most blogs are focused on a specific topic and consist of one persons opinions on that topic. The blogger or blog owner writes on a regular basis about the topic that they want to be the expert on. The writing is generally casual and asks the readers to comment and share their opinions. The blogger can choose to approve those comments or delete them.
2. What is SEO? SEO stands for ( Search Engine Optimization). SEO is a lot of things and every post that is part of this experiment touches on different parts. But basically SEO is Optimizing your website to rank well on search engines for specific keywords.
3. What are Keywords? Keywords are the words that get typed into the search field on Google. You as the website owner decide what words you want to show up for. For example, Rush Design Group wants to show up for 3 basic Keywords or Key Phrases: logo design Nashville, graphic design Nashville, branding Nashville. So I make sure those words are on my site as much as possible.
4. Why do you keep spamming me? Sorry, I have been trying to promote my blog to everyone I know. Unfortunately not all of my clients, friends, and family like to hear from me everyday. What I have learned is that Facebook, Twitter ,and other social networks offer a passive form of contact I can say what I am doing with out demanding anyone read it. Emailing often may not be a good way to go if you want to promote your site. Although a Newsletter once a month has shown to be very productive.

I can’t believe how productive this experiment has been only 18 days in. I look forward to updating everyone on the final results. Leave a comment if you enjoy the post and if you are tired of hearing about it.

First Video Post / SEO Experiment Graphic Design

So this is the first video post. This is part of the SEO experiment. I hope you enjoy it. I didn’t spend a lot of time making it look great I just wanted to test it out and get it on the blog. Please let me know what 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.