{I recently did a logo for a new non-profit, but unfortunately they decided to go a different direction with a another logo design. I still like this logo and the cause.}

If you get a chance to support A D.A.M.N. Good Cause, please do. Their first event is happening on July 24 at The Celebration Park Stage at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. There will be a motorcycle ride as well as an all ages event with music, food and a silent auction. All proceeds are going to raise money for the Betty Jordon Fund, Motorcycle driving safety and recovery/search canine groups of Indiana. It is a DAMN good cause.

So you start out thinking one way with a client’s identity, and usually you wind up somewhere else. It’s pretty rare when a designer can start with a logo design springing from one’s head like Athena, and then have the identity get approved as is by the client. Even before showing a client the final two or three logo options to choose from, I’ll work through several versions and then narrow those down to the best ones. It’s a good method of controlling the outcome, that way you have back up versions if the client doesn’t like what you have chosen, and you can keep what you view to be your best work in front of the client without giving the impression that you are indecisive. In my opinion, it’s better to not overwhelm the client with too many options or else you wind up doing more work than quoted originally for the job.

{Beginning logo idea for client.}

I almost had a first proof – approval happen with The Rhinestone Collar. TRC (as I like to call it) is a fantastic local pet grooming service. If you ever get a chance to use Jeff Campbell’s services, the first thing that you will notice is the orange painted house he works his magic out of. In our beginning discussions about his brand update, Jeff had mentioned he was in love with the colors: black, orange and pink. Bright fun colors that reflect such a fun and artistic man.

Only issue, is that as a designer, you have to have a little restraint with color. In previous posts I’ve mentioned how you should limit your colors for a logo to two at the most (more than two is do-able, but it gets complicated.) I need to add to that post that if the colors are orange and black, be careful how you position them or you might wind up with a Halloween themed brand rather than a brand that is reflective of the business’s personality and services. There is nothing wrong with using orange and black, plenty of brands in the consumer/business world use black and orange. TRC will be using an orange/black palette it’s ongoing brand identity development.

Originally I wanted to steer the client to a heather or charcoal gray (Pantone cool gray 10) but I had to be open to the requests of the client. Jeff likes orange and being the vibrant wonderful personality he is, he wanted orange. So after we discussed the pros and cons-the front cover of the business card displaying the logo went from cool gray 10 to Pantone orange 1665.

{Businesscard/logo setup in cool gray 10.}

Here’s where we ended up with. Not a bad compromise, and really I didn’t have to change the layout/design elements – only the color.

{Final business card and logo with diamond shape mock up in orange 1665.}

I’m working on slight upgrades to my identity. That includes short run business/promotional cards. It’s fun to update your brand’s identity from year to year. You just have to decide how much you are willing to change. A slight upgrade in color or logo appearance keeps the recognition of your company consistent.

However, there are examples of identities completely revamping  their  appearance  (like brand identities for food, soft drinks or equipment). It can work against the company brand, depending on the strategy. The strategy for Pepsi products is to refresh/re-invent their soft drinks for more consumption. Which does not seem to be working since Coca Cola is still the top soft drink in the world and their logo and bottle shape has relatively been the same for over a hundred years.

For creative agencies, there is a little more freedom. Some agencies like Space 150, redesign their identity every 150 days. Re-branding does have environmental and brand equity questions about whether it’s worth it for paper resources, design-work and promotion to do it so often. Space 150 does this as a way of showing off their specialty in reinventing brands and their client list is impressive as a result. Either way, if you want to grow steadily with your brand identity, make gradual changes until you feel you are ready to launch an all together different appearance.

This can also coincide with any changes within your services.  For instance if you have been a print designer for a number of years, but recently your clients are more and more relying on your e-commerce and social media web development for campaigns and websites. At this juncture you may want to rethink how your logo and brand identity reflect your evolution.

My suggestion is to keep it simple.

Think of the following three to help you simplify:

1. Color
2. Fonts
3. Message/service visual representation

(ONE) Choose a simple color scheme to identify your presence. You can be subjective to a point with choosing colors. If your service is pet grooming and you love purples, pinks and oranges – choose one of those colors and pair it up for contrast with black or white. This way you can play with the negative space black/white create and add a bright color for quick attention. For Cleis Design, I’m in love with black and a this crazy blue (PMS 7459c). Choosing Pantone Colors at the beginning of this process will save you the time of having to convert web or cmyk/rgb mixes.

How many colors you choose is up to you. Just remember more than two colors and you may have to start thinking of what these colors represent for your business, services or market and how you visually will use them. Larger corporations often use multiple colors to represent service distinction (one or more services can be identified selectively by color) or sector organization (this is used if you happen to own several different companies/franchises that offer different products/services while carrying your brand name). More than two colors and it gets complicated, possibly manageable..but complicated.

(TWO) Fonts, use consistently one or two fonts. And for clarity, choose one of the fonts from a sans serif family. As much as I love the ornate scripty/serif fonts, legibility is extremely important, so a nice Helvetica, Arial or tons of other unique sans serifs will mix well with presenting the most important messages and services you offer. Make the Sans Serif your dominant font and either use another style from the same font family or only use your serif font strategically (and minimally) to break up large chunks of information on a web site or in a brochure. Always create a style guide (branding guide) to help you and others you work with understand when to use these fonts in relation to emphasis.

(THREE) Message/service visual representation. Create a simple icon, type treatment or visual representation of who you are or what services you offer. You don’t have to visually represent all three, you can expand on the service portion within your support materials (web site/printed materials).  If you are unsure, ask yourself the following questions:

Who are you and what do you represent?
Take the time to list what kind of business you are and what do you want to tell people about your business/self.

Are you literal about representing yourself?
Meaning, if for example you were a landscaping business, do you want to be represented by flowers or garden shears? Or are you open to creative interpretation like abstract shapes, objects that can be worked into type treatments, flourishes or fonts from classic time periods that refine your identity.

Once you have figured out these three elements out you can keep expanding and evolving. Just remember keep it simple.

As 2009 nears it’s untimely end, I’m updating my portfolio for 2010. One of the new pieces I am adding is the redesign of The SESN Newsletter. The neighborhoods surrounding Fountain Square are featured bimonthly inside this 12 page newsprint piece.

The previous design for the newsletter needed to be updated to reflect the bohemian and retro atmosphere surrounding the SouthEast Side of Indianapolis. Since we only have color on the front and back cover of the newsletter, it was important to update the fonts and use bright colors/photographs that pop against the gray newsprint. Topaz is my favorite font so I often incorporate it into my designs, something industrial and retro like Topaz works well with ubiquitous fonts like Arial and doesn’t compete with a dash of Bodoni.

A newsletter should be fun and appear interesting to it’s audience, so regardless if you have an audience of readers that are children or hipster/artsy people in an urban neighborhood keeping the layout clean, bright and organized will help your readers find the information they want to know quickly.

For instance, always create a table of contents. If your newsletter is longer than two pages, highlight the main stories by placing a table of contents on the cover (if it doesn’t compete with the design) or on the first interior page of the newsletter.

I’m getting ready to start the next issue and let me tell you I’ve got some ideas for 2010 to keep this newsletter going with interest. Maybe some finger puppets or poster inserts-who said newsletters have to be boring?

CLIENT: The Indiana Historical Society
PROJECT: Decorative Graphic Panels for the Stardust Terrace Cafe



I’m a sucker for Victorian store fronts, script fonts, antique photos, old flourishes and Hoagy Carmichael. So when asked by the Historical Society to help illustrate the musical story being told within the new Stardust Terrace Café, I jumped at the chance. 6 graphic panels together tell the story of The McArthur Conservatory, The Butler Music Company and The Gennett Recording Company. The approved panels were then embellished with props from the exhibit department. Once the store front alcoves and space were re-constructed, shadow box windows were created for the panels to be displayed in.

Historically, all three music entities have played an important role in the shaping of the musical heritage of Northern and Central Indiana. To display a difference between the three identities, colors and logotypes were assigned to each. This is the wonderful part of the freelance experience: collaboration.

IHS let me choose the colors palette for each company in addition to offering color suggestions for the store front color palette. From that I was able create a style guide to base the identities and colors for each company.

STYLE GUIDE

I’ve created style guides that are much more complex and multi-paged than this, but for a small project, I only needed to keep track of the fonts, color and art elements to be incorporated.



A style guide is extremely helpful when documenting the process and approved elements of a freelance project. It can be as simple as a one page pdf or if the concept is to be incorporated into a long standing brand identity you can develop a style guide to involve the audiences to be marketed to, messaging, Pantone colors, font, font sizes, punctuation, tag lines, identity system development and sub-brands.

Stop by the newly opened Stardust Terrace Café and observe up close the final product.