Thread: Logo Design Critique

What kind of market is your client looking to attract? All too often when logos are designed, the designer fails to consider the target market so this also needs to be taken into account.

Ask your client how he wants his target market to perceive his brand - and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. Your client should seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors.

As David has said above, you really need to get under the skin of your clients company ethos and what they are all about, but don't forget - as equally important is the target market.

I'm also a little perplexed as to why they are not doing their own branding and choose to have a web design company work on this... sorry!

In my honest opinion, none of the designs shown so far really float my boat.

yea ms_dave has said what I was trying to say with my ramblings heheh, of course as we have not got the actual brief or talked to your clients we have no knowledge of how they perceive themselves other than that brief brief.

To me a branding company should know exactly how they want their target market to perceive them and how do they want to stand out (out standing) from their competitors.

Asking the WHY questions is so important in creating a logo, your creating something that will function as much more than just a logo and for many many years to come.

Another thing I like to do is get some pictures of existing brands logos that have stood the test of time, put in your variations amongst them, do yours stand out, do they look as though they are worthy of competing with the big brands. After all the clients logo will be compared with the bigger brands whether they like it or not.

doh, giving trade secrets away there Kev heheh ;)

Oh didn't see page 2, well, theres 3 posts all pretty much saying the same thing

Originally Posted by ms_dave

hi Fred,

I hope i haven't missed something here...but the first question that springs to mind is why a branding company that presumably specialises in branding consultancy,etc would go to a web development company to design them a logo?

That aside, i would have thought they might have given you a pretty tight brief to go on. For example, the ethos of the company, what they want to convey through their own branding,etc.

Creating a brand is so much more than just coming up with a logo...you really have to get under the skin of what they are all about in order to communicate to the rest of the world what the company offers.

A company that calls themselves "Outstanding Branding" really does need to have an outstanding brand identity themselves.

I hope this helps and maybe you can go back to them with some questions that would help you with the whole design process, so you can knock 'em dead with a really great logo.

Hey Dave, cheers for offering feedback.

Firstly, they've gone to a few different agencies to see what happens with that. I know what you mean though, that for a branding company you would assume they could at least brand themselves. I know one of the owners via a Southend forum, he's happy to give me a chance at doing it all.

The brief is pretty much as I posted earlier. I'm certainly inexperienced in branding of any sort, so I'm not really sure what the norm is on briefs. Out of the few jobs I've done this has the most detailed brief so far.

It's so hard to communicate what they're about in the means of a small typeface and (possibly) emblem. Logo design isn't easy at all! I'm new to this but I really am struggling with the idea of creating a brand, but hopefully that will develop in time.

Cheers for the feedback

Originally Posted by MS-Ian

What kind of market is your client looking to attract? All too often when logos are designed, the designer fails to consider the target market so this also needs to be taken into account.

Ask your client how he wants his target market to perceive his brand - and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. Your client should seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors.

As David has said above, you really need to get under the skin of your clients company ethos and what they are all about, but don't forget - as equally important is the target market.

I'm also a little perplexed as to why they are not doing their own branding and choose to have a web design company work on this... sorry!

In my honest opinion, none of the designs shown so far really float my boat.

Firstly, cheers for the honest opinions, they're the only feedback that's worth anything.

All I know is that they'll have two strands, one looking at the consultative approach to merchandise and one looking at selling branded products. I honestly don't know their intended market so that's one question I'll certainly be asking.

Thanks for the comments, it has helped and I'll go back to the client with some questions

Originally Posted by KevJaques

yea ms_dave has said what I was trying to say with my ramblings heheh, of course as we have not got the actual brief or talked to your clients we have no knowledge of how they perceive themselves other than that brief brief.

To me a branding company should know exactly how they want their target market to perceive them and how do they want to stand out (out standing) from their competitors.

Asking the WHY questions is so important in creating a logo, your creating something that will function as much more than just a logo and for many many years to come.

Another thing I like to do is get some pictures of existing brands logos that have stood the test of time, put in your variations amongst them, do yours stand out, do they look as though they are worthy of competing with the big brands. After all the clients logo will be compared with the bigger brands whether they like it or not.

doh, giving trade secrets away there Kev heheh ;)

Oh didn't see page 2, well, theres 3 posts all pretty much saying the same thing

Good tips again cheers Kev, I'll take them all on board.

ime not trying to put you down but if im' honest none of them are that good.....duno how to explain it really

Originally Posted by CAM-CATZ

ime not trying to put you down but if im' honest none of them are that good.....duno how to explain it really

There's nothing like constructive criticism :icon_thumbdown:


I don't know if you are still working on this, but I agree that the red stands out, and I think if you spaced the words out a bit more, it would look a little less cluttered.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Curtis

Originally Posted by Xenonsoft

In the early stages, only knocked a few ideas around and one of them needs a bit of tweaking if he wishes to progress with it.

I thought I would get some feedback before sending it off to him from you lot.

The company offer solutions not a product, not cheap or garish but deliverable, innovative and flexible. They're consultative, deliverable and slick.

Don't hold back, if you think it's really not the right direction for a branding company then say it, honesty is the way forward.

Colourschemes are pretty irrelevant, mainly the font choice and idea lower down the page that I'm looking for feedback on.

Hi Fred, purely from the look of the logo and not taking any of the discussion re: audience etc I think you have a possiblity with developing the linking or shared 'g' and 'd' but I think you have to be very careful. The name "outstanding branding" suggests,... well.. the name "outstanding branding" so this needs to be spot on... not that much help I know but will give it more thought...

All very curious - a branding company that doesn't brand itself.
With company names that are literal there needs to be something that is just everso clever and that makes you think 'ah, yes..I get it.'

Or else you need to create some beautiful, simple typography and then consider how the finished logo will be used - Is it purely for online purposes? If so, can the 'outstanding' part be animated? If it's for print usage then should the word be foiled/varnished?

'Outstanding' should stand out, not 'branding'.

'Outstanding' means these things to me: Exceptional, fantastic, better than the rest, highlight, stand out(!) - ways of creating this 'stand out' are by font weight, colour, balance, proportion, finish/texture and final application (web/print.)