Speaking of green logos (which we were doing here), there’s another green logo that hangs prominently on our wall that I should have featured below.

Unlike the others, however, this one was featured as a winner in the AIGA 100 design competition a couple of years ago.

When the client approached us, they asked for something that felt “soft” and would make people “feel happy” when they see it. Then they described a scene with an oak tree and a pony-tailed girl reading an over-sized book near a river. Something that would be appealing to young girls, but not feel to “girly”. That’s a lot to put into a logo, but our designer did a phenomenal job creating this outstanding mark for the client. It’s a logo I love.

Of course, when you’re ready to start your own logo project, our logo design team is here to help. Simple visit Logoworks.com, tell us a little about what you want to see, and we’ll have your first concepts done in three business days.

For the latest post in our series on the meaning and use of color, we’re taking a closer look at the color green. You can read more about the color blue here, and the color red here.

Green is primarily associated with nature and the environment. We talk about “green technologies” meaning, scientific advances that are renewable or environmentally friendly. Green also represents positive values like growth, newness, freshness, fertility, healing, and safety. On the other hand, green also represents a few negative ideas like jealousy (you’ve heard the term “green with envy”), illness, and inexperience (think “greenhorn”).

In the United States, green has a very close association with money (because our bills are mostly green—”greenbacks”), so green is often used to represent financial companies and Wall Street. In the middle east and southern Asia, green has a strong association with Islam.

Because of its association with nature, we often see green used in landscaping and real estate company logos. It’s also a natural for golf courses, natural foods, and nature or travel-oriented companies.

Large companies known for their use of green in their logos and trade dress include H&R Block, Animal Planet, Starbucks, Rainforest Cafe, X-Box 360, and perhaps most famously, BP, which has been accused of “greenwashing” their corporate image to appear more environmentally friendly than they really are (we leave it up to you to decide if this is a fair criticism). Another green logo that you are undoubtedly familiar with is the recycling logo found on plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

A couple of my favorite “green” logos from our gallery:

Click here to see more examples of logos in all colors or to get started on your own logo design project.

A few months ago, we were approached for a logo by a new start-up. They asked for an icon that would incorporate a bee, but wanted something more artistic and abstract than just an illustration of an insect. In addition, it needed to be a mark that could be used for several different companies, all using the same name: Buzzword.

The client chose our most affordable logo package and received four different concepts, plus six additional tweaks to their favorite concept in their first round of revisions. One of the concepts we presented incorporated a yellow and black color scheme to represent an “abstract bee” and combined it with quotation marks, representing the company name. It is one of my favorite logos we’ve created lately:

Ultimately, the client selected another option we presented, that is perhaps more applicable across other business applications. In it’s final form, the icon is combined with a type treatment of the company name. But here, you see just the icon:

To put the talented staff at The World’s #1 Logo Design Studio to work on your next design project, visit Logoworks today.

We’ve done design work (logos, websites, brochures, PowerPoint templates, and more) for more than 100,000 different clients over the past ten years. And the vast majority of those clients are very happy with the designs we created for their businesses. In fact, after every project is completed, we ask our clients to rate the quality of the designs we show them, how they feel about the service they received, and their satisfaction with their final artwork—all on a scale of 1-10.

But we don’t always get it perfect. Occasionally we miss something that the client wanted to see. We may have mis-set expectations and failed to meet them. Or, the client may encounter an system error on our site. Not often, but it happens. And every once in a while, that client will call in and express their disappointment using, um, colorful language.

Once we’ve solved the issue, made everything right, and the call is over, it’s important to reward the Account Manager who answered the call and fixed the issue. So we pick up a few F-Bomb Cookies to hand out to everyone on the team. Chocolate Chip mostly, but occasionally we spring for Almond-frosted Sugar Cookies instead. Mmmmm. Almost makes those mistakes worth it. Almost.

Then we go back to doing what we do best—creating great artwork—mostly logos—and thrilling our clients with great service.

Where do we get the cookies? From a little company down the street called Smart Cookie. They make some of the best cookies you’ll find anywhere. Incidentally, we created their (very smart) logo…

Cookie photo by AMagill.

Last week it was monkeys. This week it’s monks.

We recently took on a project for a new start up called Monk Networks—a technology company that mixes software, systems, and network management for small to medium business start-ups. For their logo, they asked to see cartoon style monks in most of the concepts. They also asked for an icon that could stand alone, without the rest of the logo (a good idea if you are set on having an iconic logo).

We presented them with seven concepts to choose from (they purchased our most popular Gold Package which includes three designers and guarantees at least six unique concepts).

Here are a few of the concepts we presented.

First up is a fun, cartoon-style monk icon matched with a strong, bold font—exactly what the client requested:

Of course, we like to present as wide a variety of concepts as possible (this is one reason we put several designers on each project, instead of having a single designer crank out several concepts that end up feeling too similar). So, we also presented a few concepts that were a little more serious feeling. This next composition of a buddhist monk includes a brush stroke of color and a stylized, calligraphic-feeling font.

We presented another more serious option, though this one might look a little too much like a jedi or grim reaper. Still it has a good strong font and a memorable icon:

Lastly, another, very different concept. This one uses a thinner font treatment and a more abstract icon or a praying monk which the designer placed where the “o” should be in the name. It’s not exactly what the client requested, but as occasionally happens, they liked this one the best.

A lot of the folks around our logo design studio are a little sad that LOST is gone forever. And more than a couple were a little unhappy about the ending—what did you think?

To celebrate the series finale, we asked one of our designers to piece together an illustration of a new LOST logo. We recorded the whole thing, and have sped it up a bit to show you how it all comes together. Take a look:

You can see a few other demonstrations or “speed drawings” here, here, here, here, and here.

If you like what you see, you can put these same designers to work on your next design project. Just visit Logoworks to find out more.

The following article was originally published in the Logoworks Small Business Newsletter a little over two years ago.

For the past ten years, branding has been a hot topic. Experts have written thousands of books and articles, and presented hundreds of workshops that detail what it is and how to do it. Want to create an iconic brand? There are several books that can help. Want a legendary brand? There are books for that too. How about a guerilla brand, a techno-brand, a digital brand, an emotional brand, a simple brand, a primal brand, a luxury brand, or a successful brand? The list is almost endless and there’s a book or seminar telling you how to create all these and more.

If you’re like most small business owners, you simply don’t have the time (or desire) to sort through it all. So if you’re not a branding expert, is branding something you should even worry about?

Absolutely.

But probably not in the ways you might expect. In order to explain what that means, let’s answer a few of the most common questions business owners ask branding.

1. What is branding?

You’ve probably heard the Indian folk tale about the five blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. One man took hold of the tail and said the elephant was like a rope, frayed at the end. The second man held the elephant’s ear and described it as a thin, leathery fan. The third felt the thick, rough skin of the elephant’s leg and said it was like the trunk of a tree. The men holding the trunk and tusk offered different descriptions of what an elephant was. Of course, they were all right—and all wrong.

Branding experts have offered different descriptions of branding and the best ways to do it. Often they, like the men touching the elephant, are describing the different parts of branding. Designers talk about branding as it relates to the logo and trade dress (the look of the packaging and store). Most advertisers think about branding as it relates to television and radio commercials. An Operations Director, Technology Manager, Customer Service Agent, and Salesperson will all have different opinions of what branding is. So how do you bring all these parts together into one whole?

Simply put, your business is your brand.

Said another way, your brand includes all of the elements that make up your business. It starts with your product or service, but also includes your logo, your store front, your delivery vehicles, the person who answers your phones, your return policies, your service guarantee, your advertising, your partners… you get the picture.

2. I have a logo. Isn’t this my brand?

Your logo is the most recognizable element of your brand. Because of this, many people use the two terms (logo and brand) interchangeably. There is no doubt that a great logo helps customers remember and recognize your product or service more easily. But your logo is simply a graphic representation of all the other parts of your brand—it’s visual short-hand for all the great things your business does. The logo is important, critical even. But it isn’t your brand.

3. Does branding require a big marketing budget?

While money definitely makes it easier, great branding doesn’t require deep pockets. But it does take thought, a bit of creativity, and a willingness to try different things. When Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens, started his business, he needed a way to stand out from all the other guys providing a similar service. So he bought a unique car and wore a short-sleeve, white shirt and skinny, clip-on tie. And he focused on delivering one-of-the kind service (including little details like returning calls within a few minutes and taking off his shoes as he entered a home). There were dozens of other consultants offering similar services, but Stephens stood out. His customers remembered the service, the unique uniform, the black and white car, and—this is the important part—they called him again when they needed him. Today Geek Squad is a big business, but it wasn’t too long ago that Robert Stephens was a small business owner with no budget and a creative idea for making his business stand out from the crowd.

4. How do I get people talking about my brand?

There are as many answers to this question as there are business ideas. Again, it takes creativity and a little work, but there are literally thousands of ways to do it. The very best way? Have a great product. This is exactly how Bear Naked Granola grew their tiny business—by using all natural ingredients, they created a terrific tasting product (my mouth waters just thinking about it). As more people tried and loved their product, they told their friends and family, who bought a bag. When these new customers tried it, they loved it too, and told even more friends. Starbucks did something similar by creating a unique experience around a cup of coffee (yes, Starbucks is big business with big budgets today, but it wasn’t too long ago that it was a four-store chain with a new idea about how coffee should be served).

Of course, you can try things like contests, special offers, and PR events, but gimmicks don’t last long. If your product isn’t better than your competitor’s, or if you don’t offer a service or experience that is different in some way, you will always struggle to get people talking about your brand.

5. What are the most important things to remember about my brand? Always remember you are constantly building your brand, whether you do it consciously or not. The decision to hire (or not) a customer service person with bad grammar is more than a service decision, it’s a branding decision. Choosing to raise or lower prices isn’t just a question about margins, but about branding. How you keep your store, how you treat your customers, the products and services you offer—these are both business and branding decisions. You are always building your brand.

Now back to the question we asked at the beginning of our discussion: Is branding something you should worry about? Again, the answer is, “absolutely.” But it doesn’t require stacks of books or attending branding workshops. Instead, it takes thought, a little creativity, and consistency over time. By thinking about your business decisions as branding decisions, you take a more active approach to your brand. And that will help you attract new customers and stand out from your competition—which ultimately may mean finding real business success.

We recently announced that we had just started our 200,000th project here in our logo design studio. Most of those projects were logos for small businesses, though many were websites, brochures, custom illustrations, and even word and powerpoint templates. And a lot of those projects were for products, services, or companies with “monkey” in the name. You might say we’ve done barrels of them—all unique in some way. (Of course, we wouldn’t say that, it’s a little too silly, but you might.) Here are a few of my favorites:

The first is a custom illustration we did a few years ago for Math Monkey (an organization that teaches kids math in a fun, easier-to-learn ways).

Next up is a logo we recently completed for a new media company. Our instructions were “the sillier, the better.”  It’s a lot of fun:

Last monkey logo for today was created not too long ago for a new start-up. They asked for a logo with “splat.” This one delivers:

If you need a monkey, bear, rooster, beaver, gopher, giraffe, dog, hippo, or any other animal in your next design project , visit the logo design experts at Logoworks. We’d love to help.

We’ve written about color before (Paul did talked about color temperature, here, and I wrote about the color red, here). In that last post, we saw how colors have meaning. Today we take a closer look at the color blue.

Interestingly, if you were to ask someone their favorite color, you are mostly likely to be told, “blue.” Blue is preferred over other colors by more than 50% of all people, including both women and men. It is particularly popular among men.

Like all colors, blue is associated with both positive and negative attributes. Some of the positive ideas that blue can represent include: tradition, authority, stability, calm, tranquility, knowledge, healing, loyalty, and quality (think blue ribbon). Blue can also represent negative ideas including cold, depression (the blues), and nasty language (swear a blue streak).

Unlike red, which calls attention to itself and raises metabolism, blue does the opposite. Blue has a calming effect and can lower metabolism and suppress appetite.

Because of its association with trustworthiness and tradition, blue is used by many organizations that want to communicate these values—banks, insurance companies, and investment brokers. It is also used by government, police, and military units to communicate authority and expertise. Politicians often use blue in their signage and logos for the same reason. Large brands that effectively use blue include: IBM, Dell, HP (disclosure: our design shop is owned by HP), Ford, GM, BMW, Prudential, Progressive, United Way, Pfizer, Hilton, Princess Cruises, and Microsoft. Of course, there are dozens of other examples.

Is blue the right color for your brand identity? It all depends on what you are trying to communicate. If your brand stands for trustworthiness, calm, or authority, blue may be a good place to start. Spas, pool companies, law firms, and pharmaceutical and medical companies might also want to start with the color blue.

One of my favorite blue logos from our logo design gallery:

Do you need a logo that uses the color blue, or any other color, for that matter? Call the logo experts at Logoworks. You could see your first concepts in just three business days.

Photo credit: Ehsan Khakbaz.

Every couple of weeks, the artists here in the design shop post on the walls a bit of their favorite work from the previous ten days or so. Then the design team “votes” on the best work of all those that are submitted. Each of the designers with the best work gets a small gift card as well as the applause and respect of their peers. (I say this a little tongue in cheek—in truth there is usually much joking around and the good-natured ribbing you’d expect). Often times the designs that are presented were not selected by the client—but are amazingly good and deserving of some recognition. Thus the reason for the get-together (it’s definitely not a meeting).

We’ve been doing this 2-3 times a month for almost ten years, and the incredible quality of the design we hang up on the wall each time we get together never ceases to amaze me. It’s a good reminder of the incredibly talented people I get to work with every single day. Last week’s gathering featured about 30 logo, stationery, and website designs. Here’ are two of my favorites (in both cases here, the client ultimately selected another composition)…

The first is for a golf course restaurant called Tomasso’s that uses lettering to suggest the idea of spaghetti in addition to a nice icon that represents both golf and a pasta bowl (I’m getting hungry just looking at it):

The second is one of my favorite logo designs I’ve seen in a while. It is a simple, custom lettered, logotype, and in my opinion, a great logo…

See more great logo design in our gallery at Logoworks.com.