Patricia sent us her logo to be critiqued. The company is Apparel US and, surprisingly, she is not a designer. It looks like a designer made this, because there’s a measure of restraint. Everything has a purpose. The stars are there to reflect the United States aspect. The colors are simple. If it weren’t for the gradient on the tag, I would say it’s a 2-color job (that doesn’t look like a halftone, it looks like a third color.

One thing makes me grit my teeth a little. Look at the space between the APP and the AREL. If you give it just that extra 10% that designers do before finishing a logo, then you catch things like this.

Other than that, you made a good looking, simple logo design. Good job.

This was submitted to us by Augustino Nguyen, a designer in Vietnam. What do you all think?

I personally think it’s a very interesting name, but I went to iBrand first to check it out before I realized it’s i3rand. It’s not a name that rolls easily off the tongue, but it is unique. The logo is a little too simple for my taste. Maybe its the Myriad Bold font.

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Today’s logo submission got me thinking about a problem that many logos have. Sometime the designer designs it to look nice and give a professional face to the business. Maybe the designer wants to keep it simple, and just use text. Then they want to dress it up with something, so they add a drop shadow or an underline. Things are added to make it look unique, without thought to how this relates to the business.

The company’s purpose should always be foremost in the designer’s mind throughout the design process. Manas sent this in telling us that it is for a social networking site. Is that what it communicates? No. In response to the question “what will the logo be used for?”, he put: to represent the brand. Does the logo represent any brand? I would say, possibly a little, since the name is there. But it doesn’t represent what the company does.

First off, let’s use a typeface that’s a little more unique. We want to set the company apart from the hundreds of other social networking sites. Next, let’s customize the text a little. I brought the cap height down a little on the L, K, H, and T. The underline was doing nothing, so I used it as an arch to communicate between two letters, which is the purpose of a social networking site. You could do the same with a dotted line, or intersecting speech bubbles. The important thing is that it looks nice AND communicates a message. Every part of it should have a reason to be there. This is how boring logos can become custom logos, tailored to the client’s business.

This logo design was sent to us by a designer named Mikey Maruszak, who made it for his place of business, Printplace.

What does everyone think?

I think the .com is too small to be seen. I like the graphic, and the font. Maybe the ink and P’s could be a little bigger within that drop icon. I hope you’re using that face as a mascot on the body of an owl. I could see that working.

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What is a great custom logo design really worth? It is hard to say but there are a few things we can say for certain. The logo has historically been called “the face” of the company because it’s usually the first encounter the public has with the company. It’s likeability either loses or gains a company customers, and it does this 24 hours a day for the life of the company. In terms of marketing power, this effect is similar to what financial brokers call “compound interest.” When a customer is considering a company for services of any kind, they usually compare them to one or two other companies – and besides price, the look and feel of the company logo and website design is what they have to use to consider what kind of service they will receive from a company. You make hundreds of decisions based on looks every day. Here’s an example:
The last time you bought an app on your iPhone, you probably typed in the category of app you’re looking for that ill fit your needs. You were then presented with a few options, all represented by a little 57 x 57 pixel graphic square. The meticulous customer checks reviews and reads all the info about the app, but most of us pick the one based on the icon. And when I say most us, I mean, studies show it’s about a great majority of app consumers buy the app based on the graphic.

A well-tailored logo and corporate brand design tells the customer that the company is not a fly-by-night operation and that their service will be fair and consistent. A well-designed logo catches the attention, and is retained in the consumer’s mind.

I really like the name! I usually hate “punny” business names, but this one actually sticks into your memory banks, and works!

Today’s submission comes to us from Dhiraj Chand, and is for a food company that will be at festivals and catering events. The logo will be used for cards, menus, banner, tees, social media and more.

The background gives it an indian feel, but I don’t think it can be used for most media, unless it fades away. I don’t know how the leaf/wisp applies over the i, maybe it works as steam. It needs to be integrated more. The typefaces are too closely kerned, and don’t work well together, because the “curried” font is modern and techy. The tagline and “private parties | festivals…” text are way too small. If this were on a business card, I wouldn’t be able to read them at all. Best to leave the tagline off and use it larger on your website, not as part of your logo.

This is how I would re-work it. I used a warmer, personal font, and made it easier to read. The “away” font is now closer to hand scripted, and I used the S from that font to make a new steam vapor wisp on the I.

Let the logo design experts help transform your business image at BusinessLogos.com.

Reading this awesome strip by Scott Adams reminded me of the many logos we’ve done here at Business Logos that can be flipped upside down. They’re called Ambigrams, and they take a lot of time and creative effort to make them look right.

Here’s some examples of ambigrams we’ve done.

Interested to see how your name or logo would look like this? Contact the logo design experts at BusinessLogos.com.