LOGO DESIGN BLOG   LOGO DESIGN REVIEW

Logos for Hawaiian clothing company U Down have been popping up all over Hawaii. The company logo is increasingly being plastered all over public property, including street signs, roads and buildings, according to TheHawaiiChannel.com.

The logo is a “U” with a downward facing arrow through the middle, an clever albeit common mark. The logo design in sticker form is perfect for posting on ‘U-Turn’ signs, but has found it’s way to hard-to-reach signs on highways, where vandals must climb the sign posts and hang precariously over fast-moving traffic. So why do these thrill seekers choose to get their adrelaline rush while at the same time promote a t-shirt company? What possesses people to take such lengths to publicize them? And perhaps most importantly, how can I get people to publicize my company by plastering my logo everywhere?

Well, in this case, it all has to do with the company culture and the types of customers they attract. You see, U Down got its name from the four company founders, who would dare each other to do dangerous stunts and ask each other, “Are you down?” So the company naturally encourages what one employee calls “craziness,” among the brand-loyal customers. U Down is becomming well-known because customers relate so well to the brand, the employees and lifestyle the company promotes. Just take a look at their website. This is an organization who has designed a logo and image in tune with their customers.

So the lesson here is if you want people to love your company and its logo so much that they’ll vanadlize with it (or if you just want your company to be successful), be in tune with who your customers are and what appeals to them; and then design a logo around it.

After facing heavy criticism for unveiling a new logo that looked a great deal like The Scottish Arts Council’s mark, Quark has redesigned their logo again. The design software company evidently received a great deal of feedback on the logo. In an official statement, Quark said, “Quark has made a commitment to be closely attuned to its customers, and we appreciate the feedback we received from the design community in relation to our re-branding initiative.” This after acknowledging the two companies’ logos had an “uncanny” resemblance.

The company had undergone extensive research to ensure they weren’t infringing on any other design, but “evidently didn’t find them all,” said a company representative, according to Macworld UK.

Just goes to show that with so many thousands of logos in the world, it’s becoming more and more difficult to do something that hasn’t been done before.

Here’s a history of the Quark logo.

Getting feedback on a logo design before you finalize it is an important step in the design process. Aside from looking to a designer for input, it’s always a good idea to seek input from other sources to make sure your new logo design will resonate well with customers. A good way of finding out what customers like is simply by asking them.

At least, that is what Planters is doing for the 100th anniversary of the company. The century old nut company has created a website that allows anyone to vote on which trinket should be added to the famous high class icon, Mr. Peanut. You can choose a bowtie, a pocket watch or cuff links, and see how he would look while wearing it. Or if you like him the way he is, you can so indicate. Whatever item gets the most votes will be incorporated into Mr. Peanuts list of affects and appear in 2007.

So far, cuff links are winning the most votes, with 48 percent. In second place is the bow tie with 34 percent. The cuff links add a great deal of class without cluttering Mr. Peanut’s clean, classy style, but that’s my personal opinion.

Anyway, cast your vote right away and take advantage of one of the few times you’ll probably ever get to have some input on a corporate logo.