LOGO DESIGN BLOG   LOGO DESIGN REVIEW

Recently, Auckland City Council was forced to change their newly designed logo due to similarities with Triangle Television’s logo. The decision has already cost more than $37,000 in legal fees and re-branding efforts. One member of the council admitted to having already spent more than $180,000 on the image makeover. This price includes market research, printing templates, stationery, signs and banners.

What is the lesson of this story? Do your research. Even if you think that you are being original in your design, you may be duplicating design which has already been created. You probably didn’t realize you were using a previous idea, but you did. How can you make sure this doesn’t happen? Ask your fellow design community if they have seen something that is similar. Do some research, check and see if you have duplicated an idea. It could save you thousands.

We often wonder how one can place monetary value on a logo.  Can you actually associate good hard revenue figures to your logo design?  What is the ROI and such, how did it improve purchase conversion etc.  Well with the help of some US courts, we finally have the answer…at least the answer to what it could cost if you DON’T have a logo.

Sony is being ordered to pay over $5 million USD, to the Cleveland International record company, for omitting their logo on MeatLoaf’s ‘Bat Outta Hell’ album.  In 1998, another court ruled they must add the logo to any future albums, which Sony failed to do for up to a year afterwards, resulting in this verdict.

Just imagine if Cleveland International DIDN’T have a logo.