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Highlands John

Highlands John

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I've been thinking a lot recently about a business logo and as I'm about to order some personalized umbrellas for people to borrow when walk out for dinner it has come to a head. Just wondered what you folks think about the idea.
Do you have a business logo?
Is it printed on everything?
How important do you think it is to the image and marketing of your business?
How did you get it (make something up , pay a designer ) ?
Your thoughts and ideas much appreciated.
 
> Do you have a business logo?
Yes (see avatar)
> Is it printed on everything?
Yes (website, invoices, business cards, stationary, envelopes, brochures, T-shirts, mugs, etc....)
> How important do you think it is to the image and marketing of your business?
I think it is pretty important to our image (i.e., who, what and where we are) and probably does help in marketing; certainly I think having a consistent logo everywhere helps reinforce the idea that we are serious business.
> How did you get it (make something up , pay a designer ) ?
I think the original design was by Wendy's grandmother, maybe with help from her father. We have subsequently re-done the logo in digital form (vector as well as raster) ourselves.
 
Yes, I have had a logo from day one - DH did it for me. Since he was in printing and knew about such things, he did it in such a way that I can use it on biz cards and it looks like it does normal size (not a blob of ink) or can be enlarged to fill the bib of my apron. Here it is on the signs on my car -
lrg_ceopped%20sign.jpg
 
Yup.
Yup.
Makes things seem consistent.
Elance, based on an element of the house.
 
Highlands John said:
I've been thinking a lot recently about a business logo and as I'm about to order some personalized umbrellas for people to borrow when walk out for dinner it has come to a head. Just wondered what you folks think about the idea.
Do you have a business logo? Yes, it looks like a slice of our field, marsh beach, ocean, ski view. It is really a water color painting based on the feeling of our seaside location.
Is it printed on everything? Yes, web site, sign, business cards, return address labels, rack cards, etc.
How important do you think it is to the image and marketing of your business?
Extremely important....it really gives a professional look to everything you do and keeps you in the minds of those who see it.
How did you get it (make something up , pay a designer ) ? We have a family of artists and a web designer as SIL. We payed her to get us set up about 12 years ago. We spent a lot of time talking about the feeling of place, the mood we wanted to convey and the uniqueness of our B+B. She hit a home run with the logo which captures the history in the font she chose and the modern, seaside charm as well. I sent you a message a few weeks ago...so you know who I am. Go take a look at our web site to see what I mean.
Your thoughts and ideas much appreciated.
Pick a couple of the most outstanding attributes of your place and try to find something that will symbolize those things. Also, although I love our logo and it is perfect for the web and print advertising, it does not translate well to imprinting soaps etc and it has several colors so it can be expensive if you need some special printing. I love it so much that I can't image another logo for us!
Click to expand...
 
it used to be much more important that it is today. it used to be your branding on everything printed from letters to soap. But not as much these days, good to have one. If I called you right now and asked for something to be in B&W, a photo wouldn't do, so a logo would be best. Line drawing of B&B's were all the rave in the 80's when guidebooks were popular, so just about any B&B that was around in those days has a line drawing, and used it on everything.
I went away from it simply because it was about the house only, and I want to be more of an experiential B&B. Although I do use it when I have to. Not quite a destination, but definitely the house is not the end all (imo). So...for example, if I created one today, there may be a musical instrument with strings, or a mountain or something more than just the building.
Our county logo is a road between mountains and also resembles a sail (as we have two lakes). To me a sail is not what I think of when I see a mountain lake, but they surely do have sailing clubs at one of our lakes.
I prefer tag lines and slogans to logos.
Print is not dead. Close, but not dead. Branding is very much alive. What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about.
 
Joey Bloggs said:
it used to be much more important that it is today. it used to be your branding on everything printed from letters to soap. But not as much these days, good to have one. If I called you right now and asked for something to be in B&W, a photo wouldn't do, so a logo would be best. Line drawing of B&B's were all the rave in the 80's when guidebooks were popular, so just about any B&B that was around in those days has a line drawing, and used it on everything.
I went away from it simply because it was about the house only, and I want to be more of an experiential B&B. Although I do use it when I have to. Not quite a destination, but definitely the house is not the end all (imo). So...for example, if I created one today, there may be a musical instrument with strings, or a mountain or something more than just the building.
Our county logo is a road between mountains and also resembles a sail (as we have two lakes). To me a sail is not what I think of when I see a mountain lake, but they surely do have sailing clubs at one of our lakes.
I prefer tag lines and slogans to logos.
Print is not dead. Close, but not dead. Branding is very much alive. What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about..
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about.
Click to expand...
Exactly! (and yes we have our embroidered on polo shirts, too!)
 
Harborfields said:
Joey Bloggs said:
it used to be much more important that it is today. it used to be your branding on everything printed from letters to soap. But not as much these days, good to have one. If I called you right now and asked for something to be in B&W, a photo wouldn't do, so a logo would be best. Line drawing of B&B's were all the rave in the 80's when guidebooks were popular, so just about any B&B that was around in those days has a line drawing, and used it on everything.
I went away from it simply because it was about the house only, and I want to be more of an experiential B&B. Although I do use it when I have to. Not quite a destination, but definitely the house is not the end all (imo). So...for example, if I created one today, there may be a musical instrument with strings, or a mountain or something more than just the building.
Our county logo is a road between mountains and also resembles a sail (as we have two lakes). To me a sail is not what I think of when I see a mountain lake, but they surely do have sailing clubs at one of our lakes.
I prefer tag lines and slogans to logos.
Print is not dead. Close, but not dead. Branding is very much alive. What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about..
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about.
Click to expand...
Exactly! (and yes we have our embroidered on polo shirts, too!)
.
Click to expand...
Harborfields said:
Joey Bloggs said:
What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about.
Click to expand...
Exactly! (and yes we have our embroidered on polo shirts, too!)
Click to expand...
Did I ever tell you when I created my own coffee cup sort of logo for polos and it (imo) looked like a toilet roll unrolling? And we all said, hm I like it, it works! Coffee, TP yeah that's us! They were "staff" shirts. I needed something to have certain people wear, which they lost and could never find anyway. I still have some in there not worn.
 
Harborfields said:
Joey Bloggs said:
it used to be much more important that it is today. it used to be your branding on everything printed from letters to soap. But not as much these days, good to have one. If I called you right now and asked for something to be in B&W, a photo wouldn't do, so a logo would be best. Line drawing of B&B's were all the rave in the 80's when guidebooks were popular, so just about any B&B that was around in those days has a line drawing, and used it on everything.
I went away from it simply because it was about the house only, and I want to be more of an experiential B&B. Although I do use it when I have to. Not quite a destination, but definitely the house is not the end all (imo). So...for example, if I created one today, there may be a musical instrument with strings, or a mountain or something more than just the building.
Our county logo is a road between mountains and also resembles a sail (as we have two lakes). To me a sail is not what I think of when I see a mountain lake, but they surely do have sailing clubs at one of our lakes.
I prefer tag lines and slogans to logos.
Print is not dead. Close, but not dead. Branding is very much alive. What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about..
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
What would you put on a polo shirt if you embroidered it? That is what I would think about.
Click to expand...
Exactly! (and yes we have our embroidered on polo shirts, too!)
.
Click to expand...
Ours is silk screened on apron, shirts, lunch bags. And I have a B & W version also. Actually, I can make it any color I want as it is in my computer and I can just change it. In color though I use the burgundy but on the screened stuff it is white ink on burgundy
 
Absolutely great idea! I need one, too. You'd think I would have gotten around to it after 10 years.
 
We have a couple of logo concepts that we use for different things.
It is printed on a couple of things.
It is sort of important, but it pales in comparison to the website branding we do. Our website and reviews are where we build our brand.
We just made our own and then had a friend make up a couple of new ones recently.
I think it is valuable but overdoing it can be more of a vanity purchase that runs into a lot of expense for a limited return. The exception is if it is a money maker.
For money losers, we still have to have a rack card that you can include with the portfolio, We have pens, which have a longer shelf life and have a practical value for guests during their stay.
 
I have a logo.
It's printed on everything.
I have no idea if it makes any difference or not.
I got mine by running a contest through the 99 Designs website. Someone here suggested it and I loved the process and the result.
I don't have a great looking old house like so many here have, so putting an outline of my building in my logo just didn't work for me.
There are lots of options in doing a 99 Designs contest, but you basically post what you want on their site and designers from all over the world submit designs to you. You only pay if you like one, and through the process you can communicate with different designers, saying I like this and I don't like that, and they will resubmit with changes to meet your needs.
I think I had about 30 different designers submit in my contest. Over time I narrowed it down to the top 10, then top 5, then picked a winner, a guy from The Philippines.
To get more and better designers in my contest, I selected two options that really attracted them. At that time the minimum you could offer was $250 for a logo, but I offered $350 to the winner, and I guaranteed that someone WOULD be the winner. (You have the option of not picking a winner and keeping your money, but if you go that route the best designers won't bother to submit to your contest.)
The logo I ended up with was nothing like what I originally asked for, but when I saw it I liked it's simple elegance, which was the image I wanted my logo to send, and I knew it was something that would work etched on glassware and other objects where you couldn't use shades of gray or colors in the logo. You need to pick something that works well even faxed in black and white.
Where are you finding your umbrellas? I looked for ones I could put my logo on for the very purpose you mentioned, but it turned out to be way too expensive to just get a half dozen made, so I bought plain blank umbrellas.
 
"I don't have a great looking old house like so many here have, so putting an outline of my building in my logo just didn't work for me."
Sometimes they can look scary and old too as a drawing...it is not always the way to go.
 
Was looking for something else and came across this quote...
"I don’t care how many times Pepsi, Arby’s, Gap, or even online websites change their logo. It will never be the main reason why people choose your product over another. It will always be about the experience."
Not sure how relevant but it reminded me why we are cautious about big spends on printed stuff etc.
 
happykeeper said:
We have a couple of logo concepts that we use for different things.
It is printed on a couple of things.
It is sort of important, but it pales in comparison to the website branding we do. Our website and reviews are where we build our brand.
We just made our own and then had a friend make up a couple of new ones recently.
I think it is valuable but overdoing it can be more of a vanity purchase that runs into a lot of expense for a limited return. The exception is if it is a money maker.
For money losers, we still have to have a rack card that you can include with the portfolio, We have pens, which have a longer shelf life and have a practical value for guests during their stay..
Click to expand...
My City got a technical assistance grant a few years to use for Branding. (You can get all sorts of technical assistance grants but few for "bricks & mortar") They did a basic design that we all like but we can change the logo for different focus. The log house and tree remain on all but the box under it can reflect Arts & Crafts, Museum, Recreation or whatever we are working on that involves the City. It is our identifiable "brand" as a City function but reflects what we are promoting.
 
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration.
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration..
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration.
Click to expand...
The creature is prob trademarked.
.
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
The creature is prob trademarked.
Click to expand...
Twitter has a trademark on their little bird logo, but that doesn't mean that nobody else can use a bird in their logo, as long as it's not too similar to Twitter's drawing.
In HJ's case, an individual's own sketch of said beastie could certainly by copyrighted, but surely any one individual can't "have a lock" (pun intended) on all drawings by anyone else, forever. That would just be un-...American?
 
Arks said:
Joey Bloggs said:
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration..
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration.
Click to expand...
The creature is prob trademarked.
.
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
The creature is prob trademarked.
Click to expand...
Twitter has a trademark on their little bird logo, but that doesn't mean that nobody else can use a bird in their logo, as long as it's not too similar to Twitter's drawing.
In HJ's case, an individual's own sketch of said beastie could certainly by copyrighted, but surely any one individual can't "have a lock" (pun intended) on all drawings by anyone else, forever. That would just be un-...American?
.
Click to expand...
Didn't candy crush try to trademark candy or crush or both of them? Gateway and Ben & Jerry went a few rounds over cow spots and trying to trademark them.
 
Madeleine said:
Arks said:
Joey Bloggs said:
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration..
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
Your logo could be the lake/mountains/creature combo. A simple drawing/illustration.
Click to expand...
The creature is prob trademarked.
.
Click to expand...
Joey Bloggs said:
The creature is prob trademarked.
Click to expand...
Twitter has a trademark on their little bird logo, but that doesn't mean that nobody else can use a bird in their logo, as long as it's not too similar to Twitter's drawing.
In HJ's case, an individual's own sketch of said beastie could certainly by copyrighted, but surely any one individual can't "have a lock" (pun intended) on all drawings by anyone else, forever. That would just be un-...American?
.
Click to expand...
Didn't candy crush try to trademark candy or crush or both of them? Gateway and Ben & Jerry went a few rounds over cow spots and trying to trademark them.
.
Click to expand...
Madeleine said:
Didn't candy crush try to trademark candy or crush or both of them? Gateway and Ben & Jerry went a few rounds over cow spots and trying to trademark them.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, everybody wants everything 100% their way. Doesn't mean they always get their way. There are limits to how much the courts will let people get away with.
Remember the mess when the Beatles' Apple Records got into it with Apple Computer when the computer maker entered the music business with the iPod. That case went on for years.
 

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