Dennis A. Kleidon President & CEO The Kleidon Companies

DEVELOPING A LOGO & TRADEMARK Much more than graphics, a new logo begins with your identity

Are there some days you would like to throw off your old identity and assume a new one? Organizations, companies, products and services can and sometimes must assume a new identity. It’s called re-branding, and it’s one of several reasons groups concern themselves with developing new logos. They also need new identities/logos when introducing new products or services or creating new events. At the core of these efforts is logo development or redevelopment.

It’s the thought that counts The steps listed below describe the creative process we use at Kleidon for logo development. These steps can be done more or less thoroughly. For example, a logo for a one-time event might be developed quickly, while a logo for the company itself should be done much more carefully. One: Know thyself. Logos that are meant to last begin with in-depth conversations about

Goals: What you want to achieve with the company or product

Target: Who you sell to

Price: The current and desired price positioning

Personality: The company and/or product’s tone, attitude or spirit

Meaning: History or symbols connected with the company or product category

Equity: Customer or client recognition of the logo and the reputation it suggests Two: Try these criteria. Logos are used wherever the company or product name appears, and

successful ones are very important. Here are the standards good logos meet:

A. Attractive. This is not a frill, but a logo’s single most important attribute. Attractive logos draw more eyes, make customers desirous of buying them and employees proud to wear them. They also save you money by staying in fashion longer.

B. Easy to use. Try out the logo in a wide variety of applications that require large and small

versions, right-reading and reversed, tall and wide spaces. Will you need it in black & white as well as full color? Will you need an animated logo build? If so, it should be planned from the beginning.

C. Properly positioned. A logo that ‘looks cheap’ won’t support a high-priced product, while one that suggests luxury will dampen sales of a discount-priced product.

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D. Targeted precisely. Besides price point, a logo needs to be positioned for the demographics of its target markets. Check it for age, gender, education and economic level. Some logos need to attract buyers based on other factors, like lifestyle, nationality, occupation or belief systems.

E. Clear and meaningful. A logo for a hospital must look both medical and reassuring. A logo for a golf cap must look athletic and exciting. Every logo needs to fit its product category and communicate a positive core message instantaneously.

A good logo tells the corporate story in micro-form every day, creates a reputation, supports a price position, gives you the opportunity for powerful shorthand messaging and improves all other corporate communications.

The Logo Development Process At Kleidon, developing a logo takes 6-8 weeks or longer. It may follow or be done concurrently with brand messaging statements (Product names, taglines, slogans, mottos, mission, vision). The driving force may be a new product or product line introduction, but often a corporate logo is simply out of date. Step One: Research & Discovery

Understanding facts and key ideas. In an initial meeting with our clients, we discuss their current identity, the

meaning of their name and their position in the marketplace. We explore their thoughts, style and color preferences and any ideas they may have considered. Collecting preferred logos and company history are excellent ideas, but talking with our marketing strategists and designers often helps our clients think through their corporate identity even better than they could on your own.

For a logo to achieve success, graphic designers grasp the concepts and translate them into those ideas that impact visual images. At Kleidon, our strategic planners guide clients and do comparative market research, working with our graphic designers. (Many heads are better than one!)

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Graphic discovery. Once a skilled graphic designer has the facts about your company, its goals, positioning and

target markets, he or she begins by trying out a variety of visual concepts. This is no time for a computer!

Step Two: Creative Development & Refining

Explore broadly. It’s important to try a wide range, which is why initial Kleidon presentations include dozens of

ideas. Often, clients won’t know they like a visual idea until they see it. That’s no surprise! We’re all human!

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Refine. We do logotypes as an integrated whole, working in marks, type handling and color concurrently. This

speeds the process and lets clients make more informed decisions.

Back to the beginning as needed. Logotype development is not always a straight line, but requires circular

thinking – the ability to revisit ideas and see them again with fresh eyes. Usually, we begin an identity program exploring both logotypes and marks. In some cases the decision is made to use a logotype by itself.

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Step Three: Applications Design

Try it on, take it for a test drive! With today’s computer mock-ups we can get a visual on whether the mark

that looks good on a business card works well on a shirt, a truck or a coffee cup. In this case, the design went from more literal shapes to an abstraction that hints at the company’s optimism, energy and growth goals.

Step Four: Implementation

Integrate and coordinate. This client opted for a concurrent brand messaging program. One of the suggestions

was to have the mission printed on the reverse of the card.

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How Long Will Your New Logo Last? It’s hard to predict how long a logo might last, but here are a few thoughts about the issue: Too short is too short. If you are designing a new corporate logo every five-seven years, there’s room

to improve the process, lower long-term costs and create better logos that last long enough to develop brand equity. You could get lucky. At Kleidon, one of the logos we designed in the 1970s is still in use and looking

pretty good. Few of them last that long. Fashions in typography change, but most importantly, when companies change they grow out of their logo. 12 years is a pretty good average for a professional services firm. Our logo for our own company has

been changed three times in 36 years. Consumer goods logos need a longer life; events logos are sometimes done for a one-time event. Preserve your equity. A good logo has equity in it – to the extent that others recognize it, you will need

to take care in changing it. Some of the big consumer companies slide into a new logo with a series of transitional logos. Few of us need or can afford to do that. Regardless of exactly how long it lasts, a logo can rightly be thought of as an expense to be amortized over a number of years. Compared to advertising campaigns or social media, a logo is about as long-term as marketing gets.

What Does a Logo Cost? Design costs. You won’t find anything in marketing where the design cost varies more. You can grab a

logo off the Internet for $50, hire a young local designer for $500- $1,500, work with a local or regional firm (pick one with strong strategy and design background) for $5,000-$30,000 or go to a big national firm and pay from $50,000 into the millions! Considering the far-reaching effects of a logo, the question shouldn’t be, “How low can I go?” It should be, “How much can I afford (within reason)?” Even at one firm, the price can vary widely. For example, at Kleidon, we have occasionally thrown in a special-purpose logo at no extra charge when a need arose within a larger project. More typically, full-scale logos for long-term use are priced two ways – a firm price agreed to ahead of time, which will be in the $7,500-$12,500 range, or an hourly fee for complex, hard-to-define situations. Implementation costs. Although you will have some initial roll-out costs, like converting everyone to

new business cards and stationery, you can soften the blow of implementation costs as you wish. For example, you may want to wait to re-logo the trucks until they need painting anyway. If you can phase into the implementation as your supplies run out, you will have fewer immediate costs.

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Protecting Your Logo Graphic standards. The last step in creating a logo is the development of graphic standards for its use.

These are implied in the variations initially included with the logo, but they can also be made explicit by writing a Graphic Standards Manual for use across the organization. Alternatively, standards can be developed as needed, although that is fraught with opportunities for careless change. Preventing logo sabotage. One of the important responsibilities of any executive team is to protect the

logo. Ordinary use will naturally erode the logo. Someone reduces it to fit and in doing so, distorts the proportions. Someone needs the logo for a sign but guesses at the colors. Someone resets a tag line below the logo and overlaps a letter. Professional graphic designers would never make these types of errors, but when digital files are used by non-designers, a logo can degrade rather quickly. When it does, the company image and identity are compromised – and you’ve done it to yourself! Here are basic policies that will help to prevent logo sabotage:

Restrict access to the logo file

Train users

Have a professional graphic designer make any logo changes when needed

Proof the logo whenever it is used (make this an executive responsibility or assign it with care) Trademarking your logo. You can and should use a ™ mark on a temporary basis with any new mark. It

stands for “Trademark applied for,” and while it has little legal standing, it does announce to the world that you claim the trademark as your own. In some cases, you may prefer a service mark ℠. When you have received registration from the Office of Trademarks and Patents, you can change to using the circle R ® registered symbol. Your lawyer can help you register a logotype or mark.

Enjoying the Logo Development Process The Graphic Designer’s Favorite. Most designers love creating logos, which are the jewels of the

graphic design world. To the executive team involved, the process can be daunting. It’s important, time-consuming and expensive. It inspires self-awareness, redefines the company and sets it on an exciting new path as little else can do. You will want to pick your team with great care or seize the opportunity to work one-to-one with a designer. This is a moment to make your vision for the company take shape (literally).

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Glossary

Identity: Corporate Identity or Identity Programs may include the development of a name, logo and graphic standards of use. They may also include branding statements of any kind, such as slogans, tag lines, vision and mission statements, and elevator speeches. Kerning: Letter spacing, including expanded or condensed type. While word processors offer kerning, logos require the sensitivity of hand-crafted kerning. Ligature: Intentionally overlapped or entwined letters. Monograms are often ligatures. Logotype: The letters or words used for a company, product, service or event name as set in with particular font, type handling and color. Logo: Often used as a general term for the entire symbol and letters of a name, “Logo” is short for logotype and should be used in the same sense. Mark or Trademark: A graphic image or symbol used with the letters of a logo. Type Handling: Skilled manipulation of letters, type handling may include kerning, upper and lower case combinations, vertical spacing and much more.

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About the Author. You can reach Dennis Kleidon at dennisk@kleidon.com or 330.666.5984. Dennis Kleidon taught graphic design at the University of Illinois and the University of Akron for more than 30 years and is now Professor Emeritus. Meet him and other Kleidon Companies staff on LinkedIn.com or at www.kleidon.com. About Kleidon White Papers. “Developing a Logo & Trademark: Much More than Graphics, a New Logo Begins with Your Identity” is Issue #5 in the Kleidon White Paper Series. Kleidon Publishing’s White Papers are original documents written in-house by one or more of Kleidon’s staff and relying on their experience and education. Kleidon White Papers are written to explain marketing, web and graphics issues and ideas in a clear, technically correct and interesting format. The series supplies our clients and friends with a specialized source of information and facts written with their needs in mind, in order to make the knowledge demands of daily marketing an easier task. About Using the Information. The white papers in this series are ready to use to support your marketing goals. Feel free to share the entire document or any part of it with your colleagues and business partners, but please maintain credits to Kleidon Publishing and any original research sources we may have cited. To request a soft or hard copy, comment on the ideas expressed, ask questions or access a previous issue, contact us at 330.666.5984, write info@kleidon.com or visit our website.

dennisk@kleidon.com

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