Wanted:
A nice yes-man graphic designer, who will ask few or no questions at all and is ready to make the logo bigger, smaller or wider as we desire it to be.
First Things First, Let’s Understand What Exactly Is It That Graphic Designers Do
Graphic designers make visual representations of ideas and messages of your brand.
They help you translate your goals in such a way that they are memorable, effective and aesthetically pleasing. Visual representations can be a combination of images and text to communicate to an audience.
Kum mein zyada baat keh jane wale ko hi graphic designer kehte hai.
(Those who can convey more in saying less are true graphic designers)
Do they just do logos?
Yes, and no. But mostly, no. Depending on what you hired them for, graphic designers are capable of developing much more. From overall layout or production design for an advertisement, brochures, flyers, magazines to even reports. The main objective of the hired graphic designer is to make the organization recognizable and prominent. In their ammo, they have shapes, fonts, sizes, prints, photographs, animation, and logos. Although if you hire a graphic designer to do just a logo for your brand then that also works. Their main job is to create a visual representation of the organization’s key message and value. It is that design identity that is forwarded everywhere by the organization.
Functions of a logo
A logo can be considered as a tool for conditioning. One has to find ways in order to differentiate their products and services from the other businesses.
Imagine a world without logos and branding, what would it be like?
Imagine all the restaurants, all the clothing brands, all the products with the same label, with the same colors.
Marxist much?
Moreover, it becomes boring! We would all be stuck in reading labels and product descriptions. And there is no way to distinguish what are we buying and from whom.
Hence, novelty becomes very important in business.
What makes a truly great logo
“It really is about thinking these symbols as empty vessels and then you pour the meaning into them.”
- Michael Bierut
Let’s just watch this five-minute Vox film to understand it better.
Ease of recreation
Kya aapke logo mein recreation ki possibility hai? Kya aapka logo yaad rehne me aasan hai?
Nahi? Toh le aaiye Slangbusters Studio ko!
It doesn’t take Alina Wheeler to match the above brandmarks with their brand names.
The Nike Swoosh is a loved example for explaining what does a great logo means.
This logo has created such a vast fanbase amongst businesses, branding studios, designers, advertisers, marketers, and people in general. Everybody knows Nike, everybody wants to have Nike, and everybody wants to become like Nike. This logo communicates change, authenticity, dominance, winning and performance in a single wordless ‘Swoosh’. It is this simplicity and the ease of recreation of this logo paired with brilliant marketing that they have managed to achieve this. But simplicity is way harder to achieve.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
(but should also be in the mind of the creator)
Us humans are inherently drawn towards symmetry and alignment. Structural solidness equates to deliberateness, which equates to excellence. Although in this time and age we are drawn towards modernity of life and art as well. Remember to strike a balance between organized, simple and unique. If a logo lacks a solid structure then it might make the company look weak.
Jaane Woh Kaise Logos The Jinke Pyaar ko Pyaar Mila
Logos that are loved, and why
In the year 2010 finally, India rupee has a symbol like other major countries. Now, the rupee has joined the elite club of US Dollar, British Pound, Euro, and Japanese Yen to have its own symbol.
The Designer Dr, Udaya Kumar said- “My design is based on the Tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between. I wanted the symbol for the Rupee to represent the Indian flag. It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters: a capital ‘R’, and Devanagari ‘ra’, which represent rupiya, to appeal to international and Indian audiences.”
What meaning do you give to a logo matters a lot, here in this example our Indianess was imbibed with the Roman letter to give an indo-international appeal and that is why this logo is well appreciated. Also, the symbol is very recreatable, hence has a function outside print.
Fungibility
Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable, and each of its parts is indistinguishable from another part.
Three of the popular mango drinks brand, ‘Frooti’ from the flagship mango drink brand of Parle Agro, ‘Maaza’ from Coca Cola and PepsiCo’s ‘Tropicana Slice’ are fungible products. All three of them offer similar extrinsic value. This makes branding of utmost importance for such products. Coupled with the fact that most of our buying decisions are emotional the graphic designer designs the logo and adds meaning to it in such a way that it has an emotional connect with the customers so that they will go out to buy a certain product over the other similar product.
A client’s guide on how not to annoy a graphic designer
Now that we understand a bit of what goes into designing a logo, let’s try to be a little less annoying.
1) Asking to make the logo bigger
Bigger isn’t always better. Try to understand that making the logo bigger won’t make your brand bigger. There is no effective correlation between the size of the logo and the effectiveness of the ad.z
2) Bus Ek Change
Just one change
It never stops at that, just one last change is never the last change. You know that’s true. Just as you are expected to give an accurate and comprehensive brief, you are also expected to give detailed feedback to the designer. Create a note of all the changes you want to make and then send feedback to the designer. The phrase “One last change…” is unanimously hated amongst the designer community.
3) Bhaiya, thoda kum kar do na…
Haggling
You only get what you pay for. Now that you have hired the designer yourself, it is in bad form to negotiate down the rates after confirming them. Instead, hire a designer that fits your budget and have that clarity from the beginning of the project. Another common thing that is done is that clients offer to pay in “exposure”, now what does that even mean? Who sustains on exposure? How do you pay your bills through exposure? Do you? Can you? No, you can’t. Neither can they.
4) Something Artsy ✨
Avoid giving such vague and abstract briefs to the designers it is very frustrating. It just confuses them even further. State exactly what you want, be specific and accurate to avoid facing disappointments. Don’t leave it entirely on them, they are not mind-readers, so explain everything clearly.
5) Unreasonable Deadlines
It might break your heart to know that you are not the only client of your graphic designer. The world doesn’t revolve around you, and the designer has to take care of other clients as well. It might break your heart but that is the reality.
There’s another reality that we here at Slangbusters Studio will make your company stand out with the right ammo. We do not believe in shooting an arrow in the dark, our way is the way of research, experiments, and insights. If you want to have such discussions regarding your company or business you know who to contact.
— by Nikita Sharma, Freelance Content Writer, Slangbusters Studio
