Showing posts with label graphic design company chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graphic design company chicago. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Chicago Graphic Design: Is your logo design killing your business branding

Chicago Graphic Design 


Exceptional Brand Identity Solutions: Chicago Graphic Design
Most businesses have a logo, but the vast majority of businesses have not used that logo to its full potential, or have even left their logo design and branding to an amateur designer or even having one of their staff make up a logo using clip art (gasp!). This is done without any real research into how a logo effects consumer perception, and is done without thinking about the entire branding concept. This is killing your business online and in person.

When was the last time you got someones business card and saw a little clip-art dude that you can get free on Microsoft's website? Probably not too often. Then why are YOU doing it? Take a little time to read through this post to see exactly how your logo effects your business, your target market, and what a proper logo design and branding solution could do for your company for years and years and years...

Logo Design:
Logos and trademarks make up the most creative international language in the world. An excellent logo can cross barriers and provide your organization with an avenue to deliver your services and products to customers in a uniform way. Without this, you’re effectively flushing your business down the drain.

Every successful company has a distinct personality, just like humans, and a successful brand and logo design are essential to attracting multiple types of personalities and markets. If you’re business doesn’t have these things, it’s time to invest in them. When you embark on this journey into branding, company identity, and logo design, you should be aware of several points of interest:

1. Your logo and branding needs to IDENTIFY your company/product/service.

2. Your logo and branding must DIFFERENTIATE you from the masses.

3. Your logo and branding must COMMUNICATE the value of your services and products.

4. Your logo and branding should ADD VALUE to your company by creating a benchmark for quality and reputation.

5. Your logo and branding must REPRESENT your products and services as valuable things. If your logo isn’t doing these things, choose to update and seek advice from a professional graphic design firm.

Brand Identity:
Branding can be technically defined as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these things intended to identify one particular seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from others. This sounds important right? Well it most definitely is. One thing to note is that branding is NOT about getting your target market to choose you over your competition…it’s getting them to see you as the only solution to their needs and problems.

A good brand has the following:
1. The ability to deliver your message clearly
2. Give your company credibility and strength
3. An emotional connection to your target market
4. The ability to motivate buyers and consumers
5. A distinct knack for keeping your target market loyal to your services or product

To succeed in this, you need to understand your target market, your customer’s wants and needs, and the ability to project what they’ll want and need in the future. You can do this by integrating brand strategies through your company at every public contact point.

A strong brand is as valuable as gold as the battle for loyal customers gets more and more intense. It’s important to spend time investing in research, and an effective Creative Firm to help your marketing communications strategies be the best they can be. Your brand and logo are the foundation of your company.

So the next time you even think about making a Microsoft Word clip-art image your logo...STOP.
Contact a real Chicago Graphic Design Company and schedule a meeting.

/// Integraphix, a Creative Agency in Chicago, Illinois

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Monday, May 16, 2011

Chicago Graphic Design: What is the cost of Logo Design?

Blue Fish Logo Design
For the Logo Design clients out there, here's a question: have you ever been frustrated when a graphic designer doesn’t tell you a project cost up-front?

Perhaps you think they’re stalling, trying to figure out how much you can afford, but when you think about it, what good would that do? The designer is not guaranteed your business, so it makes a lot more sense to present a design quote as soon as possible.

Here is the issue:
No logo design or brand identity project is the same, and every design client differs. A designer can’t provide an accurate quote until s/he knows exactly what the client needs. Because of which, those logo designers who offer a pre-defined “price list” can do so because of one or more of these factors:
  • They’ll neglect important research into your business
  • They’ll fall short on the brainstorming/sketching stage and show you the first thing they design instead of developing a successful logo design or brand solution
  • They’re setting a fixed time limit on how much work they do, when the reality is that it’s impossible to tell just how many hours/days/weeks/months a design project will take to complete
A client should always expect a designer to ask a wide variety of questions about specific design needs before an accurate quote can be given. So if you're thinking about going with the design student who can give you a logo for $100, think about this. Is your business worth more than $100 of design time, or are you willing to invest a little more (think $700-1000) for a solid, marketable and effective logo design and brand identity that can carry you through the decades and not look like a student designed it.

Think about it.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Building a Winning Brand



Of all brands, Starbucks takes the cake. Starbucks took the rather uneventful act of buying a cup of coffee and turned it into a user experience. By doing so, it created a memorable brand identity: a unique name and a memorable logo that made coffee more than coffee, but a welcoming place to gather and stay a while. The main point: Starbucks created a culture, not just a company. Use the following tips to create the same.

Develop and Craft your Image
Creating a perfect brand identity is almost impossible, and takes a lot of work. What you're ultimately trying to do is position yourself in front of people who don't want to change their minds. Your brand has to be unique and powerful enough to force your target market out of their consistent buying patterns.

It begins with a name. Starbucks has a great name, and with enough frequency of the message, it has become memorable. This can happen with any name. If Integraphix puts its name out there for enough people to see, it will become a memorable thing in people's minds. This method explains why many of the commonly known names like Apple or Ford are known. Who in their right mind would name a computer company after a fruit? Well, as we all know, Apple is a giant now. So there's your proof. Ford is a family name, but with ingenuity and quality craftsmanship, Ford has become well known in the automobile industry. 

Your logo is just as important as your name. Using Starbucks as an example yet again, their recent rebranding has completely removed the name from their logo. But we still know it's Starbucks right? Apple is the same way, and McDonald's can claim that as well. The logo is the first connection the consumer makes with your company brand and it triggers brand perception. What does your logo need to do? There are some practical considerations to make when having a Graphic Design Company design your logo:

1. Can it be reproduced in several sizes and media types?
2. Does it reflect your target audience?
3. Is the message clear?
4. Is it unique and easily recognizable.

Your logo should also convey an emotional and personality connection and the cleverness should definitely spark that 'Aha!' moment with your consumers. 

Become Known
I know, easy right? Branding happens within the minds of your clients. The message behind that brand is what creates appeal, but you must get the word out to bring in customers. Advertising, promotion, trade shows, direct marketing and search engine optimization are the common ways, and can cost money. Search Engine Optimization is probably the cheapest form of marketing you'll find today and investing can get your online presence bulked up so becoming known isn't as difficult and expensive and buying a billboard or doing a massive direct mailing campaign. A few things you should consider if you're starting off completely new:

1. Listen to people. Don't say everything that comes to your mind; let other people talk before joining the conversation.
2. Ask questions. For the love of design, do not force your opinion on someone. It makes you look really bad.
3. Don't be fake. Have a story and behave the way you want your brand perceived. Brand isn't all about the design - it's about how the people in the company act too. 
4. Offer up your knowledge. It adds to the conversation and makes you look like you know what you're talking about.
5. Respond to people. Consumers and business partners really love having a company respond directly to something they've asked for. It solidifies brand loyalty and company image.
6. Say thank you to your followers. Reward repeat buyers or users for their patronage - whether it's a simple shout out or an actual prize. Do what's in your company budget.

Know what your customers want
When launching a business with limited cash flow, the potential for successfully grounding a brand based on pure zeal and a unique business idea is less likely to succeed than following the market trends and going about your business structure intelligently. You need these five things to even begin to succeed:

1. Do you know how strong your brand perception is? What would make it stronger.
2. Look at other competing brands - are their consumer's satisfied?
3. Will your brand create emotional connections with consumers who are not currently using a product or service like yours?
4. What percentage of your target market is likely to switch over to your company?
5. Do you have the ability to garner brand awareness?

Answer those questions and you can determine the chances of success for your brand. You can conduct focus groups and email polls if you need target market information and to find out if your brand would be recommended over another competitor. Ultimately, to succeed, you need to know how people perceive your company and brand identity. Make sure you position yourself where you know your brand can win.

Enjoy! 

If you need Marketing, Web Design or Graphic Design assistance, give Integraphix a call. We offer a Free Marketing Analysis to all who walk through our doors.

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Battle 'Designer's Block' with 11 ways to be Creative

Integraphix, offering the best in Chicago Graphic Design and Brand Identity Solutions.

Ever heard of writers block? Well designers get it too. If we are not inspired, it is entirely possible to experience what I've come to call (rather un-creatively) 'designer's block'. Everybody has experienced it and nobody is safe from it. But there are some things you can do if you're frustrated and having issues moving forward with a design you're working on or having trouble getting started on a project. I've compiled a list of things you should to to battle and overcome designer's block. Enjoy.

1. Stop and Relax. Allow your creativity to bubble up to the surface of your mind. If you learn to pause, worthwhile ideas will catch up to you. Never underestimate the role of relaxation, play and leisure. Creativity can't happen if you're stressed!

2. Forget what you've learned in college. A lot of what our art and design education system is built upon is the 'guess what the teacher is thinking' game. Michael Meyerhoff, the author of "The Plural of Leaf is Tree" explains that "there is a significant difference between doing well in school and actual learning." There are kids that get a thrill out of manipulating knowledge that is given to them and not actually acquiring that knowledge. However, the 'correct' answer is often preferred by teachers over creative answers.As Beatrix Potter said: "Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality."
3. Don't fall in love with the first thing you design. If you become to attached to your creations, you'll fail to see how they can evolve and turn into something truly revolutionary.
4. Stop waiting for inspiration. Grab it by the horns! If you want to be inspired at 9am every morning, do so.

5. Follow Roger van Oeck's Advice. This brilliant man wrote a book called A Kick in the Seat of the Pants and discusses the four roles of the creative process: Explorer, Artist, Judge, Warrior.

- The Explorer: When it's time to see out new information, take on the mindset of an explorer. Move off the beaten path, look everywhere, be curious and pay attention.

- The Artist. When you need to create a new idea, let this persona show. Ask the 'what if' questions and look for hidden meanings. Break the rules that have been drilled into your head and look at things in a different light. Exaggerate something. Look at it backwards. Do whatever you can to get out of your own single perspective.

- The Judge. when it's time to decide if your idea is worth developing, or if there's anything that needs to be added or taken away, see yourself as the decision maker. Ask what's wrong, look at your design from the perspective of a stranger and see if anything could be done. If so, make a decision and move forward.

- The Warrior! When you put your idea into action, be the warrior. Get excited! Eliminate all excuses and insecurities and do what you have to do to reach your goals.

6. Realize that the mind's 'default mode' is to be 'un'-creative. The mind is uncreative by habit; it is constantly organizing mass abouts of incoming data from our environment into convenient patterns that we understand. Once this is done, the mind tends to dwell on future situations in order to make decisions and actions. What does that mean? You have to be proactive when it comes to being original.

7. Don't let criticism get you down. Consider the following quote from Von Oech's book" Expect the Unexpected (or You Won't Find It)": "Dogs bark at what they don't understand." Ignore it and move on to people who appreciate your work even if they don't 'get it'.
8. Exaggerate. Think BIG: what if you had to create a billboard that 2 million people would see every day? Think small: Anyone can create a 8.5x11 advertisement. But can you create a 1x1 painting? Take a look at Adele Lack's amazing micro-paintings and see for yourself. - http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/22/adele-lacks-micropai.html

9. Go Back to the Basics. Get off the computer and pick up a pencil and notepad. There's something about brand new, crisp drawing paper and a sharp B pencil that gets the creative juices flowing.

10. Ask ridiculous questions. Don't be afraid of it either. Not knowing is much worse! Think of Scott Ginsberg wearing a nametag for a seminar and thinking to himself, "What if I just kept this thing on my shirt every day?" He started to wear his nametag every day, which has so far lead to two books published, over eighty newspaper and magazine articles, more than 100 speeches and countless tv interviews. It's how he pays his bills. Really.

11. Look for alternate ways to approach a project. Most people stop looking for solutions to a problem if they find something that works. Don't stop at that first solution: think about different perspectives, and other ways of thinking. It will broaden your horizons a bit and open you up to knew and perhaps unthought of possibilities.

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