Business Card Makeover – The Final Winner!
The business card makeover contest has been a lot of fun. We have seen a number of cards which really needed a makeover. Along the way, we have been able to help several business owners.
This month, our intern Dan took the lead on the redesign. Here is what he had to say about the process.
Although it may be popular, a business card doesn’t need to be a bright color or have a flashy gradient to stand out.
Sometimes, just a strong images can really catch someone’s eyes and portray something about the business at the same time. I’m not endorsing the use of stock photos on business cards, but select graphics, used correctly, can add a nice touch.
While experimenting with the design, for this month’s winner Wire2U, I made a graphic of the AC plug (of which I was kind of proud). I liked it so much, I started looking at other cables to include. Each of the cables which appear on the card is was created from an actual cablet I found laying around my house or at the office.
These cables make the business card more noticeable and interesting, while appealing to people, such as myself, who live with cluttered rooms with countless confusing cables. As for the color scheme, I used yellow to attract attention, but added navy to keep a professional and trustworthy image. Be sure to ask the winner, Pat Seal, for his business card to see it in person the next time you run into him at a Rainmaker Event.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news in this post too. As much as we have enjoyed ridding the world of ugly business cards this will be the last business card makeover .
But, a good brand is constantly evolving, so stay tuned to here and on our facebook fanpage, because there are new things are just around the corner.
Last call for business cards!
As you know, we’ve spent the last two months on a personal crusade to put an end to ugly business cards. We’ve had a great time collecting aesthetically challenged cards and making over one lucky card each month, but this is the last call.
If you’ve been holding onto your ugly business card, afraid to turn it in, this is your last chance. Check out the work that we’ve done for our past winners, and enter your own card for its own Extreme Makeover: Business Card Edition.
We Have a Winner!
Humans are very receptive to color. For instance, red makes us think of heat, fire, and passion. But it can also make us think of danger and blood. Blue is a calming color, associated with wisdom and trustworthiness. It’s also strongly connected with masculinity and is highly favored by men.
So take a look at your logo and your business card. Are you using the right colors to attract the audience that you want? For instance, if you’re an accountant who uses purple in your logo, you’ve chosen a color that’s most attractive to children, who may not be in the market for book keeping services. Instead, you may want to choose a deep green, which subconsciously makes people think of money.
Taylor’s redesign of Andrew Carson’s card for our June Makeover makes great use of color theory. He moved from Andrew’s monochromatic and slightly dull design to a gunmetal blue. This color pays homage to Andrew’s military background, but also ties in with his etiquette consulting business: blue is trustworthy, peacefully, and appeals to the mind rather than emotions.
We’ll be continuing our Business Card Makeover for one more month, so there’s still time to breathe some new life into your card. Just fill out the form below, and you could be a winner.
Carpenters Rule and Door Step Deliveries
Over the last few months, we have had several great projects helping new business owners name their companies and the create graphics to support the brands.
Part of what made the projects so much fun was our experiments with crowd sourcing as we asked for input on the names and the designs.
With your help we have named two companies, a grocery delivery service for seniors: Doorstep Deliveries and a carpentry business: Carpenters Rule.
We even solicited a bit of input on the logos, so we thought you would enjoy seeing the final versions.
Will BP Recover Their Brand After the Clean Up?
In 1989, The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound. An estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled into the surrounding waters. Far from the largest spill, it created public outrage as the media showed images salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds covered in oil. It was years before Exxon fully emerged from under the negative public relations created by the spill.
As I read the ongoing reports of the BP oil spill, which is now climbing the list toward the largest oil spill ever, and I watch the conversations in the news, and in social media, I wonder how long it will take for this company to recover?
Fueling the flame of negative public opinion are organizations like Greenpeace running a contest to redesign the BP logo. These are just a few of the creative designs, expressing the anger and frustration building around the world. With provocative and compelling images like these, will BP ever move past this as a company?
There are hundreds of designs in the flickr set, I expect there will be many more before this is over.
Best of Brand
Since my days in grad school, branding has always interested me. While I loved all aspects of marketing, I was immediately drawn to the concepts advanced by Reis and Trout more than 30 years ago. They believed that your Brand and your Position exist only in the mind of your customer. Essentially, it doesn’t matter what you think about your brand, only what your customers believe. We try to keep this in mind as we work with companies to develop, expand and communicate their brand.
You can see some of this feeling come through some of my favorite blog posts on the topic of branding.
- Logo from Sketch Pad to 3D - In this post Taylor talks about the process of transferring a concept from sketch to logo and ultimately to sign, created by my husband @aballstudio as a unique piece of artwork. Through it all the clients goal to have a rustic, “outdoor” feel to his brand was a guiding principal in our work.
- Branding is about emotion – In the post I Love Logos I feature the Nike logo as an example of a logo which doesn’t tell you what they do, but creates a “feeling” of movement
- An important element of branding is the name you choose – In A Rose by Any Other Name we put our visitors to work, soliciting input on names for a carpentry business we were helping to brand. (By the way, the final name is Carpenter’s Rule.
Bottom line: Branding is about the emotional reaction you create in others. Your name and logo set the tone, but your brand is about much more. It is about how you make customers feel when they think of you.
Great Logos Transcend Language
I love great logos. I admire the work of creative designers from around the world as they create strong visuals which speak for a brand. Great design, when supported over time by strong campaigns builds a brand which is instantly recognizable.
One of my favorite examples is Coca Cola. As they move around the world, they adjust their logo, but always remain recognizable.
While most of the small business clients we work with will probably never become international companies,as a marketing professional I find it interesting to look at how companies handle the translations around the world.
Doing some research for a client I stumbled upon a cool site: Brand New, where students showcase some of their branding work. The designs are amazing, and a great source of inspiration. A recent project challenged students to create Hebrew transliterations for a number of very recognizable logos. These were some of my favorites.
Take a look at your logo. Would it stand up across boarders?
Another important consideration as you evaluate your logo is how it will look on promotional items? Will it resize well, and look good on everything from a pen to billboard?
10 Timeless Branding Tips
If you are starting a new business, or revitalizing an old one the visual brand is an important part of the process. While style rules come and go, these ten tips remain true over time. If you want to build a great visual brand keep the following in mind!
Opt for simple
1. Use Two Colors- The more colors you use, the more difficult it will be to maintain brand consistency as you move across media. Also, while you want the logo to be distinctive, too many colors will create visual conflict every time it is place on a page with other images.
2. Use No More Than Two Fonts – Like color, font can make a statement or be a distraction.
3. Avoid intricate details. – While attractive when the logo is blown up, these details will disappear when it is shrunk to fit on a pen or business card. The details will be difficult to replicate if you want to embroider or emboss the logo onto a hat, shirt or coffee mug.
Consistent across platforms
4. The logo should look good in black and white – There will be times when the logo will be reproduced in black and white, if you rely on color to create the impact, there will be none in black and white.
5. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when inverted. - When I worked for Conseco, an important part of the logo was the staircase, conveying the idea that you were “stepping up” to Conseco. When the logo was reversed, (white on green or black) it looked like the staircase was going down. We had to create a second sligtly different version of the logo to use when we were reversing it on a colored background.
6. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when resized. – See notes on details above. Often when designers work on a logo, it looks great on their screen, but they forget that it is enlarged 300- 500% beyond how it will normally appear. Be sure to check in all sizes before finalizing your logo decision.
7. Do not use special effects (including, but not limited to: gradients, drop shadows, reflections, and light bursts). – Mostly I would avoid these treatments because they make the logo look cheesy and amatureish. ( The kind of thing you can do with WordArt.) I do however like the subtle Web 2.0 wet look that is often added to a logo on website. But the technique was overused and no longer looks distinctive.
Get relevant feedback
8.Ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design. – Unless they are firmly in the demographic of your target customer
9. Test the appeal of the logo with more than just three (3) individuals. - Ask questions about what the logo conveys, not whether they like it!
Commit to the Design
10. Once you choose a logo, use it everywhere, on letterhead, websites, invoices, business cards, quotes, t-shirts, hats and coffee mugs.
At Roundpeg, we love to develop logos~ Here are a few examples of our recent designs!
Building a Brand with Words and Pictures
About a week ago I asked for help. We were working on a name for a Carpenter, and I asked for input. We had some great suggestions ranging from TIMber Works and Miter Design, to Level Best and Homeworks. Each suggestion from a reader led to a stream of other ideas. I really believe using the collective intelligence of my internet community led to a great final solution!
The client Chose: THE CARPENTER’S RULE . It is descriptive, and distinctive and he is very excited. So now we are on to the second phase, creating a logo. We need a design which will look good on every thing from a business card and web site, to a truck and a t-shirt.
These are the designs Taylor has come up with. I love so many of them, I am having a hard time deciding, and so is the client. What do you think? Which do you like best, and why? 
Build a better brand
by Allison Carter
Branding is an incredibly hard concept to define. Not because it’s complicated, but because people like to throw self-aggrandizing puffery and empty words like “synergy,” it becomes a thing of unfathomable mystery.
Contrary to popular belief, a brand is not simply a logo. Seth Godin has a long, but clear definition:
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.”
Ultimately, building a brand is about differentiating yourself from your competitors who provide similar goods or services. Take a look at Target and Wal-Mart: both are big box retailers. They both sell roughly the same merchandise. Yet their brands are vastly different. Target is hip and trendy, while Wal-Mart is the champion of the working man and moms everywhere.
Don’t limit your branding efforts to just a logo. Work to build a bond and a story with customers, and show them why your company will fit their needs better than any other.
Stop limiting your branding efforts to your logos and physical appearances–you need to tell consumers a story that will make them pick you over dozens of similar competitors.
