What is a logo and why is it important?
A logo is always the very first impression people get of your company. It is your visual stamp and if it is successful it will effectively communicate messages about what your company stands for. Your logo speaks on behalf of your company whether you like it or not. Are you saying your company is sloppy and slap dash with an unimpressive cheap looking logo? Is the message you want to be sending out being heard, ignored or accepted?  Are you coming across like a small or big company? Is that how you want to come across? Are you communicating brand messages of serious, fun, quirky or professional?

A logo must stand the test of time and be original
Your logo is in effect the seed from which your brand grows from. It should form the backbone of every piece of communication that follows. The colours, typography and style of logo should define your image and the rest of your business communications. Once designed your logo will represent your company for many years so it’s important to get it right. It needs to be flexible enough to build on. Originality is also key. It must be designed specifically for your company to communicate to your target audience. Remember that cheaper generic logos may not reflect your true company values and an off the shelf solution could also end up being used by another company – two major reasons why it’s worth paying for a good quality logo.

So how much should you actually pay for a logo?
Many people don’t realise the amount of work that has to go into a successful, useful and professionally designed logo. Through research your designer should at least find out who your main competitors are and how they present themselves as well as understand your target audience and long term company goals.

1. Ideas are generated from brain storming sessions often with more than one designer involved.
2. Rough concepts need to be developed and then chosen concepts need to be polished and presented.
3. Amends are often required, more tweaking and then final finishing touches before file hand over.

All this takes time which is why if you are getting a professional job done the price can seem astronomical for what you think you are getting. Further to this you should find out what you are getting from you designer. It could include:

1. Just one logo file
2. Multiple files such as a black and white version of your logo
3. Scalable files
4. Logo usage guidelines
5. Full brand development
6. Full brand guidelines

This is why a logo can cost anything from £50 (not advisable) to £5,000 (also not advisable unless you fully understand why)! Now you understand the value you should get out of your logo, how much work is involved and the various levels of logo development service you could get, you should have more clarity about the importance of your logo and how much you should pay for it.

Here are our top five tips for achieving brand consistency:

1. Firstly, invest in a quality well designed logo (and if your budget can accommodate it, some simple brand guidelines). This should then form the basis for every piece of marketing material that follows.
2. Following on from here ensure your marketing material looks like it belongs to the same family! If there is no clear link between your business card, website and brochure for example, then your customers’ journey is disjointed and your message becomes unclear.
3. The biggest and most obvious blunder is to randomly change colours from one piece of marketing communication to the next. Don’t do this! Decide on your brand colours which should be specifically chosen to communicate key messages and then stick to them.
4. Select every aspect of your brand carefully. Understand that these brand characteristics all mean something and effect the people that experience your brand. These characteristics should include (but are not limited to) things like fonts, colours, logos, design elements and language style.
5. The best way to achieve the above is to establish a long term working relationship with the right designer who can help build that unswerving, dependable and loved brand that will actually have a positive affect on your businesses profitability. 

part of the Zambia Tourism Awards slideshow

We were approached to get involved with the first ever Zambia Tourism Awards in April 2009. The competition was designed to promote and reward excellence in Zambian tourism.

Case studies are an opportunity for us to express our passion for what we do. They give a deeper insight into our design rational, the process followed and the results of each project.

The aim was to establish the Zambia Tourism Awards as an annual event that will be recognised as the tourism industry’s most prestigious function, attracting wide media coverage and enthusiastic industry-wide support. The awards were initiated by the SEED project under the Ministry of Tourism Enviroment and Natural Resources (MTENR) with support from Capacity Building for Private Sector Development (CBPSD) and the Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ). Yup. They love their acronyms over there.

The Zambia Tourism Awards logo

The Design Brief

The brief was incredibly broad and our team was involved in research, copy writing, design, marketing and event management. This case study focuses on the design element and will showcase the logo, program and event visual backdrops. The challenge was to create an inspiring and dramatic brand image that had an obvious link to Zambia as a country (we used the bright and recognisable Zambian flag colours). It needed to communicate quality, generate excitement, be flexible and have the ability to stand the test of time.

The Process

The project was always going to be a challenge because it was, in the main, a sponsored event run by a committee. There were many decision makers and stakeholders to consider. Through a collaborative strategy we established that the developing brand needed to:

1. Grab attention to inform the public about the awards and encourage their participation.
2. Win over private sector members of the Zambia tourism industry and encourage their participation.
3. Be professional and visually powerful in order to set the tourism awards in a strong foundation from which future yearly award events can be built on. The brand needed to demonstrate the high standards being set.

To achieve this, the design process involved a lot of research and international team work and communication — between our UK (sb) and Zambia offices (the Best of Zambia) and between our team and the busy stakeholders. Numerous on and off line meetings were necessary and many heated (or passionate) discussions took place!

The End Result

All this happened in a haze of project management hell, tight deadlines and one too many revisions. That is not a negative comment — what’s important is the successful outcome, the accolades we received from the stakeholders and the powerful lessons we learnt as a team that only experience can teach you. Below you’ll find part of the slideshow (featuring the hotel nominees and winner), program cover spread and some photos of the event. Let us know what you think!

Zambia Tourism Awards slideshow (Click to view an interactive version)

Program cover spread

The arrival of the Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Honourable Catherine Namugala

Zambia Tourism Awards night

Zambia Tourism Awards event in action

Zambia Tourism Awards plaques

Zambia Tourism Awards evening entertainment

Zambia Tourism Awards 2009 winners

the bike ride across Vietnam event (BRAVE) logo

Have you ever considered the impact your business has on the wider world? Have you stopped to think how this could be used in a positive way?

The official term — corporate social responsibility. But I prefer to strip away the jargon and cold tone and call it, “giving just because you can contribute and make a difference”. Since it’s the right thing to do, you get this wonderfully positive warm and gooey feeling inside! That may sound corny to some but there’s no other way to say it. Of course we can’t (and don’t intend to) get away from the fact that we’ll get some publicity from this, but it’s about mutual benefit.

I bumped into Gary Johannes in the butchers and he asked for some design support for a charity event he had in mind. It took less than five minutes of his story and I was in. Here’s why:

1. It’s based on an extraordinary story of strength and a powerful personal story.
2. It’s a respectful and gracious way that Gary and his family could say thank you for the support they got from the children’s ward at Stoke Mandeville’s Spinal Unit.
3. I’m not a big believer in free flowing, no questions asked money based charity (otherwise known as aid) but I do believe in action based giving.

The charity idea went on to become BRAVE – Bike Ride Across Vietnam Event. Christopher, Gary’s son, broke his back and was told it was unlikely that he would ever walk again. Fighting the odds, Christopher and Gary will bravely bike ride across Vietnam in 2010. The time we spent crafting the BRAVE logo and creating the banner stand was our humble and simple attempt to contribute to something tangible.

You can read the full remarkable story here and here. Funds raised will be donated to Stoke Mandeville’s Spinal Unit who helped Christopher on his journey to walk again. Why don’t you take part?

My theory is that it is the judges who are meant to be the music maestros. They’re the ones who are meant to be able to distinguish between which of the contestants have real musical ability and the skill to succeed, and which will be short term fads. The public on the other hand seem to vote for more superficial things like a contestants looks, where they’re from or really just for short term entertainment value. They really couldn’t care less if, after the hype contestants and/or winners are spat out, declared failures by all and quickly forgotten about.

So what’s this got to do with design?

If as a business owner looking to save a quick buck you DIY a logo, some business cards, a few leaflets to dish out and a website that you think is the best thing since sliced bread then you are in danger of being the British public voting in an act that will be forgotten in the blink of an eye. (And the worst thing is that in this case it is your business which will not be making an impact on the landscape that your customers view). If on the other hand you are an entrepreneur with a long term vision then longevity is something that will rate more highly for you. You’ll want to ensure you have an effective logo. You’ll be interested in how it can be developed into a recognisable and trusted brand. You’ll be more concerned with a long term return on investment (ROI) than the so called saving you’ll make from the many quick fix avenues you could go down.

And so as the nation was reeling from the survival of ‘Jedward’ and asking who are these people that vote, or more to the point, don’t vote, my mind was wondering, making comparisons between the British public and the small business owner!