For those of you who haven’t come through my earlier post, here is a flashback of what this post is regarding. Last week, I discussed 5 dangerous signs that your client won’t pay for your logo. As pledged, I will suggest you some practical ways on how to handle situations where your client won’t pay for your logo design.

You’ve finally completed and submitted your logo design project to your client and are eagerly awaiting your remuneration for your efforts. You wait and wait and wait…but there is no sign of anything! You’re stood up! This is a scenario many logo designers face these days. Not that every client is bad and dishonest but there are a few who can be quite chaotic on money matters.

1. Know your client – Is he capable of paying?

First thing you want to make completely sure is that…is your client capable of paying you for the project in the first place? Avoiding the discussion of how much logo designers charge or what are the cost of famous logos, when a client approaches you for a logo design, he must be financially capable of paying you as well. Whether you’re dealing with a large corporation or a small business owner, run a check on his financial conditions and find out his monetary strength. This will prevent you from accepting projects from any defaulter clients.

2. Bind your client via contract:

Long gone are the days when business deals used to be sealed through oral agreements. Nowadays, logo designers must emphasize on making contractual agreements with their clients to avoid any default in the future. Binding your clients with a contract legally secures your worries of non-payments. Logo designers must keep a contract for each project they take up with every detail incorporated in it. Set the deadline dates, complete project details, mode of payment and all other terms and conditions.

3. Always insist on an advance payment:

You spent the whole week working your brains out over a logo design project and half way in the middle, your client comes up to you and says…“I think I’ll get it designed by my neighbor”. Makes you want to kill yourself, doesn’t it? Hence, the best solution out of this quagmire is to insist on an advance payment before your start the project. Maybe a 10-20 % deposit would make you feel secure, even if the client decides to run away in the middle of the project.

4. Deal in installments:

“I don’t have the lump sum amount right now. Do you mind if I pay you later?” Regardless of the amount of truth in this statement, some clients use this bait to bail out of payment. The best thing to avoid this kind of situation is to deal in installments. Formulate a payment plan before the contractual agreement and make the client abide by it. In this way, at any stage if the client decides to abandon the project, you will still have a portion of your remuneration.

5. Don’t show till you get the dough!

Follow the rule of thumb; never be too quick in giving out the files to your clients before he/she makes the complete payment of your fee. You can never be too sure whom to trust. Sometimes, logo designers face shrewd clients who steal the logo design ideas on the pretext of a demo. So it’s better to be safe than sorry. Give the client little bits of the project to see until he does not pay you the whole fee. In a nut shell, don’t show till you get the dough!

The 19th FIFA World Cup is underway with full furor in South Africa. Although the FIFA 2014 logo has also been unveiled, a total of 18 dead logos of previous FIFA World Cups have amassed so far. Let us take a quick recap of all the logos featured by FIFA in the coveted contest from the inaugural 1930 to the upcoming 2014 in Brazil.

Here is the comprehensive list of all 20 World Cup logos adopted by FIFA up till 2014:

We hear so much about logo design being a part of living brands. But have we ever thought of the famous logos that are now literally extinct? In my previous post, I talked about BP logo might rest in peace. This gave me an inspiration to pay a tribute to other prominent logo designs as well.
In commemoration to the logos that were once renowned, but are now nowhere to be seen, I present you the logo graveyard. It includes a list of 10 formerly popular logos that faded away with the passage of time. The death of some logos happened due to a corporate logo merger, some happened because the company became defunct, while some were a result of logo redesign.

1. Enron “Slanted E”

2. British Steel stylized “S”

British Steel was a major British steel producer formed in 1967. Its stylized “S” shaped logo design was created by the British logo designer, David Gentleman. This logo too had to meet the fate of death when the company went defunct on 1999.

3. BOAC “Speedbird”

The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was a British state airline founded in 1939. Its famous speedbird logo design was designed by Theyne lee-Elliot. The logo design was pronounced dead when the company ceased to exist on 31 March 1974.

4. BP “Shield”

BP’s classic “shield logo” was designed by the French logo designer Raymond Loewy in 1979. This logo design lasted till the 2000, when it was replace by the Helios logo designed by Landor

5. Telecom Éireann

Telecom Éireann was created by the Postal & Telecommunications Services Act, 1983 from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, Ireland. Its logo was designed by Kilkenny Design Workshop in 1984 and lasted until its privatization to “Eircom Plc” in 1999.

5. Atari Corporation

Atari Corporation was a manufacturer of computers and video game consoles established in 1984. Its logo design became obsolete when the company went under Hasbro Interactive in 1996

7. Konica “rainbow”

Konica was a Japanese manufacturer of film, cameras, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers. It was fonded in 1873. But after its merger with Minolta in 2003, its famous rainbow logo design ceased to exist.

8. UPS “Parcel”

9. NBC “Stylized N” (1975–1979)

10. Panam “Globe”

After the recent oil spill disaster by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, their logo design has been under immense attack by the activist group, Greenpeace UK. They want to portray the real image of BP with a mock redesign of BP’s corporate logo and for that they have called for a helping hand in logo design. While the Oil giant is constantly trying to clean up the massive mess, the logo design contest at Greenpeace website is in full flow with designers from all over the globe participating.

The BP Logo transformation – How will it end?

The BP logo redesign Flickr set:

The contest at Greenpeace website is in full flow as more than 970 logos have been amassed on its Flickr set. The entries contain contributions from logo designers as well as the general public. Some logos are sublime while most are ridiculous to say the least.

What made famous logos – Color or symbol?

In order to analyze this, let us take examples of some of the famous logos of the corporate world. Let us start with an examination of McDonald’s logo shall we? Although the logo contains nothing more than a mere “M”, it is still memorable than any other brand in the world. From psychological perspective, the color “yellow”, used in McDonalds’ logo, stimulates the human appetite. No wonder a majority of restaurants and cafés use the color yellow in their logo design. Another feature of the yellow color is that it is an attention getter. This strengthens the McDonald’s logo cause even more, as customers are attracted by the color. Hence the McDonald’s logo success depends greatly on its color rather than its symbol.

Why do you suppose the Google logo is easily recalled for? Just like McDonald’s, it has no catchy symbol in its design, but the color scheme is what captivates its users the most. The colorful and vivid way in which Google is written is responsible for the memorable logo we all remember. Come to think of it, how would you feel if Google was in black and white? Pretty strange, I presume?

Let us pick another famous brand, the FedEx logo, and analyze the influence of its attributes. This acclaimed corporate identity was designed by Lindon Leader of Landor Associates. The epicenter of FedEx brand identity was its meticulously created symbol. The words contained an arrow between the “E” and “X”, providing one of the most memorable logos in the world. Hence “symbol” became the dominating factor for memorization.

Coming to the all-famous Nike logo, the simple and effective swoosh symbol is the force behind the success of the brand identity. Although the black color has no apparent effect on people, the simple and minimalist design is what the customers easily remember and recall.

The significance of color in logo design:

• Black: authority and power, stability and strength.
• White: purity, cleanliness, neutrality and peace.
• Red: attention, energy, movement and excitement.
• Blue: calming, steadfastness, dependability, wisdom and loyalty

• Green: growth, nature, money, good luck, generosity and fertility
• Yellow: laughter, happiness, optimism, speed up metabolism
• Orange: fun, happiness, energetic and ambition
• Purple: royalty, wealth, prosperity and sophistication

The significance of symbol in logo design:

The old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is aptly applicable in logo designing. The symbolic effect of a logo is also as effective as the color. The use of apposite symbols to denote the company meaning through a logo design is vital in creating memorable logos. However, inappropriate use of symbols in the design can tarnish the corporate identity of any business. Following are some symbols used in logo design and their effects:

• Text logos: the logo created out of textual pattern shows strength and elegance. Additionally, the ambigram trick gives way for memorable logos to be created.
• Imagery logos: Images are easily comprehended and effortlessly memorized by the human mind. Moreover, the use of negative space is something that is an added advantage in imagery logos.
• Combination logos: A combination of both text and imagery gives more detail and influence to the logo design.