If you were to travel to a foreign land, would you even think of abandoning your own country’s customs or anything else you may know? Most of us would not. It would be hypocritical to our own heritage, but maybe we should start thinking of that more often. It’s very possible that something we do, say or wear can be offensive to a foreigner’s customs or traditions. It’s true that we may not know if these things are offensive until we encounter a situation, but perhaps a little research before traveling would go a long way.

The Washington Nationals, based out of Washington DC, have had a few logo representations in the history of their team. Sometimes the letters “DC” are used to represent them on their hats or other merchandise and other times their full name appears over a baseball in their main logo image. They also have a curled “W” as their third representation.

During a recent trip to Israel, Tyler Allard, an assistant to Representative Jim Cooper, proudly wore a Nationals baseball cap throughout the airport. He didn’t give the cap a second thought until an Israeli airport security guard pointed to the logo on his hat with utter hatred and disgust, asking why he would wear such a hat. With laughter, the ensemble assumes that the guard is referring to the terrible performance of the American baseball team.

Their further experience of being quizzed over and over and having every inch of their luggage ravaged and searched is the reason I wouldn’t want to travel by plane very often. Apparently, green is a Palestinian color and the curly “W” of the Nationals logo closely resembles a Palestinian extremist symbol.

It makes you think twice about what to wear in the airport of a foregin country. A little thought into his clothing, and Tyler Allard could have saved himself the embarressment of having Israeli guards go through his unmentionables.

Logo Blog has had a makeover! After months of planning, and reworking ideas, our new site design is finally finished and ready to share with the world. Our site started out small and our original design was simple, but it brought us a long way. Although we all have a special place set aside for our old design, we decided that it was time for a change and Logo Blog deserved an opportunity to shine more brightly.

The staff at Logo Blog would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to The NetMen Corp., who is the gifted talent behind our new design. They worked diligently to create multiple drafts for both the logo and site graphics. They did a fantastic job and Logo Blog will forever be grateful to them.

The team at NetMen Corp is very patient and accommodating. After agreeing to help us out with our new design, they complied with every idea we threw at them and never complained after every draft they created for us. We were a bit picky here at Logo Blog, but that’s only because we strive for perfection. Thanks to their generosity, we now have a brand new logo and site design that both modernize and add style to Logo Blog. We all hope you enjoy the new design and thanks for visiting!

-Nora Reed

Are you a morning person? I am definitely not. I woke up today, groggy and full of sleep, but hoping a bowl of cereal and cup of coffee would help awaken my senses and get the day going. Sadly, it did not do the trick, but something else did. While eating my granola cereal, I was watching the “Today Show” and happened to catch a segment on kids and brand recognition. This instantly grabbed my attention and I couldn’t wait to get a hold of my keyboard and start typing. The story was about ‘tweens,” and how even at their young ages of 10 or 11, they are fully aware of the marketing techniques that are used on them and they are able to recognize logos or ads for products that don’t even cater to them. This must mean that large corporations are doing something right when promoting their products or services if they even can get attention from the younger generations. It all comes down to branding, which is the new popular idea in marketing and how those on top get there and stay on top.

The kids were given simple tests to see what triggered specific senses and to see what they knew about certain products based on image recognition, smells or sounds. When blindfolded, Play-doh and Crayola Crayons were held under their noses to see if they knew what they were just from smelling them. These products are not known for their smell, but they do hold a very distinctive scent that apparently is completely recognizable. Any type of product recognition is a part of company branding and although this aspects may not have been on purpose, it makes the product identifiable and helps promote the company.

Sounds were another source of identification. The short dinging tune for NBC was played for the kids and they didn’t even hesitate in pointing out where it came from. It’s no secret that well done commercial jingles stick in our heads and point us toward certain companies. Take the “free credit report.com” commercial or the song played during the Geico advertisement with the watchful pile of money. Sound is another huge part of advertising and a company that can play on all the senses has a better chance of success.

Logos and product images were another test given to the group of kids. A portion of a product logo or a photo of a blue Tiffany box with a white ribbon were display to the kids and they all were able to recognize the products easily. I don’t think that there are that many 10 year olds that shop at Tiffany’s, yet they still know just what the light blue box represents. Louis Vuitton bags do not display the name on the bag, yet it is easy to pick one out by the distinct design that is printed on all their products since they are well known items. If a product is popular, there is no need to display the name. Everyone already knows what it is.

Much like the Louis Vuitton bags, Abercrombie and Fitch also uses the nameless method to sell their product. They have established themselves over time as such a popular clothing brand that they don’t even need to display their name. The window layout of their stores exhibit black and white images of men and women with muscular, sexy bodies and that’s about it. The idea behind this is to make people think that they want to look like these models and maybe they have a chance if they buy the clothes. People may not even realize they are thinking that way, but the images play on the subconscious and the method works. Abercrombie’s success is proof of that.

Companies know that if they target the young generation now, they have a higher chance for success in the future. It seems to be working as a marketing plan and the results of the “Today Show” segment prove that this has been going on for quite some time. Kids always strive to be adults or to have adult things. It’s up to the parents to determine what is too old for them, but I guess we can’t really stop these companies from targeting them within their marketing agenda.

You can see the segment from the today show at the following link!

Today Show – Brand Savvy Tweens

-Nora Reed

Reading through the logo design news  for the day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the venerable old’ Wall Street Journal has a piece written after Logo Blog’s own heart, covering logo design and logo design companies. Although we won’t besmirch the Journal for inching in on our territory, we do have our own take on their findings.

Peter King, the writer of the Cranky Consumer feature for the WSJ, created a fictional business in order to test and review, several online logo design companies. Operating under the assumption that the client was a jobless entrepreneur, King set his budget at $150 and under and went to work.

Creating DiskFix, an imaginary data retrieval service who specializes in data recovery from hard drives, King selected The Logo Company, Logo Design Guru.com, Logo Design Creation.com and Logo Loft to build his imaginary brand.Providing only a tag line and a simple one sentence description King purposely kept the input to a minimum and let the designers have at it.

After reviewing each design, King and corporate brand expert Dr. Glenn Christensen, assistant professor of business management at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management, provided their commentary. Although King and Christensen reviewed price, service, and design, we will turn our attention to the design itself.

Logo Design Guru
I liked this one, it seems both corporate and dynamic, while integrating a cyclical motion with an outlined circle around the company name. I also can’t help but notice a very FedEx like arrow in between the “I” and the “X” in “Fix”, very subtle. The typography is also strong and metered providing an excellent hierarchy between Disk Fix, Solutions, and the tag line. I would like to see the tag line slightly larger, but it can work both ways.
I disagree with Christensen’s assessment that the logo does not communicate what the company is. Clearly the circle, hidden arrow, and the circle around Disk Fix Solutions provide some indication of returning a user or a customer right back where they started from, as any customer of a data recovery service would so sorely want to feel. Overall strong text, plus the subtle cyclical motion makes this the strongest contender.

LogoLoft
I found this logo to be slightly more problematic, in that I found it too spread out and elongated for my taste. Also the text is a little bland.   I feel if you are going to design such a text centric logo, you should at least capitalize on it and do something interesting with it.  I’m just personally bored by the text in this logo.

I do like however the hard disk head resting on the platter, jutting out from the “D” in Disk. (I’m a sucker for design elements worked into text.) My only concern with this is that it could be mistaken for a thermometer. If someone wasn’t particular intimate with the internal working of a hard drive, he or she may not know what was being depicted.

Logo Design Creation.com
I have mixed feelings on this logo. I find the type to be very weak, and I’m not just some sans serif hater, this text is Land of Bland. The text is fitting for a road sign on the Autobahn, not for a data recovery firm.

The icon is compelling, in that it’s a blunt in your face representation of the company, but I disagree with Dr. Christensen that it’s the best representation out of the group. To me it’s uninspired and looks a little too much like an oscillating fan.
The logo is also fairly long and horizontal, and not as condensed and compact as most standard logos.

The Logo Co.
This is a compelling logo similar to the Logo Design Guru logo that I think takes the right approach. Circular in design, the logo creates the effect of spinning drive platters and is appropriately turning clockwise indicative of getting back to the start of something.
The 1s and 0s are a particularly nice touch at communicating the nature of the business and providing the necessary fill in inside the logo’s center. My only concern with this would be printing or embroidery. I wonder how well this would come out. I find the font for Disk Fix a little too thin, with the word “Solutions” becoming lost below the company name and above the tag line, but the design is still perfectly serviceable.

After offering our humble commentary on the design portion of this article, what are your thoughts about these logos? Did the Wall Street Journal get the design aspects correct? Which logo is the best and most likely to be selected and used? Which firms could have done better? Leave a comment below or vote in the poll on the right, under the RSS feed box.

Images and Graphics originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal July 16, 2009.

-Kevin Scott

Billy Mays. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) was the face of direct response marketing in America. His upbeat and friendly- in your face personality-helped sell any product he represented. He was a simple salesman who built his way up to celebrity status through his unique delivery and convincing  pitch. It was his distinctive, burly, bearded look and booming voice that make him the most well known figure in television sales. Billy Mays was known best for promoting cleaning products such as OxiClean, Orange Glo,  the Awesome Auger, Mighty Mend-It, Mighty Putty, Quick Chop and other assorted household  items. Mays started his career as the last of the great  boardwalk pitchmen in Atlantic City then moved on with the Home Shopping Network, and soon  started his own company  Mays Promotions, Inc. He then moved on just recently working on a documentary series on the Discovery channel, Pitchmen. Billy Mays created his own success and as a great huckster, sold himself into a household name and into the hearts and ears of America.

As great as Billy’s pitch was, the logos for the products that Billy Mays promoted are  little plain and uninspired at best.  All designed in the same Ron Propeil school of tacky and in your face infomercial fair, the logos were simply serviceable. Yet, with a  pitchman like Billy Mays, I guess they  felt they didn’t need a great or memorable logo. Perhaps, in his passing, the owners of these products will reconsider the importance of a great logo and reinvent their visual corporate identity.

-Nora Reed