Inspiring Lives by Logo Design

As we have discussed earlier that a logo is not just an advertising gimmick, it speaks volumes about many things and has socio-cultural aspects as well.

In the United States Geoff Livingston, a prominent blogger/ web media guru has recently got a logo tattooed on his arm. Livingston announced that he if raised $5000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, he will get organization’s logo tattooed on his arm as a payback and to thank the contributors. Lance Armstrong Foundation is an organization that works for cancer patient's welfare and cancer research.

Livestrong Logo Tattoed / CC BY-SA 2.0

Just like you would expect from a web communication expert, Livingston used facebook and twitter to spread the word about the cause among his social networks, he also raised money during the SxSW event in Austin, Texas. Once he crossed the $5000 USD mark, Livingston got himself tattooed. With the help of his blogging, social networks and public speaking Mr. Livingston raised the amount. He then asked the readers of his blog to help him choose a logo design for the tattoo and based on reader suggestions he picked up Livestrong Halo as the logo.

Logo Design - Color Ideas

Colors are the foundation of a good logo design. How a graphic design artist picks up a color palette? Where to look for the ideas and why use a palette? Why not just allow the instinct to take over the artistic mind and create a fiasco?

There are certain limitations when you are working for clients. You are creating visual images of their businesses. These are like tiny portraits of their business, their values and how they want to be seen. So it needs to be well organized, presentable and meaningful. Choosing the right color palette is the beginning of the idea. 

To pick colors you need to understand your clients business and their mission statement. Who they are? What their future plans are and what kind of people do business with them.

Now keeping this information in mind a Logo Design artist you should study colors. Colors not just represent the shades of light. Colors may represent wholesome ideas. Blue may represent calmness, water, sky, and peace. But, it can also represent firmness and strength. Red is supposed to represent love and passion but it can also be representing war and blood. 

Colors may also have different effects in different cultures. The effect of colors may also change in different scenarios, periods, age groups. Considering all this will help you choose your color ideas. Once you have a few colors you can add relevant colors to add contrast and shades. Too many colors might be disorienting so most artists stick to their limited color palette which simplifies the whole idea of their logo design in a coherent and meaningful manner. 

Bunnell, Florida: Flagler County Approves New Logo Design

I have decided to share logo design news with the readers of this blog. The purpose is to highlight how businesses and organizations across the globe and particularly in the United States are trying to achieve their marketing goals and how they are using logos to do that effectively.

Flagler County Old Logo	Flagler county New Logo

In Bunnell Florida, Flagler County has recently approved a new logo design for the county. In september last year the county announced a logo design competition and called for enteries. After recieving 113 entries out of which 72 were student entries, a committee of local marketing professionals hand picked the best three designs.

However, the winning logos are not going to be the official count logo. The county hired a professional graphic designer to do a logo design for the county by incorporating elements from the top choosen designs from the contest. The professional graphic designer then took suggestions from the comissioners and borrowed heavily from the winning logo design.

As you can see this logo is built specifically for the marketing purposes and attempts to highlight tourism industry by presenting an environment friendly image. Eco tourism is already big in Flagler county and the officials hope that by using the new logo on county stationary, vehicles and other marketing materials they could do more effective marketing.

PepsiCo Logo Design and World Domination

Remember Swastika, During the WWII Hitler’s ambitions to conquer to world and impose his ideologies on the world were often reflected by that sign. Later on, Hollywood took over the legacy of Hitler and continued to associate the swastika with Evil Geniuses.

In today’s corporate world the largest multinational corporations do not hesitate to show their ideologies about conquering the world and dominating entire global market. Well of course we cannot compare these corporations with the Nazi Hitler, but there is similarity between today’s multinationals and Nazi Germany, dreams of total world domination.

Here are some examples from PepsiCo’s logo’s representing planet earth and company’s global reach.

The New Pepsi 3D Logo Design

Pepsico Corporate Logo Design Global Expansion Products covering the Globe

Pepsico Corporate Globe Logo Again surrounded by Products

Logos That Speak Volumes

A quality logo is not just a pretty picture created with sophisticated graphics tools. It is an image that portrays an organization or a business. It can convey lots of information, facts, stories and promises to the viewer. It can become a part of the lives of people and it could become synonymous to trust and quality.

Toy Story 3 Logo © Disney . Pixar

These wonderful images represent stories of the business, stories of happenings around that business and stories of its customers. By the time, customers become acquainted by this image and it makes them feel comfortable, cared, and relaxed. This powerful visual representation acts like a spokesperson for an organization. It tells the purpose of the business, the values and practices this business follows, and the promises and assurances it makes.

Pilgrim's Promise Logo -Final Version
Originally uploaded by m23jeske

It bow downs to greet the viewers, politely invites them in to try the services or products, encourages them to ask questions, and tries to convince them. It inspires the creative sensitivities of the viewers, evokes emotions, and provokes thoughts.

There is so much that this tiny little image can do. Those who do not pay attention to own one are living in fool’s paradise.

Understanding Client's Logo Design Idea

As professional logo designers you would often come across clients who will demand that you do exactly what they have in their mind and most of the time you would find their ideas ridiculous. There are two things that you should consider in such situations. First of all you should take client’s idea seriously. Secondly, you need to learn how to be creative in strictly limited artistic freedom


Small businesses are very conscious about their existing clientele, particularly those who are in the business for some time and have decided to finally get brand logo. Their customers already know them and have their own perception of the brand. So when a client is forcing you to draw something in a particular way, you need to understand how they think they are perceived by their clients. Then you need to discuss this so that you could come up something that is closer to how your client thinks their business should look to potential and existing customers.

Effective communication between a logo designer and the client is essential for a good logo design. However, since your clients are not graphic designers themselves, it would be difficult for them to convey their ideas to you. So you should approach them by asking them questions about what they want to be done. Specially a logo designer must understand they values of the business or brand, what are the targeted markets, how the business promotes itself and so on.