Not only did the owner of Diamond Lifestyles want me to design her an identity she also wanted a business card that represented her ideals. The brief was to create a business card that clearly represented the health industry but also had a sleek, modern and professional look. In this post I show some of the business card designs I developed before arriving at the final one.
Initial Logo Design
The benefit of being hired to design the logo and business card is that I can play with the two side by side to see how it may work on a printed piece of material. When I was first designing the logo I wanted to see how it may look on a business card. I tried the logo on a pure black and white background with inverted colours. I wanted to keep the design minimal as it would look more clinical and relating to the precision that health products and services usually provide.
Aloe Vera Focuses your attention
This was a design that the client really liked. She liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card but she wasn’t quite sure black was the right colour for her company, it was something I wanted to keep in mind as I was designing the logo.
Full Colour relates to Aloe Vera
When I designed the logo in a minimalist way I was a little worried that there was little relation to Aloe Vera and rather about the diamond relation. To combat this I considered how the business card and future collateral could show the Aloe Leaf & plants and possibly using the colour of the plant in its brand guidelines. It wasn’t the client’s favourite choice, she definitely wanted something minimal and she preferred the white rather than the black so I created a few more options.
Portrait Minimal Business Card
As the client wanted a minimalist approach I took the design right back to as much of a simple design as possible. By keeping the card to a minimum it gave it the clinical look that was desired but I wanted to give several different options so tried a few more different layouts and styles.
Final Design
Considering that my client liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card design this was inco-operated into the final design. It added visual interest and communicated exactly what the product was that the company sells. The logo in the 3d Chrome/Silver effect worked well with the white background and vibrant green of the Aloe Leaves. The font choice was classic and re-enforced that of a professional and competent health professional. See the final design below…
I was approached by a health business expert who is in the process of starting up a business in association with Forever Living Aloe Vera Products to design a logo and business card. In this post I show how the logo developed and evolved over the two week process.
Starting point
To start I needed a basic understanding of the company’s service and products. I was informed that Diamond Lifestyles will be promoting a lifestyle selling Forever Living products and building a team of other sales members to keep the sales flowing, increasing your turn over and reaching the “Diamond Lifestyle”.
My first idea was to combine the Aloe Vera plant with a diamond as can be seen in this picture below. This was a very basic idea and only a very quick mock up to see what it may look like combining the two elements but I beleived it to be “too literal” and no at all professional or communicating the right message so… I went back to the drawing board!
Classical and elegant typography
My first thought was to be very visual but then I considered how other health companies represent themselves to the market and after studying some of the more successful brands a classic and elegant style is used by most brands. I decided that I would try combing the D and L to create an abstract use of the two letters and ensuring the typography was communicating the right message.
I decided this was the right way to approach the logo but decided it needed some graphic within the lettering. As the company was branded Dimaond Lifestyles I wanted to include the diamond somewhere on the logo. Above you can see the first logo is inside the lettering on the tip of the L but something just wasn’t right so I got a pen and paper out and did a few sketches.
Realising that the key aspect of the company is to help people reach the pinicle point of a “Diamond Lifestyle” I took the back of the D & turned it into a pedestal ( as can be seen above ). This felt right and communicated the message in a more subtle way than the first idea.
Developing the logo idea further
The logo was starting to get somewhere! The pedestal idea was really liked by the business owner and thus some more development ensued. I realised that the new logo had no relevance or indication that Aloe Vera was involved in the company which I considered to be a slight problem.
Considering the plant itself, an aloe vera leaf has what look like spikes ever so often down the edges. Taking this element of Aloe Vera I added it to the D but after self analysis I concluded it was starting to look less clinical and elegant and starting to look a bit more cartoon like which I definitely didn’t want. The message I was sending out to anyone viewing the logo was going in the wrong direction so I took a step back and added The name of the company below the DL positioned like a set of stairs.
Big is best?
After showing the logo to my client we discussed how we both felt the diamond was being lost a little so I made the diamond a lot bigger and more prominent in the logo design than it used to be. Below are a few different variations of the logo with a large diamond.
Add some colour to your life
Now we had enlarged the diamond colour was the next thing to be considered. My client said “I don’t think black is the right colour for an Aloe Vera company” and maybe she was right.
The black is the colour I usually create any logo in so that colour doesn’t influence design but black can also be used in logo design to represent a clinical and crisp feeling which is a characteristic that I felt was important in designing for a health company.
Listening to my clients wishes I took the favoured logo design and then tried varying colours to see what it may look like.
Realising that flat design is in vogue at the moment I tried to steer clear of gradients…now that the logo had colour I didn’t feel it was adding anything of particular value and I still felt as though the black was best closely followed by the white, my client agreeing but also showed interest in the green ( for the literal sense of aloe vera).
Too cartoon like again
Again I felt adding colour to the logo in this flat fashion gave the impression of a cartoon like and even worse, cheap impression to the company which I wanted to avoid thus I spoke to my client and suggested we strip back the colour again and consider “the colour of a diamond”.
A diamond doesn’t have any colour, it can trap light and thus become iridescent of every colour of the rainbow but it is in my opinion a diamond shares similar qualities to that of ice…all these thoughts of multiple colours led me naturally onto considering a 3d gradient approach.
Diamonds are forever
As can be seen in this logo the diamond has been reduced right down but an edgey diamond like gradient has been applied to the logo. Showing this to the client she was extremely happy with how it looked, she preferred a 3d look rather than the flat logo, it was really starting to go in the right direction.
Final Logo
The final logo was slightly metallic/silver. It kept the initial idea of a clinical and sleek look to represent the health industry whilst keeping colour to a minimal to avoid any message linking to colour. Although there is no representation of Aloe Vera my client and I concluded that the key aspect of the company is the “Diamond” status for new members of the sales team.
We discussed that the Aloe Vera could be on the business card thus communicating the link to Forever Living. To learn more about Diamond Lifestyles please click here.
In my next post I will show and discuss the business card I developed in combination with the logo.
Your business isn’t just a grey box, paperwork and turnover, your business is a piece of art and a brand. The brand is the personality that identifies your product, service or company against your market rivals. Get it right and it will attract the consumers you are seeking, get it wrong and it could detract your potential customers away from doing business.
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2012 Olympics Brand Identity
If your brand is designed in such a way that provokes human emotion it can even get excellent media attention
Remember the 2012 Olympics Logo and games mascots? They were controversial and many people verbally communicated just how much they didn’t like it. By being controversial and so different to previous Olympics logos it was give huge media coverage which made the brand awareness and attention to the games itself very high on an unprecedented level.
Ugly is pretty
In my opinion it was an excellent brand design because it got people talking regardless of whether it was liked or disliked by the majority of people. What people experienced was something that was different, unexpected, pushing boundaries and futuristic.
It even grabbed the attention of conceptual extremists with suggestions of aliens making an appearance or there being a major terrorist attack. Bizarrely, this increased the success of the brand design by spreading the word of the 2012 Olympics in all communities interested in these things and further put the Olympics into people’s minds.
Choosing a colour
The importance of choosing the right colour cannot be undermined. Colour have so many meanings to us on a subconscious and cultural level that different combinations can convey and symbolize a different emotion and concept.
Once you identify the colour combination that you like best and convey the message you need your designer MUST adhere to the EXACT colours so your brand is easily recognisable.
Conceptual symbol
Next to consider is the most familiar object of branding – the logo.
I believe that a good logo design must be able to communicate the product or service being sold in a conceptual but not literal way. Another words if you sell ice creams don’t simply use a clipart of an icecream and forget to edit it, instead consider your target market and what may attract someone to do business with you rather than go to one of your competition. What makes your ice cream business different from the rest? Can it be inco-operated into part of the logo design?
Style your advertising
After the design of the colour combination & logo a good brand designer will know the importance of creating a style guide so it easy to follow for future designs. The style guide is created so that any future branding works (such as advertising) relates and is identifiable as your company.
When designing a new advert this style guide should be consulted; it doesn’t mean it should restrict your creativity but instead keep your company looking professional and re-enforce the brand in peoples minds consistently wherever they see something to do with your business whether it is a compliment slip to a large billboard advertising it should speak you.
The importance of a well designed business identity
A well designed business identity isn’t just important, it is crucial to your business! When you start your company hire a designer you must make sure they are professional and understand how delicate an operation a well designed brand is and takes time to perfect.
The branding designer should be able to design everything that your business identity will appear on from letterheads to websites it should all have a consistent feel but also convey a message, even have a life of its own it has that much personality!! Don’t take your business identity lightly consult a branding designer today, you will find it is one of the best investments you make in the early stages of your business.
You may have noticed a gold symbol on my website and social media accounts, this is my logo and the start of my own brand. Designing a brand for yourself as a designer can be more difficult than designing a brand for somebody else as you have to be more self-critical and more analytical without the feedback of anyone but me, myself and I. In this post I discuss my brand name reason and the conceptual theory behind my logo design.
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Choosing the name
When I first considered what to identify myself as I remember reading Duncan Bannatynes autobiography and why he decided to brand his businesses with his own name. He decided to brand his gyms with his name because if anything went wrong it would be on his names reputation, it shows confidence in what he is able to provide and should criticism arise to correct the problem that caused the negative feeling. I was inspired, I considered it to be a noble and great idea so borrowed the idea.
Inital Name
Considering the concept by Mr Bannatyne , my initials JAW and my profession as a specialist in communication design, I took them both and used my initials in a literal sense of “jaws” that we use to speak and communicate. This was the basis of my idea, to inco-operate a mouth into the design of the logo. My name would be “Jawz of design”…
Taking Shape
I decided to begin playing with shapes, shapes that could convey a simple modern idea but with traditional influence. I worked with several shapes but decided upon a square, a shape that is very symbolic in many countries with similar symbology of perfection.
A square can also represent accuracy, integrity and righteousness. After I delved deeper into symbolic meanings it believed that the four sides of the square represents aspects of human inspiration. Angelic, diabolic, human & divine. It has been believed these four elements underscore the potential duality in everything and encourages balance.
All of these elements combined invite us to do precisely what the square implies :
Implement a plan
Build on that plan
Manifest ideas into our reality
The square is a balanced plan that allows creativity to flow without risk or error thus the square was chosen
Drawing on the concept
Having established I wanted a mouth and to use the square I came up with some very basic sketches ( see below ).
I then chose my favourite few and developed them further. No 14, 15 & 16 where my favourites as they were less literal and quite tribal looking. I also liked the idea of the long hair/antenna like line, representing the flow of creativity coming from the square.
Considering whether the logo should be flat or a cube and whether to include teeth or not was also something I considered. After careful consideration I decided to leave the teeth out as it would have looked less professional.
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Colour Choice
Colours have psychological meaning and depending on the part of the world you are from can have greatly different values so I did some research. I wanted my logo colour to appeal to the vast majority of the world not just my country and I discovered that the colour gold had the most positive impression with the most of the world.
The colour gold is the colour of success, achievement and triumph no matter where in the world you come from. It can be associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance. It is also said to inspires knowledge, spirituality and a deep understanding of the self and the soul which I like to sometimes write about in my blog. To read more about the colour gold please click here.
A year later I altered my name
I felt using a z instead of an s in the JAWZ section of my brand was what creative people do who are trying too hard to be different and I didn’t want to be Jaws otherwise I would make people think of a deadly killer shark! I decided to make it simple and called it JAWilson Design instead, my name so it still kept the idea that I borrowed from Mr Bannatyne for his brand and ending it with the word design to easily identify what the website was about ( which also works well for seo ).
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It took quite some time to develop my own identity, although a logo is small and “only” one image a client must remember that it needs to be adjusted and developed and given some time to reach its perfected state.
A good branding identity will look so effortless that those who are not from creative backgrounds will look at it, recognise it and even be influenced by it ( apple ) and believe it is “easy and simple” but the truth is the best logos MUST be developed and at least a few iterations of the original design produced before reaching its final destination.
If you require a conceptual identity please get in touch and we can discuss your requirements further.
Having an email address that isn’t @hotmail or @gmail whether for business or applying for jobs is really quite important for several reasons. In this blog post I plan to explain the issues surrounding not having a branded email address.
I recently read an article on the web about 5 principles to making a good logo design one of which one was that it is important that a logo is timeless. To quote
“Nothing about your logo should be trendy or connected to the style of the time. The best logo designs are iconic …” Indelible Branding
In my opinion nothing could be further from the truth and here is why.
What is Tumblr? Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users’ blogs, as well as make their blogs private.
Problem with Tumblr
Tumbler, like Instagram & Facebook has also received criticism for the ability of bloggers to violate copyright. Tumblr’s visual appeal has made it a haven for photoblogs, which often times include copyrighted work from others and publishing them without payment. Tumblr users are able to post content that isn’t their own by re-blogging. Re-blogging involves presseing a buttong that allows users to re-post content that they found on a blog which they subscribe to, onto their own blog.
Widgets
Just like WordPress Tumblr allows users to add widgets that allow to add things that make their website that little bit unique such as twitter feeds, livestream apps or music players that being playing music when other users view their blog.
Combining Twitter with WordPress
That is how I would describe Tumblr really..a blogging platform with social media principles. If you are user of Twitter you will know that to get people to follow you you are best finding people that have the same interests as you & then they are likely to follow you back too and increase your fan base getting your content more noticed. How do you find people to follow? There is a “explore” button on the dashboard where you will find lots of interesting topics that people tag their blog post in.
Tag, your it!
What is tagging I hear you say? Every time you post something i recommend putting some keywords in the tagging box. Basically what this does is act like a keyword so that it makes your content easier to find. Say someone is looking for flowers and your blog post is a picture of one then one tag you would use is obviously “flower” and you may get discovered by that searcher.
Oi ! I posted that!
Get used to feeling like this! People will repost your things if they like it, thats the whole point of tumblr, its blogging but with a difference. It gets shared easily and quickly and you may often find things you have created in other peoples blogs. If you do this correcty it can create a larger following on your own blog and if you have a website, it could even direct people to your site too! More traffic? Now that can’t be bad can it!
RSS me baby!!
not much time to create stuff for your blog? No problem! Other people can put things on your blog through rss feeds, you can simply set up different rss feeds to appear on your blog in the preferences setting.
To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question!
Every time you blog on your Tumblr account you can choose whether to immediately share it on twitter & facebook but if you blog a lot on tumblr it could annoy your twitter followers..i know if i see over 10 posts in one go on twitter it can make me quite irritated especially if i am not interested in the first tweet they put ( sorry to sound moody, but its true for most users! 🙂 )
Wow big blog! Its just like a book
When you have a lot of pages then you can even get it published into a book! Now that is pretty cool isn’t it!
Is it for me?
The thing about Tumblr is it is a combination of WordPress ( a mainstream open source blogging CMS platform for those who know a little bit of code ) and Twitter, combining people who are interested in the same things as you…but the good thing is it is so very very simple. It is ideal for those who have lots of photos to share and are inspired by quotes and such like. If you aren’t ready for hardcore blogging like what I am doing here Tumblr is for those taking the step up from twitter & facebook amongst friends to start gaining a larger voice in their world community. [divider style=”1″]
How do I use it?
I use it to post my works and become inspired by others works and show appreciation to others and promote the work of those I admire and useful things I find along the way…I think they key to a good internet is a true bohemian heart, free love, free information & free creativity. Yes we all need to make a living but if you truly want to make an impact in the world and offer something of value to people then free is the best place to start…when you have a big enough following then you can consider selling some of your things to your close nit fans. I hope this blog post has helped you in undrestanding tumblr a bit more…if you are still unsure how tumblr works you can visit my site here : – http://jawilson-design.tumblr.com/ or alternatively just set up your own tumblr account ( it even comes with an app for easy uploads! ). Happy blogging! 🙂
So you are setting up a new business and you need a business card created that really stands out from the industry you are entering, how are you going to do that? Hire a designer to create a very abstract creative design? Well Vistaprint recently contacted me with some fantastic novel ideas you may not have considered..
Aboveis an infographic with 31 creative uses for business cards .
8 of the best ideas from the Vistaprint infographic I particularly like.
creative uses for business cards no 1
Meeting a potential client in person? Why not make them feel extra special with a special discount on the business card you give them? That may just close the deal if they were wavering about it..everyone likes to feel a little bit special.
creative uses for business cards no 2
Every single business in the modern age now uses social media to connect to its audience and if they don’t they should do. Make sure to put your social media id’s on your business card for a more personal and direct connection to your fans, customers & business partners.
creative uses for business cards no 3
Got a major event coming up in the future or one that you attend regularly? Make your Customers aware on your business card.
creative uses for business cards no 4
Giving your business card a 2nd purpose other than to give your details to the person receiving it may get the recipient using it more places. A bookmark is one idea, particularly good if you are a 2nd hand book shop. Just think about your product or service you are selling and convey it on your business card if possible.
creative uses for business cards no 5
Are you an event organiser? A holdiay rep or maybe a tour guide? Why not ask your customers to upload their pictures to a location online to share their experiences? Your customers view points are the most valuable thing to help promote more sales to others.
creative uses for business cards no 6
Making others feel good about themselves or seeing another smile can be very rewarding, why not send a little positive vibe out into the world. Just be careful not to use quotes as not every quote will agree with every personality. An example, “you are beautiful” could be great for a beautician or life coach.
creative uses for business cards no 7
Getring good feedback from your clients?Great! That will surely help give your potential customers a little more confidence in you. Before you do this make sure you get permission from your customers first, you don’t want to upset anyone.
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8
Loyalty is a rare thing to find these days with so many different companies desperate to win your business rewarding that loyalty with something special will make your customer feel special & give a positive impression of your company.
Want more ideas for business cards? Check out my pinterest board or alternatively use the contact button above and i can help design you a very unique and creative business card for your company.
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