Selecting the correct type of logo can be critical

( By The Logo Factory)

While there are an infinite number of variables that are possible with any corporate identity design project, and many company logos ‘straddle’ the various types, our designers have found that most design ‘treatments’ will fall into four distinct categories; Text, Iconic, Graphical and Illustrative. While these categories are certainly not to be viewed as absolutes, and many logos have the features of several types, this is a fairly basic, yet accurate, overview for those new to the logo design process. Each logo type has it’s merits, while others have disadvantages. Some types are more appropriate for certain market segments than others. By being familiar with the different versions, and their strengths and weaknesses, you can make an educated decision on which logo type is more suited to your requirements.

Text (font) logos

Text logos are visually the simplest logos (and often favored by Fortune 500 corporations). Paradoxically, their simplicity can be misleading as these logos can be enormously difficult to design. Your designer is limited in the ‘tricks of the trade’ that are available, so the font driven design requires someone with a ‘mature’ level of design experience . In terms of marketing your new company, text logos also have the bonus feature of promoting your company name extensively without being cluttered with heavy visuals and graphics.

iconic logos

Iconic logos generally feature highly simplified graphics (symbols) that reflect an aspect of the company and/or product portrayed. They can be used solo, or with text. This form of logo is perhaps the most common (a slim margin over graphical), yet often the most difficult to design and requires the services of an experienced designer. These logos are most effective when your design is to be featured at a small size, or in low-resolution reproduction.

Graphic (linear) logos

Graphic logos are, in the practical sense, somewhere between an iconic and illustrative logotype. These logotypes are very visually appealing – detailed enough to be recognizable, yet linear and technically simple enough to translate into most media usages. It’s a ‘toss up’ between graphical and iconic logos as to which is the most popular and/or common.

Illustrative logos

Illustrative logos are usually more detailed and complex than graphical, and are a pictorial (illustration) representation of some aspect of the company or product portrayed. This can be the name, the business concept or a character/mascot. While sometimes frowned upon by graphic design purists, if handled correctly an illustrative logotype can become a unique marketing and promotional tool and works well on many types of marketing materials including wearables.

A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. If your document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag will usually appear in the first line of the results

Tips & Guidelines:

• Accurately describe the page’s content. Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page’s content
• Create unique title tags for each page. Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.
• Use brief, but descriptive titles. Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.

META DESCRIPTIONS

A page’s description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page’s title may be a few words or a phrase, a page’s description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph.

A meta description should be no more than 150 characters, and be a relevant summary of the page itself.  Think of it like what you would say in one tweet about the page.  If you can repeat the description somewhere on the page, that’s good too.

Recently, Google has been creating the meta descriptions for websites automatically if they are missing, or if they simply think they can do a better job.  Either way, you don’t want Google writing your meta descriptions for you, so try to come up with something relevant, and worthy of a click at the same time.

Example: Brandon’s Baseball Cards

PAGE TITLE: Brandon’s Baseball Cards – Buy Cards, Baseball News, Card Prices
META DESCRIPTION: “Brandon’s Baseball Cards provides a large selection of vintage and modern baseball cards for sale. We also offer daily baseball news and events in”

KEYWORDS

Read More: Google DOES NOT use the keywords meta tag in web ranking,

It is true that Google does not use keywords meta tag in web ranking, however it is still beneficial for other search engines.

The keyword tag provides keywords for search engines to associate with your page. In other words, keywords describe the content of the page, the words that people would enter in the search engine as a keyword if they were looking for this web page. This META tag will help improve the search engine to locate the page in question.

Current thinking is that when it comes to keyword tags, less is more. Overloading your keyword meta tag with many keywords only reduces their impact on your rankings. List all the keywords your main clients might use to search for your web page. Then use only five to seven of the most relevant ones on each page, and use different ones to describe the content of different web pages.

Tips & Guidelines:

• Terms should be in plural form where possible.
• Use a comma “,” to separate each and every word you enter as a keyword if not they will be considered to be all one word.
• Keywords should all be in lower case for the search engines to be able to find them better on the pages.
• Do not span the keywords or search engines will ignore that META tag. Spanning is repeating the keyword. An example of spanning keywords would be: University of Alberta, Alberta, University, the University of Alberta.
• When preparing keywords, keep your audience in mind. Anticipate how they will search for the page.

Example: ualberta.ca
university, alberta, edmonton, canada, students, undergraduate, graduate, programs, academics, applications, teaching, research, alumni

Sources:

Ryan Kelly in Search Engine Optimization, Sitejuice, July 5th, 2010

Google’s Starter Guide Search Engine Optimization 2012

Government of Canada Internet Guid: Metadata

What Kind of Personality Does Your Website Have?

By Bill Slawski/SEO BY THE SEA

Websites, like people, have personalities. They can’t help it, they just do. If you take a close look at a website, can you describe its personality?

• Does it attempt to evoke emotions in visitors or persuade them with facts?
• Is it cold or warm and welcoming?
• Does it use humor or fear or anger when communicating with visitors?
• Is it wordy or does it use a minimum of words?
• Is it inviting for first time visitors?
• Does it provide reasons for people to return?
• Does it change over time, or is it fixed and unchanging?
• Does it display a social conscience or is it all business?
• Is it written for a male audience or a female audience or a general audience?
• Does it speak to a younger crowd, or an older group?
• Does it welcome visitors with differing perspectives?
• Does it use different time perspectives to discuss benefits for the future, or solutions for the present, or problems from the past?
• Is it community minded, and is that community local or online?
• Does it pay mind to traditions?
• Is it innovative in scope or design or with what it offers?
• Is it credible and trustworthy and display expertise?
• Does it exude enthusiasm and the development of potential?
• Is it cooperative or competitive?
• Is it introverted or extroverted?
• Is it an idealist or a pragmatist?
• Is it fun-loving and optimistic?
• Does it plan for tomorrow or spend for today?
• Is it graceful in design or practical in appearance?
• Does it focus upon the big picture, or upon small details?
• Is it responsive to questions, to criticism, to praise?
• Does it give something of value away for free?
• Is its focus upon benefits it offers viewers, or upon the features of the organization it belongs to?
• Does it ask for something of value without providing anything in return?
• Is it more like a peer talking to you directly, or like a parent lecturing you?

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does “branding” mean? How does it affect a small business like yours?

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors’. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can’t be both, and you can’t be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials–all of which should integrate your logo–communicate your brand.

Brand Strategy & Equity

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy, too.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company’s products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product–and customers will pay that higher price.

The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it’s not just the shoe’s features that sell the shoe.

Defining Your Brand

Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below:

• What is your company’s mission?
• What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Once you’ve defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

• Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.
• Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes.
• Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business–how you answer your phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.
• Create a “voice” for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.
• Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.
• Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don’t need to be fancy, just consistent.
• Be true to your brand. Customers won’t return to you–or refer you to someone else–if you don’t deliver on your brand promise.
• Be consistent. I placed this point last only because it involves all of the above and is the most important tip I can give you. If you can’t do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.

John Williams is the founder and president of LogoYes.com, the world’s first do-it-yourself logo design website. During John’s 25 years in advertising, he’s created brand standards for Fortune 100 companies like Mitsubishi and won numerous awards for his design work.

As I write this blog post I can feel my neck and back aching from sitting at a desk all day. I’ve also got a touch of eye strain and I think my knees are a bit locked up. What a mess I must sound! But my discomfort has inspired this blog post, which asks the question: is your workplace making you ill?

The combination of long hours, stressful working conditions and a poor diet can leave us susceptible to all manner of health problems. So perhaps it’s time to look at your work environment and habits to see if they need an overhaul.

photo credit: dave gunzenhauser

Poor posture
Neck, back and shoulder pain is a common problem for deskbound office workers. If you’re one of the many who suffer with these problems perhaps you should take a look at how you’re sitting at your desk.

Most people tend to sit bending slightly forward whilst concentrating on their computer screen, which actually puts twice as much pressure on the lower lumbar discs as standing does.

The best position in which to sit is with your torso and legs at a 110 degree angle with your knees slightly lower than your pelvis. This will reduce strain on your spine. Also, if you use a mouse, make sure that your arm is at a 90 degree angle and your shoulder is relaxed as this will reduce the likelihood of shoulder pain.

Pain on one side of the neck or shoulder could be a result of holding the phone badly. If you wedge the phone between your ear and your shoulder then the muscles on that side of your neck will actually shorten and become more fibrotic as your body adapts itself to this unusual posture. It’s not good is it?! If you are guilty of this habit, why not consider a telephone headset?

photo credit: kugel

Working through lunch
If you sit at your desk for long periods of time (and let’s face it, most of us do) you could end up developing swollen ankles or joint pains. Sitting hunched up at your desk all day is not good for the health of your body as your internal organs are being compressed and you’re not doing your spine any good either.

Try getting into the habit of getting up and walking about the office at least once an hour to break up the amount of time spent sitting still. Use the excuse of making a drink for your colleagues or walk to another office to get something. Moving about will get the blood flowing around your body to all the muscles and joints.

And whatever you do, don’t commit the cardinal sin of sitting at your desk for lunch! Get out into the fresh air and have a walk about. Eat your lunch outside or go to a lunchtime exercise class.

Caffeine overload
Are you one of those office workers who downs cup after cup of coffee throughout the day? (I must admit I used to be one of these myself.) Caffeinated drinks act as a diuretic and will increase your chances of getting dehydrated which leads to a whole host of health problems (see below).

Herbal teas are a much healthier choice and they are also a great way of getting a variety of herbs that can help with different aliments. For example, ginger tea aids digestion, whereas chamomile tea helps with relaxation. Why not give them a try?

photo credit: BohemianDolls

Water, water
A common problem suffered by office workers is dehydration caused by working in an environment full of computers, heaters and air con. Dehydration can lead to health problems such as a lack of concentration, headaches, fatigue and constipation due to a build up of toxins in the body.

This is why it’s essential to make sure that you drink plenty of water to keep your body hydrated. Six to eight glasses a day of pure, fresh water is the recommended amount. But, if you really want to check whether you’re drinking enough water, check the colour of your urine – it should be clear rather than dark. If it’s dark then you’re not drinking enough fluids!

Snack attack
Cookies, potato chips and candy are a constant temptation for the stressed-out office worker, particularly during the afternoon when the dreaded 3pm slump looms. Sugary snacks will play havoc with your body’s blood sugar levels, giving you an initial burst of energy followed by another exhausting slump.

Try swapping these unhealthy snacks for something much better for you such as yoghurts, sushi, an apple, or a handful of nuts and seeds. My favourite snack is hummus with oat cakes or a variety of chopped up vegetables such as carrots, celery and raw broccoli.

photo credit: Leo Reynolds

Quick Feng Shui tips
Feeling tired and sluggish could be down to the layout of your office, according to the ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui. By making a few adjustments the idea is that you’ll allow the energy or ‘chi’ to flow more freely and release any blockages of stuck or stagnant energy.

Place a fluorite crystal next to your computer to soak up some of the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that it emits. These EMFS are said to cause symptoms such as headaches, tiredness and feelings of fatigue.

Cleanse the atmosphere (and add a bit of colour to your desk) by placing a green plant on your desk, next to your computer. Good choices include a peace lily or dwarf banana plant.

Make sure your desk is clear of clutter as this will help you to focus properly. Time to clear away those half drunk cups of coffee and piles of unopened post!

Empty your waste bin regularly to remove stagnancy from the workplace.

Finally here’s one last tip: If you feel exhausted and headachy during the working day, mix a drop each of peppermint, lavender, eucalyptus and lemon essential oils into some aloe vera gel and massage into the temples to boost your concentration levels.

About the author: Liz Parry is a writer specializing in holistic health and wellbeing, personal development and spirituality.