Logo Design Advice: Does Your Logo Tell Your Story?

Business
Written By Annie Franceschi

Is Your Logo As Effective As It Could Be?

Today I'm continuing my 7-week series on how to put your "best foot forward" in your small business so you can attract more ideal clients and customers.

Today's story is all about doing a gut check on your logo (or idea for a logo). 

FYI - I'm doing this series to give you a sneak peek at my first-ever complimentary seminar on branding your small business - coming to NC this February - Small Business: Best Foot Forward - 7 Steps to a Profitable and Relatable Brand. (Register for free here, tickets are limited, 60% gone, and our first event on 2/1 has only 7 seats left!)


So, let's talk logo - aka the key visual you use to represent your business.
 

Let's Take a Closer Look At Your Logo

Through Greatest Story Creative, I help clients develop a logo and a tagline for their small business through our Brand Story process. Today, I'm going to share a best practice for the logo of your company.

LOGO EXERCISE:
Ready? 

Take out your logo or your logo concept (if you haven't launched yet). Print it out if you can and then look at it - considering the following question -
Does this logo relate directly to the work I do and the experience I offer others?

So note: I'm not asking you -

  • Do you like your logo?

  • Is it pretty?

  • Does it look professional?

  • Did a professional create it?


The reason I'm not asking you these questions is because they are irrelevant if your answer to my original question is "no." If your answer is "yes" - then your logo is working harder for you and more efficiently for you than someone who might answer "no."


Now - if you answered "no" or are unsure - keep in mind that your logo doesn't need to tell your whole story to your ideal clients and customers. However, it absolutely needs to relate to it directly in some way and you need to know exactly why and how.


I'll be sharing more best practices and thinking around logos at Best Foot Forward, but today - I want to make one thing very clear. To be as powerful as it can be, your logo should evoke an inviting feeling that will resonate with your target audience.


You can't evoke a feeling if there's nothing more to your logo than it looking "pretty." There needs to be a strategy and reasoning behind your logo. This doesn't mean your logo needs to be visually complex - it only means that it needs to be intentional. It needs relate directly to the work you do and the experience you offer others. It needs to feel like the promise of your business.

How This Works

So let's look at a real example. Recently, I was honored to get to know Tiffany Englert of The Details Events here in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Tiffany had an existing logo before we worked together. It was a logo she liked, but she knew it was limiting her potential for her business. Tiffany's original logo didn't resonate as powerfully as she would have liked with her target audience: brides, personal party hosts, and corporate event clients. This is because it wasn't doing enough to bring her story to life with a professional and inviting feeling tailored to them.

But Tiffany was on the right track with a concept: the pinwheel - something that comes directly from Tiffany's story. Here's a bit from Tiffany about the pinwheel, taken from the "About" story we wrote in partnership with her during the project:


"400 paper pinwheels. I handmade each and every one for my own wedding. The day of the wedding, I set them up myself, along with so many other important details. I still love how beautiful they were, carefree, spinning in the wind. But that day, I learned the biggest lesson the hard way: you will regret the time you missed.

.... That’s why I founded The Details in 2014 – so that you can experience events that add happiness to your life because you have someone you can trust with pinwheels, centerpieces, and all the little things that add up to your vision.

I don’t want you to miss a moment when it comes to any big day in your life. "


Man, the feelings! The pinwheel wasn't just something pretty Tiffany liked. It had guts and meaning for her clients, but we needed to make sure they got the message.


When Tiffany and I started working together, I dug deep into her story, her vision for her business, and her connection to the pinwheel (one of the reasons why she loved her original logo so much). It became the challenge to create a concept that honored that notion, while inviting her target audience into what she does.


I came to the table with a design that I'll call "Abstract Pinwheel" -- it relates directly to Tiffany's story but does so in a way that looks professional and speaks to the full-service approach she takes with her clients.

It's inviting to her audience now because they can literally see in the logo how Tiffany is equipped to take care of everything from A-Z for their events - she will joyfully take care of all of your details in a full circle approach - whether it's a corporate event, a wedding, or special occasion. Everything will seamlessly work together and deliver on the tagline we wrote for her business: "Experience carefree event planning."

This logo represents her approach to her business professionally, her story, and importantly - it feels like the experience she offers.

In practice, Tiffany can also share the inside story behind her logo with her prospective clients when she connects with them or they can discover it on her website at www.thedetailsevents.com. Presenting the pinwheel in this way makes her approach and her business more memorable, endearing, and creates the right impression with her ideal clients.

So could Tiffany just have her business name in a font as a logo? Sure. It might even look "professional." But why do that, when there's so much more potential to invite people in? That's what the strongest logos can do.

Curious about logo development for your business? Tell us more about your business here. And explore more of Tiffany's story and the brand we created based on it to reach her ideal clients at thedetailsevents.com.

Learn More Secrets About Logo Design
at "Best Foot Forward" 

This advice is an example of the kinds of best practices I'll be sharing at my new North Carolina seminar, Small Business: Best Foot Forward.

This 90-minute event is a fun introduction to branding for small business owners and anyone considering starting their own small business, complete with open networking before and after the presentation.  

At Small Business: Best Foot Forward, you'll learn our exclusive 7 action steps to:

  • power up your marketing

  • attract and book more clients

  • become a profitable and relatable business


Tickets are FREE but limited - and as I mentioned earlier - 60% taken and Durham has only 7 seats left! Snag your spot now and click an event date below to register.


These may be the only dates for Small Business Best Foot Forward for the next 6 months to a year, so if you're curious - definitely join us! 

Learn more by visiting www.greateststoryevents.com.

Looking to Next Week

In next week's story in our "Best Foot Forward" series, I'll be talking about taglines and sharing a favorite best practice on what should go in yours. If you have specific questions about taglines, reply to this and let me know!

Annie Franceschi
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Tagline Advice: The Power of a Tempting Tagline
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Naming Advice: When to Rename a Business