Those who know me will recognise that I have new friend – Pink Duck. Well, I thought it was about time I extended my community a little, but this is actually a bigger subject altogether.
I’ve been using variations of my old logo for the last ten years, but for a while I’ve been thinking that it really hasn’t done it’s job, so I’m working up to a change and Pink Duck is my starting point – my new icon.
My business is based on a fundamental belief – Marketing is about doing things and going places that nobody has been before. Breaking rules is a prerequisite to success for any kind of organisation and I think Pink Duck communicates that pretty well – don’t you? But there’s a whole lot more to The Full Effect Company than just being different. I have also always felt that the trouble with the world of serious business is that the people engaged in it take it all (and themselves) well … far too seriously! Pink Duck introduces an appropriate element of irreverence. Don’t get me wrong. I’m in no way flippant about what I do, far from it, but I think new ideas are brought to life best in a friendly, open, flexible atmosphere (you know how some of the great ideas of our time were born in the pub or over lunch). Taking yourself too seriously you can easily become defensive and therefore less open to new ideas and the discussion and criticism that is fundamental to innovation. I’m also keen to get across the practical aspect of what I do. Having original ideas is one thing, but they have to be practical and you have to implement them (which is where most organisations fail). In short, they have to float – sort of like Pink Duck does! OK, so maybe that was an analogy too far, but you get the idea?
So, I guess I’m floating Pink Duck – in both senses – and as we sit and contemplate each other across my desk I’m weighing up the possibility of incorporating him/her as a component of my logo. Now, logos, there’s a subject!
My work, especially the Brand Discovery Programme that I run, is always very closely related to the development of communications including logos. I hold strong views on the principles of logo design (and a few other things!) and I have a set of criteria that I belive any logo should meet.
Your logo is probably the first aspect of your organisation that anybody will encounter and its true that first impressions matter. That first meeting is very valuable and very, very short indeed – It could be nanoseconds if you don’t handle it right, but if you do it could all lead to a long and beautiful (read profitable) relationship! In those few moments your logo has the opportunity to communicate …
a) what business you are in,
b) what your brand character is all about, …
c) maybe your values and …
d) definitely burn your name on the retina of the person it is in front of by representing it in a visually striking and memorable way.
You may not manage to tick all these boxes, but when you look around it’s quite obvious that most logos fail on too many counts – and that’s inefficient! A good logo is worth a thousand words and you are paying for them, so use them all!
So help me out here. Let me know what you think about Pink Duck. Does he/she work for you? can you see him/her working for me? Leave a comment and contribute to the development of my CI.