Designing and selecting a Company Logo
Hopefully our “Logo story” will provide a few ideas for your company logo. Importantly, as we highlight our mistakes, you can avoid a few. Follow the process taken by a non-graphic designer and a non-marketing guru, using a “common sense?” approach.
For ease of reading, this article, has the following sections, Logo Concept Stage; The Main Logo; The Blog Logo; The Newsletter Logo and questions around Copyrights … could we “Boldy Go”?; Our Internet Logo … Why Wouldn’t We?
Logo Concept Stage
“The Crazy Accountant” and Root4Plant having started their business needed a company Logo, in line with the theme of the business being a journey and where possible “DIY”, this was something that we had to create … try something outside of our area of expertise. The Ideal is to have one logo, one that is recognisable and identifies the brand. Something that will grab the attention of others and is memorable.
We needed one Logo for the business and one for “The Crazy Accountant”. We then had an idea for another Logo for our Newsletter. Ok, off to a bad start, three Logos instead of one? We didn’t think so, Logo One was for the business, that would be the main Logo, the one that would express the venture’s identity. Logos Two and Three would be used for our Blog and Newsletter. Logo One would be the key, the one that would appear on the website, LinkedIn, Newsletters, … as it happened this was the One that we think we got the wrong … scrap that, we got it wrong.
Now we had several basics in mind, we would keep the colour scheme straightforward and simple, to keep a consistent theme throughout our website, Logo, Newsletter, etc. We settled on Black, Blue, Green (Plant 😊) & Grey, if a background colour was required -> White.All simple and straightforward colours, we stuck with fairly standard Excel colours; this wasn’t time to experiment with the colour palette.
Reasoning behind the colours:
Black -> Matters that are in Black & White – clear cut colour, great for outlining and framing a situation.
Blue -> Blue Sky Thinking & well the Sky -> no limits.
Green -> Well … Root4Plant.
Grey -> Old school Accountant and Auditor jokes; & matters are not always straightforward.
White -> If a background colour was required -> saves on ink costs and works well for reading on computer, mobile and tablet screens.
Most importantly we had to be able to design and produce our Logos in our Picture Editing software, namely Microsoft Excel. No need to find a graphic design program, not when we have the versatility and power of Microsoft Excel.
Now for the concept, we decided on a tree, a tree fits in with the enterprise’s name. The theme of establishing “Roots” and a growing business, that’s branching out over time, is given a visual form. A tree lends itself to several metaphors, tools and themes which could be explored and built on going forward.
To narrow it down we chose the mighty “Tree Aloe” …
The use of an “ALOE” ties in with the well-known accounting concept A – L = OE (Assets – Liabilities = Owner’s Equity). An aloe is a hardy and resilient species, building up reserves in the good times in order to survive in leaner times. On branching out, an individual branch (“idea”) can be broken off and replanted, growing in the background or sold off.
The Main Logo
The one that we got wrong, so much for “common sense”, yes, it had the 4 Roots for the “Root4”, it was round which lends itself to internet searches when you see the website logo in the search and … it simply is too busy, the green on the blue background is not clear, particularly the leaves. Bottom line it is too busy.
A Logo should be simple and clear, this wasn’t, not with over 40 separate objects.
However, there was an answer, below the surface that grew … the roots, the 4 roots.
A clearer and stronger logo emerged, perhaps it needs a slight change up, removing the legal entity suffix “(Pty) Ltd”, that is required in a statutory name, not in a logo. There’s something there, our revised logo,
The Blog Logo
This worked from the start, clean cut, descriptive, carries the theme for “The Crazy Accountant” … it literally speels it out. One’s eye is drawn to the “CA”, as to why we chose “The Crazy Accountant” check out our “About Page”. The “CA” references to Chartered Accountant as well.
The Newsletter Logo and a question on Copyrights
We were pleased with this one, the “CA” was included, P&L (Profit & Loss) was thrown in to build on the Finance theme, the name “Captain’s Log” was great for a Newsletter, a summary of events by The Crazy Accountant. However,
We had a concern and a question, the outline of the Logo had a likeness to a Starship from Star Trek. Of course, the inspiration for the outline was a Starship … a logo standing still, appearing to be motion … warping away. Now the question, there was a potential issue around copyrights, not the use of Captain’s Log, that term has been around for centuries, no the outline was a concern. Was the shape itself under copyright?
This required a bit of research, as we were hoping to generate income from our website and business, we could not rely on a “Fair Use” principle where one could argue that the copyrighted work could be used without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. The “Fair Use” principle was not clear and relying on the concept was tenuous at best. Searching for an answer as to whether the shape was under copyright did not reveal an answer.
Compliance is of critical importance and as a result the next step was obvious, if in doubt ask for permission. We wrote to Paramount (in January 2022) as they appeared to be the current “owners” of “Star Trek”. Here is a condensed extract of our e-mail to Paramount:
“
Greetings Paramount team,
I hope that I’ve reached out to the correct team for the below query, even though this isn’t a movie clip or picture.
I’m looking to start a website and blog, with its main focuses being on entrepreneurship, education (Key focus 1), business consulting, DIY (DIY and it’s potential to be used in entrepreneurship) and the importance of mental health (Key focus 2: a cause that I’m looking to support). As part of the blog, I’m looking to have a weekly summary, using the below logo if possible. As the creative process is new to me, I want to make sure to get the compliance process right from the start.
Can I use the following logo, created in Excel by myself, the abbreviations for “Chartered Accountant” and “Profit and Loss” form part of the logo.
There is a resemblance to a Starship’s outline, hence the reason for this e-mail.
Proposed Logo:
If I can use it, I can refer to the importance of respecting copyrights, that I’d specifically reached out to Paramount upfront (if in doubt ask) and additionally encourage everyone to watch Paramount movies with a link back to the relevant Paramount website for the movie series?
“
No confirmation has been received and as result we have sadly not used our Captain’s Log Logo, apart from asking the question.
An important note, if there aren’t any issues, the above Logo is the property of Root4Plant, as are the other logos in the is article.
Our take on our website specific logo, you know for the “interweb” search results.
We use this logo when linking to our website and it may work well for internet search results. Combining the “Web” with Root4Plant … Why Wouldn’t We?
Cheers and why not check out our Store and learn a bit about Affiliate Marketing along the way.
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