Back in 1997, when I left Epic to go freelance, I decided to set up my own limited company as a vehicle for my consulting work. In doing this, I made some awful mistakes. One was to call this company 'Fastrak Consulting'. Why was this a problem? (1) because nobody can remember the wierd way I decided to spell 'fastrak'; (2) because the URL is so long - http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/ - that people give up half way through typing it to have a breather; (3) because I could have just called it Clive Shepherd Ltd and not try to pretend I'm some global consulting giant. I've lived with this mistake for ten years because I don't even want to think about the number of people I'd have to notify of a change of name and email address (although it would certainly stop the spam).
The second mistake I made was to hire an awful designer to create my logo. I'll admit that, back then, I thought a consulting firm's identity should be quite conservative, but this one would have been dated in 1907. Not only that, but with the web only just showing its face in public, she contrived to use gradations which were not renderable in web safe colours.
Never mind. Ten years on, and having run out of business cards, I decided to ring the changes. I mocked up something which I thought would look a lot nicer, with a view to finding another designer to finish the job. But I liked what I came up with and decided to stick with it. Here it is:
I'm pleased, because the money I saved paid for my copy of Adobe Illustrator in one go. Now I know it's not that clever - a letter 'f' over a gold box - but remember I had to choose just the right 'f', just the right colour gold, just the right angle for the box! Less is often more.
Now I haven't printed my new letterhead and business cards yet, so if you think it's horrible, you'd better tell me now.
Drop the 'ltd' and it's just dandy.
ReplyDeleteIt could be me but 'fastrak consulting ltd' doesn't look very 'sharp'. I think the resolution your using might need to be increased when you save/export the graphic.
ReplyDeleteI say hire a designer. It looks like something that was done in word art. sorry!
ReplyDeleteI think it's definitely more up-to-date, and I like the orange. I wonder if you could make the logo and the "fastrak consulting ltd" play together a little better. Dropping the the "ltd" as Donald Clark suggested would help. If you had a wider box & wider f, you could also stack the two company words under the box. Some font size tweaking and kerning could help you justify the two words so they're boxlike as well and fit under the bottom of the orange box, with the same parallelogram shape. Or you could just drop the ltd and save a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great ideas - plenty of food for thought.
ReplyDeleteyep. drop the ltd. not needed.
ReplyDeleteClive, your question is akin to the fearful, "Honey, does this outfit make me look fat?" There is no "right" answer. Visual identity for an indiviual is a very personal choice, and probably one many people are never fully satisfied with. As a designer since the 1980s and a design educator since the 1990s, I could offer some suggestions about your design on the basis of the principles of unity, balance, emphasis, contrast, and continuation, but it might be better to ask some questions. I'll start with one you seem to be asking yourself already: Do you really need a logo? What does the "right 'f'" and the "right colour gold" communicate about you or your consulting business? Why do you feel the "f" is so important? What do you want your clients to remember about you? What will anyone who encounters your logo for the first time learn about you from your "f" and your box? How many different ways (media) will clients encounter your identity? How many different design solutions did you explore before you settled on this one? Did you intend the flowing shape of the "f" to have some meaning? How does it communicate "fast" or "track"? Did you intend the cross-stroke of the "f" to represent the hyphen in your URL, or did you intend the shape of your "f" to combine the shape of both an "f" and a "t", or are those just "happy accidents"? The black and gold contrast nicely against a white background, but did you consider what happens on a dark background (such as the dark blue of your home page header) where the legibility of the "f" becomes compromised? Please let me make a suggestion before you commit ink to paper. Find a college or vocational school near you and contact the chair of the graphic design department and ask for a recommendation of a talented, hungry student who needs more real-world work for his portfolio. Take a look at the student's existing portfolio to be sure the student has a style you're comfortable with. Agree to pay the student something (maybe the student needs some nifty software or some textbooks for next semester) and pay even if you do not use the work. Have a good discussion with the design student about why you need a logo and what it should communicate, NOT what it should look like. If the student is good at design process, he should be able to brainstorm a variety of solutions with you -- starting with pencil roughs -- and you may hit on something that's really "you". Don't be afraid to ask for additional solutions if the first ones aren't on the mark. (Hint: I often ask my students to start with 30 thumbnails, and often ask for another 30 or more). You'll feel warm and fuzzy helping out a promising college student build his portfolio, and will probably find an identity that will stand the test of time. Sorry to go on at length. Hope you found some answers among all the questions. David Lester
ReplyDeleteFabulous response, David, and full of excellent advice. Thanks.
ReplyDelete