Logo Design Nelson New Zealand

Set yourself up for success with a great logo design.

Creating or refreshing a logo is one of the most exciting marketing milestones for your business. You are telling the world that your product or service has arrived, ‘trust us’ and ‘take us seriously’. A new logo will boost your confidence so you can go out to the world knowing you are putting your best foot forward. It can feel like having a new graphic wardrobe that dresses you for success and makes the right first impression.

“Finally we can go after the high-value clients we always wanted because our logo, website and image match the quality of our craftsmanship.” 

A few logo that we’ve created:

What a well-designed logo can do for your business:

• It differentiates you from your competitors, creating clarity over confusion.

• It’s a communication shortcut. If a logo takes longer than a split second to read then it’s not a great logo.

• It gets attention. A great logo stands out from the noise, being easy to read and easy to see.

• It’s memorable. It has a memory hook that sticks to your brain and is recalled easily.

• It’s a distillation of your brand, a snapshot of your brand attributes and story.

• It attracts the right people. Ideal customers are drawn to your business because it appeals to their tastes and values.

• It’s sharable. Being easy to reproduce, and more importantly to share, is vital in our digital world and helps amplify your marketing.

• It becomes an asset. Great logos can add marketing power to your business and becomes a very valuable asset over time.

Does my new business need a new logo?

For a new business you may have been working on your new venture for months, even years, developing, planning, prototyping, dreaming and now it’s time to make it happen. Now it’s time to bring this new baby into the world.

What should you do next? One of the best things you can do is create a logo that tells the world your new venture has arrived. It feels like you really have something solid when you get your logo sorted.

Does my existing business need a logo refresh?

There are many reasons why an existing business may choose to refresh or recreate its logo. Here are three reasons why:

1. For an existing business, a new logo can signal to customers that they have had a shift in focus or a bringing a different offering.

2. It can be an opportunity to connect with a new group of customers. Logos can become outdated and old-fashioned. A refreshed logo can help you appeal to a younger or more lucrative audience.

3. The quality of your products or services may have improved and your old logo may not reflect accurately the quality of your products or services so a new logo can align with this new quality.

Back to basics – What is a logo?

Definition: A logo is a graphic image that is used to differentiate your product or business from your competitor. It can be an image or text or both.

Logos come in many different shapes and sizes. There is no one size fits all because. A great logo is all about standing and being different so Graphic Designers are constantly trying to break the rules and create new types of logo for their clients.

5 Types of Logo Format:

3. Word or Name

A name set in an attractive font. These names can be literal or abstract.

4. Representational Image

A literal image of something related to your business. This could be a hammer if you are a builder, or a tooth if you are a dentist.

5. Visual Metaphor

A real image that represents a value you want to associate with your business. A lion logo for a sports team says courage. A squirrel for an investment company could be about saving.

The difference between a logo and a brand.

Many people get confused between a logo and a brand. A brand is not a logo, a product or an identity system. A brand can include these things, but it is more than this. A brand is a collection of perceptions that a person has of your service or product; it’s what comes to mind when people think of your business. It’s a gut feeling that a customer has about you. Great brands make a promise, contain a big idea, tell a compelling story and touch people at an emotional level.

A great logo is an expression of a brand. It is a distillation of the brand. It is a visual signpost that points to the brand and symbolises it.

How do you get a great logo?

This is where Downing comes in, we can guide you through the process of creating a logo and then applying it to all the marketing tools you need to build world-class marketing.

Discovery

The Downing process of designing a logo always starts with a Discovery Stage. This is where we learn more about your business and what you want to achieve. We ask lots of questions to get a good understanding of what makes your business tick.

Strategy

Following the Discovery Stage, we put our findings into a report and present that back to you to make sure we are all on the same page. This document forms the basis of the creative brief for our designers.

We usually like to go deeper than discussions about the logo and like to help you define your brand and then design a logo from that perspective. Find out more about defining your brand.

Creative

At this stage, our Graphic Designers start developing concepts based on the creative brief. They spend time exploring many options and then work to narrow these options to a smaller selection for presentation back to you. The design team use all the tools of graphic design to create logo ideas that are unique to you and your business. These tools include image, text, colour and visual storytelling.

Application

Once you have approved the final logo we start applying it to the marketing tools you need. This includes stationery, forms, letterheads, email footers, signs, websites, business cards, presentations, vehicle signs, uniforms and so on.

We can also provide brand guidelines that outline: logo use, colours, fonts, the layout of main items and any other rules that are helpful for managing the brand.

What about our name?

A great logo starts with the right name, so if you haven’t settled on a good name for your logo then check out this page on our website, here. Make sure you have done this piece of work before you start designing a logo.

Why is a custom Graphic Design Service important?

For the best results engage a Graphic Design Firm to create a custom-made logo for you. This is important because your logo needs to be unique and in some cases trade-markable.

It is important to engage a qualified Graphic Design Firm that will go through a robust process to create a design that is appropriate to your business. They will work with you to understand what makes your business tick and then translate that into a bespoke logo for your business.

How much does a logo cost?

Whenever this question comes up I often ask how much is a logo worth? What value will it gain over time? How much do you think that the Nike logo or Coca-Cola logo is worth now?

It is hard to put a value on a logo but we know that it can be done. We know that logos of large businesses add up to a chunky pile of cash. They can become a valuable asset that is more of an investment rather than an expense.

But to answer that question a design firm needs to know the scale and scope of your logo design project…

What environments do they need to consider as they design the logo. How many rounds of approval does the logo need to go through. How many different file formats do you want. Most of these questions will be answered in the brief you prepare. That is why we have produced the form below to get you started on preparing a brief.

How to write a brief that will help a Graphic Designer create a great logo.

We have prepared some questions below that will help you write a brief that will ensure a designer understands your business and is well set up to create something that is ideal for you. If you would like to talk some more about your logo project, please fill out the form on our contact page and we will get in touch.

1. Who are you?

• Briefly describe in a language that the consumer would understand, what you are promoting?
• What values do you want the logo to portray? (Enduring, disposable, reliable, fast, etc.).
• What personality do you want the logo to have? (Fun, strong, prestigious, knowledgeable, etc.).
• Do you have any colour preferences for the logo?
• What is the exact name of your business?
• Does it include ‘Ltd’ or any essential word?
• What do you want your logo to achieve?
• Do you have any current ideas that you would want considered for the new logo?

2. Who is your customer?

• Age, sex, salary, occupation, location, lifestyle, business, residential, etc.
• What is the most motivating thing you can say about the product/service to the customer? Why should they choose your product or service?
• What do you want our audience to think or feel when they see the logo?

3. Is there anything that makes your product/service unique?

4. Who are your main competitors?

5. What method will you be using to convey this belief?

Stationery

• Letterhead
• Business Card
• Compliment slip
• Presentation Folder
• Envelopes
• Email footer

Location

• Building signage
• Road signage
• Vehicle signage
• Uniforms   

Packaging

• Labels
• Bags
• Tags

Advertising

• Website Page
• Newspaper
• TV
• Direct mail
• Rack Cards
• Magazines      

Downing Creative Marketing — Over 27 years of logo creation experience, based in Nelson, New Zealand.

Downing Creative Marketing is a New Zealand-based creative design agency and has helped literally hundreds of organisations in Nelson, Tasman, Marlborough and New Zealand develop their logos, brands and identity systems. We love to design logos that meet our clients’ expectations and deliver results that help grow their business.

Our team of qualified Graphic Designers and Account Managers work with clients to craft bespoke logos and brands that take businesses to another level.