Article title: Ferrari, Marlboro what’s behind that barcode?

Publishing date: April 2nd, 2010

Are you one of those people who want to know why the Marlboro trademark got changed into a barcode on the Ferrari cars and racers track suits? If yes, there is a lot for you to know. The following article “What’s behind that barcode” explains all the ambiguity behind the highly noticeable change of Marlboro logo on the Ferrari cars and their merchandise.

This whole “change” is because of the tobacco advertisement and sponsorship ban that came out from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in February 2005. It was the time when tobacco endorsement got banned in most countries; it became a serious matter for the cigarette companies for the fact that without brand advertisement a product is considered useless. At this point of time when every tobacco company was anxious and upset, Marlboro came with up with something that could make wonders for them in no time. To find out what did Marlboro do to continue their winning reign, read the complete article here.

When a company plans to get a logo design, the first question that rises up is; which type of logo would be appropriate to depict the business image in the best way to the potential clients? As there are many types of logos available for you to choose from, it’s really important to make sure that the logo you decide to attain is in the accordance with your business plans. Many times it happens that a business gets a wrong type of logo designed which turns out as the ultimate descend for the company.

There are many ways to obtain a logo design. Many people like to create a logo by the help of a logo designing software, whereas; many people download images from internet and modify them by different ways so they can use those images as a part of their logo.

As an honest suggestion, I would never recommend you any of these options because they are totally inappropriate and useless when it comes to a mature business planning.

Moving further, I will explain two of the most common ways to design a logo which are called; readymade logo design and custom logo design.

• Readymade logo design or Premade logo designs:

This type of logo is easily available on internet which can be effortlessly downloaded within seconds. The idea behind readymade logos is that one can get the basic logo image and simply put in his business name along with its slogan with the help of an image editing software and save a lot of money. There are many websites that even give you a readymade logo for free, but what you need to think is that if a website is offering free readymade logos then how many people have already used the same logo designs, and how many will use them in near future!!! Just imagine, so many people using the same logo as yours with different names on it, won’t it ruin your business identity once and for all?

• Custom logo designs:

This type of logo design is the best option for any business and is gained by a proper planning, graphic designing skills and by spending some cash. A custom logo design is highly recommended because a custom made logo is the one that is created by scratch with the use of appropriate theme based elements. Also, the process of custom logo design starts after a thorough strategizing process as a logo holds a valuable worth for any business. If you can’t design a logo yourself you can acquire the services of a logo design consultancy to avoid any tribulations.

Hence, if you compare the readymade logos to the custom made logos by putting the above mentioned details you can easily distinguish which one is the right choice for your precious business.

Article title: ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

Publishing date: March 29th, 2010

The foremost thing to achieve a good business branding identity is to own something that is unique and unmatchable in many ways to the rest of the other companies; but unfortunately many of the businesses don’t really understand the importance of it. It has been seen that many business recruiters lost many talented people who could become their employs and benefit their companies. Likewise many talented job seekers lost the opportunity to join some of the fastest growing companies. This all happens because these companies don’t hold a unique identity, which is why they aren’t considered trust-able no matter how good they are.

You can build your own distinctive identity using a business logo or an exclusive and memorable tagline which can help you stand out in the crowd of your business rivals. The following article will tell you how to achieve a unique identity by giving different unique business identity and online reputation management examples which will definitely help you in achieving your desired reputation. Click here to read this article.

Nobody wants to be called the owner of a poor logo design; therefore I took the task to uncover the wrong doings of logo designing so you can avoid those mistakes which can possibly make YOUR logo poor too. In the previous part of this article I uncovered the 5 signs of an unfortunate logo design. In this part I am going to continue the count from where I left it;

6. It is overly complex: Overly intricate logos can be designed easily but they don’t scale well when printed or viewed in smaller sizes. This is the reason why wise designers avoid putting so many elements in one logo design. The simpler the logo is, the nicer it would appear on both web and paper.

7. It relies on colors for its effects: many designers can’t wait to add colors to a logo design, and some completely depend on them. This is a fact that every company will need to put colors in its logo sooner or later but it does not mean that the colors should be put in the logo right away. Colors can be selected later on as a true logo is the one that looks nice even when it’s without colors. Subsequently, color selection should be your last decision and starting the work in black and white will do the best.

8. It has Poor choice of font: Bad selection of fonts can ruin the entire look of the logo image. When a designer experiments with different fonts by putting them into a logo, many funky fonts catch his attention and he decides to choose one of them, which is definitely a wrong decision and back fires later on. Reason being, free style fonts are the most intricate ones to understand and start to look out-dated very soon unlike the ones which are formal and professional looking.

9. It possesses too many fonts: Use of too many fonts is just like trying to show someone a whole photo album at once. Each font has different qualities, and the viewer needs time to recognize it. Seeing too many fonts at once can cause real confusion. Maximum two fonts of different styles is a standard practice for good logo designers. Staying under 2 fonts significantly improves the legibility of a logo and improves brand recognition.

10. It is copied/ plagiarized: Unfortunately, in today’s time copying has become a part of many designers’ practice. Copying someone else’s work is not a professional act as a plagiarized logo can be caught any time, if not then it won’t work in the long run because people may find it resembled to some other logo.

In a nutshell, a logo is the image of an entire business, and to acquire a nice logo you have to avoid the wrong-doings mentioned in this article and its previous part. If you do so, I guarantee you a successful logo design.

You can find many effective “how to create a logo” articles and tutorials in which you are suggested to use particular colors , fonts and other elements to make your logo better, but it’s hard to find the tips on “what to avoid in a logo design”. So I decided to tell you the top 10 signs of a poor logo (5 here and 5 in the next part). It doesn’t matter if the design is made by a professional logo designer or an amateur; the only important thing is to avoid all of wrong doings of logo designing.

Here are the characteristics of a terrible logo design which you should avoid in your logo:

1. It is designed by an amateur: just to save some money, you give it to any of your friend or cousin so he can design it for free despite of the fact that he doesn’t know anything about logo designing. Or in other case you design it yourself thinking that only you can make justify it. These kinds of amateur logos can be recognized in one glimpse.

2. It relies on trends: Focusing on current logo trends will back fire big time as nothing stays the same forever, only change is consistent. A time will come when your “Trendy” logo will be left behind. Therefore the responsibility of logo designers is to create a unique identity for the client, so completely ignoring the logo design trends will work best for you.

3. It uses raster images: Only the inexpert designers use raster images in this point of time as there is a superior option of vector graphics available. Raster images hold fewer options as they lose their quality when stretched or reduced, at the other hand a vector image can be easily re-sized without the fear of damaging its pixel quality.

4. It contains stock art: the use of stock art can ruin your business image once and for all, as it is not copyrighted anyone can file a lawsuit against you anytime about the logo being stolen. Therefore you should always use copyrighted images in your logo so you can feel secure and trouble free.

5. Logo designer designs it for himself rather than the client: When a logo designer finds some new tool, font or technique of logo designing he wants to apply it on a logo as soon as possible. For this, he finds a client’s logo the best subject. What happens when someone experiments with your logo? You know it well. This kind of immature experimental act is not the right thing at all and can be distinguished easily.

These were only the 5 mistakes which are frequently made in logo designing which lead a logo to the path of devastation. For the next 5 you have to read the next part of this article which will be published soon.

When a company plans to get a logo design, the first question that rises up is; which type of logo would be appropriate to depict the business image in the best way to the potential clients? As there are many types of logos available for you to choose from, it’s really important to make sure that the logo you decide to attain is in the accordance with your business plans. Many times it happens that a business gets a wrong type of logo designed which turns out as the ultimate descend for the company.

There are many ways to obtain a logo design. Many people like to create a logo by the help of a logo designing software, whereas; many people download images from internet and modify them by different ways so they can use those images as a part of their logo.

As an honest suggestion, I would never recommend you any of these options because they are totally inappropriate and useless when it comes to a mature business planning.

Moving further, I will explain two of the most common ways to design a logo which are called; readymade logo design and custom logo designs.

• Readymade logo design or Premade logo designs:

This type of logo is easily available on internet which can be effortlessly downloaded within seconds. The idea behind readymade logos is that one can get the basic logo image and simply put in his business name along with its slogan with the help of an image editing software and save a lot of money. There are many websites that even give you a readymade logo for free, but what you need to think is that if a website is offering free readymade logos then how many people have already used the same logo designs, and how many will use them in near future!!! Just imagine, so many people using the same logo as yours with different names on it, won’t it ruin your business identity once and for all?

• Custom logo designs:

This type of logo design is the best option for any business and is gained by a proper planning, graphic designing skills and by spending some cash. A custom logo design is highly recommended because a custom made logo is the one that is created by scratch with the use of appropriate theme based elements. Also, the process of custom logo design starts after a thorough strategizing process as a logo holds a valuable worth for any business. If you can’t design a logo yourself you can acquire the services of a logo design consultancy to avoid any tribulations.
Hence, if you compare the readymade logos to the custom made logos by putting the above mentioned details you can easily distinguish which one is the right choice for your precious business.