We love working with startups. Every experience is rich in learning and helps us produce great work, a bonus for the brand as well as us. But by the time a startup calls us in, they’ve usually tried various workarounds for brand identity design. Here, we chronicle some of the ones that made us smile.
“I can get it designed for cheap from my cousin.”
When it comes to designing a logo and identity for your startup, this one was the most common till recently. To us, this reflects the startup’s importance for its founder. When you agree to discount the value of the logo you receive, it seems like you’re also placing a lower value on the importance of your startup’s branding and the way customers perceive your brand. At the end of the day, you are the brand that you create. So, choose a design firm or designer who will do justice to your brand and not your wallet. Oh, and by the way, we really need to start valuing our cousins’ skills as well.
“There are so many sites online.”
Online portals let designers bid for your logo with their or rendition of brand identity guidelines based on your brief. You get to choose amongst many designers and pay a nominal cost. Sounds good, right? It’s just like buying clothing online versus getting one customised for you. The customised one will always fit better, last longer, and be asked about by more people.
And you must consider, are you sure that designers online are sharing a new rendition for each brief? After all, a bidding process is still based on cost. Are the designers asking you the right questions? Does the final product solve your current problem? Did they really communicate what your brand is all about through the logo?
“We need to choose from multiple options.”
A logo design must capture the soul of your brand. How many options of products do you offer consumers? Only one, right? Similarly, there is only one logo that will be perfect for you. Taking a scientific approach and exploring multiple options when it comes to thought, design elements, typography, colours, and more is a focused design journey. Assuming that any choice made from five options or more, is the right one, is incorrect. More options mean more confusion. You may be tempted to combine two or three options, but it is a subjective approach that can make the whole experience messy. The ideal logo and identity design are completely dependent scientific approach finding a balance between who you are, what your business goals are and what your customers need.
“I want my mother’s photo to be my logo.”
Sentiment is wonderful in life, but not in business. Any object or image that has emotional value for one may or may not resonate with another. A logo cannot be about the startup founder’s personal emotion. It’s a visual persona that others want to connect with, feel, and use to make your brand their companion. With a sentimental approach, will your customers really resonate with your brand? Will they really understand what your business is all about and what your offering is? Emotions are a great way to figure out your intuition, but not your logo.
How can we help?
Headless Hippies helps startups narrow the field with the right personas that allows them to focus their marketing and branding budgets and goals, from the beginning. Many companies ask – who is the best logo designing company in Bangalore? But that is the wrong question. You should be asking – who can the best logo design in Bangalore for me? You need an agency that will tailor your logo design to your success and performance, instead of an aesthetic that flatters their own needs.
Involving a good design company right from ideation of your product or service actually helps you lay a clear path. Design firms ask the right questions and challenge your own perceptions of product or consumer. We often get briefed by clients on what the product is, its features and how it works. We challenge their perception by asking questions like who this product is for? Why would anyone buy it? What is the importance of this product in the consumer’s life? How old are these customers? How will the product appeal to them? What is their age and gender? What do they do daily? What are the values of your company? What are the attributes?
Are you ready to have your brand get noticed? Look through some logos and brand identities created by Headless Hippies.
