Let's Learn About #LogoDesign History!©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Let’s Learn About Logo Design History

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Logos are everywhere and remain a mainstay of branding. These powerful images and graphics communicate messages in a concise way designed to help influence consumers when making purchasing decisions.

Although many logo designs are simple, the way in which these identifying emblems get created is a fascinating combination of art and science.

Anyone who looks into the history of logo design learns quickly that much skill and thought goes into the undertaking. The fundamental concepts of logo design go all the way back to the Victorian era. During that period, designers were stepping up their games and creating symbolic illustrations to engage with and influence society. These symbols, like Coats of Arms, were frequently used to identify noblemen and other prominent people in the civilizations in which they existed.

Over the centuries, the concepts introduced by early designers continued to evolve to meet the needs of a progressing community. Images that once helped residents distinguish who ranked highly got transformed into concepts that represented governments, corporate entities, and organizations worldwide.

Logo Design During the Industrial Revolution

While the use of emblems, graphics, and symbols dates back to early Egyptian times, the Industrial Revolution is when the use of trademarks, logos, ideograms, and watermarks started getting mass adoption in the business community. The introduction of printed news and other materials made way for advertisers to spread messages and build their businesses – using symbols and convincing copywritten materials. Many of these early logos had simple designs, based on the printing and design technologies that were available during this period.

The advancement of typography and printing technology introduced a brand new way for business owners to connect with potential clients. A logo or a Masthead helped contribute to building brand recognition, even back in these early days. Business owners were empowered to advertise their goods and services to a broader audience of news readers in markets throughout metropolitan and developing rural areas.

As innovations in the printing and visual arts space advanced, the ability to print more elaborate and intricate designs opened up a new world not only for business owners, but for everyone who had an interest in reading about current events, local news, as well as books for entertainment and enlightenment.

These early publications helped form opinions and were the foundation for today’s more sophisticated and multi-channel advertising and marketing campaigns.

Logo Design In Present Day Applications

Fast forward to present day. A majority of companies and organizations use a logo or ideogram as a representation of their business interests when conducting enterprise, advertising, and running marketing campaigns. In some cases, a cogent logo may contain both an ideogram and the company name known as a logotype. A logotype emphasizes the name over the graphic, creating a unique design through the use colors, copy, and other graphic elements.

For multinational companies, the use of ideograms and symbols could prove more effective than plain written names, especially in cases when the logo gets translated into alphabets in increasingly globalized markets. It’s always worth noting that language barriers and cultural differences could make it so a logo or brand name does not translate easily – or as intended – across demographic groups.

For example, the Chevy Nova. While the car was wildly popular with American consumers when it was in production (before the Internet,) it struggled to make progress with Latino consumers. The simple reason for this issue was the use of the word “Nova.” When translated into Spanish, Nova literally means “no go.” As you can imagine, the choice of this brand name would not appeal to consumers who associated a new car purchase with a product that wouldn’t ‘go,’ as it were. This is a case when a little extra research could have quickly found the negative connotation associated with the language. However, since this branding and marketing faux pas happened quite some time ago, we can take a lesson on the importance of analysis when choosing a name for your branding efforts.

The Past and Future of Logo Design

The history of logo design is an interesting topic, and one that should get examined for further insights into how this media changed the world. Over the years this concept evolved from a way to identify dignitaries to a mainstream methodology for organizations and companies to set themselves apart from each other and their competitors.

When you’re talking about building a business, you’ll quickly learn that branding and logos work in synchronicity. You shouldn’t have one without having the other! By using your branding elements throughout all of your campaigns, you’re taking steps to build brand recognition in a cross-platform format.

In today’s digital age, business owners have more venues available than ever before to make a positive impact with potential clients. By keeping your branding and logos cohesive across your digital assets including your website, social platforms, and email marketing. Further, your branding and logo should get utilized on all printed assets including business cards, letterhead, marketing materials, product labels, internal and employee documents, and packaging.

If you offer a physical product, ensuring that your goods carry your logo and branding, along with a favorable packaging design for your items makes them more marketable when selling both online and offline.

Starting with Your Best Foot Forward

You’ll want to be sure to work with an experienced designer who understands the fundamental and advanced elements of branding and can provide creatives for all your needed purposes. By doing so, you assure that your products look fabulous when they are put on display or arrive at your customer’s doorstep.

Another advantage of working with an expert in the graphic design field is they are able to produce corresponding digital assets including banner ad creatives, infographics, whitepapers, and light papers.

Further, they can lend creative juice and insights into your logo and branding project, so that you get the best possible results from your investment in yourself, business, or organization. Ready to put your best foot forward? Contact us today to get your project started!

©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Using Colors in Graphic Design: Understanding Color Basics [ infographic ]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Using Colors in #GraphicDesign©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Using Colors in Graphic Design

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Whether you are establishing a brand or updating one, don’t overlook the importance of using colors in graphic design to represent your organization.

Color theory and psychology date back to Egyptian times. Their observations and findings were that colors could affect people’s moods. In modern society, these same principles remain true.

By using colors in graphic design, you are setting the tone and building the foundation for your entire brand. Colors are subjective. Influences such as culture, other associations with the color, personal preferences, and additional factors impact how people perceive your brand just based on color!

Don’t forget, that hues and saturations can awaken distinct responses – either negative, positive, or neutral. Ideally, you want to choose a color that resonates with your product or service offering, audience, or customer base.

An Overview of What Colors Represent

Primary colors include red, blue, and yellow. When primary colors get combined, they create secondary colors. Secondary colors include orange; a combination of red and yellow; purple, a combination of red and blue; and green, a combination of blue and yellow.

Selecting a color that embodies your product or service plays a critical role in establishing your brand identity. Here are a few thoughts to consider when choosing the colors that represent your organization.

Subtle colors are more calming than harder colors on the spectrum. These softer colors, including purple, violet, and green, tend to not be as visible to people. Pastels and faded colors are harder to focus on, giving them a calming effect. Additionally, these soft shades and hues are believed to help boost concentration.

Hard colors, including orange, red, and yellow stand out, have higher visibility and make objects look more substantial and closer. They create a sense of excitability and responsiveness from a consumer standpoint.

The most calming color is blue. Additionally, blue is a color that helps build trust and loyalty. Blue is a preferred color for brands including Facebook, Twitter, Lowe’s, Skype, and Ford. From a color psychology standpoint, blue is said to be helpful for suppressing the appetite.

Pink stimulates the appetite. Further, it evokes femininity, the female gender, sensitivity, romance, and sweetness. Favorite brands that use the color pink include Barbie, Pink, Taco Bell, and Cosmopolitan.

Red, when used in restaurants, encourages patrons to eat more, eat quicker, and leave promptly. For these reasons, it should come as no surprise that the color red commonly gets used by fast food chains and other eateries as core parts of their branding elements. Further, when the color red gets used in casinos and bars, patrons tend to lose track of time.

Other common associations with the color red include sultriness, heat, confidence, and ambition.

Top brands that use the color red in their graphic design and branding elements include Walgreens, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, KFC, Del Taco, Baja Fresh, Virgin Brands, and more.

The color yellow is cheerful. Not surprisingly, it is also the most visible and recognizable color. (Think about traffic signs!) Yellow is ideal for grabbing attention, projecting urgency, as well as spreading optimism and hope. Leading companies and brands that use yellow in their graphic design and branding elements include BestBuy, Subway, Sonic, IKEA, and Snapchat.

Orange is a color that conveys feelings of warmth, freedom, and optimism. Brands that use the color orange in their graphic design and branding campaigns include Blogger, Mastercard, The Home Depot, Firefox, Harley-Davidson, and Amazon. In marketing, the color orange is sometimes used to make expensive items appear less expensive, so could be worth considering if you’re offering a higher-end product or service to your client base.

Green is a color that represents growth, prosperity, generosity, and clarity. Other associations include health, positivity, and balance. If your product or service caters to wealthier clients, forest or other darker shades of green help you appeal to this target audience. Companies and organizations that implement the color green into their brand include BP, John Deere, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Holiday Inn, and Monster Energy Drinks.

If you want to project an air of luxury, respectability, and individuality, consider using purple as a significant element in your branding. Brands that use the color purple include Yahoo, Cadbury, Hallmark, Curves, and Aussie Haircare Products. All of these established brands have carved out a niche in their target demographic group.

White, inevitably, plays a role in graphic design. Whether it is serving as a backdrop for your website pages, white is integral in all clean, crisp, and fresh graphic design and branding elements.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, but equally important in graphic design, is the color black. Black often gets associated with sophistication, elegance, and simplicity. Brands that use black as a core component in their logos and other aspects of their graphic design include Coach, Chanel, Gucci, and Michael Kors.

It should come as no surprise that using black on white is the clearest and most comfortable for most people to read, printed on paper, or viewed using a monitor or handheld device. Since readability issues should always get considered during the design process, never overlook how keeping it simple can help move your brand ahead, just using clarity.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Advice

If you are starting your business, the chances are good that you have a million details that need to get addressed! It’s OK to admit that you aren’t an expert in every aspect of your business model. If branding and graphic design isn’t your expertise, seeking the advice of professionals who specialize in this industry is a smart idea.

Additionally, we can assist established brands and organizations with all aspects of rebranding and enhancements to existing branded assets, including websites, graphic designs, printed materials, and other digital assets.

All you need to do is bring your concepts and let the team turn your vision into a reality. It’s that easy! Start the conversation by contacting the experts at Colleen Eakins Design today!

voice search statistics©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

Voice Search Statistics [ infographic ]

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Colleen EakinsColleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it […]

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voice search and seo©2018, Colleen Eakins Design

What You Need to Know About Voice Search and SEO

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As technology and the way that people use it changes, marketing companies and small businesses must stay abreast of how they can adjust their strategies to remain competitive.

In 2018, one of the most significant shifts in the way people query for information is the broader adoption of voice search. Mobile devices and the introduction of voice assistant devices such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, can now perform searches just by asking a question. A helpful Alexa or Siri is always happy to respond with no keyboard required!

As you can imagine, this change in the way people search for information and data online has surprising and far-reaching implications as it relates to search engine optimization.

Facts About Voice Search

In 2015, 65% of smartphone users in the United States used a voice assistant. In 2013, only 30% reported using this feature on their phone.

In 2016, Google disclosed that 20% of searches originated from voice-based queries.

In 2017, 33 million voice-assistant devices were reportedly in use.

There’s little doubt that voice search is here to stay, so the big question is how this displacement of search queries affect search engine optimization.

How Voice Search Changes Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Without users having to type keywords or search phrases into a search bar, it’s easy to see how everything changes for search engine optimizers. Here are a few factors to account for when optimizing for voice search queries.

People Ask Full Questions Instead of Using Keyword Strings

One of the most significant differences when people use a voice assistant, versus performing a keyword search at their favorite search engine, is the way the query is phrased. When using a voice assistant, people are more likely to ask a direct question using everyday language and not a string of keyword phrases.

Whereas, when using a search engine, the query would include relevant keyword phrases.

For example, let’s say you want to find pizza delivery in your neighborhood. If you’re using your desktop computer, you might enter the query “pizza delivery” plus your zip code number and the search engine returns the best possible matches that offer pizza delivery services.

When asking a voice assistant, the chances are good that your question would be something like ‘which pizza place delivers to my house?’ To which the voice assistance would find possible matches for Italian restaurants and pizza joints that offer delivery services in the area.

Over the years of development, virtual assistants have come to understand complex queries and answer satisfactorily. For people who prefer to work handsfree, it’s a more convenient way to get answers to the questions they have.

Contextual and Local Search Matters

When conducting a desktop-based search, it wasn’t uncommon for these queries to be without a lot of added context. The submitted keyword or keyword string was the only qualifier. Recent changes to major search engine algorithms have emphasized the meaning in which search terms are used when assigning ranking positions. Today, the best search engine results help answer the question of the searcher, based on the intent of their search query and serving matched results.

There is little doubt that contextual, local, and voice search should work together to connect with existing and potential new clients, regardless of the type of Internet-connected device they are using. By putting all of the pieces together in the right way, business owners and marketers can succeed in attaining their business objectives.

Catering to A Mobile Market

In 2013, nearly half of all searches conducted from a mobile device had local intent. When local purchasing intent and purpose is combined with voice assistant queries, the combination can be a powerful driver of foot traffic for businesses.

Think about it. Nearly everyone carries a smartphone with them at all times. No longer do people have to drive around hopelessly lost or unsure of where to find the next gas station. All they need to do is use their phone and/or its voice assist to get helpful directions to the nearest gas station or a major highway.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

Simple keyword strings are being replaced with phrase-based queries often worded as simple questions, which are longer and more precisely formulated. Industry insiders refer to these query strings as ‘long tail keywords.’ They are the foundation for almost all SEO-related activity.

As users transition to using voice search for simple queries, the importance of long tail keywords is critical, as questions are asked in a more conversational tone. By understanding what your core keyword focus is, along with your local market, you can begin formulating a plan to be more relevant with voice assistant searches.

By fashioning relevant long tail keyword phrases into your content, in addition to providing helpful, user-friendly material, you are optimizing your website content for greater success. Ideally, the site should be friendly for visitors on browsers of all sizes, as well as compatible with search engine spiders and web crawlers that are responsible for indexing and ranking these pages.