Studioblog (n): a blog by Studiobanks about design, marketing, internet, business, Charlotte and more. 

Social Media Shaping the Future of Logo Design

Mike 1 Comments

We all know social media is here to stay as it continually changes the way companies connect with their customers. Companies diving into social media are required to represent their identity within square formats that are sometimes unrecognizable due to incredibly small size constraints. Many companies adapt by simply separating their icon from their logo, but what are the options for companies that only use logo type? Unfortunately many resort to cramming their logo into tiny illegible squares.

As designers we have the responsibility to make sure our logo designs work well across all mediums including web and print. A new set of visual identity standards, with an increased focus on web-based marketing, has naturally come into play over the past few years. Taking these new standards into account while creating a new identity begs the question, “When designing a logo from scratch, do we start within the confines of a square format?” I say, No. A logo should be designed to represent a company visually in a minimalistic, memorable and easily recognizable way. I don’t think the best visual solutions can be confined to such a restraint as a square proportion. With that said, I do believe that during the creation of a brand's visual identity a solution should be made to work well in smaller sizes. This could be removing the type treatment from a logo and only using the icon, or using another visual element from a brand’s campaign such as a pattern or another supportive design element.

Sites like Twitter and Facebook have created two huge design challenges for our future: How to represent an identity within a square format and how to create legibility and impact in very restricted amounts of space. Designers need to keep these major factors in mind when creating new identities and realize that social and online media are here to stay.

Checkers Unveil a New, Tougher Logo

Banks 3 Comments

In the past, the Checkers have always promoted themselves as something fun to go do. Their old logo was playful and so were their ad campaigns. Last year’s campaign by Greenspoon Advertising featured the cheerful "Chubby" mascot parallel parking a Zamboni Machine on the streets of Charlotte while Mayor Pat McCrory stopped traffic.

Last Friday night, the Checkers unveiled a new, tougher looking logo. A sleeker and more ferocious-looking bear, set against a backdrop of Charlotte's skyline has replaced Chubby in the logo. The new mark coupled with the new “Our Team — Our Town” ad campaign seems to imply that the team is headed in a new marketing direction focused on hockey instead of pure entertainment factor of the games.

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(Project Update) Southern Comfort Logo

Christy 0 Comments

Here's the final logo picked by Southern Comfort Development Group. It was our favorite. We've just wrapped up the collateral design and are on to the website design. The client is working hard to gather up content, including photos of their properties and deciding what information they want to provide for each of their site's pages. This is always one of the hardest parts of the process. You would think it would be easy to just sit down and compose a paragraph or two about your company and its processes, but in fact, it's not so easy. This is why we have many great copywriters at our disposal to help our clients along while they gather content.

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(Project Update) Asana's New Logo

Christy 1 Comments

As we promised, here's the logo Asana chose from the six or so options we presented them—and it was our favorite one of the bunch, too. Clay designed this font by hand, so Asana will have their very own personal typeface. We chose the four colors from swatches they gave us from one of the clothing brands they'll be carrying. Now, the architect designing the store, which will be located at the new development Morrison in South Park, will be incorporating the color palette we've chosen into the store design. The next phase for Studiobanks is to create all of the Asana collateral: business cards, letterhead, envelopes, in-store hang tags and product signage.

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