Schafer Design

Award Winning Logo Design

Todd Schafer — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:16:54 +0000

Schafer Design recently submitted several brand logos into David E. Carters Trademarks USA publication. This is a very prestigious publication, only three of the designs that were submitted won award certificates for Outstanding Logo Design.
Here they are……..
1. Santa Cruz Geeks Logo… 2. Jet-Pro Shower Spas Logo….. 3. Dr. Ballan Tuck Logo

Brand Re-Design

Todd Schafer — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:13:24 +0000

West Coast Cranes & Vogler Construction Brand Re Designs

Helpful Branding Tips for Small Businesses!

Todd Schafer — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:35:01 +0000

Step One – Define Your Needs & Objectives.
• Define Your Needs & Objectives.
• What are your overall business and marketing goals?
• What would you like to achieve qualitatively and quantitatively?
• What is your brands identity?
• Do you need or have a corporate ID in place?
• What role will various promotional tools play. ie; your website, online marketing, sales materials, public relations etc?
• Do you have a budget for marketing and new marketing initiatives?

Step Two – Paint a Picture of Your Customer
• Who are your ideal customers?
• What are their demographics?
• What attitudes do they have about your product category?
• What are their problems, wants and emotional needs that your product or service meets?

Step Three – Assess Your Competition
• Who is your best competition?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• How do they position themselves?
• What are your strengths compared to the competition?

Step Four – Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign
• What will the elements of your marketing campaign be?
• What do you want to accomplish with each element?
• For your website, what functionality should it have?
• How will you measure success for your marketing in general and for each promotional tool?

Step Five – Identify Your Creative Strategy & Key Message
• To create your positioning statement: How do you uniquely solve an urgent need of your customer and prospect?
• To create an effective Corporate ID: What do you want your logo to convey in terms of style, tone, main message and colors?
• To create compelling messaging: For each distinct audience, what are the key messages that will engage them emotionally and motivate them to do business with you?

written by Patti Bond, bondmarcom.com

Why should a logo cost more than 500 bucks?

Todd Schafer — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:38:42 +0000

• A logo is the very first impression people get of your company – Before a potential client even walks through your door, your logo is a representation of your company. It can make a company appear large, small (whether it really is or not) fun, serious, professional…
• A logo needs longevity – Once a logo is designed it will represent your company for many years.
• A logo needs to be original – A logo should be designed specifically for your company. A cheap “generic logo” may not reflect your company’s values. A cheap logo may also use clip art which could end up being used by another company.
• A logo should look professional – You wouldn’t take a potential new client to MacDonalds for lunch, in effect this is what is being done with a cheap logo. A logo should give your company a professional image, appropriate to its needs.
• A logo should reflect the time and thought gone in to designing it -One of the problems here is that people don’t always realize the amount work that goes into a professionally designed logo:
• The research – even if the budget is quite small I would expect at the very least to find out who the company’s main competitors are and how they present themselves.
• The brainstorming of ideas
• The rough sketches
• The 4 or 5 logo options worked up on the computer
• The amends, tweaking and further amends
• A logo is the starting point of your whole corporate image – The colors typography and style of a logo will often dictate the corporate look of the rest of a company’s literature.

What Makes a Great Logo Design?

Todd Schafer — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:03:32 +0000

A Great Logo Design is distinctively original, practical, recognizable from afar, graphically powerful, simple in its form and function and conveys a message to the viewer. An effective logo typically has an intended message that it communicates to the viewer. It should be printable at any scale and be effective in black and white. A great logo usually comes down to a great artistic concept, with great graphical execution.