I ran across a great post on logo design - actually it’s more about what not to do. The advice in the article could just as easily apply to web design itself, and branding overall of a company. It’s surprising just how often the value of corporate identity, particularly logos & websites is minimized as not being that important. I would submit that the opposite is true, the branding of your business is one of the most important aspects. Look around at businesses you see daily, you can see the evidence of this. Perception really is reality.

A company that has marginal customer service and mediocre products can succeed in today’s marketplace if they have great marketing, and put across a strong, consistent image. A great example is WalMart. They didn’t get to be as huge as they are from having great products and outrageous customer service, and in fact they don’t have the best prices overall either, with the exception of a few loss leaders they promote. They got there by building a perception through branding alone.

Speaking of perception, the problem with logos, branding, websites etc. is sometimes the perception of the effort involved. Luckily my clients seem to have a good grasp of this, however I do field inquiries all the time where people really have no idea - nor should they in many cases, and I really don’t expect them to, that’s not the business they’re in.  I see many online discussions between other designers that constantly complain about this aspect of the business, but put yourself in the other person’s shoes.  How would they know? Part of our job as designers is to educate potential clients, no point complaining about it. That said, here are some spectacular logo blunders from the article, see if you can spot the common humorous problem in all of them:

[caption id=”attachment_55” align=”aligncenter” width=”615” caption=”Photo from Webdesigner Depot”][/caption]