Education with Intention is an educational consultancy that specialises in designing school education packs for teachers and other organisations. The business has been running very successsfully for about a year now but the owner, Irene Serrat, realised that she needed a new logo to better reflect the professional nature of her business.
She had originally signed up for a logo service as part of her current website deal. This is her old logo:
As you can see, this logo is not as clear and bold as the new one, and it also struggles at small sizes. This logo suffers because not enough thought has gone into the design and production of this logo – the most important part of your business identity. A logo must work well at large and small sizes, in black and white and in colour. Think about this – how will your logo look when you have faxed a letter to somebody? Fax machines will render your logo as a scratchy black and white image – but it must still be recognisable and readable. Your logo is your branding.
A well designed logo will last many years and represent your company in a professional manner. As David Airey says in his book Logo Design Love:
Anyone can design a logo, but not everyone can design the right logo… A truly enviable iconic design will be simple, relevant, enduring, distinctive, memorable and adaptable.
When someone comes to me for a new logo, the first thing we do is talk. I find out as much as I can about the business and the person behind the business. I ask the client to bring along any material they currently have, such as business cards, brochures or letterhead so that I can see what they currently use. We talk about why these aren’t working s and what would work. We discuss colours and styles and I leave the meeting with a good understanding of what the logo needs to say about the business.
I provide a minimum of five logos for the client to take a look at – though once I get started, I very often end up presenting 10 or 12 logos. I will also include colour or style variations of the same logo as it gives a good range and helps to show the big difference that changing a colour can make. From there, the client gets a much better idea of what they like and what they don’t – they choose a couple of their favourites (sometimes taking a colour from that one and the style of this one) and I work to refine these, getting closer to the required look and feel. Then I present these again and there is usually a final finetune required before we have our finished logo.
If you are interested in giving your business a fresh new look, please contact me so we can talk about your branding and identity.
Next up, I will be designing a new website for EWI, from the ground up. Irene and I have had a couple of meetings to discuss her requirements, and each time she has gone away and really thought about where she wants her business to be going, what is the core of her business – it is really useful to take stock and check to see if you are on the right path to get to where you want to be in 5 or 10 years. Sometimes we are so busy working in the business that we don’t get a chance to stand back, think about our direction and work on the business.
Education with Intention has a fresh and bold new look and it’s just the beginning!
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Logo, Poster and Website - February 2010