Mark Design

1. Mark Design COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

2. What is a Mark?: • Marks are visual images used to identify a company, organization, person or event. • Mark designs typically fall into one of the following categories: - Word Marks - Letter Marks - Symbol Marks - Logo Marks

3. Types of mark designs: Word Mark • Primary element of the design is the name of the business. • Conveys the name of the business through the style of the font, colours or embellishments. • Fonts are chosen and stylized to suit the type of business.

4. Examples of Word Marks:

5. Types of mark designs: Letter Mark: • Letters form name in type • Used to quickly identify a company, often to shorten name • Advantages: letterforms are readable; short, recognizable name • Disadvantages: more costly to promote, heavy visual competition (letters)

6. Examples of Letter Marks:

7. Types of mark designs: Symbol Mark • Marks without type • Advantages: unique, simple, compact, quick impact • Disadvantages: costly to explain and promote, confusion with other symbols

8. Examples of Symbol Marks:

9. Types of mark designs: • Logo Mark • Symbol and words used together • Advantages: unique, easy recognition • Disadvantages: can be very complex, hard to update, challenge when resizing • The symbol reflects something about the personality of the business. • This type of mark design is most widely used.

10. Examples of Logo Marks:

11. Examples of Logo Marks:

12. Elements of Logo DesignCAPTURE PERSONALITY • Logo should clearly express acompany’s identity. • Should tell people who they are, what they do, how they work and how they want to be seen by the rest of the world.

13. Elements of Logo DesignSIMPLICITY • People are drawn to clean, uncluttered logos because they can easily recognize it at a glance. • Busy, crowded logos with intricate details or elaborate pictures are distracting.

14. Elements of Logo DesignPROPORTIONALITY • A logo should function as one complete unit. • Width shouldn’t be much greater than the height. • Logos that are too tall are hard to read when reduced or enlarged. • The design should work well onany sized media – from business card to billboard.

15. Elements of Logo DesignCOLOUR PALETTE • 80% of the world’s most recognizable logos use either 1 or 2 colours. • Use 1 to 3 colours to keep things simple • More than three colours is distracting to the eye and less memorable. • Colour should express personality of company. • Look at your industry to see trends(i.e. blue is common for tech. companies)

16. Elements of Logo DesignFONTS • Choose a font that suits the personality of your business. • Sans Serif fonts • Clean and easy-to-read • Two-thirds of most logos use sans serif fonts Franklin Tahoma Century

17. Elements of Logo DesignFONTS • Serif fonts • More serious looking fonts • Used more for a traditional or classic design Times Goudy Georgia

18. Elements of Logo DesignORIGINALITY • Distinguish your company from its competitors. • Should be unique, one-of-a-kind. • Should be “ownable” – you want to be able to trademark the logo design.

19. Elements of Logo DesignPRACTICAL, USEABLE, ADAPTABLE • Too many colours will cost you a fortune every time you need to print business cards or letterhead. • Should be able to easilyconvert to black and white. • Should be created in vector format so you can resize when needed without loss of image quality.

20. Elements of Logo DesignPRACTICAL, USEABLE, ADAPTABLE • These “photo” logos will cause problems when scaling to a larger size than the original file. • Will become pixelated and lose quality when scaled larger.

21. Where to start? • Browse the Internet to find some companies in the same industry. • Look at their logos and determine what you like or don’t like about them. • Decide how the name will appear in the design. • All capitals? e.g. ALICE’S Coffee Pot • Abbreviated? e.g. ACP • Unusual spelling? e.g. Alice’s Koffee Pot