A good design agency should know the difference between creating a nice logo and designing a cohesive brand identity that works across your business. You won’t be surprised to hear that’s the approach we take too.
The human mind processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. That means we can produce intelligent, well-researched content until the cows come home (which, by the way, we’d be happy to do) but if your brand identity isn’t there then you’re already on the back foot.
When we say “design”, we don’t just mean pretty pictures (although, we do make really pretty pictures).
Yes, design is logos, brochures, business cards, venue branding, adverts and social media graphics – but it’s also much more than that. Like everything we do, we see design as a careful thought process that needs forensic-level research to get right. After all, you wouldn’t get in a taxi and just say “drive” without any idea where you were going, would you?
Well thought-out design should be technically considered to ensure it transcends channels, formats and platforms to be used in a variety of situations without losing its familiarity or impact.
It’s easy to get confused by logo design costs.
On one hand, you’ll probably find someone online who will knock one out for you for less than £100. Bish bash bosh, you’re on your way.
So, if someone can do it for such a low cost, why would you pay a design agency more to do the same thing?
The short answer: because they’re not the same thing.
A good logo should immediately be representative of your brand and both understood and relevant to your audiences. It should excite, evoke and spur to action. It should tell a story. It should consistently link into a wider brand identity that is immediately clear no matter what channel you’re on, what billboard you look at, or what piece of marketing collateral you pick up.
When you pay a design agency to design a logo for you, you’re paying for this insight. We’re not just going to ask you for your favourite colour, give you some options and send you your favourite.
When our clients ask us for a logo, we spend time with them understanding what it needs to do, researching their business (and their competition), choosing colours and themes that will work everywhere they need them to, creating several concepts for them to choose from that communicate their values and message, refining their chosen option, designing multiple variations to use in different applications and designing their brand guidelines.
Soul Bowl wanted to position itself as a unique new venue for Morecambe – the kind of place where parents could come for a day out with the kids, and cool cats could hang out at night.
We knew we needed to cater to a lot of audiences. Soul Bowl had to appeal to families while retaining the stylish edge that would attract late night crowds. What’s more, our branding needed to work across a number of media and locations – from traditional media adverts and billboards to online, digital screens and more.
We drew on Northern Soul and retro influences to create a bold brand identity that would appeal to range of people. We chose bold, pop-inspired colours to develop two immediately recognisable logos for Soul Bowl and its on-site restaurant, Vista Italian. This allowed us to develop two separate but cohesive brand identities that linked together but gave us the flexibility to market them in different ways when we needed to.
Washington Business Centre, Turbine Business Park, SR5 3QY
