What Makes a Great Logo?

If you are a consumer, or a marketer, or a CEO of a company looking for branding, you should be interested in logos. Logos are the centerpiece of a company’s brand image and can tell you a lot about the company. The quality of a logo can tell the consumer how much their image (and customer opinion) means to that company. The effectiveness of a logo can help sell whatever product or service that the company offers. Also, the beauty of a logo is something that the company can be proud of and identify with.

A great logo must have the ability to be printed or used in all of the contexts mentioned above and still represent the company effectively. A few things that are important when talking about functionality are the simplicity, scalability, color, and depth. It’s important to the functionality of a logo that it’s not too intricate and that it doesn’t incorporate things like gradients or shadows as integral parts of the design. When the logo is reduced in size or placed on a loud background, it should retain its integrity. In addition, the logo should allow for two color presentation, such as black on white, as it would be on a t-shirt.

A Great Logo Must Represent the Company

A logo needs to represent the company it serves. This means that the style must be easily identified with the industry/product/service and must give a clear picture of what is being marketed. If a company is selling auto parts, a delicate script font would not capture the essence of the company. A suitable font would be bold and sturdy-looking. A logo sets the tone for the company. This applies to single-serving logos like Dasani or a multipurpose logo like NBC. In the case of Dasani, we are given a clean, smooth, cold-looking logo to represent water and with NBC we are given with a multicolored peacock representing the different divisions of NBC. Originally the logo was created to show enhancements in color broadcasting, also a good representation.

A great logo must encompass the entire company too, not just one aspect of it. In the 60s, AT&T had a bell logo which represented the clarity of sound and references Bell Telephone Laboratories. In 1984, AT&T introduced a logo representing a wider range of services and a more modern look to reflect the major advances that the company helped invent like the transistor, the solar power cell, and unix operating system.

A Great Logo Must Be Unique

Another important trait of good logos is the the ability to stand out against the crowd. Copycat logos are destined to fail or be confusing to the consumer. Usually they will result in a loss in sales. When Pepsi Cola had a similar logo to the already established Coca-Cola, it suffered in the competition between the two soft drink companies. Only when Pepsi switched their brand to something unique did they see a major increase in sales.

A unique logo will also tend to be one that stands the test of time. Cookie-cutter logos that bank on trends of the day will look dated and need to be replaced after the trend dies off. In the late 90s, the swoosh logo was popular. It was everywhere and it quickly became dated.

To view the original article please visit: http://www.code-interactive.com/thinker/a112.html

Vorzie Studios - http://www.vorzie.com

Work and Web Update

Yes, Yes, I know it has been quite awhile since we have updated the BLOG, but now we are back with the website work that we promised you in the last posting a few months ago and just some general updates to the work environment in Northern California.

Several long months have passed and I have been remiss in the postings to this blog, but you know how the saying goes that life seems to get away...


This latest piece is the index page for North Santa Rosa Physical Therapy who we have been working with on and off for several years now and they are jumping on board with bringing their successful therapy practice to the digital world of the internet. Once more content has been developed users will be able to explore pages related to therapy, therapists, about us, and of course a links page. This design can be viewed on our home page at http://www.vorzie.com/html/web7.html.

This next page was developed several months ago through a joint venture with our new partner Douglas Lashar who is responsible for the marketing end of Vorzie Studios. Anyway I am getting away from the subject at hand. This page was developed again to simply establish a web presence for this business. This was developed for a sandwich and coffee shop located out in Bodega Bay and is simply a one page landing page with a link that allows visitors to email the busness and another link that logs into google maps for directios to the shop. Please access the display piece of Cafe Aquatica at http://www.vorzie.com/html/web6.html.

Finally, this last page was developed for a presentation along with four other design teams to develop identity collateral for Crush House a hotel an wine bar located within the heart of the wine country od Sonoma County in Windsor, California. The site was developed with the concept that this five star hotel would cater to an upper demographic with a wine bar and complete spa facilities in addition to deluxe accommodations to accent the bountiful viticulture of the area. The page related to their spa facilities can be viewed at http://www.vorzie.com/html/web.html.

As a last note we be be displaying samples of our latest packaging designs developed for Seismic Cellars, a wine maker in the Alexander Valley appellation, and Amanda's Scone Mix a delightful treat available exclusively in specialty stores of the Northern California area.

Couple of New Logos

I really should have published this earlier, but you know how the saying goes in that life just seems to... Anyway, we have created a couple of new logos since we last posted to the Blog. The first one was created for a musicians entertainment company in Manhattan. This individual is actively immersed with three bands and his free time is, shall we say "rather limited". He asked us to create an identity that would "convey a feeling of possibility, excitement and grandeur". So, at first we set about to create an identity that would not only convey these concepts but would also give a "sense" of the Big Apple. Needless to say, he politely informed us that this was not what he had in mind, and instead related some artists that he appreciated. We did a little research and developed two additional identities, of which the one that you see here was a, shall we say...A SOLID GOLD HIT! Oh, I break myself up. The next stage of the this development process that we and our client will be working on is integrating this piece with a company web site.

This second identity we created for the same physical therapist that we created the cycling logo posted in a previous blog. This identify was created for his company which is a very, very busy practice here in Northern California. We wanted to convey a McKenzian image yet not be restricted my their imagery or copyright for that matter. We went through about 15 roughs before concluding with this one. This company identity will be incorporated into a cycling jersey designed by Vorzie Studios (images to follow), a site web, business correspondence, and a brochure to follow.

Please stay tuned as our next posting will feature several newly completed websites for North Santa Rosa Physical Therapy and Cafe Aqautica. See you real soon.

Venture into Motion

Some explanation is definitely in order here, or as Ricky Ricardo might say "jew got some splaining to do Lewcy". Okay that might have been a bit of a stretch there, but the latest two pieces definitely have everything to do with motion. The first piece, a business card, was created for Internet Auction Marketers a automotive auction house that utilizes Ebay as there primary marketing avenue. They were in dire need of a makeover as their previous business card was created in, good gawd, Microsoft Publisher and really lacked any sense of style in it's design. Everything about the old design screamed LINEAR BORDOM. Basically we took the existing content and gave it a complete makeover. Taking the original 2D logo we re-illustrated it to give it greater depth and dimension and used it as a watermark to offset the rest of the layout. The imagery of the BMW, was placed into a 3/4 bleed of of the card to give the impression that the business card was just to small to contain it. The company liked this so much that they want us to develop this design into the front of a marketing brochure.











This second piece we developed for a physical therapist who is an avid cyclist. We have been working on and off in the development of this logo for going on 2 years now and he wanted to incorporate the heat/spice of the sport with the structural skeletal system that supports the human frame. So when combining these two concepts, Chili-Bone Cycling was created. The chili used within this piece is actually a fictitious chili, but the bone used is an illustration of an actual humerus. These two images are presented in a skull and crossbones manner overlaid upon an illustration of a chain ring. Right out of the gate when we presented the rough draft to the sponsoring company they basically said that we had hit the ball right out of the graphics park, which to me is what we always strive. When the jersey has been completed it will be photographed and posted as well.

Please remember to visit our site at Vorzie Studios where this and many of our other graphic and web creations can be viewed. Thanks for visiting and be sure to come back again soon.

New Techniques Implemented

It has only been a few weeks since the last posting, and during this time, aside from SEO activities, I have had the opportunity to implement a new technique to my existing design skills. These techniques are really nothing new, but instead incorporate the implementation of Adobe Illustrator and following this Adobe Photoshop for color rendering and effects. The basic creation of the line art was the first and simplest stage of this creation process. This in turn was followed by bringing this existing line art into Photoshop where various layer and masking techniques were implemented to create what you see here.

It is always interesting to hear peoples reaction to this piece as they, with the exception of just a few individuals, seam rather unimpressed by the results. They seem to indicate that it looks a little to realistic to be impressed by the results. This can, be interpreted as a complement, but from the position of the artist, a little more enthusiasm is always appreciated. As always your feedback is always welcome to this piece or any others posted on this blog or Vorzie Studios home page.

Vorzie Studios is available for graphic and web design projects to the Santa Rosa and surrounding Northern California region. Contact information can be found at the base of our home page at http://www.vorzie.com. Thank you for your time and interest.

Mandala Creation

Only been about a week since our last posting and just felt the yearning to return and post yet again. This weeks creation is inspired by the cyclical change of the world in which we live. This weeks creation is entitled Rebirth. This mandala is composed of repetitive patterns that unify to create the symbol of the mandala. The center of this piece is a blooming lotus blossom, the symbol of rebirth, and is surrounded by eggs, or the symbol of the stage prior to an awakening or birthing. Interspersed between thees eggs are stokes of waves or the cyclical nature of the universe in which we live tieing all of the elements into a single symbol of rebirth.
This piece can be viewed on our web page at http://www.vorzie.com/html/illustration7.html, and all of our creations can be viewed at http://www.vorzie.com. Hope that you enjoy what we have brought to you, and please return to read and view our other creations. Thanks again!

Invite To New Site!

Hello Everyboby,

This is the first official blog of Vorzie Studios. Here we will keep you posted on the latest pieces produced and the goiings on of the designer, Jay Vorzimer.

Jay has been busy as of late with implementing SEO strategies with some degree of success. The results as they stand at this moment are Google: 14, Yahoo: 5, Bing (MSN): 11. We he at the studio don't think that is too bad, considering that we didn't even place within the first 15 pages of a search for santa rosa graphic design. This feeling of success is tempered with the knowledge that during the submission process, there was a point at which we were placing within the first page of a Google search. But this was probably the result of our initial efforts of search engine optimization.

Moving on, this last 4 months has only produced two pieces. The first piece is titled Eye and Nail, which many have commented on its simularity to the work of Patrick Nagel. Interestingly, that this image was sketched from an actual image and in no way was ever meant to imitate Nagel's work. The second piece produced in one sitting was an assignment meant to extol the vector tools within Photoshop. Granted, that these tools are available within Adobe Photoshop we have found that the tools within Illustrator are better suited for this purpose. Once the actual vecotrs are in place, the tools within Photoshop really shine concerning small nuances such as highlight and Shadow.

More images from Vorzie Studios can be seen at the companies website at http://www.vorzie.com. Please feel free to leave comments, praise, or even criticism as all feedback is welcome. So please check back often, as we plan on updating on a regular basis to keep you abreast of the goings on of Vorzie Studios delivering graphics and web design to the wine country of Sonoma county and Northern California.