2010 Marketing & Products Guide

Chapter 02

Building a Strong Business Identity and Marketing Design Style

Reflecting your business concept through a strong business identity is a crucial step in creating a compelling business brand.

Your business name and how you add emphasis to it through a slogan, tag line, logo and marketing design style are critical recognition factors for consumers, and they help to establish a foundation upon which to build your business image and subsequent marketing messages.

Profit-producing marketing requires repetition and continuity. Your studio name, tag lines and/or slogans, when combined with your logo and marketing design style, will bring focus to your advertising and promotional materials. When they appear in all of your marketing efforts, these vital elements also create the kind of continuity that is the first step toward building a brand: Establishing an identity that consumers readily recognize.

Keys to successful Logo design:

• Your logo should reflect your business concept, and its design should appeal to the type of clientele you are seeking to impress.
• It’s best to create a logo that will last over time, so beware of using the latest trendy font, as it doesn’t take long for most trends to be considered old-fashioned.
• Identify any unique features about your business or its name that might be translated into a graphic presentation of your logo, then explain these to the designer.
• Because photography is what you sell, resist the temptation to over-design your logo with extraneous elements so that it calls attention to itself and away from your photography.
• Make sure that all logo elements can be read or understood when reduced in size.
• The most flexible logo is one that can fit into both horizontal and vertical spaces without having to be reduced beyond its legibility.
• A good test of a logo’s readability is whether or not it could be used as signage. If a passerby could read your logo if it was used a sign, then it will be easily read when placed in marketing materials.
• Make sure your logo looks good when it is rendered in black and white before you move on to adding color. There will be times when it will appear in a publication or ad that uses only one color of ink.

Let Marathon’s team of design professionals create a logo that truly defines your business style. Prices listed include one interactive consultation with your graphic designer and account representative, three logo concepts and one hour of refinement for the selected logo.