The danger of drinking from a starbucks cup

This morning, I poured a couple packs of apple cider into this blue thermos I inherited from an old roommate and headed out the door for class. Walking from my car toward campus, I realized the thermos I was holding was from Starbucks. It’s an awesome thermos, but I did grow a little concerned knowing I would sport it in my classes.

The logo position was just above the grooves were my hand fits around the container and opposite the opening where I drink from. Naturally, anyone looking my way when I took a sip would see it’s from Starbucks. This is good branding with strong logo association–the down side: I go to a LDS affiliated university, where I’m sure several students are strongly opposed to cafinated beverages and the likes of Starbucks Coffee Houses.

Anyway, I made it through the day with no conflicts. Phew.

And now I’ll just segue into talking about branding and logo development.

The LogoFactory.com says two things make a good logo: (1) Concept (2) Execution.

Concept: This phase is primarily about discovering what your client or company wants to say. Consider these questiosn as you brainstorm logo concepts:

• What is the business’s personality?
• What products or services do they offer?
• What are the best known for? What do they want to be best known for?
• How can a logo impact their business and in what ways do they want to use the logo?

Execution: Artwork is important, fonts and design are important. A logo needs to be able to function as a stand alone and in a variety of context and still convey strong association to the affiliated company. Here are a couple things to keep in mind when considering the execution of a logo:

• Make sure the design principles are working in harmony with the type of service or product they represent. (Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, Contrast) If you’re designing for a dentist, don’t make an edgy super conflicting asymmetrical design, unless the dentist is radical and doesn’t want any business. In the instance of doing a dentistry design make it a peaceful clean look in line with the feel the dentist office would like to portray
• Keep true to two things: Every logo needs to touch on who the company is and what they do. This is the purpose you need to keep in mind as you create the design. Be sure that by the time you finish you don’t just have a cool design on the screen; instead,  you have an image that means something.
• Consider where the logo will be placed. Apple computers have consistently included the apple logo on the front of their computers need the screen, and they now also include it on the back side of their computers so that as someone uses their products others around them know immediately their computer is an apple. The possible placements of  a logo can impact how it will be designed, it’s standard sizes, colors, and contents.

Look forward to my next post with examples of excellent logos and what they say about their company.