A Basic Post About Logos

by admin on June 30, 2009 · 0 comments

Because we can’t think deep thoughts all the time ….

Like a lot of associations, we have to deal with the logos of a lot of different companies. This is because we have events and things that have sponsors, and so we have to put sponsor logos in a lot of very different and creative places. Yet I’m amazed at how many logos I see that look very striking and memorable– when they’re huge.

When they’re small, they’re barely legible.

So the most important question to ask when designing a logo — for a company, association, event, product, whatever — is: How does it look when it’s really small?

When designing a logo for something that has more than one short word, go for logos that have a basically vertical alignment (I like to call them “stacked”). Horizontal logos look terrible and squished when they have to fit in a small space.

And avoid insisting that taglines or slogans be included as part of a logo, because they lose all legibility in 90% of applications. Before deciding on a logo, shrink it down to 40 pixels wide and see how it looks.

Finally, if you need a logo for something, hire a professional to design it. It’s cheaper than you think but not nearly as cheap looking as most in-house efforts.

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4th of July

June 26, 2009

With our nation’s birthday just about a week away, and so many challenges facing our culture, I feel like I want to write something about it, but am averse to the usual sort of cliches, and well aware of my own limitations. So instead I’ll share these lyrics from singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Whatever your personal [...]

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"Though the Strategy Defies Conventional Wisdom … It Seems Fairly Obvious."

June 1, 2009

Hearst Magazines saw ads drop 6.7 percent last year. Sound bad? Well, not when you consider that industry-wide ads declined nearly 12 percent. In today’s NYT, a brief analysis of how Hearst has succeeded relative to its market by not doing what they were supposed to do.
As the NYT writes, “Hearst Magazines … has repeatedly [...]

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Yeah, Wal-Mart Has Something to Teach Associations, Too

May 24, 2009

I spent the last few days enjoying a little R&R in Las Vegas, and the flight home today was, dare I say it, actually relaxing. Almost all because of my new Kindle, which I love, as a consumer; as a publisher, I have some concerns. More on that particular quandary in a later post, perhaps.
One [...]

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Resisting the Power of the Echo Chamber

May 15, 2009

“Management by anecdote” is a trap that most of us — probably all of us, at some point — fall into. It happens in all kinds of organizations, but associations seem especially susceptible. You know the sort of thing I mean:

One member, who is either personally influential or knows someone who is, complains about a [...]

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You Can Have Your "Recession"

April 13, 2009

Too many posts on the ASAE listserves about how to cut costs (”give raises? oh my are you kidding? we’re lucky to have jobs!”) and not enough — in fact none that I’ve seen — about how to make more money. Give me a break, people. You can fritter away hours writing and reading posts [...]

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Yes, Twitter Does Have Some Valid Uses

March 29, 2009

I’ve always said that if you find Twitter useful, then go for it — I just get tired of hearing people talk about it so much, since it’s a pretty basic thing. While I still don’t see any use for it yet for our organization, I have finally set up a personal Twitter account for [...]

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April Fool's!

March 27, 2009

Seven years ago, on April 1, 2002, I produced an April Fool’s edition of our organization’s weekly newsletter. I was only about eight months into working for them at that point. and was always looking for something different to do. So I came up with a bunch of bogus and, if I may be so [...]

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Are You Asking the Right Questions?

March 19, 2009

In interviews with the CEOs of several AMS providers (offered as podcasts on his blog and summarized in the latest issue of Association Trends), Wes Trochlil asked them for the greatest challenges associations have with their databases, and what are they not doing that they should be. Here are excerpts from their responses:
“Not knowing what [...]

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Sometimes It's Good to Get Things Off Your Chest

March 19, 2009

I have to admit, I love Maggie McGrary’s rant post on “Generation Whine” even if it is a little hyperbolic, because sometimes it’s good to get things off your chest. And also Elizabeth’s comment, since I too once “lived on Ramen and cynicism” during some extremely lean and impoverished years as I worked to build [...]

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