BlodgettVentures.com

A Logo is the Symbol for Your Brand.

It will fulfill many roles through out the growth stages of your business. It is very important at the start, and it becomes even more important as your business grows. In the beginning you will proudly display it on our corporate stationery, business cards, brochures, website, flyers and ads. Later, as your customers and prospects learn about your business it actually generates an emotional response in the minds of those who recognize your symbol and slogan.

There is both a science and art in logo design and I'd like to share some of with you. First, a logo is usually made up of two or three parts,

• Company Name
  
• Company Symbol
• Company Slogan

I like the three-part logo best, as it gives you a chance to communicate more of your message (brand and mission) to the market.

Name. I love naming companies. I've probably named hundreds over the years. This is both a simple and complex part of the process. It can be as simple as a founder's name: Jones Consultants, or Jones and MacAllister Consultants. Or, it may incorporate one or more key words, such as Jones Human Resource Consultants, or Jones/MacAllister People Promoters. It could skip the founder's name, and say Human Resource Solutions. These are all valid company names.

Which are best, you ask? My answer is based partially on personal opinion and partially on experience. I always play around with how the name rolls off the tongue, and I like to put variations into a Word document and try different fonts and spacing. It's a look and feel kind of thing, in part. Until the Web came into our lives, many companies created acronyms from the first letters of the words in the company name, such as J & M Consultants.

My first consulting business was named Blodgett & Associates. I grew tired of telemarketers calling and asking for "Mr. Blodgett," so our little group of six had a brainstorming session over creating a new name.  We took the Baxter from the name of a prominent medical firm, Baxter Laboratories, Davis from another large medical firm, Parke Davis, and Dunn out of Dun & Bradstreet. We created the name Baxter, Davis & Dunn, with the symbol BD&D that enjoyed almost instant name recognition. People would say, "I've heard of you!" Ironically, they didn't know why! It worked very well in the 1970's. In the 80's I changed the name to the Baxter Group. In the 90's I thought I needed a tie in to venture capital and business planning, as that was the focus of my target market. I renamed the company, Venture Planning Group. It was a hit. Later, it evolved to The Venture Group. Today, it's Blodgett Ventures. I went back to using my name, as in today's time things are so digital that the feel of doing business with a person just seems to feel better!

Symbol. This is a graphic representation of your business name. It can be as simple as a letter or combination of letters to complex geometric shapes; or, it could involve complex or unusual graphical symbols. Some companies have spent thousands of dollars on logo design, and for good reason: they wanted a simple, unique embodiment of their business symbolized in graphic form. One of my favorite emblems is the Nike swoosh, but there are thousands of others that we instantly recognize. As you start your business, you want to be proud of your logo, as you and others will be seeing it a lot. You need to give this considerable thought, and you will come up with something special.

Slogan. Nike uses the slogan, "Just Do It!" Slogans are great, as they can convey an emotion to go along with your name and symbol. At times, the slogan has become a permanent part of  the logo; other times, the slogan may change from year-to-year to reflect that year's promotional message.