I’ll always remember a conversation with a friend who had recently been appointed Senior Vice President for a chain of luxury department stores with a hyphenated name. For decades their logo consisted of the two names separated by a hyphen in a formal-looking brush script. My friend had recently engaged one of the country’s premiere design firms to “rethink and update” the logo. He produced a large leather-bound portfolio from his desk and proudly unveiled the results of the work. As I stared at it I was reminded of the Hanns Christen Anderson story of the “The Kings New Cloths.” Because, on first examination, I couldn’t see any difference between the old logo and the new one, with which my friend was so pleased.

I guess my long silence alerted my friend that I was confused. After a moment he said, “don’t you see, they removed the hyphen.” After much closer examination, I realized they not only removed the hyphen but also redrew the script to give it a slightly more contemporary feeling. The project also included a completely new and original serif text face, designed to be used in conjunction with the logo and what is known in the trade as a comprehensive application manual (or CAM). These manuals are an exhaustive study of every possible application of the logo, from letterheads and newspaper ads to trucks and warehouse facilities. Every conceivable situation is considered and illustrated. Even examples of how not to use the logo are included. The cost of this massive project, including extensive customer testing had been over $100,000. That was in the late 1980’s. Who knows what it might be today.

I was horrified that my friend had literally doubled the reported cost of United Airline’s $50,000. logo redo only a year earlier. At least United had gotten an entirely new corporate look. I smiled politely and said something meaningless like, “nice job . . . really first rate,” and retired to contemplate the future of corporate design, or, in my friend’s case, non-design.

I mention this only to illustrate the potential for waste in corporate design. What my friend had actually purchased was about $5000.00 worth of useful design, another $5000 in typographic service (that could have been replaced by using an existing type face) and $90000.00 worth of hand-holding by a firm skilled at supporting frail corporate egos with meaningless market research. Those of us who have spent any time around an advertising agency know that any research project can be skewed to produce the results the agency wants. The function of market research is not to find the best solution, but rather to reinforce the case for the solution the agency wants to sell. Relatively few businesses can afford this extravagance, certainly not entrepreneurs in a start-up mode.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I see offers to create logos for as little as $19.99 on EBay and other internet sites. Some of these offers are obviously from students who have just taken a night-school course in the use of Adobe Illustrator and others are from massive “boiler-room” shops where novice designers and designer want-to-bes toil over predesigned templates, producing look-alike solutions.

What then does it take to produce an original logo or corporate identity at a reasonable cost? If you are planning to use the logo for a brief stint in an EBay store, the $19.99 version may be just what you need. If, however, you are hoping to build long term public recognition of a substantial enterprise, either on or off the web, the help of an experienced creative design team is required.

This might be the right place to make an important distinction between designer and technician. Hardware and software marketers have promoted the fallacy that their creations have made the designer redundant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Technology has certainly enhanced design, but not replaced it. Those who have suffered most from this deception are the unsophisticated students who take a course in one software program and believe they are now designers and the unsophisticated clients who also believe this is true.

The development of great design skill requires a lifetime of critical examination and trial-and-error experimentation. Learning to develop appropriate imagery that focus on the desired audience and translates across a wide range of media takes not only intensive training, but a willingness to immerse oneself in the business of creating images.

How can an otherwise over burdened entrepreneur identify such skill? As always, by asking the right questions:
1. What’s in the prospective designer’s (or design team’s) portfolio?
A. Does any of the work appear to relate to my target market?
Here’s an area where the entrepreneur often runs amuck. Substituting his or her personal taste for that of their prospects can grossly misguide the design process.

2. Do the images meet the one day - three second test?
A. Would I recognize the company by their logo if I saw it again tomorrow for three seconds?
Naturally, this is strongly dependent on another factor, frequency. Because of the massive exposure we have received, very few adults fail to recognize MacDonnald’s Golden Arches or Proctor and Gamble’s Crescent Moon and Stars. But a great new logo can begin to match that performance if properly conceived.

3. Does each image begin to tell a story about the product or company?
A. Can the image be appreciated on more than one level?
Here’s where we run into the problem of illustration vs logo. Many clients think the entire history (or inventory) of their business should be somehow represented in their logo. Without professional guidance, this results in an overly complex design that fails to register with the prospect in the critical three second exposure test. On the other hand, a great logo goes one step further than mere recognition by saying something about the intangible quality of a company or product. Perhaps It captures a company’s youthful exuberance or the exclusivity of a country club, but all great logos go one (or more) steps further.
B. Does the image support the client’s Unique Selling Position.
There is much more about this in our report, “Advertising Secrets.” I’ll simply reiterate, a great logo does not necessarily illustrate your USP, but it must support it.

4. Can the logo be translated into different media and retain its distinctiveness?
Many images that look great in full color on an 8.5” x 11” page fall apart or loose their impact when enlarged on the side of a truck, reduced to a small-space ad or reduced further to black and white. As we have already noted, frequency of exposure is a prime factor in recognition. Thus, an image that looks substantially different under differing conditions is a week logo.

5. Is the logo sufficiently unique to register?
Having a registered trademark substantially enhances a company’s perceived value. Although we are not patent attorneys, and therefore cannot offer legal advice, we have assisted many clients in registering their marks. Thus, we are familiar with the US Patent Office’s stringent requirements for uniqueness.

6. Will this design age well? Many cutting-edge designs tend to look old or require revision in a very few years. Great designs look like classics the day they are created and give their owners the opportunity to emblazon them in the public consciousness for many years.

7. Does this designer (design firm) have the skills and experience to meet all my promotional needs in the foreseeable future?
Many great designers specialize in narrow aspects of promotion. In fact, many prefer to do nothing but logos. The entrepreneur needs to leverage every relationship he cultivates. A one-stop shop that can handle all aspects of design and production can be a valuable asset.

In the final analysis, personal tastes and working relationships play an important roll in the development of any image. Still, we can go a long way toward ensuring the success of any new venture or product by asking these seven questions when we choose a logo designer.

Richard Nodine is the holder of 18 national design awards and a principal of Pacific Print Media, an agency specializing in sales promotion for the entrepreneur and small business. You can frequently see his eBay auctions in Specialty Services>Graphic Design, or in his eBay store Creative Sale Tools (http://stores.ebay.com/Creative-Sales-Tools) or at pacprint.com (http://pacprint.com/).