I am working on a project on trade. Last night at a networking event I teamed up with my client to show off three branding options that we have been tossing around. We did this in order to get feedback from other business people because those folks are our target audience.
Of the three options one looked curvilinear (A), one introduced a squirrel as a possible mascot for the company (B), one was rectilinear (C). Each option had its reasons for looking the way it did.
Most of the votes were cast based on initial reaction. Option C won, followed by option A, followed by option B with a vote ratio of approximately 4:2:1
Personally, I liked option C the least. I liked option A more than C because it was more imaginative. I preferred option B the most because it was more fun to work with.
My hypothesis is that option C won because it required much less thought by the viewer. The design was based on the initials of the company (WB), but the letter forms were so abstracted that the resulting mark only looked like three triangles.
Nobody could see that, and nobody asked. People asked about the other options, though. When explained, the viewers understood the reasoning behind the design.
So as a branding designer, what do I do? Do I recommend that we proceed with option C because it's most popular? Or do we maybe go with option B because it makes people think more?
For some reason, the new Sprint logo comes to mind. The first time I saw it I immediately thought of the pin drop image that they had used for so many years. The image is not literally a pin. Rather, it is a representation of the motion of the pin bouncing off of a hard surface.
The thing about this logo is that no one has to know what it represents. It still looks cool.
Now my client gains business by word-of-mouth. They meet other business people face-to-face and personally hand them their business card. This interaction is almost always accompanied by an explanation of what it is the individual does in his business. So would an explanation of a squirrel on a business card really be out of the question?
I suppose explaining one's business card over and over might get old. Of course, I never get tired of explaining my business to other people. At the same time, I have certain reasons for my logo looking the way it does. I find that people usually spend more time looking at my business card than they do looking at other cards. No one asks me about my design, though. People do ask about my title of "Creative Mediator."
Obviously, first impressions are extremely important. Upon making a first impression (through a business card) should there be something left for questioning? Or should it all be presented in a way that is as easy to digest as possible?
How will my client benefit most from my services? Are they going to do more business by doing what is popular? Or will they do more business by shaking things up and making people think?
