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1 Or 2 Colours For The Business Name

Posted by Anonymous on 4/15/2012 at 1:30 AM ET 250 Points

Hey guys

Im planning on opening a dessert shop hopefully next year and it going to be called "forbidden desserts" ... I'm trying to decide the colours if I can do 2 colours like Dunkin' donuts or GQ but I don't know why some businesses have two colours in their name... Unless you can explain to me which im assuming that it a brand power tactic

or should I just stick with 1 colour

I was hoping to use the name on merchandises like mugs, aprons, t-shirt and do on .... So I thought with the 2 colour like red for forbidden and black for desserts ... Maybe it might work since the two colours seperate each other and just use the word forbidden cause I don't think people want to wear a shirt casually in public with desserts on the shirt and rather have just forbidden instead

What do u think?

Thank for the help

Posted by mgoodman on 4/15/2012 at 8:05 AM Accepted

What we think is less important than what your target audience will think. Who are those people? Where do they live? Who is your competition? What are you trying to communicate with the brand name/logo?

There is no definitive answer to the question of 1 color or 2. It depends on your objective, your target audience, and the design/font of your logo. You might want to ask the advice of your graphic design professional.
Posted by Steve Byrne on 4/15/2012 at 12:31 PM Accepted

mgoodman has given you some good input, it will help us if you thoughtfully answer his questions.

Also, what is the dessert shop name?

Professional graphic designers will sometimes select one element in a name, such as a single letter or a punctuation mark in a name, to be presented in a different contrasting second color. This can add interest, uniqueness, personality and recall for your brand.

Steve
Posted by mgoodman on 4/15/2012 at 5:56 PM Moderator

I hope you're a better baker than graphic designer.

It's not that any of your font selections are necessarily wrong. It's that you've put the cart before the horse. You need to start with a business plan and marketing strategy -- including a clear positioning statement. THEN you get a professional graphic designer to come up with an expression of your positioning in the logo.

When you start with fonts and colors, you're shooting at the target with a blindfold on. Don't do that to yourself. It might seem like more fun to deal with those issues than to do the hard work of positioning and business/marketing planning, but it's not the best way to start a new business ... at least not if you want to maximize your chances of making some money in this venture.

You wouldn't want a graphic designer to bake the desserts, would you? Why are you trying to become a graphic designer?
Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/15/2012 at 8:12 PM Accepted

(Aside: I noticed that you have the domain name www.forbiddendesserts.ca - but not www.forbiddendesserts.com, which is owned by Premier Foods Group Ltd in UK. It well may be the case that they'll be launching a line of desserts called "Forbidden Desserts" and the first one to trademark the name will have the rights to the name. I'm not a lawyer, but before spending money building your name, be sure you can truly own it)
Posted by ethnicomm on 4/23/2012 at 12:14 PM Accepted

Since you're Canadian, and your target is probably the GTA, the .ca domain is fine as that is what the search engines will show locally (and what we prefer to see).

Trademark laws vary so you're best to consult a lawyer on that. However, if you can demonstrate that you've been using it for a while...besides, it's a different country. Remember the Target issue here in Canada? http://trademarkblog.ca/target-settlement/

Another thing to think about (besides strategy) is your budget. A ONE colour logo is cheaper to print, stitch, emboss etc vs. a multiple colour logo. If you have just red, for example, you can use white (or blank) to highlight. Multiple colours gets expensive - check out the cost of one colour printing vs. 2 or 4C for example.

Your T-Shirt can have Forbidden on the front and the Forbidden Desserts logo on the back ;)

Good luck!
Posted by carrie77 on 4/30/2012 at 7:21 AM Moderator

Hi Everyone,

I am closing this question since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)

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