Question

Topic: Branding

Client Nostalgia Driving Bad Logo Design

Posted by Anonymous on 9/29/2011 at 11:10 AM ET 250 Points
Our client, Baldwin Crane, is a 50-year-old family company. They are looking to polish their identity. They have used an apple as part of their identity for 50 years. They are highly recognized by their local audience by the apple. The logo solution obviously needs to keep the apple. The problem is, the client has also been using a clip-art crane in the logo for a number of years. The logo evolved to this point because the family realized the obvious, their audience wouldn't associate them with the crane/construction industry with their script logo and apple. We've gone to great lengths trying to explain to them the drawbacks of the crane and how it makes the company look like a mom and pop. They won't let the crane go. There are so many obvious logo design issues to list here, when you consider the solution must use the apple, and the boom needs to remain inside the apple to meet the families requirements. The family is convinced the logo needs a crane to be recognized it is a supplier of large cranes for heavy lifting.

Please review the progression of this project at the link provided below. We'd like to know if:

A.) Are we gravitating to our solution too much to see a more logical solution for this client that includes a crane?

B.) Do you agree with us in that the crane needs to be simplified in order to look like a more sophisticated identity?

The first logo at the top of the page (see link below) is the current logo that has been used by the family for years. The following logos after this are concepts we've provided.

https://www.nhmarketingcompany.com/clbaldwin/logo.html
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mvaede on 9/29/2011 at 11:33 AM Member
    I can understand their desire to keep the crane as part of their logo, yet agree with you to use a more modern image. If the customer resists a simplified version, I'm sure that you could propose a newer crane model than one with belts - maybe one with big tires
    - What about the crane actually lifting the apple, seen in perspective, making the crane small and the apple over-sized with enough room for the name.

    Mikael
    B2B Marketing
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 9/29/2011 at 10:29 PM Member
    Your client is a sea of contradictions: "highly recognized by their local audience by the apple", but "” their audience wouldn't associate them with the crane construction industry with their script logo and apple.

    By this reasoning (which makes no sense) your client is implying that their customers are idiots. Would your client put a piece of clip art on a Rolls Royce? Er, yes, I think this one might.

    Their original logo? The one with the crane? It looks home made. It does them no favors. It looks like it was designed by a 12 year old who is "good" at art.

    You might want to carry one with this in the hope that they’ll see sense. But they won't. I’ll bet they've told you that they don't know much about design but that they know what they like. If they "like" their logo as it is, you have a choice: fight on or give them what they want, get paid, and then move on—and be too busy to help them again.

  • Posted on 9/30/2011 at 3:47 AM Moderator
    You may be right from a branding perspective, but it's the client's need that prevails. If they want a sophomoric logo, then you either have to give it to them or risk losing the business when they fire you.

    Question: Would you rather take their money and be known as the design firm that will do whatever a misguided client wants, or a highly-principled design firm that understands branding and logo design and won't do sub-standard work, regardless of the fee?

    I could argue either side of that one, but it's not my choice to make. It's yours.

    The only way out of this one is to deliver what the client wants AND your recommendation, along with a plan to test the two among a small sample of customers and prospective customers to see which they think best positions the company. If your recommendation loses, maybe the client isn't so dumb after all. And if it wins, the client may reconsider their misguided mandates for the logo.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/30/2011 at 9:33 AM Accepted
    Why not have their clients have a say in the logo picking. Let them vote on the design - with a donation to a favorite charity as the contest prize? It's not what you think, it's not what the client thinks, it's what the public thinks/remembers that ultimately counts.
  • Posted by Gail@PUBLISIDE on 9/30/2011 at 3:03 PM Member
    I agree with mgoodman, here. The evolution of the art is good, but I also see the client's reasoning for wanting to keep the crane. Could you change the font in the design and KEEP the crane for a more contemporary look?
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