Last week I had a brief chat with Joanne Dolezal of Dolezal Consulting about ‘More than a logo’, which is a programme she is running with Horizons Life Coaching to help business owners develop a strong corporate identity for their company. Except it’s not. It’s more important than that. It’s about helping business owners truly understand their company, get into the nitty gritty of it, develop an action plan and know how to talk about it BEFORE they go ahead and commission their corporate identity.
I’ve written a very short post before about the kind of things I like to know about a business before I go on to create a logo, things like what the vision and values of the company are, what they actually do, what the objectives of the work will be. I’ve certainly felt that although my list of questions is good, and I’ve been told from various sources that they are and that clients find it helpful to be asked these things – the sheet I use could do with a bit of a re-vamp, more targeted questions, to help me really get my head around the business and ensure that I produce something that really works for them. Something I’ll be working on.
I’ve also been told that not everyone who produces design work bothers to ask these sort of questions. Which I don’t get. How can you design something effectively without understanding as much as possible where their business is going and what it’s about? Surely knowing the aims of the business, the objectives of the work and who the audience are, are crucial to designing anything so that it works for the client and does what it’s supposed to do?
How can a business expect to go to a designer and say “create me a logo!” if they don’t provide the designer with enough information? Of course I could design a logo based purely on what the business is, but in order to design one which really works for them, which shows their values and indicates what sort of company they are, I’d need to have a bit more to go on.
Of course, you might think that you understand and know your company, but just think about your business values. This seems to be the hardest thing for anyone to answer from my list! Some people just know, and their answer is wonderful, however, most people umm and aarr for a bit before coming out with the same answer as everyone else. “Quality.” It can be harder than it looks!
More than a logo covers the values, vision, goals, messages, tone of voice, branding and logo for each company that takes part, helping them to understand the ins and outs of their company and each of the six aspects identified so that ultimately, if they need to, they are able to give a thorough and complete brief to a designer which WILL be more than a logo, it will be, in the words of the programme, “the heart and soul” of their company.
