Your Logo Is Not Your Brand
Logos are symbols that are seen. But brands are felt emotionally. Your brand is the perceived personality of your business. For example, the logo for Apple® is a simple outline of an apple with a bite out of it. But their brand is “youthful, innovative, fun, modern, creative.” The clean simple lines of the Apple® logo express these brand qualities visually. Successful companies invest millions on their brands and logos because of the impact a positive (or negative) impression has on their bottom lines.

Good Logo, Bad Logo
A good logo should score high on looks and technical points. In the world of branding, “good looking” means the logo attractively and accurately reflects the personality of a business. On the technical side, a good logo works well both large and small, in print and online. That means it’s a vector logo whose design elements are clear and legible even at small sizes. [Learn about vector logos.]

If you want a good logo, avoid using the elaborate illustration on your stationery or inn sign. Once that drawing gets shrunk down to fit on a business card with a bunch of contact info, no one will be to tell what that fancy drawing is.

The detailed illustration looks clear on the stationery, but becomes a gray blob when scaled down to fit on a business card.

Also, playing around in Photoshop is a lot of fun, but the type of image it produces means you are limited in how large you can reproduce your logo. If you need to create a big print ad or outdoor banner, your raster logo won’t be up to the task. [Learn about raster logos.]

Bad Logos Cost You Time & Money
What happens when your logo isn’t up to the task? Eventually, some designer will charge you extra and/or take longer to complete your design work. For professional designers, your logo provides a summary of the look, feel and colors your business uses to describe itself. Having this “blueprint” as inspiration speeds up the design process. Creating a website, printed card or signage without this critical element is a bit like trying to build a house without a plan. It will take additional time to research all the information that the logo would have provided. The likelihood of extra revisions is also much higher since the designer will be starting from scratch. In addition, a logo that isn’t well constructed technically will cost more time/money because of the extra time spent working around technical problems.

Use Your Good Logo Well
Once you have your good logo, use it well! Don’t hide it. Instead, use it consistently across all your marketing materials. For prospective guests, matching web and print materials look professional. But more importantly, they convey a consistent message about the experience you’re offering. Consistency is key when a prospective guest is considering your property versus your competition’s. If your site looks great but your rack card looks different, prospects may wonder which one is the real inn. The best way to avoid this “moment of doubt” is to make sure your printed and online marketing pieces are branded consistently. Click here to see examples of branded marketing materials.

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There’s a lot more to branding and logo design, but hopefully this introduction has provided you with a good start. If you ever have any questions about your own logo and branding, contact InsideOut. We can assess your logo for free and give advice on how you can create a successful brand.

InsideOut has great print deals on the following items for a limited time only:

20% OFF! ~ Greeting Cards (4″ x 5″ and 4.25″ x 6″)
20% OFF! ~ Postcards (3″ x 4″ and 8″x 5″)
30% OFF! ~ Personalized Notepads (4.25″ x 5.5″, 4″ x 6″, 5.5″ x 8.5″and 8.5″ x 11″)

For discount to apply, final client approval must be received by 4 pm PST 11/30/09. Contact Jim McCauley for details: Email 360-683-5774 x 304

New business cards and postcards set the tone for a brochure redesign.

Lookout Point Lakeside Inn was down to their last box of brochures. Co-owner Kristie Rosset decided this was the perfect time to update the design of the piece. InsideOut had recently established a new look for her postcards and business cards. Now we had the opportunity to brand the brochure.

Kristie was happy with the current format–an 8″ x 9″ piece which folded in half to 4″ x 9″–but she was also open to other options. Staying with a finished size of 4″ x 9″ made the most sense since it would fit both standard display racks and business envelopes. But which format would work for Lookout Point? Rack card, trifold or bifold?

Rack cards: small but mighty

A 2-sided 4″ x 9″ rack card was the most economical option. Although on the small side, a rack card still has enough room for good photos, a map and short-but-sweet text. For most small inns, a rack card is the best choice.

The old bifold brochure was dark and blocky.

Trifolds: a multi-tasker with impact

The trifold format (12″ x 9″ folded to 4″ x 9″) would work if it was important to emphasize multiple aspects of the inn. In Lookout Point’s case, the main aspect was the excellent accommodations (12 guest rooms and a condo), but the inn also hosted business meetings, weddings and fine dining events.

Bifold: right in between

The current bifold was a happy medium for fitting text and photos. As far as impact and cost, it was right between the rack card and trifold. After thinking it over, Kristie decided to stay with the bifold. The format had already proven itself and, with focused writing and design, we could still showcase the main aspects of the inn.

The design: making it all work

The new version showcases the inn's best qualities and matches the other print pieces.

The secondary aspects, such as gatherings and fine cuisine, also made their mark on the piece with small inset photos and short captions. The back panel was the place to put quick reference information. It’s a hard-working panel that features contact info, a locator map, a list of amenities and other highlights of the inn.

The same fonts, colors and photo treatments used in the previous print pieces were used in the bifold. As a result, all the pieces work well together and reinforce the established branding. Since InsideOut was already familiar with Lookout Point, the design process went quickly and smoothly.

“You’ve made this process so easy. Thank you! - Kristie

InsideOut managed the printing of 5,000 brochures to ensure low cost, high quality and timely delivery.

See a pdf of the complete set of branded print pieces.

InsideOut has great print deals on the following items for a limited time only:

20% OFF! ~ Greeting Cards (4″ x 5″ and 4.25″ x 6″)
20% OFF! ~ Postcards (3″ x 4″ and 4″x 4″)
15% OFF! ~ Bookmarks (1.5″ x 7″, 2″ x 8″and 2.75″ x 8.5″)
35% OFF! ~ Personalized Notepads (4.25″ x 5.5″, 4″ x 6″, 5.5″ x 8.5″and 8.5″ x 11″)

For discount to apply, final client approval must be received by 4 pm PST 10/30/09. Contact Jim McCauley for details: Email • 360-683-5774 x 304

New rack card design for The Croff House in Hudson, NY.

The Croff House is a Victorian home with a beautiful and comfortable updated decor. Owners Duncan Calhoun and Russell Gibson worked with InsideOut to create a great web site that captures the contemporary feel of the inn and showcases its luxurious amenities. With the web site completed, it was time to create a print piece that could do the same job in a much smaller space. Again, they turned to InsideOut — this time, for the design of their 4″ x 9″ rack card.

Strong branding with matching marketing pieces:
Print designer Jennifer Lozada transferred the logo, colors, fonts and layout of the web site to the much smaller 4″ x 9″ print format. Rather than cramming the space with text, she let the photos do most of the talking. Open spaces (“white space”) in the layout draw the eye to the most important information. White space is key if you want to convey elegance and sophistication. Even with the “blank” space, text and photos, there was still room for a helpful locator map. Good feedback from the owners helped refine the map, text and photo selections.

The result: The web site and rack card are a match, conveying a consistent message. The owners decided on a quantity of 5,000 cards. InsideOut managed the printing to ensure quality, affordable cost and speed of delivery.

“It’s perfect!!!!” – Duncan

“The rack card looks great.” – Russ

Some prospective guests prefer going online while others are looking for printed materials. Maine Stay has the complete set to suit both groups.

Maine Stay Inn and Cottages recently had InsideOut design their rack card. They now have the complete set of essential online and print marketing pieces: a search engine-friendly website, a rack card & business card, a blog and an e-newsletter. All the pieces have consistent branding and they work together to target the full range of prospective guests.

Click here to see the case study for Maine Stay’s marketing materials.

A bookmark is just the start for marketing the Bed and Breakfast Foodies.

“8 Broads in the Kitchen” is a group of eight innkeepers from all across the United States. Their web site offers great recipes as well as insights and experiences from each innkeeper’s local food culture.

The group asked InsideOut’s print department to develop a bookmark to match their web site. InsideOut designed the 2 in. x 8 in. bookmark using the established logo, stripes and colors. The front prominently features the web site address. On the back, there’s a picture of each innkeeper with her contact information.

10,000 bookmarks were printed and have arrived in plenty of time for their joint photo shoot this September. The bookmarks can be tucked into cookbooks, displayed on their own, or attached to any other related marketing materials.

New brochure design for the Boys & Girls Clubs Foundation of the Olympic Peninsula puts the focus on helping children.

A foundation helping children
The Boys & Girls Clubs Foundation of the Olympic Peninsula is a nonprofit organization which helps fund the good work of our local Boys & Girls Clubs. To this day, thousands of children in our community have benefited from the opportunities and inspiration provided by the Clubs. Foundation board members (and InsideOut partners) Pat & Jim McCauley were happy to donate InsideOut’s services to design a logo and brochure for this worthy cause.

Logo distills the message
The Foundation focused on potential donors who were planning their finances and seeking opportunities for charitable giving. The board wanted donors to know they were joining in a special endeavor to help local children. After some brainstorming, the board’s members decided to create a club of donors: “The Legacy Society”.

InsideOut designer Jennifer Lozada sketched out a number of logos based on the concepts of “legacy, growth and helping local kids”. The final version exemplifies these ideas with images of helping hands and a bright green sprout.

Communicating the benefits of giving
The next project was the brochure. Brochures would be distributed in local financial planning offices and mailed to potential donors. We decided that an 11″ x 17″ piece folded to 8.5″ x 11″ would give us plenty of room for necessary text and many photos.

Financial planning brochures often use dark conservative colors. To help our brochure stand out, we chose a sunny color which also contributed to our growth theme. The logo with its sprout worked well over the background of an old, established oak. Both the sunshine yellow and the oak also communicated the idea of “local” (the nickname for one of the area towns is “Sunny Sequim” and Garry Oaks are a protected species here.)

The Foundation has many wonderful photos from the local Boys & Girls Clubs. The brochure features these photos very prominently. With all the images of local kids, it’s clear that they are the main reason to give. The text supports this idea by providing potential donors with necessary information about the organizations involved, a reply form, and types of contributions accepted. The brochure makes it clear that the nonprofit Foundation and Clubs are long-standing legitimate contributors to the community, worthy of support.

The result
The Boys & Girls Clubs Foundation of the Olympic Peninsula is delighted with the result. Board Member, Billy Nagler’s comments sum up the board’s reaction:

“I am so impressed! The pictures of the kids are precious… the organization of the whole thing is marvelous, the copy is very very informative and well done. What a piece of work, folks… you can be proud of this.”

Click here to view pdf of entire brochure.

Raster logo issues
The logo on the site was a “raster”. A raster image is like a mosaic made from tiny square “tiles” of data arranged over a very fine grid. When you enlarge the image, it’s like looking at a mosaic close up: you can see the blocky pixels that make up the image.

Raster image of a flower looks like a mosaic of squares up close.

As a result, there’s a limit to how much you can enlarge a raster image. So if, for example, you have a small raster logo on your site, but you need it really huge on a poster… you’re out of luck. Every time you need a bigger logo, you’ll have to pay a designer to re-draw it larger, from scratch, if you want it to look clear and crisp.

Most raster logos created for the web will not work if you need to use them in print. Print requires a much higher resolution than the web. What looks crisp on your computer screen will look either jagged or fuzzy in print.

Another raster logo problem: changing the background. Image on the left is the original. On the right, you can see a whitish outline from cutting the logo out of its original background. Not good.

Vector logo is the standard
Raster logos can work well, as long as you stay within their limitations. But there are good reasons why vector graphics are the standard for logos. Instead of little squares of tile, think of a very thin wire that can be bent into different shapes. If you bend that wire into the shape of a circle, when you look at it up close, you’ll still see the sharply defined edge of the circle. It doesn’t start breaking down into a bunch of little squares.

A vector graphic describes lines as well as shapes and colors consistently and efficiently — no matter how it’s resized. And there’s no issue with separating the image from its background. Any professional designer will be happy to work with your Adobe Illustrator, EPS or Freehand vector logo.

O-Bar-O Logo converted to vector
Susan’s situation was pretty typical. Acquiring a business includes inheriting old branding. Susan decided to get the vector done and avoid future logo hassles. She worked with InsideOut designer, Jim McCauley, to create an updated version of the logo with a few alterations to suit her vision. Jim retained the eroded look of the original but recreated the effect in Adobe Illustrator, a professional vector-based illustration program. Based on Susan’s input, he replaced the compass with evergreen trees. He also incorporated richer, earthy colors and a more western-looking font for the text. The result is a logo that will work visually and technically for years to come.

Original version from the web site has been altered and converted to a vector image.

Consistent branding looks professional, saves on design time and helps guests and prospects remember you.

Starting with the logo
Maine Stay Inn and Cottages (Kennebunkport, ME) offers modern comforts in their historic home and guest cottages. Innkeepers Judi and Walter Hauer knew their web site needed an update and chose InsideOut for the redesign. But they had no logo or established branding.

After exchanging ideas with Judi, InsideOut designer Jim McCauley created a logo that conveys the accommodations’ traditional yet contemporary appeal. The logo is legible at both large and small sizes. And because it’s a vector-based* electronic file, graphic designers can quickly and easily work with this logo. Beth Logan had no trouble incorporating the new logo into her web site design.

Business cards
With the look and feel established by the logo and web site, designing the business card was a snap. Maine Stay decided to list all the staff with a check box next to each name. In this way, they saved the cost of printing a set of cards for each person. InsideOut created the design and took care of the print management for fuss-free printing and quick delivery.

E-newsletter
The logo and branding also transferred seamlessly to the e-newsletter designed by InsideOut. Now anyone on the Maine Stay team can publish e-newsletters with an easy-to-use template that also provides email list maintenance tools and statistics on open rates, bounce rates, etc. Their branded e-newsletter gives them an excellent way to reach out to guests in a targeted, low-cost way.

Consistent branding counts
By establishing a branded look first, Maine Stay has saved hours of design time. Their marketing materials also express the quality of their accommodations in a consistent way. This consistency makes the brand more memorable and avoids jarring discontinuities: e.g., the web site makes the place look great, but the rack card makes it look so-so. In Maine Stay’s case, prospective guests see the same experience as they go from business card to e-newsletter to web site to blog. A good first impression is backed up by repeating that impression, instilling the brand into viewers’ memories.

*Vector-based logos can be enlarged endlessly with no loss in image quality. Non-vector logos have strict limitations on how much they can be enlarged. Designers also use up valuable time cutting them out from their backgrounds since non-vector logos usually do not have transparent backgrounds.