Your Logo and You: A love hate relationship

Do you like your logo?  Do you know how it came to be or what it says about you?  The truth is, I haven't the foggiest idea what makes a good logo better than a bad one.  I have creative people around me that make those kinds of decisions.  I couldn't tell you why the McDonald's yoga french fry works..but it does.

What I do know is that getting consensus on a logo change is about as pleasant as brushing your cat's teeth. (Full disclosure, I don't have a cat, but I can imagine that's an unpleasant thing. If there is such a thing as mouse flavored tooth-paste and your cat loves it, please leave your comments for a follow-up post).  We recently redesigned our HaloDash Logo to coincide with a marketing push coming out in about a month.  The process rewards patience; like waxing on and waxing off.

At the beginning of the process I made a strategic error by telling our marketing folks, "I don't think anybody will buy HaloDash because of the logo."  That's a nice way of saying, "I will never appreciate your work or dedication to your craft.  Now please, scamper off to create something meaningless with the next two weeks of your life."  They gently reminded me that although I may not think I buy a Starbucks coffee because of the green lady, I may one day be in the mood for coffee and see her smiling face and think, "Hey, they have coffee."  That was a nice way of saying, "Shut up, idiot.  We do this for a living.  Go sit in the car until we're done."

So, team Halo had a few requirements.  The new logo had to convey simplicity and speed, because HaloDash is simple to use and it is fast.  Actually, those were initially our only two requirements.  Then came the comps.  The first batch was OK, but before passing judgment I asked for a little explanation of what the artist was going for.  (That's not entirely true; I had already passed judgement.)  A few looked like a malformed eye, with an irritating blurry splinter in it.  They said, "We were going for a "dashboard" feel, like a car dashboard."  Since HaloDash is all about dashboarding your CRM and PM metrics, I immediately liked the comps better and thought the designers geniuses.  But, alas the first impressions were too hard to overcome.

Then, one by one, we meticulously disqualified one logo after the next for reasons that became increasingly bizarre:  "That won't look good on a coffee cup."  "No symbols, only letters I can type with pica or elite."  "Too small, too inverted, too close to being exactly what you want and I can't concede."  I think we just wanted to one-up each other. "Take this part of this one and connect it to that part of that one and see what happens."  On and on.  It was devolving into madness.

So, we did what all indecisive decision makers do; we asked for opinions:  wives, brothers, office workers, men on the street.  I contemplated making a Facebook poll.  By this time we had settled into two camps: one for the good logo, and the other for the ridiculous logo.  Of course, we immediately ignored the opinions of those who did not agree with us.  But, finally, through some miraculous shift of the wind, somebody, I forget who but let's say it was me, said, "I kind of like this one too."  The elusive third option that was there in the original set of comps.  It was offensive to no one.  In fact, everyone kinda liked it.  It met not only our original requirements and but also most of the ad hoc ones we threw in to make the other team mad.  There it was, a thing of, if not beauty, let's say good-looking enough-ness.  The dessert table was closing and tough choices had to be made.  Alas, we had consensus, and it was there staring at us all along.  Truth is, we really do like it.  Hat tip www.mediamarketers.com.

So, when will our baby be revealed?  Soon, young ones, soon.  I guarantee you when you see it you will say, "HaloDash has a logo," and all will be right with the world.  

If you have your own logo creation war-story, tell us about it in the comments.

Brad Watson
www.halogrouponline.com/halo-dash
502-276-6352