What goes into rebranding your company? Yes, clearly something is not working or is simply outdated, but I’m talking about from a design perspective. What do designers think of when coming up with a logo? Do they just do some cool things or do we just chalk all their ideas up to being “creative”? Actually, a lot more thought, education and research go into developing or changing a logo or brand than you might think. It’s not just an opportunity for a designer to come up with some cool stuff. We consider it the foundation of your business and one that we don’t take lightly.
Recently we were asked to rebrand The Village Group. They are a fantastic organization founded 10 years ago in the rural African American community of Plantersville, SC and has grown to offer activities and programming for students and residents throughout Georgetown County. We were honored they trusted us with their brand and as you can see, we changed things up a little bit for them. This type of drastic change from one logo to another can be hard on someone who only knows his or her business with one look and feel for the past decade.
Below is an email correspondence I wanted to share with you all from one of our designers to Ray Funnye, the founder and director of The Village Group:
Ray,
“Let me give you a couple of my thoughts on that idea and better explain the original concept behind the logo and mark so you can see what I was shooting for as I just went over some of the general ideas and color choices in our first email. It’s about to be a lot of explanation so don’t get too overwhelmed! I did a couple logos with the hand concept that you have right now, but after designing those I felt that too literally promoted the idea of the “helping hand” idea (I can send you those concepts if you would like).
Your current logo, in its entirety, is pretty much closed off with “The Village Group” and the quote enclosing the hands in a circle while at the same time the hands are also forming a closed circle. Subconsciously, which is the base of most peoples decisions even though they don’t realize it, are based on these kinds of ideas. All in all the current logo, being a circle, gives off the feeling of being closed, and not open to new ideas even though a circle usually can symbolize the idea of community I feel the execution of the idea isn’t strong. The hands symbolize the idea of unity and the community aspect, which is a huge part in your mission and ideology, but the logo itself gives off a more bland and distant idea than what you’re trying to convey with your foundation with the type and color.
Keeping the good ideas from your old logo, with the community and helping hand, I wanted to be a lot more straightforward in the approach of the new logo while at the same time not just putting hands on the logo which you see a lot with foundations that are helping and guiding others.
From that idea, I wanted to show the message of community and the idea behind helping children grow into their full potential through the use of color and the typography while not focusing entirely on the mark itself which is where the focus of the old logo is mostly drawn to.
The main focus on the new logo is “the village group”. I used the small mark above it for an emphasis of the idea of community with the shape not too closely resembling a hand but still giving off a sense of togetherness and helpfulness. With that idea, I purposefully left the bottom part of the shape open to show growth so the mark can either be seen as expanding which can be seen as expanding the minds of youths. Or as coming together which can be seen as symbolizing community and giving kids a brighter future by having that community come together and help which is what you do.
However, that’s only the small part of the logo. I really wanted to emphasize “the village group” as the main focus. I used only lowercase letters to give of a more fun vibe than previous with the colors working towards that fun and brighter future idea in the typeface and mark. The typeface itself gives the feel of being inviting and friendly/trustworthy.
I know that’s a lot to take in on just describing the mark and logo itself but I usually put a lot of thought into the really simple ideas. Hopefully this is a good enough explanation to show you what I was shooting for. Let me know if you like those ideas or if you still want to see another mark above the typeface. Remember, it’s all about the end-user and how people are going to view you from an outside perspective, so I really wanted to hit on that as well. I’ll attach the logo again just so you can compare the notes.”
Hopefully this gives you some insight into what goes into a rebrand. We don’t just throw some ideas around on a whim and hope it looks cool. We research your target market, your competitors, and businesses with similar target markets, color schemes, concepts and subliminal meanings behind everything. We want you to have a logo that you love so just know that there is a method to our madness here at Three Ring Focus!