What Can You Do?

[Idea Design]

A local wireless company has been given the opportunity to change the service that they provide to a different carrier, but said carrier requires a name change for the business.

They contacted me (I was their main contact for graphics related shwag before) to try and help them come up with a new name for the business, and logo design would follow.

I shot about 10 or 15 names that I thought would be fitting for a high-tech field such as wireless company, only to later be told they had come up with a name that they (she) really liked: Perfect Fit Wireless.

Okay, I'm not a fan of the name, but we commenced logo layout. With virtually no direction from the client, we came up with the first design attached here. She HATED it. She wanted to have more circles and bubbles and girly stuff.

So, halfway jokingly with my wife, I put the second one together. When all was done, my wife looked at the screen and said, "That's it. She's gonna love that."

Oof. What can you do? I will be taking the money and running on this one, that's for sure.

It bugs me when a client with the opportunity for a new identity stuffs a design with the elements that makes them happy on a personal level. We've read here many times in critique threads when the poster is disgruntled with the advice; that advice being, it's not what you want, it's what you need to convey.

 

[StopSignGraphics]

I know what you mean about taking the money and running, started off with a nice simple design for a client the other week. I'm not saying it was my best work but I thought it was a nice logo. Of course they wanted a few changes and then wanted a few more. By the time it was done I hated it, my client loved it.

I will not be putting that one in my portfolio.

 

[pointjockey]

Seems to me the Marketing department should be driving the design of a new logo. The second version is too school girl to me.

 

[SoCalN8V]

I'm a girl and I love the first design. It says "wireless" right away. I don't like the "girly" one - what do bubbles have to do with wireless?

 

[weaselboogie]

I can tell you right now... she will be losing 1/2 of her clients right off the bat because no STRAIGHT man would chose that over any other neutral gendered logo. She might love it, but that would be more of a fit for something aimed ONLY at women. Totally up to you if you'd want to address this obvious issue. Ask her what her demographic customer is and then ask her how her male clients would feel about her decision to take it to the foo-foo level.

I personally think sears has made a huge change to capture the female market just by changing their logo to Title case instead of all UPPERCASE and adding the tagline "the softer side of sears"

 

[RebeckaR]

I agree with your client in that I don't like the first one either. Too heavy and too generic looking.

But the second one is worse. It looks like the header for a Mommy Blog. Is she a blogger herself? and more importantly... is that her customer base?
You may want to explain to her that if she wants to promote the idea that she is a wireless company, not a baby clothing manufacturer she's gonna have to look a little more sophisticated.

 

[Jon Aston]

Not that I'm disagreeing with anything anyone already stated, but - to offer an alternate perspective...

If this lady wants to DOMINATE the teen, or maybe pre-teen girl wireless market... then maybe she's on the right course. She probably has a better chance of getting and holding market share by dominating one niche than she does of penetrating across all market segments. What's more is that she can use her dominance to continue to grow as her customers age and become more financially independent, including dominating decision making in the household.

That's the power - and beauty - of niche marketing. in Maybe she's not the bubble head everyone assumes.

Food for thought, no?

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

I'am a firm believer in putting your best foot forward and doing the same when customer wants a design that they like.... ya just give it your best, collect the cash and be happy

, because if and when the customers market secures up that design is going to work or not , they'll be looking to you to re-design because you may have been right

this is a great time to sell your talents, and proves your worth by sales customer gets

 

[Rick]

First, you never show them something you do not believe in.
Second, there is probably a way to incorporate what the clients wants and what they need.

I was just reading this last night....

http://artbackwash.blogspot.com/2010/03/giving-bird-to-bird.html

and then re-read this one...

http://artbackwash.blogspot.com/2008/07/design-batting-average.html

Sometimes a client is only going to want crap, and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

[jscarl]

I like what John had to say. Think about it for a min. You are not in her mind and she might have something to say.

 

[toucan_graphics]

Take away the word "Wireless" and the first thing that comes to mind is a secondhand woman's clothing store.

 

[Keith Rae]

I like your first design the second is more suited if she was selling wireless bras.

 

[acothran]

The second logo is a nice design but it looks more like Dippin' Dots meets Gigi's Cupcakes.

Allen

 

[bob]

Both of them suck, each it its own way.

The one on the right, the ice cream parlor looking thing with the comic book type faces, is just a sign not a corporate symbol. It's just wrong.

The one on the left is demonstrates mediocre to poor typography with the overall look of something symbolic of a coven of tight asses. It looks like the runner up in some high school mechanical drawing competition.

Take the one on the left, do something with the two lines of hideous type, lose the ray gun effect, and then figure out something clever to do with the square you removed from the right facing 'P'.

 

[Marlene]

If this lady wants to DOMINATE the teen, or maybe pre-teen girl wireless market... then maybe she's on the right course. She probably has a better chance of getting and holding market share by dominating one niche than she does of penetrating across all market segments. What's more is that she can use her dominance to continue to grow as her customers age and become more financially independent, including dominating decision making in the household.

That's the power - and beauty - of niche marketing. in Maybe she's not the bubble head everyone assumes.

if she is after a niche market as Jon suggested, then the design on the right is a good start. if she is just doing something that she personally likes, which is how most customer's do things, then it is way off track.

 

[signmeup]

What's a "local wireless company"? Is it like a mom and pop Verizon? I don't think we have them where I live. I kind of agree with bob (I wouldn't have said it like bob though) but since I don't really know anything about the company I can't really offer a useful opinion. Who is she trying to attract?

 

[Locals Find!]

I think the Second Logo looks nice. Women are going to be flocking into her store. Reality is that women are going to purchase more high prices accessories then men. Lets face it us men want cool tech not expensive bling.

As your wife has proven to you firsthand the logo works. In the end thats all that is going to matter. Will a logo do the job to make the clients door open or the phone ring.

If a logo can't do that. Then its just nice art on a closed business.

 

[Pat Whatley]

If "local wireless company" mean cell phone service reseller like it does around here it won't matter what she's got for a logo....it's all going to be about price, anyway. There are probably 30 different resellers in Montgomery, now, and only two of them have a noticeable logo. Their sales are more about location than image.

 

[Jillbeans]

Do they sell Barbie phones?

Hey, you tried, they didn't listen.
Love....Jill

 

[Haakon]

The typography and colours on the second one looks right at home on a kitten food packaging. Trouble is, when you present that as an option to a customer that have no knowledge/background in branding/marketing, they may well just go for it.

It bugs me when a client with the opportunity for a new identity stuffs a design with the elements that makes them happy on a personal level..

If you make a logo design halfway as a joke, and then present it as an outcast to the customer on a serious note, they may trust you as a designer and go for your design. They don't know that you made it to mock their views. Something to think about before you take the money and run, as stated