Many of us know the saying “A camel is a horse designed by committee”, denigrating the aesthetics of a camel. To quote another saying however, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
We all know the camel is in fact a creature perfectly suited to its habitat and that a thoroughbred horse would quickly become the archetypal pile of parched white bones in those arid conditions. Furthermore, unless you take the old testament literally, the camel was not ‘designed’ at all of course – it evolved over many hundreds of thousands of years to become the “ship of the desert”.
“What have camels and horses to do with graphic design?” I hear you ask. Well, very little is the honest answer. I want to talk about the involvement of committees in the creative process and it just seemed like a good introduction.
With graphic design and more particularly branding and corporate identity, things work a little differently to natural selection and evolution. Although sometimes it might seem not as quickly.
Often a client will tell us they want a distinctive logo that stands out and shows their individuality (I do shudder whenever a client uses the words eye-catching, so please don’t). However, in my experience, the involvement of a committee can have the effect of creating bland results – knocking off those corners and ironing out the features that offer that distinction. Imagine a world where everyone had perfect proportions, perfect teeth, a perfect face, perfect complexion, etc. Nobody would be memorable and no-one would stand out from the crowd. Because committees work by consensus, they don’t tend to take the distinctive option, unless a member has the skills to really force something through. That can happen, but it’s fair to say it’s rare.
Often when working on logo design, we will start with a “scatter gun” approach where several designs are suggested, one of which the client should select. This we would then develop further and a logo would evolve. However, what sometimes happens – particularly when a committee or group of people is concerned – is we are asked to see what it looks like if we take the lettering from logo A, the icon from logo B and the colour from logo C and put them together. Sometimes this can work, but more often it can make the brand confused and messy. However the committee will look at their minutes, check it against what we have done and the box will be ticked.
Sometimes a designer will hedge their bets and, as well as distinctive, creative, energetic designs, they might offer a ‘safe’ option. Hoping that the client will go for one of the funky ones but knowing they will almost certainly go for the conservative option. Being pragmatic (I have to make a living) and diplomatic, sometimes it is hard to fight these issues and the designer will feel pressured to just do it and get the invoice in.
What’s the answer?
In my view, it’s about responsibility. I’ve worked on a number of committees and for countless clients and best results are always obtained when FEWER people are directly involved. Committees work best when individuals are given clear responsibilities and have the trust in other members to see their own responsibilities through.
So the approach I would recommend is to make use of a sub-committee of no more than three who will take responsibility to formulate a brief and sell that in to the committee and get agreement. They can then give the designer a clear, well-defined brief. The sub-committee can decide whether the designer has met the considerations of that brief with their designs and, if not, get them to adjust the work accordingly and re-present.
Don’t offer too many options! I would recommend the sub committee just show their preferred choice to the main committee almost as fait accompli and ONLY show other options if there are genuine solid objections.
Opinions
Everyone has an opinion on a logo but actually what’s important is not whether you like it or not, it’s:
1) Is it distinctive?
2) Is it offensive?
3) Does it clash directly with the image we want to put across?
We (Jim and Josie) trained in graphic design in the 80’s and were fortunate to be taught the skill of typesetting using lead type. The other traditional skills we learned including hand lettering, font design, colour separation and camera ready artwork have all proved their worth even in the days of computer aided design and print. Returning to our roots, we are delighted to now have a 1950’s Adana letterpress and some beautiful lead type so we are looking forward to doing some ‘artisan’ printing alongside our regular work.
Check your stocks
The start of the year is a traditional time for planning ahead and making decisions about marketing, keeping in touch with your clients and networking. Now is a good time to check the level of your stocks of letterheads, business cards and all the other stationery you will need to put those plans into action. We are not suggesting you have your stock re-printed using letterpress techniques (honestly, we wouldn’t have the strength!) as we have digital backups of artwork for design or print work we have done in the past few years and can quickly make any necessary changes, such as new mobile ‘phone numbers. All you need to do is just drop us a line if you want to place an order.
Did you know that many of the words and terms used in print today originate from letterpress printing?
From the creation of the first metal type printing press in the mid-15th century, letterpress was the primary form of mass produced print of the written word until the 20th century saw the invention of offset printing. Johannes Gutenburg made type from an alloy of lead, tin and antimony, a durable moveable type suited for high quality printing on the letterpress – the inked type was literally pressed onto paper.
Uppercase and lowercase
The ‘lead’ type was stored in cases, with box compartments for each character, number, ligature and punctuation mark. The cases containing the majuscule or CAPITAL letters were stored above the cases containing the minuscule or lowercase letters. Now most typing programmes give you the option to ‘change case’.
Leading
This is gradually dropping out of use on desktop programmes but in all print it is the term for the line spacing between rows of text. When setting lead type you place a strip of lead of a particular point size between each line of text – the leading.
Mind your p’s and q’s
Lead type is reversed so that the imprint bearing the ink views the correct way round. When setting the type it is very easy to confuse p’s with q’s, especially if the last typesetter was less than careful about returning characters to their correct compartments in the case.
In October 2016 we decided to leave our offices in Hailsham High Street and work from a home office. One year on and we are still very much in evidence on the High Street. You can’t turn a corner in the town without seeing something that we have designed or printed.
Once again we were very happy to be on the committee for the annual Hailsham Festival of Arts & Culture and were involved with several of the events. The pop-up-shop in the middle of the High Street had posters, banners, leaflets and programmes, many of which were designed by us. We promoted the Dicker Players productions at Hailsham Pavilion (OK, yes, we performed too!) and helped to organise the 3 Minute Flix movie competition, again at the Hailsham Pavilion.
Some of our local clients include Highcroft Veterinary Group, Hailsham Jewellers, Hailsham Town Council, CMA Karate, What’s On in Hailsham, ESAB, Smythe and Barrie, Ross & Co, Quinnel House, Marlow Ropes, MFC Supplies, Hook & Sons, Hailsham FM, Howdens Joinery, Millies, Firefly Tattoo Company, Experience Holidays, Rare Repro and the Arlington Bluebell Walk, amongst many other small and large businesses, local and national.
So, even though we are working in a small studio surrounded by the trees of Arlington, we are still very much in evidence in the town of Hailsham.
Q: Our directors have decided that our logo looks a bit dated, can you come up with some new ideas (different colours and typefaces) to hand round at the next shareholders meeting so we can get some feedback?
A: As simple request it seems. However…
Logo design by committee never, ever, ever, ever EVER works in our experience. Just don’t do it. Don’t EVER do it.
The problem is that everyone has an opinion and, although you want to be inclusive or democratic, that approach will never work when it comes to corporate identity. The most successful logos are the most distinctive – if you try and make everyone happy you will end up with either a very confused design or a very bland design. A logo should say something about your business and I’m guessing neither of those are characteristics that you’ll want your business to be associated with.
Here’s what you do. Formulate a brief. Tell us what you do and don’t like about the logo. Tell us who your customers are and how your logo will be used mostly. We will then do a little research and come up with a few ideas – one to two of those will hopefully appeal and we can then do some more work. Then we will end up with a logo that you can present the shareholders as a fait accompli (French for unless you have any major objections, this is what we’re going with).
That way, you’ll have one or two more up your sleeve if you need to rethink!
(If you are wondering about the photo – it’s for the SHARE SHEAR holders…)
One in our series of questions and answers regarding design and promotion
Q: I am starting a gardening business and want lots of leaflets to put through doors . I will just put my mobile number on it for now as I haven’t set up a website yet. What other information should I put on the leaflets?
A: Well the question should perhaps be “What information don’t I need?” It’s very easy to include too much information which will make your leaflet about as interesting as ….. watching grass grow.
You don’t need your postal address on leaflets, although if you want to concentrate on attracting local customers it’s often a good idea to let them know what area you cover.
You don’t need a complete list of every service you do. Many gardening services will be a given, so by all means include popular things, but try think about what sets you aside from other gardening business – maybe it’s your qualifications, or perhaps you have a particular specialism, such as vegetable gardens.
Finally, to answer your actual question, I would suggest you do include:
A logo. It wants to be easy on the eye and have some kind of garden reference such as, I don’t know, er, perhaps, a flower!
In large text “Garden Services” at the top
Use a photograph of a garden or flowers if you can
Bullet points of what services you offer (see above)
Finish off with a big clear contact number and something along the lines of “call (your name) for a free friendly chat about your garden”
Uppercase and lowercase
