Accounting and Secretarial

ellar · #1 (**permalink**) 04-27-2004, 04:15 PM

Okay guys

Here it is ... my first attempt at a logo. Please remember that I have only been doing this for about 3 weeks.

I have an Accounting and Secretarial service and was looking for something plain and simple.

Unfortuntately I cannot get the logo to appear here so please go and check it out at http://www.ellarconsulting.co.nz

Please note that the page is under construction and that is really only up there at the moment so that i could get friends to have a look and tell me what they thought of some of the ideas.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Cheers

chartsky · #2 (**permalink**) 04-27-2004, 05:17 PM

I would take into account the necessary business marketing materials required when starting a new business. Communication is a the only forward driving force one has in promoting thier new business. Business cards are the single most important connection you have to potential clients and your design must be visible and professional there first..... Transfering the design to the web afterwards is usually the proper course of events. If you are not relying soley on the web for business, you're attempting to reverse-engineer your logo.

Find something that works with the traditional modes of business communication and then transpose it to the web.... it really is much easier and less time consuming.

Ask yourself this question before you decide on a logo design.... "Does this design work on traditional business communication materials?"

Cheers,

Chris

ellar · #3 (**permalink**) 04-27-2004, 06:18 PM

Hi Chris

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes it does work on my business cards. It just gets shrunk down to fit. This was what the logo was originally designed for.

Am of course still trying to refine it or maybe I should just start again completely.

Cheers

chartsky · #4 (**permalink**) 04-27-2004, 08:21 PM

I would not suggest starting over.... merely identify those elements in the logo that are important, and use less space to display them as a cohesive unit. The further spread out the logo elements are, the less the design represents a "true" logo.... tighten it up.... start by adhering to the standard website layout... logo on left... a graphic representing your business on the right... You have a theme going on... I would keep exploring it... also, go check out a bunch of competitor sites and see what they have done for visuals.......

Cheers,

Chris

ellar · #5 (**permalink**) 04-28-2004, 05:58 PM

Went back to the drawing board last night as I wasn't happy.

Think this looks much better. Appreciate any feedback.

www.ellarconsulting.co.nz

What do you think guys and gals? And one day I will also learn how to get the image to appear here but that is next weeks learning step

Cheers

grease · #6 (**permalink**) 04-28-2004, 06:35 PM

Hi Ellar,

Chatsky is right, a graphic element would do wonders for your logo. Monograms are very difficult to use effectively. Larger companies with marketing budgets to match, can get away with monograms. This is especially true if they have been around for over 50 years or more, because the brandmarks are so well know.

Grease

ellar · #7 (**permalink**) 04-28-2004, 06:58 PM

OK .. for now I give up. Graphic design is not my thing at all .. in fact I am the least arty person I know .. probably comes from being an accountant.

Unfortunately for the moment it is gonna have to stay as it is as I cannot afford to pay to get a logo designed. Maybe in a few months when everything is up and running properly and I have a few more permanent contracts rather than the one-offs that I have at the moment I will look at it again.

Thank you again for all the feedback.

Cheers

chartsky · #8 (**permalink**) 04-29-2004, 12:30 AM

"OK .. for now I give up. Graphic design is not my thing at all .. in fact I am the least arty person I know .. probably comes from being an accountant..."
------------------------------

LOL... thanks... I needed that... :))))

Can you imagine me trying to do your books..... That's actually what had me laughing so hard.... :)

Yup... we all have niches... Mine is definitely NOT number-crunching.... I can barely manage number-gnawing...

Investing in a professional logo can make all the difference for your business going into the future... - along with a wonderful side-benefit: you get to concentrate on your core business processes without that nagging thought of whether or not people are taking your logo and business seriously...

You are much better off striving to meet the business ideals a professionaly designed logo portrays. A great logo makes you and your clients feel better about your business, and when potential clients see it, they feel more secure in the knowledge that you follow proper business protocol and that you care enough about your business to dress it up in what is tantamount to a well-made suit... Great logo.... even greater customers....

Cheers,

Chris

ellar · #9 (**permalink**) 04-29-2004, 04:00 PM

Hi Chris

Yep ... your reply had me splitting my sides .. had visions of you gnawing at numbers ... lol

Well contacted a few logo designers here in New Zealand yesterday for quotes and decided that we will have to live without a logo for now ... what did surprise me though was that I did a google search for accountants and book keepers mainly in NZ and I think I only found one that actually had a logo and a lot of these were small companies like me.

Accounting is a very hard thing to come up with a logo for.

I mean it is not like it is something exciting like sky diving. I mean how do you portray something that makes most people run for the hills rather than having to deal with it.

Anyway .. thank you for the laugh ... by the time I read your reply I really needed it .. mainly to relieve the pain of pulling out my hair in frustration.

Cheers

chartsky · #10 (**permalink**) 04-30-2004, 02:21 AM

One of the most difficult tasks for most new business owners is to try to think outside their current situation from a purely logical and objective direction..... hence my slobbering over numbers or anything resembling an equation.... I do all my calculating subconsciously... "safely".. to be more precise...

Bringing the concept of client's aversion to doing their own taxes and general accounting into the logo can be done within a very limited area... Saying the word "accounting" is enough to make most people shiver and run for the tv.... or a book... anything else but the smell of burning wood will do for most of us.... portraying that you "make accounting easy" by hiding the paperwork mess behind your seemingly orderly and relaxed logo seemed a slam dunk... we're not talking more than a few minutes work here so it'll do as an example....

...the absolute confusion that washes over me when someone counts out loud is represented by the dishevled paperwork behind the "E" block.. the confusion is soon turned to order and classic simplicity.... a tag line finisher and your set... I would display the tagline as <H1> text in the header to the right of the logo....
or not.... I'm just thinking for seo purposes...

Cheers,

Chris

ellar · #11 (**permalink**) 04-30-2004, 02:34 AM

Now see the difference between you and me is that I find Accounting a piece of cake .. whilst you on the other hand go running for the nearest graphics programme obviously.

I think this may have been the problem ... not thinking from the clients perspective but from my own.

You have now given me something more to think about.

As I said earlier you are a genius .. thanks