Logo Design Can Be the Difference Between Success & Failure

Logo Design Can Be the Difference Between Success & Failure
  Looks matter more than ever. We've all heard critics and  consumers wax poetic about iMacs, iPods, and even Target toilet brushes.  Interior design has become a national pastime, and shows such as Trading  Spaces, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy  enjoy a popularity that Bob Vila could only imagine.
  In her recent book, The Substance of Style, author Virginia  Postrel  argues that we increasingly make purchasing decisions based on  how products make us feel. "In a crowded marketplace," she writes,  "aesthetics is often the only way to make a product stand out." In  other words, for more and more companies--even manufacturing companies with  relatively prosaic products like Kortec's--design is becoming extremely  important. It can sometimes be the difference between success and failure.
  These days, even an investment research firm like  Morningstar is keenly aware of making a good appearance. In the early '90s,  founder Joe Mansueto hired the late Paul Rand (a renowned graphic designer who  created logos for IBM, ABC, and UPS) to design the Morningstar logo--narrow red  lettering with a rising sun as the O-- for $50,000. "Keep in mind this was  back when our revenue was only a couple of million dollars. It was a lot to  spend," says Mansueto, but he reasoned that it was for a high-quality  product that he wouldn't mind keeping for a long time to come.
  The arguments for good design are especially compelling for  consumer products, particularly those made by smaller companies that don't have  big advertising budgets. Big brands like Coca-Cola and Budweiser spend lots and  lots of advertising dollars to create an aura around their products. For  smaller companies without that luxury, their entire chance to convey a message about themselves to the customer is often in the look of  the packaging.
  For an expanded version of this article on the importance of logo design, visit www.Logo-Mojo.com.