The logo design process is most likely never the same and can be really hard to define it outright: each and every graphic designer has their own approach to defining a logo concept.
Some designers are masters of procrastination and just wait for the inspiration to pop in while binge-watching Friends, Game of Thrones or Star Trek. Hey! – It’s not stupid if it works!
On the other hand, other creators are really organized, disciplined, tactical and methodical, meaning it could take several series of 3 hours of concept introspection and development followed by 2 hours of execution, drafts and sketches – all in complete silence or while listening to specific music used during the creation process.
There’s no good or bad way to do this, so, however you’re doing it, it’s the best way to do it!
Regardless the amount of time, the number of draft projects, the abandoned ideas, the pile of coffee or energy drinks, the number of classical music albums shuffled or that one single track played on repeat, the Logo is going to be crucial for a company’s branding strategy!
Now some companies decided to spend fortunes on it, while others got away with nada. Curious? Good! Let’s dive into it:
Nike: $35
The “Swoosh” is most likely one of the most well-known sports logos in the world. The Swoosh remained relatively the same since its conception, with the only major change being made just in 1995 when the brand renounced the Nike text, choosing a simpler, stand-alone Swoosh instead.
Phil Knight (Nike’s Co-Founder) purchased the famous swoosh logo from graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971 with as little as $35.
He was teaching an accounting class at Portland State University, and he heard Davidson talking about not being able to afford oil paints in the halls. That’s when he offered her $2/hour to do charts, graphs, and finally a logo.
As a thank you for her work, Phil Knight gave Davidson a golden Swoosh ring with an embedded diamond in 1983, as well as an undisclosed amount of shares in the company – supposedly $600,000 worth.
Accenture – $100,000,000
Accenture is a multinational technology services, management consulting and outsourcing company. In 2000, Andersen Consulting terminated their contract with the Andersen accounting group and the consulting company was thus forced to change its name. They replaced their signature name with Accenture, which was meant to convey the message “accent on the future”.
The change cost Andersen/Accenture an estimated $100 million to execute and was regarded as one of the worst rebrandings in corporate history.
Twitter – $6
Now familiar to millions of people, the blue bird of twitter costed at most $6, without attribution. Or so they say.
Simon Oxley licensed the bird graphic to Twitter through iStockphoto. As related to wired.com, Twitter paid between $10 and $15 for Oxley’s bird design. Considering that iStockphoto pays 20 or 40 percent to content creators depending on their membership, Oxley made somewhere between $2 and $6 for designing the Twitter homepage graphic.
But there’s more: Oxley says he didn’t even realize Twitter was using his design until a staffer contacted him for permission to animate the bird, which he gladly granted. “I was happy to see the image ‘in-action’ as they say on iStockphoto, back when Twitter wasn’t well known,” said Oxley. “I did ask that a credit be added to the Twitter page mentioning that I had conceived the bird.”
No such credit ever appeared, and according to iStockphoto, Twitter is not obligated to credit Oxley because they’re not using his design in an editorial context.
Symantec – $1,280,000,000
Sources mention all over the web that Symantec’s logo costed the colossal amount of $1.28B. Well it didn’t.
Symantec is big, nut not that big. They acquired VeriSign in 2010 with $1.28B indeed. One of the more valuable aspects of the buy out was the VeriSign check mark. A little tick that authenticated the security certificates (SSL) on web sites, particularly shopping sites. Verisign SSL’s were more trusted than others and made oodles of money for the company.
Symantec then took the VeriSign tick and wisely due to its recognition appropriated it as their logo.
Google – $0
In just a few short years, Google’s logo has become as recognizable as Nike’s swoosh and NBC’s peacock. Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo met Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page through a mutual friend in 1998 at Stanford University, where she was an assistant professor. Page and Brin, who were having trouble coming up with a logo for their soon-to-launch search engine, asked Kedar to come up with some prototypes. “I had no idea at the time that Google would become as ubiquitous as it is today, or that their success would be of such magnitude,” Kedar says.
About the author: HIBRIDIUM is a freshly freelancer turned to brand project, aiming to offer, as already stated, “more than design”.
If yo have no ideas, we can bring something to you: Logos, Brochures, Posters, Certificates, Business Cards, Banners, Packaging, Website layouts, Greeting cards, Flyers, T-shirts, Book & DVD/CD covers, Newsletters, Infographics, and many many more.