Small companies don’t have to look like big companies to make a big impression. In some cases, they want to look small. The key is whether or not they look organized and professional.

Delta Oil & Gas is a small exploration and development company focused on finding opportunities that other, larger oil and gas companies have overlooked. The company doesn’t want to pretend to be something it’s not, so in developing the brand identity, it was important to keep a “small company” message while presenting a polished look that reflected strong, experienced management.

The Adwiz developed a logo and brand identity, as well as a website and corporate communications collateral material for Delta.

Corporate Identity

Delta’s corporate identity is simple and appealing. The company was originally named after the community of Delta where its founders lived. Delta is known for its sunny weather patterns and this fact was drawn from to design a D-shaped logo image formed out of a sunburst.

The logo aligns against the left edge to retain the D as strongly as possible, and is rendered in foil-stamped shiny gold on stationery. Overall, the look is clean and professional to present an initial impression that speaks of a well-managed, well-organized company.

Corporate collateral

The brochure for Delta reflects clean professionalism. Click image to view larger version.

Also developed for Delta was some printed collateral, material that could be sent to potential investors when they inquired about the company. Since projects and circumstances change frequently, the collateral was designed to utilize a presentation folder, filled with a generic brochure about the company’s activities and philosophy, plus individual project sheets that could be digitally printed in short runs and swapped out quickly as project information was updated. Of course, with the growth of the web there is decreasing need for this kind of printed collateral, but it’s still important to have something to send out on request.

Website design

The website also reflects a highly professional image, yet clearly identifies the company as being small and growth-oriented, avoiding the trap of looking as if it’s trying to be something it’s not. Consisting of only a few pages plus news releases, the site presents the story of Delta’s opportunity for growth in a clear, concise way through the use of white space, good typography and dramatic images. The latest news releases are listed in the sidebar, along with a request to sign up for eNews updates. A feature slider on the home page presents the three most important aspects of the company in a dramatic way, with large, powerful photographs. To minimize the cost of maintenance, the site is built on the WordPress open-source CMS system.

One of the challenges faced in the site design was how to retain the logo’s need to be aligned to the left edge when the site content needed to float in the center of the browser screen. Keeping the logo to the left was not a strong solution, so the use of a simple vertical line achieved the desired effect and acts as a left-side margin for the menu and other page content.

Visit Delta’s website

First, let’s consider the logo itself. The Starbucks logo of the siren has a long history. When Howard Schultz first got in the coffee business, it was through a company called Il Giornale, which was based on a real Italian espresso bar concept. The Il Giornale logo was a circle with a stylized siren head, the name inside a band and stars to fill in the space. The Starbucks logo, dating back to 1971, was surprisingly similar. It featured a mermaid siren wearing a crown, with the name in a circular band around the outside.

In 1987, Schultz bought Starbucks — then a coffee bean roaster and retailer — and merged it with Il Giornale, keeping the Starbucks name and logo. The bare chest on the siren made people uncomfortable (see the evolution below), so he quickly had a more professional version created which used her hair to cover the chest, although the belly button was still visible. He also added two stars as had been used on the Il Giornale logo, with a stronger and bolder typeface.

Over the next few years, it became apparent that further changes were needed to make the logo less suggestive, so in 1992, when the company went public, the siren was cropped more closely, but otherwise unchanged. This was an excellent way of dealing with necessary change while retaining the essence of the brand identity.

In Spring of 2011, the company will essentially keep the center of the logo and make that the entire logo. It’s a brilliant move. It allows the logo to stand on its own without the name, thus permitting expansion into areas that might move beyond coffee. The company already serves food and beverages such as smoothies that are not coffee-related, so this makes perfect sense. Nothing in the image itself has been modified, a superb touch that makes me respect the brand more than ever.

Further, the company has given the public a heads-up about the change, and posted a web page with a video talking about the upcoming change. See it here.

Schultz makes a point of explaining that, while the logo does give the option to move beyond coffee, Starbucks will remain primarily a coffee company. This kind of open communication is so necessary in our current culture of transparency, and a classic touch for this classic company.

What I find so great about this change is how little has changed. This is hard for many marketers and corporate executives to grasp, because they often feel that you need to come up with something new all the time. It takes great wisdom and restraint to hold back the reins of change in order to retain the familiarity that keeps the momentum of a brand moving forward. Kudos go out to the entire marketing team for doing such a great job on this transition. I hope more companies learn from this and apply similar thinking when they upgrade or change their logos.

Over more than two decades in this business, I’ve seen many companies decide that their logo needs to be changed. Typically, it follows the hiring of a new president, CEO, or marketing VP. In an effort to mark his territory, he convinces corporate brass that the old logo is “tired,” and commissions a new one. Out the window flies all the equity invested in the old corporate identity.

There’s a kind of flippant “so what” attitude among many corporate leaders about the logo, as if it’s no more important to the brand than the color of the carpeting in the lobby. Statements are made about how people are “tired” of it, thinking that everyone else sees it as often as they do. Your customers care more than you think, even if they aren’t aware of it. But not because they see it so much. They care because it gives them a sense of comfort and familiarity about the products they buy. They have something invested in your logo, just like you do.

GAP’s decision led to an unusual level of response. In fact, I was surprised by the level of interest, because I didn’t think the brand had that much support. Within 24 hours of introducing the new logo, one blog had 2,000 negative comments and only 30 people who liked it. A third-party website, Crap Logo Yourself, quickly sprang up to let you make your own “Gap-style logo,” like the one shown here.

The company’s explanation for changing the logo was exactly the same kind of thing I’ve heard countless times. Gap’s announcement following the uproar said, “We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing.” Asked what the company liked about the logo, VP of corporate communications Bill Chandler said, “We believe this is a more contemporary, modern expression. The only nod to the past is that there’s still a blue box, but it looks forward.” It seems that customers didn’t feel they wanted to move forward quite that way.

How to change a logo

There’s nothing inherently wrong with asking if your logo needs to be refreshed. At times this is necessary to reflect changing cultural realities or changes in the brand’s focus. But complete overhauls are usually unwise.

Logos have equity. The longer a logo has been in circulation, the more power it has. This has nothing to do with whether or not the logo is ugly or beautiful, but with the way it becomes linked to the brand. Consider the value of the Mercedes Benz three-pointed star, or the Apple logo. While they might be updated with slight modifications, they are never “changed.” Making a significant change is essentially throwing out everything people associate with the company and starting over. I’ve never understood how otherwise intelligent corporate leaders can simply go along with those kinds of initiatives.

The Starbucks logo has gone through a couple of updates, which were needed to reflect serious issues that the logo faced. But each change was an intelligent one addressing a particular problem and only that problem. The essence of the symbol didn’t change. The same was true for many other successful overhauls.

Strong logo updates

UPS

Consider the change made by shipping giant UPS a few years ago. In the redesign, they cleverly stayed with the same structure, just bringing the look into modern times with a 3-D effect and some color. While the brown tones are ugly, the company wisely stayed with those colors because that color scheme has been in use for a long time and already has equity. Changing the company’s color scheme would have lost more ground than it would have gained.

AT&T

AT&T is another example of a company that made only the necessary change to reflect the times we live in. The essence of the logo stayed the same. The font was changed slightly, but not so much that it became unrecognizable. Only graphic designers are even likely to notice that the font changed at all.

Pepsi

Pepsi recently overhauled its logo, and again we see only a minor change, tilting the wave to form a grin. Though somewhat controversial for a variety of reasons, most people have accepted this new look. The font has also been updated to look lighter and more modern.

Poor logo update: Seattle’s Best Coffee

Consider, on the other hand, the case of Seattle’s Best Coffee:

This brand has enjoyed consistent growth in the Pacific Northwest, competing against the giant Starbucks brand quite effectively. Their old but classy logo spoke of tradition and the ritual of a hot cup of coffee in the morning, evoking thoughts of coffee traders plying the oceans and jungles of the world to find the richest tasting coffee beans.

In sharp contrast, the new logo has none of those qualities. Indeed, it has no qualities at all! This is an example of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Did they really need a new logo? That’s something I can’t answer. But I’m quite sure that what they came up with is not going to help the brand. This lifeless identity is devoid of any character at all.

Perhaps you feel your logo needs an overhaul. Don’t be so quick. Chances are the only one tired of seeing it is you. You’ve had to look at it all day long, every day of the week, possibly for many years. Your customers are lucky to get a quick glance once every few days. Even the most fanatical fans of your brand probably only see it for a few seconds each day. And they get a sense of comfort from what it means to them. Think long and hard before you make a mistake that can cost you.

The average person is so assaulted by different messages that they need to tune out everything that isn’t relevant, or they’d go crazy. Filtering stuff out has become a way of life. If your messages are fractured or inconsistent, you don’t stand a chance of making an impact.

It’s surprisingly common for an advertising channel to drive someone to a website, only to have the prospect encounter visual styling so inconsistent with the previous messaging that he thinks this must be a different brand and clicks out. With many companies putting their websites completely in the hands of an IT department, with little or no influence from the marketing team, this happens all too often.

In fact, so few companies are good at brand consistency that those willing and able to widen their brand gain greater influence than ever before. They look larger, more influential. They stand out simply because their consistency draws attention.

Imagine a delivery company with a fleet of trucks, every one painted a different color. They travel throughout a city, day after day, while each individual truck has no chance of gaining attention on its own. Paint them all the same — a relatively small investment — and suddenly it seems that one company dominates the city’s trucking industry. This is the essence of brandwidth, but it goes much deeper than just visual styling. It includes knowing what you want to say and sticking to the plan. The great brands haven’t changed their messaging for years, even decades. Even how the phones are answered can contribute to the consistency of messaging.

Think of the great brands. They all have the same thing in common: consistent brand messaging for decades. That’s the power of brand width. How wide is your brand?

Waterscene was launched by Steve and Linda Kovacs just as the new trend in water gardens was getting started. The company provides resources to help consumers, landscapers and landscape architects create dramatic, high quality water features that will last for years with the lowest possible maintenance concerns.

The couple turned to George Pytlik to help brand and market their new enterprise. Project elements included corporate identity and stationery, advertising and a web site.

Corporate Identity

Water features consist of ponds, waterfalls and streams that transform ordinary backyards into beautiful nature parks. To make the most of the visual potential, the logo shapes the W and S of the company name out of the natural curving lines of a waterfall and stream.

Because of the vertical shape of the logo, the stationery worked most effectively when oriented vertically as well. While envelopes must be horizontal, business cards were set upright to maximize the impact of the logo. A light tinted copy of the logo was set against the white background to further emphasize the artistic elements built into every waterfall.

Advertising

An advertising campaign utilizes small but powerful ads in landscape design publications. The ads show photographs of beautiful water features with simple headlines reflecting the psychological benefits of having your own backyard oasis.

While the company relies primarily on its web presence to communicate with its audience, a brochure was designed to promote its “Pond Builder’s School” and “Build a Pond Day” events, which allow people to take part in real-world pond building projects to see how easy the process is and how beautiful the outcome. These one-day events actually construct a complete pond, stream and waterfall, guided by pond building experts. The brochure emphasized the remarkable opportunity to build a fully functional water garden from start to finish in a single day.

Social Media

Waterscene takes advantage of the growth of social media through the use of a customized Facebook page. The page allows the company to post photos and videos related to ponds, waterfalls and water features. In addition, the company posts articles on its website of interest to pond owners and adds links to those articles on its Facebook page, to build a community of people who love water features.

The Waterscene Facebook page is designed to match the look of its website, creating an immediate connection for the brand and maximizing the impact of the visual identity.

Website

The website was designed to reflect the artistic qualities of a well designed backyard water feature. Angular lines were used both to contrast the organic fluidity of the water features themselves, and also to suggest the precision of the company’s product line. Beautiful photos of real water gardens built using the company’s product line are shown throughout the website to demonstrate how lovely the final outcome can be.

View the Waterscene website

The Waterscene website design reflects the elegant, artistic beauty of backyard water gardens to relate strongly to the reasons why people want a water feature.

Biotechnology can enjoy the same branding sophistication as any other industry, regardless of size. Biotech companies do not have to be huge to enjoy a strong investor base or success in the marketplace.

Cyplasin (the company was recently restructured) focused on finding a cure for skin cancer, or Melanoma. Seeking investor involvement, the company wanted to be properly branded and asked George Pytlik for assistance in this area. Branding elements included the corporate identity and website.

Corporate Identity

The first part of the brand building process was to identify the company’s direction, emphasis and distinctiveness. Out of this research came the tagline, “Unlocking a cure for Melanoma.”

From this came the visual identity of a padlock being opened, creating a natural double-sided “C” graphic which formed the basis for the logo.

Pantone Warm Red is commonly associated with heat and danger, creating a strong psychological relationship to the problem the company is addressing, of skin cancer.

This was contrasted against the cool blue shade of Pantone Reflex Blue applied to the name, forming a two-color corporate signature. Since the company name is larger and thus more visually dominant than the logo, its representation as the cure makes it appear more dominant than the problem, building a natural statement simply by the placement of these two elements and colors used.

A tall, confident font was used to complement the logo. It’s crisp, modern angular lines are a good fit for the biotech industry. At the same time, soft rounded edges on the letters add a human touch that keeps the typeface from looking harsh. The “c” in the company name matches the look of the lock elements in the logo.

Stationery was designed to reflect a stable, well-managed company. Business cards featured a flood coverage of the warm red on the back, with the logo knocked out of the color for extra impact.

Website design

The website also reflected a professional image, with abstracts of latest news items shown on the home page. A technology page went into detail on the problem of skin cancer, with scientific information so that the investor could be fully informed of not just what the company was doing, but of the larger picture and the company’s unique position within the industry. Due to a limited budget, the site contained only a few pages, yet the sophisticated look matched that of the largest biotech company websites.

The Stallion Group (recently purchased by Delta Oil and Gas) was a junior oil and gas company with a difference. Unlike many such companies, this one had a desire to clearly educate investors about the industry so they would fully understand the points of difference. The vision of Christopher Paton-Gay, who was also the brains behind Turner Valley Oil and Gas, Stallion was interested in developing properties in the Mississippi valley, using new technologies proven to be remarkably effective at finding reserves.

The project encompassed a number of elements: logo, stationery, corporate brochure and web site.

Corporate Identity

The logo was designed using the concept of a flying horse with wings made of natural gas flames. The primary color was the standard “blue flame” color commonly associated with natural gas. This was combined with serif text to add a conservative touch, demonstrating the company’s careful approach to managing its financial resources. The design was simple enough that it would look good at very small sizes and even if photocopied or sent by fax.

The company’s letterhead was designed to be conservative to reflect the conservative management style of the company. Business cards used two colors: the corporate “natural gas” blue and a legible orange for impact. This same color scheme was also applied throughout the company’s collateral material and website.

Printed Collateral

Printed materials included stationery, presentation folder, and a brochure in the form of an executive summary with individual pages describing each project. In this industry, projects can change suddenly, so this was more fiscally responsible than the standard approach of printing a brochure that included the project details. The folder, or the executive summary by itself, would be issued to people requesting more information, and distributed through trade shows and seminars.

Consistent throughout the brand was the use of horse images on all materials. This mnemonic device optimized name recognition.

Note the use of a horse image in the main panel of the project summary template. This consistent use of photographic imagery added a strong visual tie-in to the company name, helping people remember it.

The corporate presentation folder was clean and simple. A grouping of three images included a picture of a horse. The front cover also featured a blind-embossed logo to create a subtle yet powerful impact. In our digital age, techniques such as blind embossing or die cutting are even more powerful because there are ever fewer opportunities to enjoy tactile sensations when looking at information.

Presentation Design

Also produced were a series of PowerPoint presentations. Again, these did not follow the typical industry approach, but applied fresh thinking to make the greatest impact. Using as few words as possible, the presentations relied on short headlines, graphs, and other images to relate to what the speaker was saying, rather than covering the screen with the usual flood of text and bullet points. This made them exceptionally effective.

Some slides from the PowerPoint presentation show the clean, simple structure which allowed the presentation to put the emphasis on the speaker and key words or phrases used during the presentation, unlike most PowerPoint slide shows filled with excessive text.

Web Site Design

A corporate web site was another part of the project. The objectives were to build a site which demonstrated the company’s desire to educate, along with all the elements needed to show a professional corporate image. Each page of the site used a horse photo and grouped another image in a polaroid-style arrangement. As the site visitor navigated deeper in any section, the top image on the index page for the section would move to the back, creating a visual relationship that helped keep you aware that you were still in that section of the site.

A look at the Stallion home page illustrates how the key branding elements were applied to build a strong corporate message.