Increase Sales with Credibility-based Logo Design - Part 3
June 2007

How Does a Graphic Designer Create a Credibility-based Logo?

     Credibility-based logo design philosophy first requires a designer to symbolize the company business. This says the company is an expert in that business. Let's use for example Joe's Shoe Repair. This would be a shoe repair shop with a sign hanging on the store front with a "shoe" symbol

    The next step is to give the "shoe" symbol a design character in a way that characterizes Joe's Shoe Repair and how he operates. This non-verbally communicates the business character in a trustworthy design motif. There are an infinite variety ways Joe's trust can be communicated, but the trust chosen must represent how Joe operates in reality. Joe could show that he has modern shoe repair equipment and a Gucci environment, which would require a contemporary and classy "shoe" design treatment.

     But this is not Joe. In reality Joe does shoe repair the old style hand crafted way, which would be a dated or retro period design with friendly overtones. The objective is to make Joe look trustworthy with traits that define the most descriptive nature of Joe's shoe repair shop which in this example is "experienced,” "professional" and "friendly."

     As credibility based logo for Joe's Shoe Repair, the "design brief" would require the logo to communicate: expertise = "shoe repair" + trustworthy = "experience", "professional" and "friendly". This credibility trait logo description would produce a logo design of a shoe with dated and retro friendly overtones. It must be simple and have high impact as a sign on Joe's shop. This is a credibility-based logo design.

     This approach also demonstrates that if a logo design can be described verbally after it is designed as so many graphic designers and company businesses do, it can also be described before it is designed.

A Credibility-Based Logo Design Case History

     My online logo design company, Powerlogos Design (on the internet as www.powerlogos.com) designed a logo for Housen Painting. My client, Tom Housen, is a small business house painter outside of New York City.

          We started with symbolizing Tom's basic business ---
          house painting --- which is his company’s area of
          expertise. Then, we added design forms which would
          express Tom's desired trustworthy traits of "highly
           efficient work" and "clean." This is also how Tom
          operates in reality.

          The credibility traits then which make up our "design
          brief" are: expert = house painter + trustworthy = highly
          efficient work and clean = credibility-based logo design.
          Here are the early progressions incorporating the
          desired credibility traits leading to the final design:

     Finally, the credibility traits come together. This is where the expertise symbol couples with trustworthy traits to become a great, credibility-based logo design as shown here in the final design solution. The logo is also strong, unique, communicates with simplicity and with high impact. This is basic to all logo design.

     The Housen Painting logo communicates specific credibility traits defined above. All companies have different credibility traits. An airline like Continental communicates expertise traits of "flying" and trustworthy traits of “highly tech”, "friendly" and “state-of-the-art.”

     In contrast, an antique shop might want to communicate expertise traits of being in the "antique business" and trustworthy traits of, “been around a long time” and “neighborly." Credibility traits are also true in substance for the company. Meaning that the company "walks the talk."

The 1960s Saul Bass Legacy

     The Continental Airlines logo with its famous gold tail turned out to be the first of many successful credibility based logo designs that I helped plan and develop thanks to Saul Bass' revelation.

     Company managers and logo designers now have a frame of reference for planning, designing and creating company logos. Successful logos are no longer concepts which come out of nowhere. They are credibility based. This process redefines the objectives for a "design brief" which only describes the logo design objectives in terms of the client company's unique credibility traits.

     Credibility-based logo designs are proven to be successful. The process works today for company managers and logo designers just like the late Saul Bass and I did it with Continental Airlines almost 40 years ago.

© William L. Haig, Ph.D. or Bill Haig, Ph.D. 2007

This is an original work of the author. All rights reserved. Copyright registration will be applied for. No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, and recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.