Corporate identity: Tips for making a lasting first impression.

• Author: Cole, Stacy
• Position: Graphic Arts

Creating or redesigning a corporate identity is about more than an eye-catching logo. That image needs to be marketed to customers, investors and employees in a way that will make them remember your company. Many factors must be taken into consideration.

"The first thing we need to do is to get to know the company through its executives and mission statements," says Mike Hayes, president of JMH Corp., an Indianapolis design firm.

"We have some questionnaires we give to the senior management group that they can respond to in writing or in an interview." A company needs to do some self-discovery to determine what aspects of the business should be reflected in its corporate image.

"What makes you stand apart?" Hayes asks of clients. He suggests taking into account the company's purpose, its services, audiences and clients, as well as its short-term and long-term goals.

"Is there a cue from the standpoint of something inherent in what they do that should be expressed graphically?" asks Thom Villing, president and owner of Villing & Co. in Mishawaka. "Is there something inherent in their history?"

John D. Wilson, president and co-owner of Marketing Impact, Fort Wayne, suggests taking into account the kind of character the executives want the company to have.

"How do you want to be positioned?" he asks. "What kind of personality do you want to have in the marketplace?" A company's personality can mean deciding whether it's traditional or contemporary, or whether it has a global reach rather than a local flair.

The logo is the starting point for developing the complete corporate identity. "It should convey a sense of what kind of business you're in," says Randy Lientz, president and owner of AXIOM Marketing & Advertising in Evansville.

The logo for a company does not necessarily have to be iconographic--it can be as simple as text in a certain font consistent with the persona of the company. However, Lientz says, a logo containing an icon--such as the golden arches associated with McDonald's--has a better chance of being remembered by the public.

Besides deciding whether to include an icon, a company needs to examine the various materials on which the logo will be printed. For instance, if a logo contains a half-screen, or lighter area, it should be designed solid as well. Half-screens don't reproduce well embroidered on a shirt or on a fax.

"Sometimes people design a logo and they love the way it looks on the artboard, but they don't think of how...