When a company starts its business, customers watch it grow gradually and establish an emotional bond with its products/services. Re-branding a reputed business is always a difficult task as people have more expectations from the company than they had years ago. However, visionary businessmen know the importance of maintaining a contemporary image and they refresh the brand image time to time to obtain larger market share.

Domino’s is a world famous pizza company, but for last couple of years they started expanding the menu to satisfy customers’ taste buds. Besides tasty pizzas, they are now offering pasta, chicken wings, stuffed cheesy bread, bread sticks, choco lave cake and many more items. Therefore, the company decided that they need to change the brand image to connect with new generation of customers and convey “we are not just a pizza making company” message.

Last week, Domino’s redesigned their brand logo and made it “cleaner, stronger and more modern”. There are mainly two big differences in the past and current logo design. Instead of two red squares and one blue rectangle, the new logo features one red square and one blue square. More importantly, they dropped “pizza” from the logo. Below the tilted red and blue tiles, only “Domino’s” is written to make people understand that they sell various food items.

Domino’s is satisfying hungry customers for past 52 years and this is their first logo redesign in 15 years. The new emblem will appear in their marketing materials from October and they are hoping for a positive response from consumers. Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer Russell Weiner said, “We’d like to reach the point where we’re as recognized as the Nike Swoosh or the Golden Arches.”

So, when you order a pizza or any other food item from this fast food giant next time, don’t get surprised to see the new brand insignia.

Coming up with a good brand name is not a very simple task, probably why, a handful of companies decided to use their brand name in their logo. Now, since your brand name may not describe what you, it needs to be extra special to grab consumers’ attention. History shows that people love short and unique names because it’s easier to remember.

We all love our favorite brands and their logos, but how many of us know the origin of those brand names? Behind every great brand logo design, there is an untold story that only a few people know. Let’s dig dipper into the history of some famous name based designs:

Lego- During our childhood, most of us have played with Lego toys and loved their bold font-based insignia, but have you ever wondered what the word “lego” means? It comes from a Danish term “Leg Godt” that stands for “play well.” It also means “I put together” in Latin, however the company states they did not choose the word for its Latin meaning.

Nintendo- This Japanese gaming giant flaunts its English translation in its insignia. The original Japanese name is Nintenduo. First part of the word “nin” means “entrusted” and “tenduo” denotes “heaven.”

Vodafone- It sounds odd, right? However, you will be surprised to know that there is an intelligent reason behind such a funny brand name. Vodafone is actually an amalgamation of three different words. “vo” is for “voice”, “da” is for “data” and “fone” is for “phone”.

Verizon- Earning consumers’ trust is one of the biggest challenges for every company and Verizon took this challenge seriously. This telecommunication king got its name from two words- “Veritas” and “horizon”. Veritas is a Latin word and it means “truth”. How can you question a company’s genuineness when it starts with truth? Intelligent branding move, isn’t it?

Nokia- There is no intriguing mystery here. Nokia is a city in Finland and the company loves their home city so much that they started using the same name for their cell phones. Simple.

Sharp- Sharp’s founding father’s first invention was an object called “The Ever-Sharp Mechanical” and the corporate name has been derived from it.

Sony- is inspired from two words, one Latin and another American English. ‘Sonus’ is a Latin word that stands for “sound”, while “Sonny” is an American slang for naughty boys.

Nikon- It’s a short form of the Japanese word “Nippon Kogaku” that means “Japanese Optical”.

Volkswagen- Decades ago, this German automobile giant realized that consumers deserve more attention from sellers and came up with the name Volkswagen that in English simply means “people’s car.”

Pepsi- Pepsi formulated its name from a particular type of enzyme called “pepsin.”

If you are an entrepreneur and planning to use your company name in your logo, make sure that it has a meaning that touches consumers’ lives.

A lot of business owners hire designers to create huge brand logos that they think will be very much liked by their target audience. Though this is true in case of some brands, not every business should have a giant emblem. Large does not always mean better. Companies should not forget the fact that brand logo design is an integral part of their corporate identity and size of the emblem plays a key role in the success of their corporate identity.

However, designers are not always at the liberty to choose the size of the emblems they create for their clients. Even if a designer wants to create a logo that’s relatively small in size but is sure to be very effective, they are often prohibited by their clients to do so.

So, does a brand logo’s size really matter? The answer is, surprisingly, both yes and no. It depends on the design. Plus, there are a few more things to it. Let’s discuss them:

• Your company logo should be the pictorial representation of what your business is all about. A well-designed emblem can fulfill this purpose effectively and convey the right message about your brand to your audience meaningfully. But a well-designed logo does not always need to be a gigantic one. A small insignia can also do the job perfectly. In this case, it is the purpose that matters, not the size.

• A large insignia that lacks sufficient content can create a negative impression. It can even distract and disturb onlookers. So, it can do more harm than good and spoil your entire branding effort.

• The content of the design also determines whether it would succeed or not. The focus of the design will have to be on the content. Oversized designs can overshadow the content, which is not at all good for your branding. However, a balance of both may attract the eye, but for that your creation needs to stand out.

• Clients sometimes think that minimalist designs are created because designers do not want to pay enough attention. This is a common misconception that makes clients demand bigger emblems. It is the designer’s job to explain to the client that the empty spaces, very common in minimalism, are very important for  the success of the creation. Otherwise, the insignia will look just cluttered. By resorting to minimalism, designers can actually produce powerful logos that would definitely have an impact on the onlookers. Here, large is good. A huge insignia with a minimalist background and foreground can seem very attractive.

As mentioned before, larger size does not ensure effectiveness and neither does smaller size. Too small logos can make the typography illegible and too gigantic emblems can tire the eyes. There should be a balance. Boosting the brand recognition of the client’s company is a primary goal of business logo services. Both aesthetics and effectiveness plays important parts in the job, so both big as well as small logos are important.

Google is world’s number one search engine and they deserve that position. The layout of their site is so neat and clean that even a first time user likes it immediately. Colorful logo design and impressive white background creates the perfect visual balance. This search engine giant has always given high importance to usability and improved their user interface design gradually to make things easier for viewers.

The latest UI design is probably the best till date. Now you can access Gmail, YouTube, Docs and various other services from their homepage. If you inspect the website design closely, you will realize that the logo is located at the center position to grab consumers’ attention. The links to Gmail, Docs, and YouTube are located at the top of the page and they have used small fonts to write those words. As a result, your attention automatically directs to the logo and the search bar below it.

Google know that their main business is online search and hence, unlike e-commerce sites and blogs, who place the search tool near header or right sidebar area, they placed the search tool below the logo for better usability. These days, we associate the word “Googling” with “searching information” and it proves how brand USP can be connected with emblem.

They have also started a new technique for branding and it’s called Google Doodle. Companies think hundred times before changing their brand emblem, but Google showed that a logo does not need to be changed permanently. They celebrate famous personalities’ birthdays, holidays etc. by replacing the traditional insignia with a customized doodle. The fascinating quality of these doodles is that they offer a new design, but retain the core branding elements.

Compared to the 1997 layout, the latest UI is much more sophisticated. They have redesigned the UI quite some time in the past couple of years, but never made any drastic change. A sudden change could have hurt their popularity and that is why, they simply toned down the earlier rugged look without re-positioning search bar or buttons.

Who says that products need to be advertised heavily to increase sales figure? Google recently launched their Play store and you can find the link at the top part of the page. It’s not highlighted, but because people know that their every service is exceptional, they visit the “Play store” every day to download applications.

The overall look and feel of Google brand is highlighted in every part of their layout design. They amalgamated their service with the logo and brand persona to create a dominant corporate identity.