The Evolution of a Logo
By Dave Nienberg, President/CEO
Copyright © 1998,2000 Dave Nienberg. All rights Reserved

To many people a logo is nothing more than an afterthought. This is truly unfortunate since a logo conveys graphically who you are and what you're about. The true power of the logo lies in the old proverb, "A picture is worth a thousand words." There's more than just that, however. Your logo can be a business asset. It can help people remember you and help you win business from your competitors.

This article isn't about all the advantages of having a good logo but rather to show you the four year evolution of our own logo with the thought processes that went into it. This article should also help illustrate how long and expensive the process can be and why ultimately it helps to get it right in the first place.

1995 - The original logo
Originally when we started 4 Guys Web Design we weren't all that serious. In those days there was no such thing as a web design company (people did sites for fun or on the side) and we certainly didn't plan on doing this for a living. At the time we didn't even realize the need for a logo. As web shops began springing up we noticed they all had logos so we decided we needed one as well. We poured over all the books and magazines that we liked and finally found a logo for Adobe Authorized Dealers that we liked and thought might fit the bill. Using their design concept of a rotated square with a circle inside; we modified it and forced our name into fitting. The design worked very well since it was only needed on our web site and it fit with the clean simple look we had.

Advantages: Good simple design, two colors, and prints well in black and white.
Disadvantages: Hard to read at small sizes, not memorable, too large, and not re-sizeable.

1996 - The black-site logo
A fad back in 1996 (and even today) was having a black background on your site. It was considered cool and "artsy." So to keep up with others we decided that we needed a black background as well. Unfortunately our old logo was made mostly of black and got lost on the background. We tried to invert the logo and make the black areas white and the white areas black but it just didn't work. So, we decided to just scrap the old logo (we didn't have business cards, letter heads or envelopes yet) and come up with something new. We tried a variety of different icon-ish looking logos but couldn't find anything we liked. So, we used pictures of each of us for the logo. This worked fairly well since we didn't have a requirement that the logo should be easy to print. The effect was what we were after and it actually fit in quite well with the look and feel of the site.

Advantages: Fit the look of the web site, projected the image we wanted.
Disadvantages: Nearly impossible to print, too complex, hard to read at small sizes.

Early 1997 - The metaphor based logo
At this time I decided to leave the Army and start 4 Guys Web Design on a full time basis. The other guys went their own ways and I felt that I needed a logo which could be printed easily (mainly for business cards) but have a lot of impact. I wanted to use multiple colors since I was going to print everything on my color printer and cost wouldn't be a factor. At the time I thought that the use of color would help separate me from other designers and make me look bigger than I really was.

I also considered changing the company name to something along the lines of Studio 4 or WebSoft. Several clients and friends talked me out of it so I added "Group" to the end of our name. I then had the challenge of representing the name 4 Guys Web Design Group graphically. After reading a couple of books on logo design and trying several graphical variations of the word web it became apparent that the only representative graphic for the web is a spider web. Unfortunately a spider web is nearly impossible to show graphically due to the fine lines and complex geometry. So, I thought about using something totally unrelated to web design to symbolize the company name. After dozens of ideas I finally settled on dice. This opened up several promotional possibilities (giving away dice with all 4's on every side, a clock with dice for the numbers, etc.) and the promotional aspect got me sidetracked on what I should have been focusing on. Namely, simple clean graphics. I took a photo of a die and started manipulating it in PhotoShop. Finally the logo emerged. From past experience I knew enough to create it at the size it was to be on business cards, letterheads, and envelopes. This is actually the first rule of logo design. The only trouble was that I couldn't resize it to make it larger without losing the quality because it was a bitmap graphic. At the time I felt this logo worked extremely well.

Advantages: Many colors, small ink requirement, and prints well at small sizes.
Disadvantages: Doesn't represent the company, not resizable, too complex, and doesn't print well in black and white.

Mid 1997 - The revised dice logo
It didn't take long before I realized the disadvantages of the previous design. The biggest problem was the fact that the logo lost its appeal when printed in black and white. The colors got lost and it really failed. I wasn't ready to throw away the idea of using dice so I decided to simply expand on it, make the logo black, and simplify the look. I initially tried a single die but it lacked appeal. I also felt it would make people wonder what the heck I did!

We added two employees during this time and their first task was to help with this design. So, together we decided to try to use multiples of four everywhere within the logo. Four corners, four dice, the number four on the dice, etc. Overall the logo worked extremely well. It printed nicely and fit the look of our new site (we redesigned it again.) The only problem with it was it didn't say who we were, what we did, or why we did it. This logo was definitely better than any of the rest but it just didn't move us the way we felt it should.

Advantages: One color, good geometry, and resizes well.
Disadvantages: Lack of character, complex, didn't represent us, and too many unconnected elements.

Early 1998 - The logo to end all logos - Part I
By this time we had grown significantly and it was apparent that we needed a logo to last us a long time. We were working on redesigning our site (yes another redesign) using bright colors (the site previous to this one) and the old logo would not fit. So it was back to the drawing board again. We decided that this would be the last logo we would ever have so we had to get it right. Instead of spending a few days coming up with a new design and implementing it we gave ourselves no time limit. Quality was the only concern that we had and nothing was off limits. We purchased and read over a dozen books on logos, color theory and design and started to form a picture of what we wanted. We came up with hundreds of sketches over a three week period and then narrowed down our choices to the best six.

We then went back to work and came up with several variations of each of these finalists. A clear winner emerged and after that the logo went together in a matter of hours. We now had a logo which represented our name in an energetic, memorable manner.

Advantages: Extremely simple, says our name visually, works great in print & on screen, resizes well, and is memorable.
Disadvantages: Three color design is expensive to print, the colors take away from the design slightly.

Early 1999 - The logo to end all logos - Part II
Just to prove that nothing lasts forever, we once again redesigned our logo. This time however we truly feel the logo is complete. We evened out the weights of the three pieces (the circle, the guy and the "4") and eliminated the color from the design. We're so confident that this design is final that many of us now have it tattooed on our bodies!

Advantages: Extremely simple, says our name visually, works great in print & on screen, resizes well, is highly iconic, and is memorable.
Disadvantages: None.

What we've learned.
From this extremely lengthy process we've learned seven lessons that we'd like to share with you if you're considering having your logo created or re-created. In no particular order they are:

1. A good logo is hard to create and takes much more time and energy than you realize.
2. A bad logo can cost you business and a good logo is an asset.
3. The simpler the logo the harder it is to create.
4. The best logos are done in vector format so they can be easily resized.
5. Logos must be created at the size they'll be on a business card.
6. Logos must look good in black and white under all circumstances.
7. If you tattoo a logo on your body, make sure it really is final!

For more information contact us at: info@4guys.com