Legal Marketing & PR

Law Firm Typeface Logos ? Unleashing the Creativity!

By Jillian

People tend to think lawyers are too conventional, traditional and conservative, especially when it comes to their logos, websites and overall branding. We may, admittedly, make up in our minds that there is no way to push the envelope with such clients. But with design, even the simplest transformation can make the world of difference and illustrate a law firm or company?s identity.

The definition of a logo according to Wikipedia is: a graphical element (ideogram, symbol, emblem, icon, sign) that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand. Typically, a logo’s design is for immediate recognition.[1] The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic or academic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

Here are some things to think about when designing a lawyer logo or a law firm logo.

When designing a law firm logo you should strive to create a logo design that people look at and say the following things:

• How creative. How did they think of that?
• Look how simple, yet how effective the design is.
• A simple font enhancement made all the difference in the design of the logo.
• I can tell the designer didn’t just type a font. A printer can do that.
• I really get a sense of what this law firm is about.
• I didn’t think lawyers had a brand or image.
• This logo design is unique compared to typical lawyer logos.
• This brand is not just a current trend. It maintains longevity and is considered timeless.

Here are some good examples of how type has been altered in drastic or slight ways to establish an identity. They are not just fonts typed out. (Kerning and Leading only, do not justify good type alterations). Oh, by the way, I hope you have seen the arrow in the FedEx logo by now.

Successful Typeface Logos

Here are some of my personal thoughts on how to create a logotype or typeface logo

• Sketch out the Letters and/or Surnames for the law firm logo - start looking at how the letters fit together in different ways.
• Find a font or fonts, but create outlines (save a reminder of the actual font) start redrawing the points of the letters to alter their shapes, keeping in mind how they fit together.
• Evaluate how letters start to transform into objects. Do any of these objects reference what the product, image or practice areas are about?
• Try manipulating the letters into those objects or shapes.
• Try manipulating letters to fit together the entire typeface as a whole.
• Try stacking the names to see how they fit that way.
• Do these same steps with the initials of the surnames as well.

In conclusion, conservative law firms and clients in general do not have to equal boring, mindless design.

Unleash the creativity! Change your process! See the improvement!

Full post as published by PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).