If you want to create compelling logo designs sometimes you have to think outside the box or break conventions. Now, a new study reveals a unique way to develop logos – use images that consumers can relate to even if it’s not related or have little to do with your products or services.

This is a major paradigm shift for conventional branding tells us to use symbols strongly relevant to our products or services. And this is very evident in different industries like the image of a car for automotive services, silhouette of a body for beauty, salon & spas, or the cross symbol for religious logo designs.

But what’s happening in the wine industry begs to change our perspective. It turned out that 1 in 5 table-wine brands launched in the last 3 years use animal images as part of its logo design. Central in this tactic is the so-called concept of “psychological priming”. Here’s a concrete example:

In one experiment, participants first had to do a word jumble, either searching for words related to dogs or words related to cats. They then participated in an ostensibly unrelated study and were asked to rate a series of products, including batteries and dog shampoo. Those who had done the word jumble relating to dogs rated the dog shampoo higher, on average, than those who had done the cat-related jumble.

However, this research is limited in scope so it may not be wise for startups to assume it will apply in our chosen category. Still, it is interesting to see more examples of this approach in action. Please let me know if you find one.

via huliq

Believe it or not, some cute mascots have more oozing sex appeal compared to popular actors. Well, at least in Japan. According to an interesting news article, there is a poll saying that a baseball mascot named Doala the Koala is the hottest male among the 20-something Japanese women.

Though this sounds really weird, it seems these women can’t resist the cuteness of this blue koala mascot. Doala is the official mascot of the Nagoya-based Chunichi Dragons Central League baseball. Designed just like most anime characters, Doala has thick eyebrows, childish smile, adorable eyes and wears Chunichi Dragons baseball uniform.

To make things really odd, why would a baseball team named Dragon use a koala bear as its official mascot? Well, it turned out there’s a deep relationship between Nagoya city and Australia way back in 1984 when the first batch of koalas arrived at Nagoya’s Higashiyama Zoo.

14 years after its creation, Doala is more popular than ever. His nationwide appeal to young Japanese women lead to the publication of “Doara no Himitsu” (Doala’s Secrets), a book about Doala’s opinion about love, society and money. Surprisingly, it has sold 120,000 copies in just 2 weeks! Now, that’s mascot power!

Here’s another compelling reason why logo design is important in building your brand identity. A new study suggests that exposure to famous logo designs can affect our creativity or thinking processes.

Published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the experiments of professors in Duke University and University of Waterloo (Canada) concluded that “even the briefest exposure to well-known brands can cause people to behave in ways that mirror those brands’ traits.”

Several experiments comparing competing well-known brands were conducted to validate this theory. The first one involved the famous Apple and IBM logos. After testing more than 300 students, each participant was asked to identify the possible uses of bricks aside from building a wall. It turned out those who are exposed to Apple logo have provided more unusual and creative answers compared to the IBM group. Since Apple is known for its innovation and creative flair, the group simply mirrored its traits.

Another test was conducted between Disney and E! Channel and the result was the same. Disney group shown a more ”family” behavior compared to the group exposed to the gossip-laden E! Channel.

This study underscores the importance of creating memorable logo designs and more importantly putting strong emphasis on building your brand traits. In terms of implementation, one of the professors recommends that famous brands should put more emphasis on brief brand exposure and less on print or TV ads.

When it comes to logo designs, the peace sign is one of the most widely recognized and even exploited graphics today. Even though it turns 50 this month it remains relevant and meaningful to many people.

But did you know this the original use of this logo design? According to a news article, Englishman Gerald Holtom created this logo design in March 1958 for the activist group known as Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War and later adopted as the official logo of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). (more…)

The longtime logo design dispute between the famous fashion trademark Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL) and United States Polo Association (USPA) has reached another milestone. According to the latest report, the US Court of Appeals has sided with the sports group.

The Case of Double Horsemen Logo

The suit started way back in early 80s when PRL filed a trademark infringement complaint for using the so-called “Double Horsemen” logo design featuring a pair of polo players mounted on horses while holding polo mallets. The lawsuit is against USPA and Jordache, the clothing company given the licensing rights to use this design.

There are different versions of this design – silhouette version of 2 horsemen, same version but with USPA text below, the plain drawing version you see at the right side, and that same version with USPA text below.

Though the silhouette version was found infringing to PRL’s trademark, the rest are cleared by the jury since there is no likelihood of confusion on these designs.

You can read the comprehensive legal arguments at Las Vegas Trademark Attorney blog.