Many people outside the field don’t realize it, but most graphic designers are also experienced marketing consultants. These two fields are so closely related that there is a great deal of overlap in the duties and required skill set. In fact, many of the concepts used by marketing consultants also go into the development of a custom logo or just about any graphic project. Here are just a few of the areas in which professional graphic design and brand marketing overlap.

Reliance on research. Like marketing consultants, a person involved in professional graphic design will be aware of research into psychology and other fields as it pertains to the world of marketing and branding. This knowledge is not based on opinion, but on a broad base of research performed and compiled over the last century. Psychology and related sciences have been able to give marketing consultants and other professionals a profound insight into the human mind, including how it perceives and stores information. Graphic designers must know, for example, how certain shapes and colors make people feel. This wealth of knowledge goes into the development of every product, whether it is a custom logo or a website design.

Customer focus. Marketing consultants know that ultimately, the success of a product depends on how it is perceived and received by the intended audience. Professional graphic design shares this focus. Like marketing consultants, graphic designers never lose their focus on the customer. After all, the whole point of a custom marketing logo or other graphic design project is to create recognition in the community, which then leads to increased income, positive regard, or both.

Branding. Marketing consultants know that every successful product in our modern economy must be a brand—that is, it must be perceived by its target audience to have a distinct personality and a mission that consumers can identify with. Corporate identity design is also the specialty of most professional graphic design artists. Your custom marketing logo and other professional graphic design products have been created to be the cornerstone of your company’s brand, portraying what makes you unique in a very tangible, visually striking way.

Specialized graphic design tools. Marketing consultants have a set of tools used by their trade, and so do people who work in the field of graphic design. From standard tools used by artists, such as professional quality pencils and inks, to the latest in software technology along with computers that are sophisticated and powerful enough to run it, a graphic designer has experience with some very specific materials that help him or her in their job.

Constant change. Marketing consultants must change with their clients and with the consumers as well. The latest techniques in advertising and marketing must be used or the product will appear dated and not get the attention it deserves. Similarly, professional graphic design artists must stay on top of the latest trends. From the newest design concepts to the latest technologies, your graphic designer is a master if reinvention and versatility. When you hire a professional graphic design artist, you will have the benefit of this as well as all of the tricks and secrets of the trade.

The American Growth Fund (AGF) Management Limited was launched in 1957 to pool the funds of Canadian investors giving them greater access to the U.S. market through the New York Stock Exchange leading to the co-founders building a company that is innovative, focused on clients and driven by superior investment management, characteristics that continue to drive AGF more than five decades later.

Today, AGF Management Limited serves more than one million investors with offerings across the wealth continuum.

The AGF finance logo design is a complex illustrative logo that shows the illustration of a striped tiger poised to dash off or jump. Below the illustration of the tiger are the letters AGF which stand for American Growth Fund in a big bold font. The tiger, perhaps, represents the raw power, strength, speed and the intelligence that the AGF company posses. The pose of the tiger gives the logo a dynamic look and feel. You feel anticipation – as if some thing is about to happen.

I really like this funding management logo. However, I would have preferred the tiger line art be updated to be cleaner. The tiger illustration shows a little more stripes that I would have liked. Also, in the typical retro style, the lines making the outline of the animal are not continuous but rather broken at intervals.

Download vector EPS version of the AGF logo design.

Download vector AI version of the AGF logo design.

Download web JPG version of the AGF logo design.

Download transparent PNG version of the AGF logo design.

Disclaimer

Logo Client: Continuum Productions Inc.

Logo Category: Marketing Logos

Logo Design Style: Iconic Logos

Logo Design Used In: Oakville, ON, Canada

Logo Design Project Summary: Continuum Productions produce home & garden consumer shows (similar to trade shows, but for the general public). They strive to create fun, interactive, and professional environments where exhibitors (home interest companies that rent exhibit space and/or purchase sponsorships) get together with consumers who are looking for design ideas or to buy directly for their homes & gardens.

Targeting Exhibitors (home related businesses of all sizes), Sponsors (Corporate) and Consumers (buying public), Continuum Productions wanted a very clean logo design with no more than two logo colors, perhaps an icon, but not necessary. One request was to ‘play’ on the two (2) “u’s” in the company name “Continuum”. Another thought would have been to play off the idea of an integrated marquee tent to signify our “events” focus.

The important issue we had to keep in mind was that the logo was easy to reproduce with printers, and is reflective of the business (consumer events).

Our logo design came up with 5 unique logo design ideas including playing with the two “u”s in the name, a stylized iconic image of the initial “C”, a stylized sailboat design and an abstract icon of an “event tent”. The client finally selected the abstract iconic logo of the event tent and after a few minor tweaks we finalized the design.

Although consumers in general plan to spend less this holiday, online shopping is still growing. If you are running an e-commerce store, this is the busiest and most competitive time of the year so you should be more aggressive to increase your sales.

Although there are many Internet marketing strategies and tactics today, email marketing logos continues to be an effective and cost-efficient strong weapon of choice. According to Direct Marketing Association, “For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, marketers can expect an estimated $48.29 ROI. Without a doubt, email marketing achieves the greatest ROI of all marketing channels we look at.”

Another statistics from Shop.org shows that email delivers sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs.

Here are 2 clever ways to use email marketing this holiday season:

1. Suggest a gift. Offer gift ideas and packages specific to a person like dad, mom, friend, lover, brothers or sisters. This will make shopping a lot easier for many of your customers.
2. Offer Christmas deals. Most consumers are in the mood for shopping these days so why not offer a promo they simply can’t resist? This will encourage them to buy more in return for a small concession like incremental discounts (example: 10% for purchase above $100, 15% for above $200, etc.)

Word-of-mouth marketing is all about encouraging your target customers to share their thoughts and engage in a meaningful dialogue about your products or services.

Most small business owners agree that word-of-mouth marketing is a very effective way to promote products or services. It is rooted on our habits to ask our family or friends every time we like to buy something. In fact, more than 80% of consumers trust recommendations coming from family, friends, and other influential people over other forms of marketing

So, it’s not really surprising to know spending on word-of-mouth marketing is growing at a very fast pace. According to a research company PQ Media, spending on word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing jumped 35.9% in 2006 to $981.0 million and is expected to top $1 billion in 2007. It is also predicted to reach $3.7 billion by 2011.

Thanks to new media alternatives like logo design blogs, social networking sites, and other Web 2.0 style logo technologies, many big and small businesses are allotting more money in these campaigns.

It’s a wake up call for many small business owners to pay more attention to word-of-mouth marketing and learn to integrate it to their overall campaigns. Although online activities like blogging is a popular choice, about 90% of word-of-mouth still take place offline or in the community.