The Logo and the Deeper Meaning

To continue the theme of growth and change, here’s a change that I struggled with recently.

It was time to redo my website. It was too general. When I designed it in the thick of winding down Sector and launching Lightlever, I wasn’t clear exactly what Lightlever for was going to do. In fact I was more in the “anything for money” mindset which of course does nothing for a marketing strategy.

So this summer I worked with a consultant (Jordan Bower) to redesign the site. Jordan asked some great questions, and really listened to my answers. He recommended tweaking the logo first since the logo is foundational to the brand. He agreed the original logo was fun and unique, was a little bit cartoony and too busy. (Sounds like me, yes?) I agreed. Here’s the original logo, to jog your memory:

However, I found it very hard to define exactly what I wanted to say with my brand, and all of the designs that they brought to me I rejected. I spent hours playing with Visio to design my own mock-ups and share with the designer but nothing aligned to my satisfaction. In July I decided to settle for one of the designs because the website was finished (beautifully) except for the logo and Jordan and I felt we were going around in circles. I say settle for, because I wasn’t 100% satisfied, but decided I had to accept “good enough” to move forward, even though it wasn’t perfect. (Perfectionism is a trap that I suffer with – a future blog!)

Here’s the logo we settled on:

So that was July, and summer happened with trips and motorcycling and project work galore…but I had a nagging feeling of “something important is not done”. I finally checked in with the original logo designer, and she said she was willing to look at it, but insightfully stated “it seems you’re not sure what you want.” I chuckled because she was dead right. My answer? “Correct. What I want is a logo that I like well enough to use until we have the time and budget to go deep and redefine the brand from the ground up.”

We decided to spend a small amount and tweak the original logo, leveraging the work done by Jordan’s designer. A week later we landed on the new version that you’ll see on this site.

Sure it’s not perfect, but I know I am on the right track because all this week, whenever I open an email and see the new logo in the footer, I feel good. 🙂 I have learned a lot from this process – I learn by doing – and I am grateful for that. I also keep being reminded (by this process and my BMW motorcycle rebuild project) that it’s way more fun to focus on the journey, rather than the destination.

Please let me know which of the logos you prefer, and why. For everyone who comments (below or via email), I will send a discount coupon for my store.

Gerry