This is a small local business that leases private parking spaces to freshmen and sophomore students on campuses with parking policies that prevent them from having cars on campus.
While the change is small, it has a huge impact - the current design and branding is exclusive to a huge audience of students: the sophomores. Freshmen Parking LLC currently markets to two campuses with sophomore students who cannot bring cars to campus based on their university policies. The logo as is makes it appear that only freshmen can use this service which is NOT TRUE.
The current logo is great because its basic, it tells people what the service is and how to check it out through the name itself, and the shape of the logo has been ideal for use as a banner in ads and on the website. The colors are in keeping with the idea of black for pavement and yellow for road paint, and serve to limit pricing when running color ads in student newspapers (because the only color to pay for is yellow). The current design had a lot of thought put into it, and was left largely as is in my edited version because of its existing functionality. The "& sophomore" addition is simple but great because it looks casual (which is appropriate for our young audience) and doesn't confuse people who are already familiar with the brand. Also - its important to keep the logo mostly the same because the website is "freshmenparking.com" - not "freshmen&sophomoreparking.com" and the scribble seems to imply its not really a part of the web address.
What are your thoughts on other discreet ways to improve this already successful logo?
Current logo:
Edited logo:
I wonder if Freshman+Parking might work? It is simple and if effective, maybe the less change the better.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you all are trying to keep the branding that "Freshman Parking" already has established, because I realize that it can be a huge investment of time and money to re-brand a business, and you don't want customers to lose their recognition for "Freshman Parking" that has already been established. It's also wise to stick to the limited color palette that has also already been established. However, I think these factors are very limiting when it comes to re I realize that you were trying to keep the yellow and black rounded rectangle the same size as the current one in the logo, but I honestly think that seems unrealistic with the addition of two words to the business’ title. The current size of that rectangle barely fits the words “Freshman Parking” already, and with the addition of the “& Sophomores,” squeezed at the top, the logo looks even more squished by its bounding shape. I’m not opposed to the creative way you presented the “& Sophomores,” but I do think the words need to be much bigger, especially if they are to be easily read on sign, a tshirt, or other promotional materials. Also, it seems that if these two words are added, that they too should be represented in the abbreviation to the left, where it currently reads “FP.” I think now it should really be changed to “FSP.” I’m not so fond of the overlapping letters, because it makes the logo harder to read and even more crowded.
ReplyDeleteI did not even think of using limited to colors for printing purposes (for mine, I was just keeping them limited already) but I'm glad you guys pointed out that aspect too!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, for my feedback... I agree with you in that the current design is successful as it is. Tassie brought up a good idea to incorporate people beyond freshman with adding the "+" instead of actual words. This might be useful if the parking is opened to say everyone, not just freshman and sophomores. I realize that the majority of your clientele would be freshman and sophomores and if that is the only people you are branding it to then I actually like sophomores up top. To me it adds a "school" feel to the present logo. It looks like (and actually is) what students often do to add a message into a sentence, which is why I think it works for the audience you are trying to reach.
As far as the new letting "FP", I do not like the yellow/white one, #2 under the edited logos because it is really hard to read, and although you can make it out, you don't want your viewer to have to work to understand it- you want to make it easy for them! I personally like the original lettering that's already there. If you are thinking about changing to "FSP" as Raleigh suggested, I think it might be cool to do it using the design you have going in design #3 and add the "S" in the middle using that negative space. As I am trying to picture it now, I think the "S" might make it look better using that design version. Meanwhile, if you have to stick to just "FP" then I personally would keep the original FP. Good job :)
I like what you did with just adding the word sophomore discretely into the logo. I like either the first or second logo for the left side. The last one was almost too distracting for me. Is there a way to incorporate an "S" into the left side as well? Sort of like you did with the rest of the sign? Overall, wonderful job!!
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