Meeting Topic
How do you get your logo right? – Tania Boshier-Jones
Well, you need to start with your brand.
Memorable brands are built with intention and consistency, by:
- Knowing your strategy: your mission, audience, and positioning, to make
design choices purposeful.
- Developing your voice: having a clear, consistent tone so your brand sounds
like you, everywhere.
- Creating your visuals– your logo, colours, fonts, imagery — so they all work together to build recognition.
- Applying consistently, across every platform: repetition creates connection.
A logo is a symbol: it represents your company. It becomes powerful when backed by a clear, consistent and authentic brand.
Your logo is a visual shortcut to an experience. When people look at your logo, they
don’t just see shapes and colours, they feel something. That reaction isn’t created by design alone; it’s created by everything that surrounds it.
Elements to consider
Colours
Imagine a financial adviser whose competitors all use navy and silver. She could blend in with the industry’s trusted, stable look — or stand out with a teal accent that feels equally professional but more individual.
- Do you have a colour palette that represents your brand or industry?
- Do you want to stand out, or blend in?
- Will you need an inverse version for dark backgrounds?
- Will you need mono options for black-and-white printing?
Remember — you don’t have to use all your brand colours in the logo itself: secondary colours can appear in supporting elements.
Fonts
Your font choices say as much as your colours do. Think about the tone you want to convey. A boutique florist, for instance, might choose a rounded sans serif font to feel fresh and approachable, paired with a soft script for the tagline to add warmth and personality. What tone are you aiming for?
- Sans serif (no feet, e.g. Arial, Calibri, Open Sans) – clean, modern, friendly.
- Serif (with feet, e.g. Times New Roman, Garamond, Baskerville) – classic, reliable, elegant.
- Script – handwritten or formal; can feel personal and stylish, or messy if overused.
Keep it simple – clarity always wins
Icon
Do you need an icon, or will a typeface have enough personality to represent your brand?
For example, a landscaping business might use a simple leaf or spade icon to make its purpose clear at a glance, while a boutique consultancy could rely on a distinctive wordmark, letting a customised typeface carry the brand’s personality without extra symbols.
Usage and Outputs
Your graphic designer will guide you to think about where your logo will live, and what formats you’ll need:
- Orientation –stacked (square) and/or horizontal versions so your logo fits neatly in different spaces.
- Vector logos – so your logo can be scaled up or down without losing any quality – perfect for print, signage, or embroidery (ai, eps, pdf).
- Raster logos – for digital use, because they’re great on screen, but can go fuzzy if only low resolution and then get enlarged for print. (jpg, png, gif, tiff).
Remember – The best logos are flexible, stand the test of time and represent your business and it’s core values.
Need help aligning your brand and visuals?
Check out www.electricturtle.co.nz — I’d love to help you make your brand unforgettable.
Next Meeting Topic
How Your Audience Really Reads You – JO Morris
You’re in a café when three women at the next table catch your ear.
They’re staring at a phone — at your homepage, in fact.
“I love this,” the first one says. “‘Styled blooms for everyday’? Sounds great. And they do same-day delivery. I might use them for Mum’s birthday.”
You can’t help smiling. Yes!
But her friend tilts her head.
“Hmm… ‘Styled blooms’ sounds fancy, but then it says ‘everyday.’ Are they a premium place or more like a grab-and-go?”
Then the third woman joins in
“‘Styled blooms’ sounds like influencer nonsense to me,” she shrugs. “Probably charges $95 for three roses and a feather.”
Your stomach drops.
Three people.
One homepage.
Three wildly different interpretations.
Media theorists call these preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings — but in business terms, it simply means your audience can read your message three ways: exactly as you intended, mostly right but with their own spin, or completely differently. Think of marketing not as a megaphone, but a mirror: people don’t just hear your words; they see themselves in them.
Which means they’ll always read your message through their own:
- values and beliefs
- fears and frustrations
- needs and desires.
Misreadings happen when the audience interprets your message against your intention. For example, they might read a playful tone as unprofessional, or a minimalist website as unfinished. This often happens because we’re inclined to skim, rather than reading slowly, carefully and critically – especially online. Understanding this helps you tighten your messaging, so more people get what you mean.
When your message lands clearly, your audience interprets it the way you intended. You need:
-
- Clear home pages
- Strong value proposition
- Aligned visuals + voice
So, our florist’s home page might include:
✔ What they do
“Florist specialising in weddings, events, and everyday bouquets.”
✔ Who it’s for
Busy locals, romantic gift-givers, couples planning their wedding, corporate clients.
✔ What makes them different
Beautiful, modern arrangements crafted with style and care.
✔ The next step
Buttons like:
- Order for delivery
- Wedding enquiries
- Shop bouquets
The effect:
Customers immediately know:
- This is a florist
- They handle everything from everyday bouquets to weddings
- They’re easy to buy from
So – how can you tell if your own messaging is landing as you want it to? Here are some suggestions.
Practical Tools: How to Audit Your Website for Clarity
- Do the “Two-Minute Read” test: What message does someone get in 120 seconds?
- Ask a stranger: “What do you think this business does?”
- Strip back to headlines: Do the headings alone tell the story?
- Look for tone–audience mismatch: Warm vs corporate, soft vs bold, playful vs serious.
- Identify places where assumptions creep in: “Of course people understand X…” (They don’t.)
Misreadings are normal – common enough for media analysts to develop a theory! It can be a matter of small adjustments to get your words working with more clarity.
Your business already has a clear story – you just need to make sure your audience can actually read it.
Jo is The Write Coach
