The Evolution of Slices Branding in 4 Logos
/ Originally posted on our blog: http://slicesconsulting.com/evolution-branding/
/ Get our next articles in your inbox: https://slicesconsulting.com/no-bs-articles/
This isn’t a post about the fact that we’ve rebranded: you don’t really care, and I don’t blame you.
Instead, I’d like to talk about how and why our branding is what is today. I’d also like to explain why your branding is NOT important when you get started.
I came up with the name “Slices” after a quick brainstorming. I liked the expression “slicing and dicing data”. I looked for domain names available for one of those terms and found that Slices.io was available. So I decided to go for it.
This was our first logo
I “created” it using Powerpoint in February 2015, before I even left my full-time job. Look at the state of it.
Look at it.
This was for my first idea: a service for eCommerce companies to retain their customers.
I didn’t spend much time on it, probably just an hour. I chose to focus on talking to potential customers instead.
I didn’t have a single person telling me that they wouldn’t buy from me because of my shitty logo.
This is my fist piece of advice for new entrepreneurs. Focus on what matters: getting clients. All the rest is fake work.
After pivoting
After pivoting to consulting, I decided to update the logo. I had to use some sort of logo to send proposals to prospects.
If I remember well, I also did it myself on Powerpoint:
It looks better than the first one, but black and grey are not the best colours, are they? I got my first paying clients with this logo.
Second change
After working with a few clients, I decided to invest a little bit in the business. I contacted a graphic designer I met at a Startup Weekend and asked him if he was interested in designing a logo (and coming up with a few illustrations).
This was our third logo:
I paid €120 for it. This was in September 2015.
Yes, that’s a scalpel on top of our name. Does it look better than than the two previous logos? Probably.
The tagline I came up with was a tiny bit pretentious. We’re no expert.
It still didn’t prevent us from growing the business, speaking at conferences and acquiring great clients like Phorest or Dropbox.
Today
With four people in the team, great clients and a clear vision for the business, we decided that it was time to update our branding.
We felt that the current branding wasn’t in line with our fight against Internet pollution and marketing BS.
We nearly changed the name but finally decided against it.
We worked with the best branding agency in Ireland to help us: RichardsDee. We know them for a few years now and working with them was a no-brainer.
After describing what we believed in, they gave us a few options:
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Option 5
Option 4 was our favourite so we chose to explore it more. We really liked the use of the slash to convey concepts like before/after, good/bad, etc…
We liked the green even if we found it too “flashy”. We wanted a more “organic” green.
Based on this feedback, RichardsDee came up with this improved option:
After small adjustments, we settled for this:
The green really conveys our fight against bad marketing and Internet pollution. The simple slash at the end of the logo refer to the word “slices” as well as the idea of cutting through the BS.
This is a branding we’re finally proud of.
When to care about branding
We would have never been able to describe our vision clearly and find the branding that suited us the best without having gone through this two-year journey.
Things won’t be perfect at the start. You will have to compromise on secondary items like branding, and focus on making money.
As your company grows, what you’re fighting against will become clearer and clearer. You might need to find investment or talk to bigger clients. People will need to trust you to do business with you.
In this case, investing in your branding is an obvious choice.
/ Originally posted on our blog: http://slicesconsulting.com/evolution-branding/
/ Get our next articles in your inbox: https://slicesconsulting.com/no-bs-articles/
Originally published at Slices Consulting.
