Often the first connection someone makes with a business, a logo has an critical job. A logo conveys a feeling and educates the viewer about the brand. Dylan, Amy, and Lance draw upon their own experience with logos as well as the submissions of others to evaluate what’s valuable in a design.
But first, updates from our hosts! Soon after receiving funding for her second float center, Amy ran into an unexpected roadblock when meeting with her local health department. This time, however, the issue wasn’t about float tanks. At the Float Shack, Lance has been testing new products, including foam earplugs, enzymes in the tank water, and the Scumboss, and tells us how they’ve measured up. At last, the flooring has been installed in Dylan’s new float room! He describes why he’s excited about this particular flooring.
A recent post by Dan Larsen in the Float Facilitators Facebook group invited float center owners to post their logo and share the story of how it came to be, and this led to an exciting community discussion! With permission from many of those who posted, our hosts share their stories on air, who designed their logo, what about it serves their business, and what they would’ve done differently. Lance in particular shares why he intends to make changes to his logo in the coming months.
Is simplicity preferable to high-detail? What technical specification should be taken into consideration so that the logo is scalable? What the heck does ‘vector’ mean? Brian Van Peski, who works behind the scenes at the Art of Floating, joins the hosts to talk specifications and online design services.
[gallery ids="https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12661890_10156440699195623_4017763761537714579_n-1.jpg|,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12493431_10153215426060443_4407059419839733171_o-2.jpg|We paid an online shop $50 to put it together 2-3 years ago. All things considered, we got what we paid for. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Some people see our sign and think we're a mattress company. - Dan Larsen,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1929836_10153992567196802_8019843072417165822_n.jpg|We also used 99 designs. Received over 300 entries. Used a Facebook poll to help select the winner. - Jeremy,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/10632595_10156457266445444_488052879699561832_n.jpg|I had a friend who is a graphic designer do all of our logo/website/brochures. - Kristen,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12491836_10156644793930112_7725676290261196204_o.jpg|This was done at zero cost by our friend, we are in the process of redesigning it. But here it is. - Liz,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12494659_10101282890185273_4359478752711377282_n.jpg|I paid a local branding company to design my logo after letting them know what I wanted out of it. I paid much more than I wanted to, around $300 when all was said and done. But I'm very happy with it. Only downside is that screen printed shirts are expensive if I want the logo to be exactly as is with the various star colors. - Greg,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12494742_10153904422205746_3890443290651807856_n.jpg|For our logo, we used a watercolor I painted when I was a teenager that had been sitting in the closet for almost a decade. Right around the time we found floating and decided to open the Float Shoppe, it had finally made its way onto the wall. Both of us thought it represented what we wanted to communicate about the float experience: expansion & expansiveness, potential, growth, beauty, connection... Dylan chose the font, which I liked for its whimsy. We played around with it until we liked what we had. - Sandra,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12508969_10156533008425725_4816487760971889266_n.jpg|Did it ourselves - Caleb,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12510242_10153414225477123_7145274724771317067_n.jpg|Compared to most of you guys we have a very simple logo we designed ourselves, but we needed it to reflect that our place is also an art gallery so it couldn't be too 'floaty' - Dawud,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12525228_10153571104418101_2812148310732959311_o.jpg|I used a company called 99designs.com. My brother recommended them and Tim Ferriss is a fan. You put up a cash prize and graphic designers from around the world compete in designing your logo. You tell them what your company does, if you want a theme (nautical in my case), colors you like/dislike, abstract, character-driven,etc. You grade each entry out of five stars and can ask them to tweak as you see fit. With the nautical theme, I received many entries with compasses and lighthouses which are too common. I thought a radar sweep would be fitting for our name and theme, so we have a man (or Ripley from Alien 3) floating with a "radar sweep" in the background. The designer hailed from India, btw. - Jonathan,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12541134_1674566759449531_4179444783751713746_n.jpg|Logo design traded for some floaty love - Treeka,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12509769_10208114314116875_7449607391793518449_n.jpg|we think this is a "Float Molecule" - Meredith,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12615421_10153294545357109_7952227482543450096_o.jpg|We had a name change after 7 months because we chose to leave massage behind and focus strictly on floating. This was our original logo, believe it or not, from fiverr - Amy,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12593655_10153294592837109_6726768018172112312_o.jpg|Our current logo was designed by a local designer. Our next location will have a much more cohesive brand. We are kinda all over the map at Float Nashville. But that's what happens when one starts on a shoestring and has no sense of design. I am learning to leave this important task to the professionals! - Amy,https://artofthefloat.com/aof/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12628626_10100381524369226_8802805858607701981_o.jpg|Ours is a product of 99 designs! We were going for inviting, non-pretentious and fun! smile emoticon - Gina"]
Show Links
Floataway - Show Sponsor
ScumBoss
Float Facilitators Facebook Group
99designs
fiverr
DesignCrowd
crowdSPRING
Elance
Lisette (The logo designer whose name Dylan couldn’t initially think of)
Reach out to us!
Leave a VM that may be played on the show by click on the gold bar on the left side of your computer screen.
Reach us on Twitter:
Dylan and the Art of Floating @artfulfloating
Lance @thefloatshack
Amy @floatnashville
The Art of Floating Podcast on Facebook
