The Logos of Local Logos

In my community nutrition class, we are designing a nutrition education program that we would theoretically conduct in one hour. Part of the assignment is designing a logo. My teacher had mentioned that if we were drawing inept, we could use clip art.

After our discussion in class about the design of logos, the clip art idea seemed like an awful idea.

 It completely destroys any Ethos the company once had. The credibility absolutely goes down the drain. A local ad is easy distinguishable from a corporate one.

Take those local commercials for example. They are laughable. Most have an annoying jingle, a fast-talking, loud voice-over and pictures of their place of business. They're not funny, there is no narrative, and their complete lack of an ad campaign theme makes it sink to the bottom with the rest of the phony commercials.

When do you see corporate companies like the Gap, or McDonald's cutting to a video clip of where they are located? When is their shop even in the commercial at all? It's not. It's so prevalent amongst low-budget, local commercials when showing their place of business is probably the least impressive thing about them.

So to return to my original point. For my logo design, I am not going to use clip-art. I will not try to depict any human-like figure. I will not use a corny pun for a slogan. Instead I will use something with a unique design, use eye-catching yet not obnoxious color combinations and a short and sweet slogan. Easier said than done, I'm sure. But I think knowing what not to do is the first step.