Enhancing your creativity is one of the ways to separate yourself from the plethora of designers around the globe. You must have a strong desire to improve continuously your design skills and levels of creatively with every project that leaves your desk. There are several ways through which you could achieve these and reading is one of them. With the advent of the internet, there are several sources where you can get quality design materials to increase your knowledge, skills as well as creativity as a graphics designer. But with all the available sources, design blogs are one of the best you will enjoy using.

Why design Blogs

Blogs are more educative, current and “friendly” than the traditional books. The blogs are updated on a regular basis. Hence, you are guaranteed of finding fresh and updated content each time you visit. This will not just enhance your creativity, but also will make you have the current news and knowledge about graphics design right at your fingertips. Additionally, the blogs offer a means of interactivity, where readers can make comments and contribute to the blog posts they just read. This is extremely beneficial since it gives designers a chance to engage one another in a constructive manner.

Also, with the blogs, you can sign up for their newsletter and monthly publications and through this, you will continue to get useful and inspiring content from the industry leaders from time to time on your inbox. Therefore, any designer serious about enhancing their creativity will find every reason to be a friend to the blogs and utilize them to improve on their design skills.

Here are the top five inspiring design blogs to keep an eye on-:

Onextrapixel

Onextrapixel should be your first port of call if you are looking for design blogs to boost your creativity. It has a good reputation for being one of the oldest design blogs as well as having some of the well-seasoned contributors in the field of graphics design. The blog provides you with lots of resources including tutorials and a wide variety of freebies on different design subjects. No matter what you would like to learn, so long as it is within the field of graphics design, you will surely find it in this blog. Due to the nature of its content, therefore, Onextrapixel is ideal for both beginners and experienced designers.

Creative Nerds

Just as the name suggests, this is the place where you find all the creative nerds in the graphics design world (pun intended). It is an awesome blog with lots of fonts, free icons and Photoshop brushes that will help you enhance your creativity as a graphics designer. It is also among the few design blogs that come along with a complete YouTube Channel where you can further enhance your creative skills by watching videos and following along through live design projects by the experts.

You the Designer

You the Designer is another terrific design blog ideal for designers at all levels. It has a wide range of inspirational design works in almost any niche you can ever think about. In addition to the inspirational design works, you will also find lots of educational materials, freebies, tutorials and ninja tips both for web and graphics design. You the Designer is conclusive and is guaranteed to give you all the inspiration you need to get started to get going as a graphics designer. Additionally, the layout of the site is quite intuitive making it easy to use to the benefit of the users.

Inspiration Feed

At this design blog, you will find the same resources as the other blogs named above, but they have additional stuff for you. Inspiration Feed brings you a lot of articles covering different topics in various niches as well as relevant industry news that you ought to know as a graphics designer. This is also the one of the best places on the internet to go to if you are a graphics designer in need of great resources for startups, social media services, and general business motivation. Just as the name suggest, this should be your favorite place where you get your daily drip of inspiration as far as graphics design is concerned.

Graphic Design Blender

If you are a freelance graphics designer, or you are aspiring to become one, then you will find the Graphics Design Blender to be very resourceful. It is dedicated to offering freelance graphic designers with great tips on how to ply their trade in the turbulent but lucrative freelancing industry. Discussed in this blog are all matters relating to the freelancing industry such as dealing with tough clients, how to overcome your fears and start your business, where and how to land your first graphics design clients and many more.

Be a regular visitor to these inspirational graphics design blogs and get the fuel and the nourishment to be your best every day as a graphics designer.

Check out whether it is worth entering graphic design competitions here!

The post Inspiring Design Blogs to Help Boost Creativity appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

Logos are vital aspects the marketing for a business. Being the company’s major graphical representation, it becomes the brand of a company and the single most important manifestation of the company amongst its audiences. Due to this critical role, therefore, a great logo is imperative for the overall success of the company’s marketing.

Other than being the visual representation of the company amongst the customers, a great logo also serves a number of purposes for a business. So important is the role of a logo in business branding that there is virtually no business that operates without one. If you are wondering why, here are some of the purposes served by great logo to a company and why it is imperative for every company to have a logo:

“Face” of a Company

The main purpose of having a logo is to give the company a “face”. They are the graphical representation of the unique identity of the company as displayed through the colors, fonts, images and other symbols used in the logo. All these collectively are used to pass certain important marketing messages to the potential customers or consumers.

Logos are also a subtle way of referring to the company in the marketing and advertising materials. They provide a central focal point for fonts, colors and designs upon which the marketing materials of the company will be anchored.

Communicating the identity of the business

The need for brand identity cannot be ignored if a business wants to have a big and loyal fan base. Being the chief visual component of every business, a logo will appear in various marketing materials of the company such as business cards, websites, letterheads, email signatures, brochures, amongst other advertising channels.

Due to this reason, a great logo design can contribute immensely to the success of the business while a mediocre logo can appear less professional and make many potential customers refuse to deal with the business. However, there should also be a good coherence between the logo and other company’s visual representations. It simply implies that the logo should be consistent across all the marketing to create a consistent brand identity. In this manner, customers and potential customers won’t get confused each and every time they see the logo.

A great logo helps businesses to get high ROIs

As a business continues in its operations, the consumer numbers will continue to grow and so is the liking and developing of trust on the company brand. With time, the consumers will be more confident whenever they interact with the business logo and as a result, there will be increased sales for the business. Additionally, a great logo is an indication of professionalism and competency on the part of the company.

These are very two crucial attributes in winning new customers and clients since they will be convinced and satisfied that they are dealing with real and authentic businesses capable of meeting all their needs. Based on logos alone, potential customers will always choose a company with a great logo design as compared to one with poorly designed logos.

Distinction from Competitors

The other main purpose of a great logo design for a business is to distinguish the business from the competition. The world is full of dramatic distractions and getting and retaining the attention of potential clients and customers is becoming more difficult. Businesses are bombarding the same customers with different graphics to get their attention, and those that become successful are the ones with logos that can stand out from the crowd.

Such logos must be distinct, beautifully and professionally designed and they must also be easily memorable with a clear marketing message. If a business will not manage to achieve these with their logos, then standing out of the crowd and establishing a strong brand identity will not be possible.

Great First Impression

Just from the looks of the logo, a potential client can tell if you are a professional establishment worthy of their trust. If the logo appears to be professional enough, then the potential client will have the confidence to go ahead and try out your products and services. But if the potential client feels that the logo looks amateurish, they will develop cold feet and hesitate about doing business with you.

Great logos are therefore are a vital part in creating the right first impression. Remember, a potential client requires just a few seconds to decide if your logo is good and hence if they will be dealing with you. This is why it is imperative at all times to have great logo designs for your business.

These are some of the main purposes why a great logo is beneficial to a business. However, it is important to remember that great logos are works of professional designers and trying to get shortcuts by going for less experienced designer logos may cost you a lot in the business.

Check out these beautiful logos that have just one color!

The post The Most Main Purposes of a Great Logo appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

Now that the dust on the terrible Uber logo redesign is slowly settling, and the commentary is also dying, it would be prudent to look back and see what lessons can be learned from the failed rebranding effort. The question that begs then is what went wrong? To begin with, even before exploring the choice of fonts, color, and the design, there is just too much that can be pointed out about the overall rebranding strategy adopted by the company.

Operationally, it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to implement the rebrand worldwide simultaneously. Anyone with slight knowledge of international business or an idea about creating and building brands, they will agree that it is a nightmare to get various subgroups and branches to use just a new logo or a standardized version with one color palette. The strategy adopted by Uber, therefore, was not going to be feasible if they didn’t have the ability to consistently and accurately have the design implemented in the more than 60 countries where their services are available.

The second conspicuous problem with the rebranding strategy adopted by Uber is that they decided to throw away their visual equity, yet this is something that most brands would kill for to establish. By doing away with the old brand, the company severed the link between the old company name and one of its most recognizable visual assets in the world. The new Uber logo just sparked controversy.

Initially, they had a sleek gray writing against a black background, and this suggested luxury and modernity, which Uber became known for. But in the present times where mobile apps are ubiquitous, having a close identification such as the Uber’s U is considered to be immensely valuable. Why would a company cede such a valuable visual asset in the name of creating a new identity?

But the conspicuous absence of a lack of story behind Uber’s rebranding is perhaps their greatest undoing in their latest attempt to change their brand identity. Design elements have always been vital components for any rebrand, but they will amount to nothing if there is no story behind them.

For instance, Google’s Alphabet rebrand had a succinct, logical and satisfying explanation and that was that the company no longer does search anymore. They offer a wide variety of services. But such a narrative was not present the Uber logo redesign. The company is in a state of transition as they want to be seen as more than just a cab hailing service, but this was reflected nowhere on the rebranding strategy neither did they give any explanation relating to it.

Suppose a new purpose, vision or story were communicated clearly on the rebrand, all the complaints arising from specific elements would have all toned down to preferences. These leave the question begging: Does Uber have an idea where it is headed as a company or the kind of company it wishes to be?

It is, therefore, a fact that Uber made glaring mistakes in their failed branding strategy. The rebranding was not only premature but lacked the necessary planning and coordination needed to conduct a successful rebranding in multiple countries. But these kinds of challenges are a common occurrence for companies that are still in the transition state. Here are a few other vital lessons companies can borrow from the failed rebranding by Uber-:

Admit your mistakes and chart the way forward

Mistakes will always occur since no brand is perfect. If you find yourself in a similar situation like Uber, do the honorable thing of admitting your mistakes. Be ready to accept what you think went wrong, address any issues by customers and investors and immediately embark on a plan to move forward.

Consult outside sources

The failed Uber logo was done in-house. This is now what is referred to in the corporate world as “Steve Jobs Syndrome”. It is when startup founders believe that they should make all the decisions and never outsource anything from outside. However, there was only one Steve Jobs, and you have to seek expert advice if you want to move your business forward in a professional manner.

Don’t make a complete 180 turn, but go with strategic changes

Rather than trying to erase your mistakes and pretend that nothing bad happened, look for feasible ways you can use to move forward. This might imply that you exercise a lot of caution with the present mistake, make careful corrections and simply be ready to take up the challenge to continue working on your brand and make it stronger.

Engage the employees when rebranding

Most Uber employees and drivers were never aware of the rebranding or change to the Uber logo. They knew nothing about it and were equally surprised like the customers. Uber thus missed an opportunity to engage their employees and customers which would have become very good brand ambassadors if they were part of the process right from the start.

Check out these design Industry events you won’t want to miss!

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