For any of my friends who have spent time noodling over the nuances of branding and logo design (which includes, oh, every entrepreneur ever). John Deane did all the work for Oryan Industries, the people responsible for taking me out of the back of the health club, and into the front of the Inc 500 (well, not exactly the front. More near the end. 387 to be exact). Anyhow, John was this genius designer who always seemed to know which font to use. And just how many lines to write. (Debbie Deane is his trusty copywriter extraordinaire). When I finally escaped ORyan, I asked John if hed let me shadow him and learn the trade. I sooo wanted to be an Ad Man back then. For 6 months I worked for free, with the occasional surprise $10-spot for good performance. One day, driving into his office to hand in a design that took me 24 hours over a weekend (Hey! Who needs sleep when youre making perty stuff on a Mac SE-30?!?), a medical supply company down the block looked like a promising prospect. Since I had samples of the work Id done over the weekend (an MGM-inspired logo), I asked if they had any graphic design and advertising needs. The Chief Marketing Officer spent 20 minutes drilling me with all questions marcom-centric. My experience building and selling my first company, then managing 6 separate product lines and speaking the language was a huge help. We had a $25,000 handshake agreement before I left to handle a small catalog (thanks to Eric Kinney, we pulled that one off. And a few more for that company as well). I was so excited! I drove to Johns and said hey John, you know the medical supply guys down the street? They just agreed to have me do their catalog! Johns response? Welp Mark, looks like you graduated. That was my last day. But I still use much of what John taught me to this day. Dont be afraid to invest in a potential education from a seasoned expert. Ive found through the years that, if I can bring something valuable to the table (and you KNOW you can... most of you can bring much more than me), they will gladly open their arms and business to you. In those 6 months I brought computer technology to Deanes Graphics. And John brought me a cornucopia of inside skinny on how the business works. And what constitutes good design. And how to fire a client (really important. Those of you who make a living serving businesess know what I mean). And with that: Heres How to Design a Logo, with Aaron Draplin. https://vimeo/113751583
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:56:01 +0000
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