Who is the Logo Design Group?

If you can get LOGODESIGNGROUP cofounders Kishia Symanzik and Richard Williamson to take a break from the sometimes frenetic pace at the Business Identity Center they will be happy to give you an earful about what they do.

They aren't just a photo on a website. Both are here every day, live and in person, doing the work that makes the Business Identity Center successful: responding to clients, designing logos, and making sure that deadlines are met.

They are a classic pairing in the advertising world. He is creative; she is business. But, as in any good team, there is a lot of cross-over. Both are energetic and enthusiastic and conversation with the duo is lively and often animated, spanning any topic from business marketing to graphic design theory to gridlocked Florida winter traffic. Mostly, though, they like to talk about helping businesses create an identity for themselves.

What are your feelings on logo and identity developement?

Kishia: There's something really satisfying about making a new logo for a company. In many cases, you are helping start a new company down the road to success and that is a really nice feeling.

Richard: Logo and identity development is the most immediately rewarding aspect of business marketing. It's not like writing a marketing plan for a new company. Clients can take home an actual product, an object, that they can use right away.

Kishia: When it comes down to it, starting a business is ticking off items in a long to-do list--get licensing, find office space, buy furniture--and people lose track of what it is their final goal is. "Get logo" is on that list, too, but when they actually get it and they see it is the embodiment of what they have been working so hard to achieve, clients get really excited.

Richard: That's fun. It's like they feel validated.

Kishia: What's really cool is to see a logo we've designed on a truck or billboard.

Richard: It's kind of weird, to see something you make having a life of its own in the world. But, it's a great feeling knowing that somebody has invested not only their money but their business's success in our expertise. It's humbling in a way.

Why did you create The Business Identity Center?

Kishia: Richard has wanted to do this kind of thing for a while but we wanted to work out the business and philosophical model before we got it going. We did not want to make just another logo site...

Richard: You know the kind...lots of logos that all look the same, no real people in evidence, really rigid design stipulations, low limits on the number of designs to choose from. That's not the way to make logos.

Kishia: Or customers. I know we can't work under those conditions so why would we expect our clients to want to?

Richard: Maybe I design too much, but the creative process demands that you work out a number of themes or looks and let them play against and with each other. Othewise, you are just making "cookie-cutter" logos--and that's the opposite of what a logo is suppose to be.

Kishia: We want to be more like those great shops you go into in small towns, where you feel like you are getting great service from people who are really listening to what you are saying. That's the kind of business we go to, so we think others feel the same way.

What is your philosophy on logo design?

Richard: It's easier to put something like that in taglines: "No clip art. 100% custom."

Kishia: But that doesn't sum it up, really.

Richard: No, it's more than that. We firmly believe that the role of a logo in a company's development is every bit as important as other business decisions, such as, office space and personnel. That sounds like a hyperbole, but if you think about it, a company or product logo is virtually inseparable from the brand. While brand awareness in management was once a specialized field practiced only by large corporations, "branding" has trickled down to become, first a buzz word, and now standard operating procedure for any forward-thinking business owner. Therefore, we have to make the very best product for our customers.

Founders, Richard Williamson and Kishia Symanzik, work at Business Identity Center offices every day, making and overseeing artwork that becomes logos for clients nationwide.