“Make the Logo Bigger”: The Branding Sequel from Hell

(The following, while fictional, is based on real-life observations.)

So, the client emailed me back, “Looks good. Now, could we make the logo bigger?”

Oh boy, I thought.

Here we go again.

(Making the logo bigger is a painful punchline among designers and brand consultants worldwide, the client request to “make the logo bigger” is abhorred almost as much as “Looks great. Can you make this one minor change: try the logo with Helvetica?” Now back to our story.)

The logo is enlarged by 50%. Other elements are reduced accordingly.

Email response, “MUCH better. Can we see it over the visual a bit? The visual seems so overpowering and our logo might be missed to key prospects.”

Oh brother.

Before lunch, edits made and emailed over. Plenty to digest.

One hour passes.

Two hours pass.

At 4:45, an email response finally comes back. I am informed their marketing committee looked it over and spent the afternoon conducting an internal surveyamongst employees.

It reads, “GREAT work! Please make the headline bigger and the logo so it fills the lower half of the page. Adjust all other components accordingly.” (A slow painful death while being forced to listen to Barry Manilow non-stop is looking mighty fine right now.)

Exasperated, I let this settle in overnight.

Slowly drifting to sleep, I kept wondering, “How could they not see the perfection of the initial design submission? It was on-brand. All the surveyed touch points were incorporated…. How? How? Why?…”

After a short and very restless night of sleep, I arrive at the office the next morning. I look at the original submission on my 27-inch monitor still bewildered.

I have a suspicion.

I email the client with one question.

The email response back, “On our smartphone of course.”

The question I asked?

“What are you proofing this on?”

I then advise the client I am sending over a brand new direction, fully revised and, to appreciate it fully, it’s necessary to review this on a full size computer monitor with their committee.

Within 10 minutes, the client having viewed this on their full-size computer screen emails me, “This is perfect! Totally nailed it. PERFECT size of logo too! Thanks for all the hard work and implementing our suggestions! The committee has saved you a fresh baked doughnut for our meeting later today.”

The new design sent?

The original design.

OK, now where’s that Barry Manilow 8-track cassette?

(The lesson learned: Size — of device — does matter.)