Adopting a Mapplewell logo

If you were to describe Mapplewell as a simple image, what would it be?

If we were to ask the same question about some of the world’s biggest business names, then you would most probably visualise their logo or trademark from Nike’s “swoosh” symbol to the golden arches of McDonalds. It is for this reason that the world’s largest companies take great care of their logos.

So Why is a logo important?

“Because it grabs attention, makes a strong first impression, is the foundation of your brand identity, is memorable, separates you from competition, fosters brand loyalty, and is expected by your audience.”
(As an aside, if you ask 10 people to describe Mapplewell as a simple image, you would most likely get 10 very different answers)

This type of instant recognition is the holy grail for a business. Which is why the world’s multinational companies can spend millions on their logos – like UK oil group BP, which back in 2000 spent £136m introducing its current sunflower design. Other firms of a similar size, whose logo is simply their name written out in a stylised way, can spend hundreds of thousands on a new font, or a different colour. It is said that the BBC paid $1.8 Million for their ‘box’ design and even cities and towns will invest in a good design (2012 Olympics is said to have paid £400,000 for their logo).

But how easy is it for a business to pick a good logo, and how important is it at the end of the day?

Slow Romance

When you are presented with a design for a new logo that is immediately likeable, it should resonate with your values and have some ‘base’ against what you’re trying to represent. According to Sagi Haviv, partner at New York graphic design firm Chermayeff & Geismer & Haviv (CGH), “It’s never love at first sight,” he claims. “A good logo, a good trademark, gains meaning and power over time.” CGH has been responsible for some of the most recognisable US business logos of the past 50 years, such as Chase Bank, National Geographic, Mobile, NBC and HarperCollins.

We remind our clients – and we open every presentation with a slide that says – it’s never love at first sight,” he says.

Based on History

The first logo design was taken from the sculpture outside the Mapplewell & Staincross Village Hall. It relates to the nail making history of both Mapplewell and Staincross (see About us – History). The three pillars are the hand made ‘nails’ and the bowl on top represents the nail forge. There are a number of logos in Mapplewell that use the green colour and I opted for the yellow of the primary school as well as a generic grey. As a stand alone image it is ‘unique’ (which is important for a logo)  but possibly too unidentifiable by anyone not familiar with the past.

It does also have the slight appearance of an ‘M’ as in Mapplewell

The Cross Roads

The second logo design option takes on board a number of local designs. For example, the Green is routinely used by schools and other community businesses in Mapplewell, along with yellow, grey or blue. We opted not to use the Maple leaf, however, as we felt this encouraged the wrong association between ‘Mapple’ and ‘Maple’ and could distort the story behind the village.

It was also felt that it was important to bring the ‘four lane ends’ into the design, being the heart of the Mapplewell retail area. To do this, we used the yellow venation (the veins that run in a leaf) to depict the cross roads. These are directly lifted from google maps to get the shape and angles correct. Originally we looked at using them to run into four ‘fields’ of green thus creating a diamond effect, but decided that the four leaf clover was a ‘recognised symbol’ of good luck and could be adapted for other uses, such as badges, car stickers, T-Shirts etc and easily added to printed materials by local businesses.

For copyright reference, the clover format was a ‘copyright free’ layout from pixabay https://pixabay.com/vectors/four-leaf-clover-shamrock-luck-23901/