Our Quest for a New Logo

Here’s what the current Rouse Media logo looks like:

We also have some favicon versions you may have seen on other people’s websites:

It’s not a bad logo and it has gained recognition over time. However, we’re moving away from the ‘media’ part of the name and just calling ourselves “Roused” (pronounced as in ‘rousing’ as in to awake somebody).

We could just keep the logo and drop the ‘m’ out of there, but I thought I’d share some other logos that I like the look of. I’m linking to them rather than reproducing them here for copyright reasons. They all open in a new window.

• Jungpark - a bird and the company name. Dark blue background.
• Netpower - a leaf with a lightening bolt going through it.
• Scientifc Conservation2 - another leaf.
• Modo - some kind of circular vortex.
• BPO - simple and modern.
• Curly Anna - no ‘device’ but nice.
• Zorros - web app makers, hence why they’ve got a ‘device’ similar to what we’re looking for.
• Brella - we’re not adverse to using an everyday item to represent us, but it would have to align to what we do or where we operate.

What we’re trying to do is convey ‘Roused’ as a fresh brand with strong impact. We want our brand to be as rousing as the work we will be producing. However, we have to balance a rousing design against the background of the sectors we operate in: Law, Politics and The City. Brand in these areas tends to be corporate in style and though we don’t want to blend in we do want to convey professionalism and trust and not come over as a bunch of crazy kids or hippies.

In terms of words used to describe us we previously heard: “cheap” and “quick” fairly often as well as “responsive”, “helpful” and “knowledgeable”. We want to keep the last three and work on the first two. We’re not keen on being seen as “quick” but would rather deliver to the client’s planned deadline instead of in a rushed way that compromises quality and long-term objectives. We’ll be industrious, diligent, flexible and efficient, but not just rushing the first passable design out of the door. The “cheap” association is one we also want to change because it carries an essence of low quality, perhaps going hand-in-hand with “quick”. We want to remain good value for money and provide our clients with affordable solutions, but we also want them to have the confidence that their money is going in to a solid, stable and trustworthy company where they know it’s being invested back in to their best interests.

We’ve commissioned a graphics designer who is working with us to establish a new brand and it’ll take some time to go through the conceptualisation phase, but as a friend once said to me, “what’s worth having is worth waiting for.”