Almost all newly graduated massage therapists can't wait to print up their brand new massage business cards. As they start to put the design together one of the first things they have troubles with is creating a massage logo for their business card. But is a massage logo truly required?
Almost all new massage therapists can't wait to print up their new massage therapy business cards. As they attempt to put the design together one of the first things they come up against is designing a massage logo for their business cards.
However,
is it really necessary that they have a massage logo?
Logos are used in brand advertising to develop a certain level of familiarity with a brand. Logos are also used to anchor and reproduce a certain feeling or emotion that the logo is affiliated with. Because of this logos (and branding in general) are a lot more important for commodity items, that is goods where there is almost no perceived difference in the consumer's mind.
Encountering a rack of candy bars at a supermarket checkout for example, an advertiser wants a buyer to get an immediate feeling of familiarity and comfort with picking their brand. They do this mainly through logo design (there's not enough room to put anything more than a logo on a candy bar package) that has been associated with a specific message or certain feeling through substantial advertising campaigns on the boob tube and in print. If that candy bar doesn't get chosen right away from the sea of similar sweets, then that business is out of luck.
Most business owners, massage businesses included, don't have the the same necessity to brand as the chocolate bar producer. Massage is not a \"commodity\" item. It's what marketers would call a \"high involvement\" product. The typical individual doesn't see a row of massage offices lined up down the street and on a whim select one. They research, get advice about, seek referrals to, talk about, and take time deciding before they pick up the phone to schedule an appointment. The need for instant visual recognition is really not that strong.
So for bodyworkers, massage logos tend to serve more as aesthetic parts in the design of stationery than any sort of sales or branding device.
Some rules around massage therapy logo creation...
Here are some important tips and principles for creating your own massage logo.
1. Keep it simple
Avoid a lot of details. Buyers are only going to look at it momentarily and step away with a feeling. Making the design uncomplicated makes your logo easier to remember and easy to reproduce.
2. Don't get overly literal
Your logo doesn't have to convey what you do. Imagine some of the greatest logos: Golden arches (nothing to do with hamburgers), a swoosh (nothing to do with running shoes) or an apple (nothing to do with computers). So you can breathe a sigh of relief understanding that you really don't have to have hands in your logo... seriously, you don't.
3. Make it unforgettable
To be unforgettable your massage logo should be bold, graphic and unusual. Avoid cliches. There are so many massage logos that contain pictures of hands and the low back curves that they are now indistinguishable from each other.
4. It should work without colour
You never know how your logo will be reproduced, so it should still work in greyscale.
5. Be scalable
Your massage logo will need to look good no matter if its big or small-scale. You must be able to shrink your logo down to an inch and have it still be readable. It should look good blown as well.
6. Make it rectangular
Our eyes scan easily across images that are wider than they are tall. Design a wide logo instead of a tall one.
7. Utilize your company name
If it makes sense, use your name in your massage logo design. This is called a logotype or wordmark. It does double duty making your name as part of the design rather than an afterthought. You'll see how I've done this for my logo at BodyworkBiz.
In a nutshell, don't worry about your logo too much. A logo is not going to determine the success of your massage clinic.
If you are just starting out, you can generate interesting sales materials without a massage logo by using simple typefaces and decent quality graphics.
If your logo is not anything special then consider doing away with it. It's better to have a clean layout in your website and collateral materials rather than stick with an ugly and impractical massage logo simply for the sake of having a logo.
