Designing a Logo Ain’t Easy

By MAGICAL MADGE

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Designing a logo is not easy. My ex-husband Quimby Vance, native Mississippian and founder of EQ Design, deeply impressed upon me the importance of a powerful logo, referencing the brilliant International Harvester mark, designed by The Father of Industrial Design Raymond Loewy. It’s “The Man on the Tractor” logo. Simply brilliant. Recognize it?

When we started the Delta Bohemian in 2011, I knew we needed an identifying mark. Billy and I worked together and created our first logo based on a photograph we took of an alligator in a Mississippi Delta bog. We wanted to reflect the Delta Bohemian’s duality in a quirky, paradoxical manner. Recognize it?

Although we loved this first image, we wanted more. So we set about to find a gifted designer.

Having seen a magnificent painting by Memphian NJ Woods hanging in a Clarksdale home, we reached out to the artist and discovered she had a talented daughter named Khara who excelled at graphic design. Khara Woods and I forged ahead with many different ideas for a new Delta Bohemian logo.

Khara’s patience floored me. The logo needed to illustrate how we saw the Mississippi Delta and our place in it. We wanted to maintain that duality without losing the reflection. It needed to be quirky, like us, off-the-wall and thought provoking. We kept returning to our Mississippi Delta horizon. We arrived at our current mark today. Recognize it?

The Delta Bohemian® hasn’t stopped. Some of you may be aware of our Delta Bohemian Guest House and our newly launched Delta Bohemian Tours.

Lindsey Powell, a local Marketing Consultant, recommended Sundaram: A New Design Media Company for our new logo needs.  Sundaram’s partner and creative director James Tootle  created our guest house logo, which captures the iconic home well, incorporating elements from our initial DB logo. Recognize it?

When we had a need for another logo to brand our new DeltaBohemianTours, we relied again on Sundaram. This time we worked directly with gifted Senior Designer Dave McClinton. The artist was able to integrate both aspects of our new excursion business–downtown on a pedicab and back road in an automobile. Can you see how a tree represents spokes, roads and waterways? Do the circles remind you of tires and gears? Is the road flat? Recognize it!

 

Help comes to us from unexpected places. We are grateful to Khara Woods, Sundaram and Dave McClinton for their guidance and help.

Designing a logo ain’t easy but it’s worth it.