My career as a journalist has taken just one detour when I spent several years focused on the visual rather than the verbal and indulged my passion for graphic design. I spent a lot of that time working to strengthen the way the foundation that employed me presented its visual brand, and helped update the logo and related visual identity.
It was a fun process because it involved looking at how the company had presented itself, what were the strongest visual elements and what did they mean, both internally and externally. The end result was a change in colors and a streamlining and smoothing of the heartbeat icon the foundation used. The change was not drastic, but it was crisp, and it accomplished what every good rebranding project should aim to do: create strong new visual presence without losing touch with the memorable aspects of older logos.
All of this comes to mind because of the news this week that Komet is launching a new logo. The makeover is done extremely well as the company chose to preserve both the distinct script lettering used to spell out its name and the spiral icon that has been used alongside the text. The blue hue also remains, supporting a sense of familiarity and comfort.
The Old Komet Logo
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The New Komet logo
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In the new version the spiral has been muted a touch with a light blue instead of white as the secondary color, and it’s the way this new spiral is being used that really make the new logo a more useful tool for Komet. Rather than placing text and icon side by side as before, the new version puts the name on top of the spiral and thus creates a circular logo instead of a rectangle. It might seem subtle, but a circle is more in line with the shape of their products. It’s also smaller and thus easier to fit into materials without using just the text or just the icon.
So, what does this analysis of what Komet is doing with their brand have to do with your practice? If you’re branding yourself to your patients effectively it can be a great lesson in how to evolve your brand. Every practice should have a logo consisting of a specific color or colors, a distinct typeface for the practice name and some kind of memorable visual element such as Komet’s spiral.
While a dental practice might not look to build its brand for widespread recognition, making sure your brand is familiar to your patients can be critical. That way they will know right away who is speaking to them when any communications from the practice come their way. This is especially true if you’re engaging your patients online via social media, and that brings me back to Komet’s new logo. The new smaller, circular logo is an ideal shape for social media recognition. It fits perfectly as a Twitter icon and a Facebook profile picture, meaning people will know those communications are coming from Komet because the brand will look identical everywhere it appears.
If your practice doesn’t have a brand, it would be a good idea to find a graphic designer to help create one. Students at local colleges are always looking for logos to include in their portfolios, so they can be a low cost source for help with the design. If you do have a brand, but it doesn’t easily fit in with social media platforms, it might be time for the next evolution of the brand. Think about how to keep what makes it distinctly you, but package it in a size and shape fit for the many online uses it’s likely to see.