If there's anything the age of the internet has taught us it's that we all have to be very careful not to make a serious mistake - lest we be forced to suffer the online humilation forever. Unfortunately for one Vietnamese skincare company, some keen geeks noticed that their stylish new corporate logo was terribly familiar...

Business Logo Branding Blunder

Ho Chi Minh City's Medcare Skin Centre is by all accounts a dutiful dermatological business, providing skincare treatment and options to a variety of clients. Their logo seems to embrace the look of a dual coloured umbrella, red and white against a black backdrop. Unfortunately as the business discovered thanks to some keen Resident Evil fans, this exact logo was actually made famous by the Umbrella Corporation - a fictional business known for dabbling in zombie outbreaks, among other horrors.

Often when a promotional logo's mistakes are shared online, the design resemblance is only passing - but Medcare's logo shares identical spacing and even texturing with Raccoon City's favourite evil corporate entity. Medcare themselves issued a statement via Facebook that they were unaware of the resemblance until recently and were working on fixing their brand urgently. Although they're trying to address the problem logo quickly, it hasn't been fast enough to stop the online giggles from spreading. For a skin treatment centre, we can't imagine there's much worse your brand could be linked to -- Umbrella is infamous for their human experiments!

Not only can having a "rip-off" logo give your business bad press, it can come with legal ramifications as well. Our advice to organisations looking to come up with a logo for branding on promotional products like promotional tees and branded notebooks is to do your research. Ensure you or your designer googles and checks to see that there aren't any identical logos hiding out there on the web. The last thing you want is to end up in a similar (albeit hilarious) situation!

Logo Design Risks

Your company's logo is essential in building its identity. However, creating an iconic identity takes time and careful deliberation between sketches/designs creation until final execution. Here are some risks not researching logos may bring:

• Negative Impression - Sometimes unthinking visuals may lead to negative connotations; thus branding nightmares as seen from Madcare Skin Centre (ho chi minh city) with their umbrella design logo. (which resembles a video game villain branding). Careful research can prevent such costly mistakes.
• Legal Battles - Not researching similar logos could land you in the middle of a legal battle, make sure your company has done its due diligence and thoroughly runs the visual through identification channels to ensure no litigation risks lie ahead
• Missed Opportunities - Any branding missteps might set you back from building brand trust and recognition does ultimately miss opportunities for sales growth. It is essential to take note of all errors hindering the business's success in hitting the campaign’s targeted goals.

In essence, before creating corporate logos, companies should ensure they do extensive research on designs' originality by conducting adequate insights and concepts’ thorough market analysis.

Logo Creation Guidelines

Here are some guidelines for effective logo design:

• Keep it simple: A simple yet memorable design is ideal for a successful logo.
• Make it timeless: Try to avoid trends and fads in your logo design, keeping the design clean and versatile.
• Make it scalable: Your logos should be easily scalable without losing clarity or quality on various mediums such as small mobile screens, billboards, or print ads.
• Choose appropriate colours and typography: Colors evoke emotions that may create lasting impressions; remember the target audience while selecting palettes. Typography creates rhythm with various sizes of font signature styles.
• Ensure originality: Research adequately to ensure no one already uses a similar style or font before finalizing your company's identity mark.

Remember, designing an iconic logo brand takes work and requires research along with creativity not to execute something similar to others borrowing ideas from notable competitors. As branding expert Wally Olins once said, “Products are made in factories but brands are created in people's minds.”

Final Thoughts

In the age of the internet and social media, companies must be more vigilant now when it comes to designing their logos. Due diligence and extensive research are necessary to avoid any negative implications or legal battles that can damage a company's reputation and affect its success. By following guidelines for effective logo design—keeping it simple, timeless, scalable, appropriate color selection and typography, and ensuring originality—a lasting brand identity will be created in people's minds. Creating an iconic logo is not only about creativity but also entails careful planning, market analysis, research into originality to avoid unexpected surprises along the way.

Story first spotted here: https://geekculture.co/the-umbrella-corporation-lives-and-it-is-based-in-vietnam/