MOUNT VERNON — Kathi Lore was willing to settle for a new location, new colors and a new ambiance. But when it came to a logo, she put her foot down.
“People identify us by our pirate logo,” said Lore, co-owner of Pirate’s Cove restaurant, which will reopen later this month in Mount Vernon after closing its Gambier location six years ago. “That’s how people knew us for 25 years.”
The restaurant’s old logo — a sketch of a burly pirate holding a slice of pizza — may not win any design awards, but it provides Pirate’s Cove with exactly what it needs in a small town like Mount Vernon: Recognition.
“More and more business owners are saying, ‘We want people to recognize our brand.’ They want a logo that people see and associate with their company,” said Rod Zolman, owner of Sharx Design, a graphic design company in Mount Vernon.
That may sound like nothing new. After all, any company worth its weight in stock options has an attractive, memorable and immediately recognizable logo.
But for small, mom-and-pop operations, logos don’t work the same way as they do for larger corporations. In Knox County, where businesses tend to operate locally, eye-catching logos can be something of a luxury.
“Designing a logo takes time,” said Chuck Blubaugh, owner of By Signline Graphics in Mount Vernon. “Small business owners can’t afford to take the time to design a logo, or they can’t afford to pay us to do it.”
Logos constructed as an afterthought might suffice for a storefront sign, but Blubaugh said logos — even for small business — should do more than combine standard fonts with common colors.
“I had a client who spent two weekends designing a logo, but it didn’t convey anything about his business,” Blubaugh said. “Businesses around here aren’t going national, so it can be hard to convince them that they should invest in a well-designed logo.”
Certain design basics may apply, but there are no strict rules when it comes to creating a good logo, according to Terri Booth of Athey Design in Centerburg.
“It’s all relative to the image the business is trying to convey. When I design a logo for a business, I try to keep the integrity of the business and what they’re doing,” Booth said.
Consumers may associate a given logo with a familiar company, but Booth said logos can also be the first encounter consumers have with an unfamiliar business.
“It’s very important that a business’ ideals are represented through their logo, because the logo can provide the customer with a first impression,” Booth said.
Small-business owners who opt for simpler designs aren’t necessarily making bad decisions, though.
“Fancy signs or designs on vehicles can be kind of pricy,” Zolman said. “When business is tough, you look at what you can rein in a little bit, and [branding] is one of those things.”
Despite the costs, Zolman said the years of homemade designs may finally be ending.
“Industry is coming back to a need for good design. Everyone has a nephew who drew a logo for their business, but you have to realize that that logo is not necessarily what you want to develop a brand on.
“People are realizing that bad design is bad design,” he said.
Lore doesn’t know where her parents, who established the original Pirate’s Cove, obtained the restaurant’s logo.
“My mother might have doodled it. That’s very possible,” she said.
Even if it is simple, Lore is fond of it, and she’s not about to change what worked for decades.
“My rationale is, I think the logo is awesome,” she said.