For more information about the makeovers of the contest's
grand prize winner and 10 runners-up, click
here.
At a time when makeover shows are all the rage, we got in the
spirit and held Entrepreneur's Ugliest Logo Contest
(Powered by LogoWorks) to help businesses spruce up their image.
Logo design firm LogoWorks gave grand-prize winner J.A. Cunningham
Equipment Inc. a logo makeover, plus $2,500 worth of promotional
products, and template designs for a brochure, a Yellow Pages ad
and a PowerPoint presentation. Clete Cunningham, J.A. Cunningham
Equipment's vice president, says the Philadelphia-based,
family-owned welding supplies and equipment business has been
around for 60 years--and so has its logo. It was time for an
update.
Customers have often misinterpreted what J.A. Cunningham's
original, hand-drawn logo represents. An electrode holder using a
stick-welding process may have been a commonplace image when the
business started, but it now represents old technology. The logo
also fails to indicate that the company manufactures and
distributes welding supplies and equipment. Cunningham hoped for a
new logo that would provide a better visual representation of the
business and replace the antiquated look he worried made them
appear slow or conservative.
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Enter LogoWorks, whose logo-design process delivers several
concepts for customers to choose from within 72 business hours, at
an affordable price (packages range from $265 to $549). Morgan
Lynch, founder and president of LogoWorks, says J.A.
Cunningham's new logo conveys a modern company--"it's
more abstract." The sunburst behind the tanks emits a positive
image, while the use of gradients on the welding adds depth and
dimension. (Lynch notes Apple Computer uses gradients frequently,
since they exude a "very high-tech feel.") Putting the
company name right on the logo should also dispel questions about
what J.A. Cunningham does.
Of the many ideas LogoWorks sent to Cunningham, this one speaks
volumes. "It's a much more powerful, almost stylized view
of what we're all about," says Cunningham. "The logo
adds some color and punch and portrays us as a modern, more
aggressive supplier." He hopes to not only use the logo on
letterheads, business cards and apparel, but also make it a focal
point of his company's advertising. "This is going to be a
great opportunity for us to reconnect with some old customers and
strengthen our ties with current ones."
If you don't think logos are integral to building a brand,
think again. "When small businesses, especially in the service
industries, are not nationally established brands, the first thing
your customers are going to go off of is the look and feel of your
logo," explains Lynch. "Your logo should reflect your
company and its personality in a professional and credible
manner."
Cunningham never thought his company would win the contest.
"If you put together all the attempts I had made to redesign
the logo throughout the years--on the backs of envelopes, inside
Milky Way wrappers and on cocktail napkins--it would be an inch
thick. We were really amazed."