Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
If you’ve ever looked at a collection of logos from various float centers, they can start to look a little similar. How do you avoid this when designing your own float center logo? Is it a big deal?
Graham and Ashkahn dish on logo design, the importance of simplicity, and a not so subtle reminder that the “don’t be an asshole” rule exists for a reason.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Ashkahn: All right. Hey everybody.
Graham: Hi there.
Ashkahn: Welcome.
Graham: Hi.
Ashkahn: How are you today?
Graham: I’m doing good.
Ashkahn: Oh, great.
Graham: Yeah, and speaking for the audience, I think-
Ashkahn: I think they’re doing good.
Graham: I think they’re doing great.
Ashkahn: I think they doing good now, is what they would say. Like, doing good now.
Graham: Yeah, better now.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: That you guys are on. Am I right?
Ashkahn: Thanks. I appreciate that, all of you.
Graham: Nudging the person next to them.
Ashkahn: I picture everybody listening together in a giant room. Is that what you’re picturing?
Graham: I’m Graham.
Ashkahn: Oh, yeah. I’m Ashkahn. Is that how you say that? I’m Ashkahn.
Graham: You didn’t, no.
Ashkahn: No.
Graham: You just started talking-
Ashkahn: I did yesterday.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: All right.
Graham: Today’s question is-
Ashkahn: Yeah, what is it?
Graham: “I’m working on logo design for my new center, and I’m worried that it looks like a bunch of other float center logos, including yours. Is this a problem?”
Ashkahn: Well, yeah, there are a lot of logos that look-
Graham: And a lot of them look like ours, too. We’re gonna take them to court.
Ashkahn: Well, yeah, or ours look like other ones do. I’m not gonna go ahead and claim we are the first people to come up with …
Graham: A face floating?
Ashkahn: A face, I think that would …
Graham: That’s the old FTA logo even kind of looks like that.
Ashkahn: Yeah, there’s a lot of face, there’s a lot of-
Graham: There’s a lot of face.
Ashkahn: There’s a lot of kind of lotus flower.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: There’s a lot of sort of drop, water drop sort of thing is very common.
Graham: The-
Ashkahn: They’re all blue.
Graham: Some of the letters, or all of the letters kind of floating.
Ashkahn: Yeah, especially the O.
Graham: In something. Yeah, yeah, the O floating.
Ashkahn: The O floating, or something going on with the O.
Graham: It’s very centered and-
Ashkahn: The float conference is the same thing.
Graham: It just, it works really well.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s an O.
Graham: That sort of design, yeah.
Ashkahn: It’s a good letter.
Graham: Theta, like a theta kind of design.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Like the float conference logo, for example. Which a lot of people ripped off.
Ashkahn: This episode is a warning that we’re coming after you.
Graham: So, design it like any other center’s logo except ours. Oh, Anicca, it looks like our logo but four times.
Ashkahn: Multiplied and bigger?
Graham: Or our logo looks like theirs, but one fourth of it.
Ashkahn: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it’s all just blues or green, mostly blue. It’s pretty much all blue.
Graham: Lots of blue.
Ashkahn: Lots of blue.
Graham: We realize this when you do all of the Helm customers or something like that for software and lay them out next to each other. Just like, oh, these all just kind of look like the same center.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just a lot of similarity in the names, too. The word float is in almost all of them
Graham: 90%, yeah, yeah.
Ashkahn: Or REST, or, you know what I mean?
Graham: So, should you worry about it, I guess is the question, right?
Ashkahn: Yeah. It’s more perceptive to you and us than any of your customers.
Graham: Yeah, I kind of think that ship has sailed where anyone should be worried about float logos looking too similar. Don’t copy something exactly.
Ashkahn: Yeah, well, yeah.
Graham: Of course.
Ashkahn: That would be weird of you to do that. Why would you do that? But specifically, unless in your mind you’re immediately thinking that you’re about to open a nationwide franchise, I would be most concerned about the other float centers around you somewhere.
Graham: Yeah, yeah.
Ashkahn: Try to look a little distinguished from the places that literally in the same city as you, but no customer is gonna look up, is gonna know that your logo looks the same as some other float center’s logo in a different state thousands of miles away.
Graham: Especially although there are a lot of similar logos, and there are a lot of similar names, obviously don’t, if someone shares a name with you, you’re really close. Make sure you’re not doing both, because having almost the same name and almost the same logo as someone sounds a lot worse to me as well.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just like, don’t be weird about it.
Graham: The no asshole rule is kind of in effect.
Ashkahn: Yeah. It’s like fashion. There’s a lot of similar trends in everybody’s winter coats, but if you sit down next to somebody and you’re wearing the exact same thing as them, they’re gonna look at you and be like, “What are you doing? Why are you dressed just like me?”
Graham: Especially if that’s their coat and they’ve been wearing that coat around for three years.
Ashkahn: But there are just a lot of similarities in the world.
Graham: Logo design itself is about breaking things down to their simplest elements. Good logo design is something that you can identify from a distance, it’s really simple. So, at some point, what do you associate with floating, right? You only have a list of maybe a dozen kind of simple things you associate with the act of floating, and then it’s all variations on that.
Or they just choose a different name, like Puma Flotation, and they have a picture of a puma. As an example.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: We’re looking at you, Puma Floats, really.
Graham: So, I don’t know. Being creative is good, but if it kind of is a face floating-
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: We’re gonna be the only ones coming after you. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Ashkahn: Trying to be very unique is at odds with trying to probably have a good logo for your business. If you’re like, “I’m gonna make my logo red, and it’s gonna have fire in the background”, at that point, your customers are gonna be like, what? “I don’t understand. Why is this your logo?”
Graham: Ra, so, yeah. I guess that’s it.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Don’t be a jerk, but don’t worry about it too much.
Ashkahn: Yeah, don’t worry about it, and just don’t be a weirdo and that’s it.
Graham: All right. If you have your own questions, go to float-
Ashkahn: I don’t know where else you’d find advice like this.
Graham: Yeah. If you want the down, we’ll give you the real-
Ashkahn: We’ll give it. We’re giving it to you fresh.
Graham: Honest, straightforward answers.
Ashkahn: All right. Go to our website.
Graham: To very complicated questions.
Ashkahn: It’s floattanksolutions.com-
Graham: /podcast.
Ashkahn: That’s it. That’s it. That’s the one.
Graham: Okay bye.
Ashkahn: Okay bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Staff Doing Tasks Differently – DSP 349
If you run a business, one of the benefits is that it’s run exactly the way you want it, right? If the “millennials” that you hire don’t do the job exactly the way you want, they’re wrong, right?
Well, maybe. It could just be that the people on the ground doing the day to day operations have their own ideas about what works best. Efficiency is a big deal when running a float center and if there’s something that takes 20 seconds longer per room, that could be the difference between a late float and an on time one.
Ashkahn and Graham share their perspective on how best to manage employees who have different ways of operating their shop and how the standards were formed at Float On.
Dealing with Entrepreneurial Dread – DSP 348
Opening a float center is stressful, and when you first get started, there’s a lot of uncertainty involved. Will people keep coming in to floating from one month to the next? Will it be enough to cover costs? What happens if surprise expenses rise up and throw your center underwater.
Graham and Ashkahn discuss the existential dread involve in being a small business owner and what they do to not worry so much about the future of Float On. And also self-immolation.
Leasing Float Tanks – DSP 347
Recently, the float community has been introduced to some companies willing to lease float tanks for businesses. These are usually different from manufacturers and come with a small fee associated with it.
Graham and Ashkahn discuss the issues to consider when looking at these companies and in what situations they might be a viable alternative to purchasing tanks outright.
Expected Capacity for a New Center – DSP 346
If you’re opening a new center and trying to anticipate your business, what’s a reasonable amount of paying customers to expect? What about total capacity including free floats?
Graham and Ashkahn dominate the mic to drop some knowledge on the float family regarding what to expect.
What’s the Most Time Consuming Thing? – DSP 345
Graham and Ashkahn share what they think is the most time consuming part of running a float center. And then next most time consuming things, as well. A great episode outlining the realistic challenges in taking on management of a business.
Latest Blog Posts
Why we’re Excited for the 2018 Float Conference!
It’s Float On’s final year hosting the Float Conference this year. The wails from all our floaty friends can be heard throughout the galaxy as we mourn the end of an era. But, please, dry your eyes, float industry, because this year is going to be amazing.
There’s absolutely no way we’re not going out with a bang, so buckle up and buy your tickets. We’re planning on making this the best Float Conference yet! We have fresh speakers, amazing activities, new podcasts, and a very full schedule. Everything is going to be bigger and better and the parties are going to be off the hook!
Here’s a little bit from some of us putting this event together about what we’re excited about this year.
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from June
So, I know that I complain every month about how difficult it is to pick the top 5 each month, but this month it was easy. June was filled with excellent episodes, but there’s a handful of special ones that were just a bit more awesome than the rest (we also blatantly...
Take Part in the 2018 Float Industry Report
We’re gathering responses for our 2018 Industry Report through the end of June, and we once again need your help.
Please take a brief moment to answer a few questions about your float center (or future float center) – it may be the easiest thing you can do to contribute to the growth of floatation around the world.
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from May
The seasons are changing now. It’s hard to believe it’s already June, but it certainly is welcome. The weather’s warm, birds are chirping, plants are pollinating, and we have another list of Top 5 episodes of the Daily Solutions Podcast. There really are some amazing...
