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
Should Float Centers use Light or Heavy Gauge Studs? – DSP 269
Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.
Jake and Graham are on the scene though to answer construction questions, though. Even the straight forward ones, like today. Jake informs us which to choose when doing construction, light or heavy gauge studs when constructing a float center, while getting a little sidetracked when comparing wooden and metal studs.
Construction to Make Your Life Easier – DSP 268
Graham and Jake cover a wide range of construction tips to make running a float center easier. Everything from making sure you have extra storage to installing mop closets with sinks in them for dealing with heavy duty chemicals.
The advice is pretty much a shotgun approach of tips, tricks, and hard lessons learned throughout the years.
Draining Float Tanks into Septic Systems – DSP 267
Graham and Jake tackle the difficulties of draining float tanks and how that process can differ based on different municipalities, different water treatment systems, or whether you’re using a septic system or not.
Water treatment typically involves whole contained ecosystems and highly concentrated epsom salt water can impact that pretty drastically. The guys provide good tips for each type of system and what to be prepared for if you’re operating in a rural area with a septic system.
The Difference Between STC and Decibels – DSP 266
Post-Conference Ashkahn is still out of the recording studio, but fortunately Jake is keeping Graham company in there.
Graham and Jake break down the differences between decibels and STC ratings, two very important to understand when figuring out soundproofing. There’s a lot to digest in this episode, but fortunately the guys keep it easy to understand by providing a broad level overview of the different concepts.
Should I Wire my Float Tanks into the Wall? – DSP 265
Ashkahn is currently recovering from his talk and the after-party last night, but Jake and Graham have gracefully taken the time to answer a construction question again today.
On the docket today is a question about wiring a float tank directly into the wall. Graham and Jake provide an overview of why some people may prefer this (it’s much easier to keep waterproof, e.g.), and why at Float On they use the twist lock for their outlets and how to properly utilize them.
Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #28
Home sweet home! After so many months on the road, it was strange being back here in Portland. We were exhausted, excited, and a little travel weary. The first night back, I slept in my own bed for the first time in three months and the world just melted away.
Having travelled across the United States, I’m reminded of how insular Portland is. We are aggressively fixated on keeping things local. Local beer, ketchup, bikes, pet food, pillows, phone cases… it’s part of our charm. We want to reward people for living here and being a part of the community. It’s so pervasive that, after living here for so long, I kind of forgot that Secret Aardvark hot-sauce isn’t available everywhere, and that most cities don’t even recycle, let alone compost.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #27
Our northern neighbor – a sister city, of sorts – Seattle is the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the land of Microsoft and Kurt Cobain, and the culture here embraces both simultaneously. It’s tech business professional in the front and rock n’ roll grunge in the back. This blend creates a perfect storm of high energy business life and high energy nightlife, making relaxation a valuable commodity. Floating helps fill the void left by nightmarish traffic and overcrowded restaurants.
Given that it’s so close to home, the float centers in Seattle are a lot more familiar to us. Our visits here were more like a high school reunion than they were like the first day of school. During some of our visits, we were picking up conversations right where we left them.
The Float Tour Blog Issue #26
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, and third largest on the West Coast. It’s a major hub for international trade, with one of the largest ports in the world, giving it a large migrant population, mainly from Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. It’s also been a long-time home to the Canadian film industry, and has even been nicknamed “North Hollywood.” Dozens of film and television productions from major studios film here every year.
Vancouver is very much an international city. It has large boroughs dedicated to varying cultures, including one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. The society here is more receptive to new ideas, always looking for the next big thing; it’s not surprising that floating has blown up in Vancouver as much as it has.
In the last 3 years, 10 float centers have opened up, most of them being larger 4–6 tank centers. The really interesting thing is how they all opened within the same short amount of time about 1 ½ to 2 years ago, within months of each other.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #25
We finally made it back to the West Coast! We went through the Canadian Rockies and were overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. We drove through hours and hours of winding mountain roads, fertile valleys, and tiny towns so picturesque they looked like movie sets. It was so captivating, in fact, I suspect Graham and Ashkahn may have secretly replaced themselves with robotic doppelgängers to hike throughout Banff.
This post will focus on the smaller communities in B.C. that are bringing floating to new people every day. We also get to visit Canadian manufacturer Pro Float. They’re relatively new to the scene, just opening up earlier this year – another exciting sign of the growth in the industry.
