This year Go East will celebrate its 20th anniversary. We have many, many things to celebrate as 20 years of success in the creative industry is a huge milestone. 

Inevitably, celebrating anniversaries raises the question of developing a logo for the anniversary. Commemoration, celebration, nostalgia and gratitude all arise at this time, as does the desire for a logo or mark that embodies the spirit and emotion of the anniversary. The responsibility for capturing these emotions, as well as determining the creative tone of the upcoming celebrations, falls to the designer designated to create the mark. This is no small challenge. 

First, everyone usually wants the most conservative, most expected version of an anniversary logo. This impulse stems from a long history of foil stamps embossed with a big number in the middle and a ribbon with the years of the anniversary spelled out. This symbolizes anniversary to many people.

Second, there are often many stakeholders in an anniversary. There are the founders or principals whose vision we celebrate. There are the many people involved in the organization, people who have worked hard to make is a success and each have an idea of what the celebration should be like. And there are the marketing, PR and design groups who want to use the anniversary to build the brand, gain awareness and create buzz for the organization, and who want a logo to help them do that. That’s a lot of approvals to jump through.

Third, there is no telling where this logo is going to be used. I’ve had logos I’ve designed put on coffee mugs, gymnasium floors, banners, t-shirts, temporary tattoos, cakes and jewelry. While a good logo should be versatile and visually exciting, carrying it out in buttercream frosting is a challenge. 

So here are my top 5 tips for anniversary logo design: 

1. Out with the old: forget foil stamps, embossed type and burst edges. The best anniversary logos are contemporary and do not make use of out-dated, over-used clichés. Streamers are also overused. 

2. Be contemporary: the anniversary is happening now, so create a mark that is contemporary. Retro anniversary logos are redundant and miss the point. 

3. Be celebratory: primarily this is a big party, even if it lasts all year long. The mark should embody the emotions of a great birthday party, not a stuffy corporate training session. 

4: Position the celebration: too often you get a big “20″ and the dates 1998–2008. Most people can do the math, so who needs the dates in a logo? However, a key message paired with your mark that positions your celebration is original and meaningful to your audience. 

5. Don’t design in a vacuum: always design a logo with a context. Where will its primary use be? Online or on table tents? Projected or photocopied? The designer should know the primary context of the logo and design with those constraints in mind. Nothing is worse that a solution that can’t be executed well.

Posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 by Carla Januska