Need help with choosing a logo

[Anastasiya]

Hi there again, guys :))
Those who don’t know me - my name is Anastacia, I am from Russia, work as a development manager in a Siberian company that sells reclaimed barn wood.

So, strict to the point.
The last time we were chatting about our positioning you helped A LOT and gave so much information what we’re still operating and adapting to our business strategy.
Thank you all who participated for that.

Now we’ve faced another challenge.
According to your words we… decided to change a logo . Again)))))

So, we expect our future logo to have these main features:

1. A bear. Particularly, a bear and a little bear because we’re the family brand, we appreciate family values and we known that here, in the U.S. you follow these values too.
2. A pine. We thought of having a forest on a logo because most of our barn buildings are situated in forest areas. Some logos that I’ve pinned don’t have pine, it’b so great of you take a look at them and write what you think - with pine or without. Or maybe with something else…
3. And of course, the print. This barn print that we had in our previous logo is more American than Russian, and one graphic designer give us advice to create a logo in one style, both the logo itself and the print.

I’m pinning all our good variations of logo below and really looking forward to hearing all honest and professional opinions from you. We’ve worked a lot this month and now we’re so eager to get the feedback from your point of view and how we will be met at the American market with this logo.

Take care all

[pluto]

G’day @Anastasiya

Hopefully I’m not asking too many questions which have been asked before:

From what I remember about your business, is that you’re planning to sell the timber to customers in the U.S. via Ebay or Amazon - is that correct?

Who is your target market?

If you have any sales to date, who were the customers?

What stage in the product lifecycle is your product at?

How are you planning to market your product?

[Steve_O]

I’m sorry. I’m really not trying to be overly critical, but these are a step backwards. You need to scrap these and go back to the drawing board. Alternately, since the target market is U.S. consumers, you may consider hiring a U.S.-based designer.

[Anastasiya]

And of course, I’m sending for you our previous logo, the website and the Instagram account.

Website: https://siberianheritage.us
Instagram: Login • Instagram
And moreover, our main video from YouTube for now: International “ Siberian Heritage” company largest exporter of barn wood from Siberia - YouTube

The logo is below

[pluto]

That’s great, but I asked you about your target market, product and marketing strategy?

Why do you even think you need a new logo?

Why not save your money and do nothing?

Sometimes businesses rebrand and it actually hurts them.

Sorry if I sound like I’m being short with you, but if you’re looking for meaningful feedback we need to understand the problem you’re trying to solve.

[StudioMonkey]

I like the first one - the rest are too busy. The Lettering can be bigger on some versions.

[PrintDriver]

I’m not sure too many Americans are going to relate polar bears to Russia.
They see polar bears, they think Alaska or Eskimos.
Even though I know there are polar bears in Russia. Now. Cuz i just looked it up.

The rougher bear maybe, but that one is static and boring.

The trees look like wonky beginner illustrator attempts and say nothing good about the quality of the ‘lumber’

Do over.

[Anastasiya]

Good day, Pluto!

1. Yes, we’re already selling our barn wood panels on Amazon but our main goal for now is to rebrand our company design in general and logo particularly and launch sales on our website. So, now we have only one sales instrument - the Amazon, and we want to broaden our possibilities and sell our wood directly to customers on the website.

2. To tell the truth idk if there’ any difference between target market and target audience, and I guess they’re the same, so I’m gonna answer to this questions this way. Correct me, please, if I’m wrong ;))
   Our target audience is nearly everybody, I suppose, because we’ve done some research and understood that you in the U.S. have a good average salary, and nearly everybody can afford our product. However, if we talk about groups of people that can be interested in our product, they are likely to be families, countryside and suburban citizens, DIYers, designers, housewives, distant workers and those who adore to organise their houses and love 100% natural products, who love wood.

3. The majority of our clients that have already bought our products were on Amazon, so we don’t know anything for sure about them, but. 50% of them was men, and the other half was women, the age is approximately (according to their photos) 35-45.

4. Our company has a full production cycle (from barns in forests to the clients’ hands), and about the product lifecycle, it’s panelling. So, measure the quantity you need, buy it and then just install these wood panels to your walls. Easy, everyone can do it, and it’s qualitative.

5. The brand positioning of our product is in its value.
   First of all, it’s Siberia. It’s the wood from vast forest areas and severe weather conditions. It’s the sun that burns the wood during at least 20-30 years before we dismantle the barns. It’s the brutal wind that underline natural wooden pattern and reveal the real beauty of the wood. It’s cold and frost, it’s rains and storms, it’s the richness of all flora and fauna that lives near the barns or mostly in the barns, especially in winter. So, this wood in so unique that even we, the producers, don’t fully realise its value.
   Secondly, its 100% wood. I’ll tell you once again. It’s total wood, without any compromises like our cimoetitotrs have. It’s real.
   The third thing is, every panel goes through the hands of our wood specialists. So, it’s literally hand-made.
   And our other advantages like deeper texture, richer color, thicker wood (it’s 2 times thicker than our competitors’ ones so it’s not so fragile and it doesn’t crack), etc.

More about us you can read on our website: https://siberianheritage.us
And also, I’ve already pinned our present logo and other social media you might wanna check, they’re above

Thanks for your questions, waiting for your opinion

[Anastasiya]

Yes, it’s a good point about the U.S. designer…
Can you recommend anybody?

[Anastasiya]

Sure!
Glad you’re helping.

The answers on these questions:

1. I hope I’ve given all necessary information about that above.

2. Because the logo that we have now is a) not readable enough. Many of you here told me the last time that it’s so problematic to understand what written on the logo. b) Now our logo is really textural. It also bothers people to read and it’s not contemporary enough. And c) our logo now has more American style than Russian one. The print, the barn board, the texture… everything reminds Texas or Wild West. However, we’re from Russia and we want people to see us, Siberia, Russian people with open hearts and the country of enormous nature richness. So, we think (we didn’t realise that before you hadn’t told us about that here)) that it doesn’t match our philosophy and what we want to represent. So, that’s it.

3. I feel the answer on this question is already above in the second one. We feel that is doesn’t correspond anymore with our brand value. We want Americans to understand according to our logo that we’re from Russia, we sell qualitative bran wood products and we appreciate family values and real, honest and kind human connection. That’s what we want to represent to be more welcome in the U.S.

Thanks again for the involvement in my question. I appreciate it a lot

[Anastasiya]

That’s disappointing :(( because we want to place in our logo somebody like a character, a living hero. Not just a tree or wood like our competitors did. We thought it can be a bear but now you say that you don’t associate Russia with bears…

[PrintDriver]

I associate Russia with bears. The Russian Bear has long been symbolic, but it’s always been more of a big grizzly bear (and not one always with the best connotations for good)
Not a cute cuddly polar bear.

[Just-B]

I think you need a new logo to replace the one you’re using now. Sacrificing existing brand recognition by switching to a new logo is a concern. However, I suspect your current brand is obscure enough not to be a significant worry.

You’re selling on Amazon, where most of your customers are (tell me if I’m wrong) first-time buyers who are primarily homeowners. If that’s the case, buyers will decide to buy based on what they see on Amazon and their research rather than familiarity with an existing brand. I suspect you should be far more concerned with first-time buyer impressions of quality, trustworthiness, customer satisfaction, and Amazon customer reviews.

However, we’re not in a position to give you much definitive marketing advice. Most here are designers, not marketers. Solid marketing advice would come only after a thorough analysis of your business model and potential customer base.

I hate to bring this up because it’s something beyond your control, but your market in the United States or the EU could disappear if Putin moves troops into Ukraine. Trade and financial sanctions might make that business impossible. Even if you’re not affected by the inevitable sanctions, customer demand for Russian products in the West will evaporate.

As for the logo ideas you’ve presented, they look a bit amateurish (sorry).

I like aspects of the first and last logos, however. They’re simple, friendly, and have the family appeal you want. The cub as a smaller version of the mother creates an interesting visual repetition. I can easily envision this logo as an actual brand burned into the wood. But as PrintDriver noted, the bears look more like arctic polar bears than Siberian brown bears. I think you have an idea here that could work, but in my opinion, they need to look less like polar bears and more like brown bears with a Siberian flavor.

The second logo is, without any doubt, a brown bear, which is good. But the images appear to be clip art. There’s no style or aesthetic niceties — just silhouettes of two bears traced from a photo.

The remaining logos of the (polar) bears with the trees in the background do not work. They’re too complicated. The trees are awkward, amateurishly drawn, and don’t match the cleaner style of the bears in the foreground. The trees appear to be afterthoughts tossed into the mix for no apparent reason.

Finally, the typography is uninspired. The highly condensed slab serif type isn’t legible enough for a logo. The serif type you’ve used is more of a text face and not entirely appropriate. Neither match the style of the logos they’re paired with.

[Kaegro]

I think I can see the rationale that led to the choices in these logos - bears personify a lot of the appeal of the wilderness - powerful, enduring, and untamed. They are easily associated with forests, trees, and therefore wood, and therefore your product. And a mother and cub implies family and heritage - the passing down of a legacy, further tying it to your branding. On paper, those are some pretty solid marks.

I think it needs more work on the execution, though. On first glance, the smooth, nested logo probably has the best qualities overall, but it does read as a polar bear. As much as I love the negative space, I think that’s part of the problem here - rendered on a white background, one bear is going to be white and so minds are going to go “polar bear” very easily. The simple nature of the nested logo means there’s no other identifying features to pull you back to any other bear, and then minds are stuck in the North Pole thinking of icebergs.

There are a couple ways you could try to chop this logo up into something that works better - adding more distinguishing features to the silhouette, or un-nesting the bears - but I think time would be better spent taking it back to the drawing board and try a few more iterations on the concept.

…And forgive me if this is in any way offensive, but after typing up “nested” three times, I have to ask - was the nesting of the bears meant to reference matryoshka dolls as a visual tie to Russia? If so, it’s a cute idea, but would need to be played up more to come across to an average American, I think.

[Just-B]

@Kaegro

was the nesting of the bears meant to reference matryoshka dolls as a visual tie to Russia?

I missed that too, but it’s a great observation and a good idea. It’s one of those subtle, hidden discoveries that give a logo depth and memorability.

[Steve_O]

To my eye, the newest iterations miss on two counts. First, you’re selling an upscale, premium product. There is nothing about these bears that telegraph upscale or premium. Second, there is a disconnect between the classic serif font and the modern, clean-lined bear art.

[pluto]

@Anastasiya

we want to broaden our possibilities and sell our wood directly to customers on the website.

So you’re opening a second distribution channel selling direct to the customer on your website.
Out of interest, will you continue to sell via Amazon?

@Anastasiya

Our target audience is nearly everybody,

This a bit of a concern. Often what happens when businesses is so broad with their target market or audience, they end up targeting no one. Would encourage you to look up Segmentation,Targeting and Positioning (STP) and try to narrow this down and also put together a perceptual map of the market place and competitors.

@Anastasiya

they are likely to be families, countryside and suburban citizens, DIYers, designers, housewives, distant workers

Have you validated that these people are your customers, and if so where do you think the greatest financial opportunity lies?

@Anastasiya

Our company has a full production cycle

The product lifecycle refers to what stage the product is at in the generic product lifecycle. This is important to know (not so much for your logo), but because depending on where it’s at, the messaging and aim of your marketing will vary.

@Anastasiya

but. 50% of them was men, and the other half was women, the age is approximately (according to their photos) 35-45.

This is a valueble piece of information and starts to narrow in on who your customers are that you should focus on making your business appealing to.

@Anastasiya

Because the logo that we have now is a) not readable enough. Many of you here told me the last time that it’s so problematic to understand what written on the logo. b) Now our logo is really textural. It also bothers people to read and it’s not contemporary enough. And c) our logo now has more American style than Russian one. The print, the barn board, the texture… everything reminds Texas or Wild West. However, we’re from Russia and we want people to see us, Siberia, Russian people with open hearts and the country of enormous nature richness. So, we think (we didn’t realise that before you hadn’t told us about that here)) that it doesn’t match our philosophy and what we want to represent. So, that’s it.

Ok, there are some good reasons in there, such as legibility, appearing Russian and aligning with your values. If I were you, I’d make list of objective criteria that the logo must do, to help you decide what “finished” will look like.

[Anastasiya]

Guys, thank you very much for your answers and opinions!

We thought and talked a lot about rebranding our logo and came to the conclusion that for now we don’t need any cause it’s huge work to do and now we don’t have enough time for that.

Thanks again for your indifference.
Take care!