As a business grows and develops, it reaches several landmark moments worth celebrating: first dollar earned, first 1,000 customers served, or even the first year in business. Each of these marquee moments deserves their day in the sun, but it doesn’t stop there. Every big anniversary year is a chance to proudly, publicly celebrate your brand’s perennial success. And the best way to celebrate year-round, while simultaneously building cohesive branding, is with a specially designed anniversary logo.
The YellowDog design team has created some incredible anniversary logos over the years. In fact, we have one right now to celebrate our 20th year in business. If your company is also looking to show off, then here are a few tips and tricks for creating an eye-catching anniversary logo—whether it’s your fifth year in business or 105th!
Why would I need an anniversary logo?
A major milestone like a business anniversary not only shows customers how long you’ve been in business, but, in turn, demonstrates how good you are at your business. Experience really means something to buyers. If a company’s been making the same product since 1912, for example, they’ve been through the wringer—survived the thrill of the ’50s, the grunge of the ’90s and the near-apocalypse of 2020—and lived to tell the tale. I trust that business.
Not to sell short the businesses that are just getting started. According to Forbes, 20% of new businesses fail within the first year, so getting past those first 12 months is huge and worthy of celebration. Brag about it! You’re two now. Buy yourself a cake!
What is an anniversary logo?
An anniversary logo is very simply your business logo modified to incorporate and bring attention to the anniversary year you’re celebrating. Let’s call it a riff on your main logo. The anniversary logo could be in combination with your existing logo or a brand new logo that supplants your primary logo for the time frame you’re celebrating.
Typically the anniversary milestones worth making a fuss about are the tentpole five- and 10-year intervals (25, 30, 50, 65, etc.) But also, I don’t make the rules. Celebrate any number of years in business you’d like. Forty-two is a fun number. Celebrate that year. Invite me to the party.
How do I make an anniversary logo?
Now we need to design your anniversary logo. Sorry to say it’s more than simply slapping a number on your current logo and calling it a day—er, year? There are a few ways to develop an anniversary logo design that are fresh, fun and fancy. Just like you, dear reader.
Very simply, you could incorporate badging on top of your primary logo that indicates the year you’re celebrating. Again we’re trying to avoid simply applying a number, but rather smartly showing a number with qualifying text like “15 years” or “30 years serving our community.” For example, we tagged an anniversary seal to the end of Iron Woman’s main logo and added an encouraging message to go along with it.
Revelstoke’s 10th anniversary logo is another example of simplistic modification and application of an anniversary badge to their original logo.
An anniversary can also be an opportunity to create an entirely new logo (or logos). Any new logo should follow brand style and pull in existing elements to create a fresh look. It’s not a total deviation from your original logo, but an offshoot so that your brand is still recognizable. You’re simply adding a new celebratory twist—kind of like putting on a party hat.
As a creative studio, we couldn’t resist going all in on our very own anniversary logo celebrating 20 years of YellowDog.
We have a combination design, wherein we took our pre-existing pictorial logo of a sitting dog and made it a negative space logo to replicate the negative space in the zero of 20.
Another fun example can be seen in Swallow Hill Music‘s 40th anniversary logo.
We fit the stylized number 40 into their pre-existing bird mascot, with an additional “40th Anniversary” wordmark added to the design.
Let’s make it happen!
Are you pumped to get started on your own anniversary logo? I hope we’ve given you enough insight and inspiration to get your wheels turning. Now, when it comes to the actual logo design, it’s always best to call in the professionals.
YellowDog’s award-winning design team is excited to hear your ideas and help you and your business succeed with an anniversary logo. If you’re coming up on a major milestone, give us a whistle and we’ll happily jump right in!
by YellowDog.