Thread: Are logos necessary?

Working with a site designer & I was asked if I have or want a logo. Good question. I don't have one - do I really need one?

Curious how many of you have a logo and how much you use it - what do you use it for? Letterhead? Banners/signs? Flyers? Business cards? Is your logo your name/business name, a drawing/picture, or a combination of both?

I believe they are necessary, even if it is just your name in a specific font and color. I use my logo on everything.

Here's mine. I often remove the silhouette for most print materials:


Eta: that silhouette is actually me.

I think your name, rendered as a graphic in a decorative but READABLE typeface, is the best choice for a bellydancer's logo.

Photos are SO important in marketing what we do. A graphic logo, other than your name, would only detract from the photos on the page and give one more thing to squeeze into tight space on business cards and small ads.

You rarely see a large successful business with a foofy logo. Their name in a signature typeface is the #1 choice. A simple design element, like the Nike swoosh or McDonalds' arches is #2 and you won't see much more complicated than that, except among amateurs who get carried away.

p.s. I think for a bellydancer, you could even use a different typeface for every piece and NOT have your name-as-logo and I doubt it would affect your business one iota.

We're just not that much of a commodity that we need 'the public' to instantly recognize us as a 'brand' in order to make a sale. People who've hired you in the past and are looking for you again will know you by your photo more than by your typeface.

My logo is just Bluegrass Bellydance in a specific font that has grass in the background. I wanted something that looked good everywhere, on a card, a banner, a shirt. It is pretty simple and keeps my branding consistent. It's at the top of my website linked below.

I just came up with my own logo while completely redesigning my website a few months ago. I use it on all of my marketing materials now.

I have a logo and like it. It keeps all of my materials consistent. It is a stylized version of one of my tattoos, so it refers back to me directly and is meaningful to me. I don't think they are necessary at all, but it has been a good choice for me.

Having attractive, consistently themed marketing materials gives a professional impression to your potential customers. Unless you are an artist who can design your own graphic icon, the safest and cheapest bet is to work some WordArt magic on your dance name.

If you plan to market yourself to Arabic-speaking audiences, please be careful about using faux-Arabic fonts (funky, misshapen, baseline-heavy letters with random grammatical markings flying around). Arabs are proud of their culture's rich tradition of calligraphic arts, and native speakers may not find those fonts amusing. (You know how advertisers reverse letters and skew them on crazy angles to simulate children's writing in English? Yeah, that's how faux-foreign fonts often look to bilingual speakers: unsophisticated, illiterate, and silly.) If you want to cultivate an Arab clientele, it would be better to invest in having an Arabic calligrapher render your name in a traditional, artistic design for your logo, like Jasmin Jahal's genie bottle. Otherwise, stick with a font that is pleasantly stylish, but easy to parse in English. Few people are impressed by a graphic that looks like it ought to be readable, if they can't figure out what it says.

We refer to just having your name in a nice typeface with a bit of customization a 'wordmark'. This could be your only logo or used in conjunction with a more graphic logo.

It's great for continuity of brand whether you use it on your website, business cards, email signature, FB page, etc. It makes your name stand out a bit more than just having it show up in a random font in random colors.

I half-heartedly did the Southern Raq wordmark late one night for the website: Southern Raq Bellydance of Middle Georgia but will use it later on for sponsored event flyers and possibly t-shirts and maybe an event banner.

You do want to make sure the designer gives you a vector version of the graphic to keep in your files. It will reproduce better than JPEGs.

Prob not necessary if you you only teach out of your home or local rec center.
But if you are or plan to expand your teaching biz, if you are working toward a future that involves opening a studio of your own, or either are or moving into performing on a professional level - then I would say a logo or brand is def something you want to consider/look into...


Back when I ran a studio of my own - I had an uber kewl space, a fairly decent name for it, and a great meme that included on everything that went out. Had to close after a few years for several reasons (I jumped in w/ out knowing everything I perhaps should have, built the biz before I had really built up my base & network, had enough $$ to keep it open but not enough to advertise/promote it, took on a disasterous biz partner, among other factors which also included declining economy)

Recently dipped my toe back into the biz side again...
Doing things slowly (and hopefully better) this time round! Teaching out of someone else's space (started as just an instructor - but recently asked to head up the BD Dept at performing arts academy), spending $$ on advertising/promoting (instead of on just covering overhead) and building my brand/identity/base/network. I have a (different) good solid name, and nice (simple) logo to work with.

Here they are:

We had a argument about this over on Tribe. Logo making for your troupe? - The Biz of Belly Dance - tribe.net. Brad suggested using Cool Text: Logo and Graphics Generator to generate your own text logo.

why would anyone argue? I don't get it.

Most well-known (i.e. well-marketed) bellydancers have SOME kind of branding, whether it's an image logo, the font they always use or a slogan.

I had my daughter design a nice image for my now-defunct troupe which I took over after I disbanded it, because I like it & of course the "family value" it has for me so to speak


I just like having it around me.

then I just added text for my Prism page

Originally Posted by maurazebra

We had a argument about this over on Tribe. Logo making for your troupe? - The Biz of Belly Dance - tribe.net. Brad suggested using Cool Text: Logo and Graphics Generator to generate your own text logo.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

...... please be careful about using faux-Arabic fonts (funky, misshapen, baseline-heavy letters with random grammatical markings flying around).....

do you have an example of this? i'm guessing you don't mean fonts that are obviously readable English with an Arabic calligraphy styling?

If you are just getting started, I wouldn't stress too much about it; however, ultimately, if you are consistent in your advertising, it will help your target market recognize you immediately. Our logo is just text made up of 2 different fonts. We have a silhouette of a dancer that we have used with it for our tee shirts and water bottles, but the distinctive text is what makes it consistent.

Although we change our "theme" for our advertising every year, we do our best to keep our logo consistent. Here are some examples of different ads that utilize the same "logo". Some it it has evolved because we added a festival in 2009.





You can see more of our advertising images here:
2010 Advertising Images Photo Album

Originally Posted by raqFariha

do you have an example of this? i'm guessing you don't mean fonts that are obviously readable English with an Arabic calligraphy styling?

Arabic Fonts - 1001 Free Fonts

Just say no to fonts like Alhambra and Pseudo Saudi. Some of the letters are English, some of them are Arabic, and some of them are crazy nonsense. What kind of Arab would be impressed by a dancer who claims to represent their culture with respect and sensitivity and then puts writing with upside-down, miswritten Arabic letters on her PR materials? This is the Arabic version of "Toys я Us." It's not giving customers the impression that you have much awareness or sophistication.

I've seen on a couple of dancers' websites what Tourbeau is talking about.
They took their name, and changed the English letters to kinda look like Arabic ones. So someone with an u in her name, would add 1 or 2 dots to it for decorating, etc. Iy's so distracting, because not they changed an "u" into a "t" or "n", and an Arabic speaker would start reading is r-to-l, and it would be all nonsense anyways.
I agree, I think it's silly and somewhat ignorant.

Nothing wrong with those fonts being used in America by American dancers. We use a very similar one in our troupe logo (see my avatar). IMO, trying to be more Arabic than the Arabs is not respectful, it is fearful. I would no more expect an Arabic customer to get upset by these fonts than I would be if s/he was using a pseudo-Broadway font for her own PR. Our Arabic customers are very intelligent and very cosmopolitan (which is how they make enough money in the US to hire us). They are more than capable of coping with / enjoying the sight and sound of their cultural icons being stretched a bit. What they DO care about is what their friends recommend as dancers for their next event / festival / restaurant opening. That is what they use to determine who they'll consider hiring. Not your logo. Not in these parts, anyway.

I think we'll keep our professionally-designed troupe logo as it is. I don't think Tourbeau or Marianna were planning on hiring us anyway...

I find it offensive to use Brush Script. ..g.:

Originally Posted by maurazebra

Nothing wrong with those fonts being used in America by American dancers. We use a very similar one in our troupe logo (see my avatar). IMO, trying to be more Arabic than the Arabs is not respectful, it is fearful.

This isn't about fear or trying to out-Arab Arabs. It is about understanding the subtle cultural ramifications of one's choices. Choosing a font that uses letters in nonstandard ways carries particular connotations. Think of English--misoriented letters ("Toys я Us"), letters with misused diacritical marks ("Spın̈al Tap" with an umlaut over the "n"), and character substitutions ("n00b") tend to carry a very silly, ignorant, or immature vibe to them. This is probably not the impression one wants to create as an elegant, highly trained professional artist. Now realize that these fonts are spanning two languages. Opting yourself into someone else's cultural "inside joke" is a tricky proposition. If you are a fluent speaker of both languages and want to riff on the idiosyncrasies of the alphabets, and you are making that choice from an informed position, then that is different from making the same choice in ignorance--but it doesn't protect you from the possibility that the other side will attribute the peculiarities of your usage to something less flattering than creative genius, even if they hire you.

Dancers should always consider their potential market and the impression they want to create. If you are aiming at Western audiences with a very low likelihood of encountering native speakers, or if your performance goals are to fuse in elements from other disparate traditions, then you have more freedom to play with different cultural themes than if you are presenting yourself with serious authenticity to an audience from that culture.

i was just trying to make sure you didn't mean something like this: Aladdin Fuente en es.FontRiver.com
because i wasn't sure how that could be offensive.
i see what you mean though.
I have been trying to get my name in Arabic all pretty for my site, but my computer flips it when i copy it from the web (can't get my comp to type in Arabic, even when my friend with the skillz tries) into photoshop and all of a sudden instead of saying "joy" it's jibberish. T_T

Originally Posted by roguepen

I find it offensive to use Brush Script. ..g.:

Me too!..g.:

Originally Posted by raqFariha

i was just trying to make sure you didn't mean something like this: Aladdin Fuente en es.FontRiver.com

No, that's just a brushstroke font, not what Marianna and I were talking about.

I have been trying to get my name in Arabic all pretty for my site, but my computer flips it when i copy it from the web (can't get my comp to type in Arabic, even when my friend with the skillz tries) into photoshop and all of a sudden instead of saying "joy" it's jibberish. T_T

You'd think after all these years, the computer industry would have developed better tools for combining R-L and L-R text. Have you tried using your name as a graphic? That would be more stable than text.

Originally Posted by roguepen

I find it offensive to use Brush Script. ..g.:

Or Comic Sans.

Even MORE offensive if you have twinkly star .GIF's in the background.

Originally Posted by roguepen

I find it offensive to use Brush Script. ..g.:

I'm generally offended by Papyrus too. Is that bad? LOL. It's probably the most overused font in the belly world. ,r:;..l;,

Originally Posted by Samira_dncr

I'm generally offended by Papyrus too. Is that bad? LOL. It's probably the most overused font in the belly world. ,r:;..l;,

I hate Papyrus, too, if that's any consolation ..g.:

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

I hate Papyrus, too, if that's any consolation ..g.:

Sometimes I think that if I get one more ad submission with a papyrus font that I may just shoot myself and end it all....Hahhaha. Glad I'm not the only one who hates Papyrus. I hate Comic Sans too. Sigh.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

I hate Papyrus, too, if that's any consolation ..g.:

I'm embarrassed to admit that my old "logo" was Papyrus. When I decided to actual make a complete graphic from scratch, I tried to go as far in the other direction as I could.

Originally Posted by laura 2

I'm embarrassed to admit that my old "logo" was Papyrus. When I decided to actual make a complete graphic from scratch, I tried to go as far in the other direction as I could.

No worries. I think many of us are enchanted with Papyrus in the beginning. It isn't the world's worst font. It's just that now that I've seen it 10,000 times I'm really tired of it.

Maybe we need belly dance font policewomen? .p::

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

Choosing a font that uses letters in nonstandard ways carries particular connotations. Think of English--misoriented letters ("Toys я Us"), letters with misused diacritical marks ("Spın̈al Tap" with an umlaut over the "n"), and character substitutions ("n00b") tend to carry a very silly, ignorant, or immature vibe to them. This is probably not the impression one wants to create as an elegant, highly trained professional artist. ...If...you are making that choice from an informed position, then that is different from making the same choice in ignorance--but it doesn't protect you from the possibility that the other side will attribute the peculiarities of your usage to something less flattering than creative genius, even if they hire you...If you are aiming at Western audiences with a very low likelihood of encountering native speakers, or if your performance goals are to fuse in elements from other disparate traditions, then you have more freedom to play with different cultural themes than if you are presenting yourself with serious authenticity to an audience from that culture.

This, IMO, is way out there on the shaky far limbs of speculation... even if you specialize in 'serious authenticity only' gigs. In a Biz of Belly dance forum I am looking more for practical application and real-life experiences unless the idea seems like a spark of genius. I would want to see some data showing that dancers with logos that meet your standards have more respectful Arabic customers than dancers with, um, ignorant and peculiar logos.

Our business experience is: our Arabic customers are intelligent, cosmopolitan and well-educated. We are hired to perform at their weddings, professional conferences, festivals and parties. Repeatedly. An Egyptian gentleman has hired 15-18 of our troupe dancers to come perform at a party he is throwing this weekend for his son who is graduating from medical school. He has seen several performances at different times and wants a good mix of presentations, specifying in particular an off-the-wall dance to the Matrix theme (with goth costuming, sticks and double veils) and a Bollywood number. Based on our experience, I believe a pro will lose more Arabic customers by patronizingly assuming that they can only thoroughly enjoy what many an anxious American dancer defines as the 'authentic' than s/he will by having random accent marks in the logo and the equivalent in the dance mix. You are bothered by what you call 'misoriented letters' and character substitutions in any language; but to me, "Toys я Us", "Spın̈al Tap" and "n00b" do NOT carry a very silly, ignorant, or immature vibe because of what they represent. If they were a law firm or a bank, then I'd avoid them for sure. But toys and entertainment are allowed - and even expected to have - a more winsome approach. Which means that your argument has no practical proof for me at this point.

Well worded argument, though!

And no, folks, I am NOT including dancers who love and cleave to the strictly authentic in the 'anxious and fearful' ones.

I think our troupe logo represents us very well. If a potential Arab customer is disconcerted by the typeface, we're probably not the dancers they want to hire and it is best they know it right away. We don't want ALL the customers... just the ones that are going to enjoy US.