Instructor: Jonathan J. Gouthier, Gouthier Design

Duration: 31:03 minutes

Added May 2008

There are over one million registered trademarks, and if you add to this the number of small businesses that are launched with a logo every year, the amount is staggering. Yet the basic question is, what makes one identity better than another and why? In every instance, a responsible creative process categorizes the designs of the best marks. This process encompasses 10 criteria. Let's look at these 10 items and examples that can help you transform, or create, an identity that is strong and lasting.

About Jonathan J. Gouthier

Jonathan Gouthier is the man behind the brand. Gouthier's love of art but distaste for the 'starving artist' label motivated him to turn art in to business and a career in visual communication. His talents and business savvy drove him to the niche-marketing sector of branding—of selling corporate image and sizzle.

Gouthier graduated from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design. After graduation he took a position at a Connecticut marketing firm whose client list included notables such as Time Warner, McMillan McGraw, Traveler's Insurance and The Nature Conservancy. He started his business, Gouthier Design, Inc., in 1994, earning a lengthy client list of regional corporations and agencies, by helping companies get their names out and on the minds of the consumer public or business-to-business trade. His business received repeated recognition and Gouthier was selected as one of the top 50 designers in the nation to be showcased in Graphic Design Magazine's, 'People to watch in 2002.' Gouthier Design has also been continually honored for creativity, outstanding logos and collateral by numerous printing associations, award competitions, and exhibitions, and by the South Florida ADDYs where his firm has risen to the top of winners list consistently for the past 5 years. His work is internationally published in a wide range of business and graphic arts books and is also included in the National Archives of the 'Galeria Artis' in Mexico City, Mexico. Gouthier Design now has offices in Miami and New York City.