7 design tips when creating a logo

Thinking of what unites big brands like Apple, Windows, Android, Nike, or McDonald’s? It’s that you’ll be able to recognise any of these brands, wherever you are in the world, because of their iconic logos. They’re the modern success stories of how a company can use their logo to do the following: make a strong impression on customers, communicate distinctive brand identity, and demonstrate what the company’s vision is with just one visual idea. 

A well-designed company logo is a functional investment. It will attract customers to your business, help them distinguish you among your competitors, and uplift your reputation within your chosen industry. You’ll want to partner with someone who provides high-quality graphic design and print services in order to realise these goals.

The following design tips may also help when you’re in the brainstorming phase with your creative team.

1. Study the logos of your competitors or other companies in your industry. If you want a better idea of how a similar business uses their logo, do some research on either your competitors or companies related to your industry. Not only will this give you a better idea of what visuals you want for your own logo, but you’ll also be able to tell whether certain colours, graphic elements, or catchphrases are overused.

2. Be simple and clean in your design approach. Yes, your company logo should be pleasing to the eye, but that doesn’t mean you should cram as many visual elements into it as possible. Most great logos make use of clean lines, simple shapes, negative space, and symmetry.

3. If you want your brand identity to be memorable, aim for something clever. There are several ways to get a customer to remember your brand, and one of them is treating them to a clever inside joke in your logo. One example is the curved bite mark in the Apple logo—without so many words, people understand it to be a pun on computer “bytes.” If you and your creative team can come up with something similar for your logo, all the better it will be!

4. Incorporate something that has to do with the nature of your business. This will serve as a visual cue for your target customers as to what service your business offers. For example, the logo can include a graphic of a spark plug if you offer electrical repairs or the silhouette of a bridal veil if your company organises wedding events. 

5. Integrate your brand colours. Colour gives life and texture to any visual work, but to a company logo, it’s essential in communicating what your brand is all about. There’s already a shorthand as to what people associate with colours. For instance, green evokes nature and is therefore suited to health and environmental brands. Alternatively, gold and silver evoke power and exclusivity and are therefore good for luxury brand logos. Do explore different hues for the colours you’ll use in your logo, and make sure that the finished product looks good in greyscale for use in black-and-white documents.

6. Be particular about your choice of typography. Don’t neglect the textual element of your logo, either. The font you use for your brand name, as well as a catchphrase, should be readable. It should also seem like the natural choice given the logo’s other visual elements: for a premium business-related brand, the font should look crisp and professional, while a brand that has to do with selling artisan products can afford to use similarly artsy custom-type text in their logo.

7. Be open to something other than your initial idea. Lastly, do remember that it may take time to arrive at the perfect logo. You might be set on your first idea, but the first draft might not be bold, communicative, or original enough. Ask your graphic artist to help you come up with at least three studies before you pick one out. You’ll be surprised at how creative you can all be once your initial ideas on the logo are challenged!

Out of the many bland, overly complicated, or confusing logos out there, yours should be able to stand out. May you and your design partner come to a creative, original understanding of what your brand is trying to do—because, in the end, that’s what will elevate a company logo from amateur to amazing.

What is typography?

Simply put, typography is the style or appearance of text. And though you may not believe it, good typography can make or break a user experience.

But before the internet age, it was known as the art of logically arranging and designing the text of any printed matter to make it logical and easy to read while also having a pleasing and attractive look.

Good typography was considered essential when it came to the publishing of books, manuscripts, newspapers, and other types of print media.

Nowadays, this form of art is still held to a high standard. But with digital media and the internet becoming more popular over print media, some of typography’s finer points are being forgotten in place of flashy animations, high-resolution images, and stylised backgrounds.

This is especially evident in website development, where many website designers often rely on attractive graphics, auto-playing videos, and other distracting features to attract visitors and compel them to stay on the page.

Unfortunately, this particular trend can have a detrimental effect on a website’s ability to keep their visitors around, especially when such features have become commonplace.

As such, it is up to web developers to employ best practices for typography to ensure that their websites remain effective in attracting visitors.

Best Practices for Typography

Good typography immediately communicates the website’s purpose to the visitor. Once landing on a webpage, a user will immediately begin scanning for information.

This information needs to be easily found, otherwise the user will exit the website and you’ll lose a potential customer.

Font Choice

A clear, easy to read font that is appropriately sized will make their experience a more positive one, increasing the likelihood of them returning to your website in the future.

Typeface can make or break a website. Sure, the playful, calligraphic fonts are fun to look at, but they’re not very easy to read.

Instead, choose from a popular font family such as Helvetica, Calibri, or Arial, to make sure users can easily read the on-page text.

Headlines

Consider the last time you looked at a website. Did you read every single word on the page or did you scan for text that was bigger and bolder?

You may not have realized it, but you subconsciously scanned for headlines as soon as you landed on the page. 

As such, it’s important to make sure that headlines stand out on a website.

Web designers can quickly convey to a visitor that they are looking at news articles by having the “News” subheadings displayed with bolder and larger typefaces than the rest of its content.

These article headlines would then draw the visitor’s eye to the smaller blurb paragraphs below them, prompting them to read further.

Proper headlines can help direct users exactly where you want them to go.

Evoke Emotion

Another reason why typography is important in web design is that it can help evoke specific emotions and mindsets within the visitor.

Just like the previous news website example, the larger size of the headlines among the other text immediately grabs the viewer’s attention and establishes a sense of urgency, as well as a desire to know more. As such, they stay on the website for longer as they satisfy their curiosity through reading the articles in full. 

In the case of an eCommerce store however, typography serves a different purpose. 

Though you want to provide sufficient information in the product description, a more effective use of typography in eCommerce is a minimal use of text, combined with attractive brand & product photos. 

The minimal amount of reading they have to do also ensures that they can find and spot the specific product or product line they’re looking for.

Spacing

Just as headlines drag your attention to a certain spot on the page, the use of white space often helps make larger volumes of content easier to read.

Reading large volumes of text, especially from a computer monitor or smartphone screen, can easily cause eye strain and eye fatigue. This can make it difficult for a website, especially one that conveys information through large blocks of text, to retain visitors.

However, a text-heavy website can avoid tiring out its visitors and encourage long periods of enjoyable binge, simply by breaking up the content with white space. 

If you’ve been paying attention, that’s what we’ve been doing in this blog.

It’s easy to overlook typography when it comes to building and designing a website.

However, to do so is to risk making your website look confusing or difficult to engage with, which can drive off its potential visitors and users.

Recognise how good typography can shape the perception of your website and take to heart its importance in web design for the reasons listed above, and you’ll see why this fine art is still essential even today.

The header is the first thing visitors see on your website. And unless they're on a landing page, it's present on every page of your site.

And because it contains your brand name, logo, and navigation options, the header has to make a great first impression. It has to be simple yet beautiful and functional. 

But don't worry, we're here to help you out. Here's the complete guide to design your next website header.

5 tips to design your next website header

1. Highlight the important elements

The header should contain the most important information about your business. That way, users can quickly decide if the website will satisfy their search query.

Your company's name and logo have to be present,  obviously. And depending on the type of business you own and your business goals, you'll have to consider adding a few of these elements:

• Navigation Links
• Search Button
• Call to Action - Shop, Get a Quote, Make a Reservation, Call Us etc. 
• Contact Information
• Social Media Icons (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
• Multi-language toggle (if necessary)
• Headline

Take note that these elements will vary depending on the type website.

For example, if you run an eCommerce store, your header should include a shopping cart icon. If you own a restaurant, you should have a Menu option available to users. 

2. Make it readable

Although using dramatic fonts may look unique, a lot of users may find those fonts hard to read. Keep it simple and use a popular font family such as Helvetica, Calibri, or Arial.

Just as important as font style is font size. Too small and users will be forced to zoom in or squint at their device. Too large, and it will disrupt their browsing. 

Finally, keep your sentences short and simple. If a user cannot quickly read and scan for the information they're looking for, they're going to leave. 

3. Make it look great

A good-looking header should have a balance of color, navigation items, and space. You don't have to fit every icon, image, and navigation link into the header..

In fact, the simplest and cleanest options are the best-looking headers. Popular headers often include: 

• A simple, easy to understand main menu
• Sticky header that "sticks" to the top of the screen even as you scroll
• Common design features such as layering and color contrast

4. Choose a practical design that's aligns with your company

There are several menu styles that can be incorporated into well-designed headers.

However, two of the most efficient options are expandable and double menus.

Expandable menus provide plenty of space for images while double menus present users with two layers of navigation. 

One of the most common menu styles seen on headers today is the hamburger menu. This expandable menu gets its name from its design, which consists of horizontal lines that make it look like a hamburger. Popular on mobile sites, the hamburger menu is easier to access and contains the website’s core pages.

However you choose to design the header, make sure it aligns with your company's personality. 

5. Design it with mobile users in mind

Your header may look beautiful on a desktop device, but how about a mobile device?

With more mobile users than desktop users (and Google's mobile-first indexing), your header needs to be designed with mobile users in mind. 

Again, think simply here. Less is more.

When users scroll down on their phone, they don't want to be distracted by a huge menu taking up half the screen. Design the header so that as users scroll, it shrinks and sticks to the top of their device. That way it still remains functional without distracting users from the content on your website.

And as with every feature of your website, test it out. See which designs & features are working and which ones are not. With enough tests, you'll eventually have the perfect header for your website. 

The header is an integral part of a website, so businesses should take the time to design a header that’s attractive and practical for users. To learn more about the importance of great header design and ideas, contact Activate Design today. 

Last month we looked at some of the reasons why, despite our best efforts, an internet marketing strategy fails. These include having a fuzzy goal, no research, poor audience targeting or not offering anything of value to your potential customers.

This month, we’ll look at six key internet marketing tactics that are guaranteed to succeed and encourage business growth.

1. Develop Your Own Website.

When developing internet marketing for a small business, control is a vital attribute. You can sell through Facebook, Amazon, eBay or Trade Me, but in doing so, you surrender a lot of control when you should be funnelling customers to your own website.

When building your site, it’s best to avoid website platforms like Wix and Weebly, that lock you into a restrictive CMS system . You need to retain complete control over your content and system, including the ability to easily transfer to another hosting service if required.

2. Use Sales-Oriented Landing Pages

Once you’ve got your website up and running smoothly, it’s time to focus on marketing strategies and tactics that will pull potential customers into your sales funnel. A well-designed sales landing page is a powerful tool that engages the customer and delivers an immediate Call to Action—what more could you want!

3. Be Mobile

Whether it’s your website, online ads or video content—make sure it’s mobile-friendly. You should tune the content to the needs of mobile users. For example, they’re more likely to be looking for easy to read information such as contact details or a location map, rather than blog posts or PDF downloads.

4. Get Personal

Through careful research, you can learn a lot more about your potential customers—who they are, their interests, their age group and other demographic indicators. Using this information, you can create tailored marketing strategies that are more personal and will resonate with your audience. At the same time, you will save money by not spending marketing budget where it has little chance of payback.

5. Be Visual

Videos, pictures, live streams and infographics all have an appeal because they convey instant information. Viewers can see your product or quickly get to grips with a concept. Visual content is much more likely to be shared, and customer-generated video content is highly effective on social media.

6. Be Technical

All these internet marketing tips play a crucial role in attracting customers and growing your business, but to be truly successful requires a technical approach. From web analytics and user testing to SEO strategies—the best way to create success is by studying and understanding your audience, and then creating a content plan for them, with a schedule and a clear set of goals. The best way to measure success is by studying the data that you gather as your campaign progresses. Are you reaching the people you need to reach?

Want to learn more about small business web marketing? Sign up for our free email course and receive actionable tips and strategies straight to your inbox.

Is it time to activate your business? We offer a complete website and digital marketing service for small businesses looking for a professional online presence at a reasonable cost. Contact us today!

Internet marketing techniques offer small businesses a viable means to compete with the big players and get noticed in the online marketplace. Well-designed digital marketing ideas and campaigns can make a massive difference to your company’s turnover, usually for less cost than traditional marketing strategies. But they’re not a guaranteed path to riches and sometimes they just plain...fail.

The internet is awash with sites and blogs promoting marketing tips for small business owners, with the promise of astounding results. In reality, any product marketing strategy requires research, planning and a clear set of goals to be successful. In our experience, there are six key reasons why internet marketing can fail to deliver results:

1. No clear goal

A vague and general goal such as “Driving more traffic to our website” may be achievable, but without clearly defining your target audience and what you want them to do, you could end up with lots of ‘tyre kickers’ and no sales to show for it. A well-defined goal helps you define the scope of your campaign, your audience and a measurable outcome (e.g. 20% more sales from women aged 20-35).

2. No Research/testing

Even with a set goal in mind, internet marketing strategies can fall over without some background research. Sometimes this fact-finding can reveal that your primary goal is flawed, which may seem like a setback, but is actually good news, as you can re-evaluate your strategy before any financial commitment is made. Once you’ve settled on a marketing approach, test it out on a small sample group that represents your audience, and gather their feedback. Use this information to refine your marketing content.

3. Poor audience targeting

Your marketing goal may be to attract more subscribers to your mailing list. An incorrectly targeted campaign could see you gain many subscribers, but very few genuine prospects that will convert into customers. Social media marketing allows you to focus on specific demographics, but you need to do your research beforehand to ensure you are talking to the right audience.

4. No value

For better or worse, most internet users will only click on a link if there is something ‘in it’ for them. A big marketing mistake is not offering something of value to these potential customers. Strategies that rewards users with genuinely helpful information, discounts or special offers are more likely to get traction.

5. Poor website

Many internet marketing campaigns stumble at the last hurdle by directing users to a website that isn’t performing well or fails to capitalise on the traffic. A user who has made an effort to click through to your site should be presented with a seamless experience that meets their expectations and ultimately leads to a sale.

6. Budget

There is a perception that you can do internet marketing for little or no cost, but you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet. Digital marketing is very cost-effective but still requires some investment (in time and dollars) to pay dividends. A common error is not allocating enough budget for your marketing. Companies who create TV commercials must also buy enough media time to ensure it is seen. The same applies to online marketing—whether it's banner ads or paid posts on social media, make sure you allocate enough budget to gain penetration into your chosen market.

If you’d like to discuss internet marketing strategies for your website, contact the team at Activate Design.

Graphic design touches every part of our lives—from billboards, we see on the way to work, to the apps we use every day. As a business owner, you might wonder why you should hire a graphic designer when Jenny in accounts is pretty good on Microsoft Word? Graphic design software has improved a lot over the years, but the core of good graphic design always comes back to creativity and experience. 

A company that specialises in web and graphic design services will bring a level of professionalism to your company website that would be hard to achieve in-house. Just as you’d hire an electrician to install new lighting in your office, a graphic design agency will provide fast and appropriate design solutions for your business. 

Some small business owners opt for online design sites like Fiverr or Upwork to get their logo and graphic design services work done. While this might suit a simple, one-off project, there are risks to this approach:

1. The original designer may no longer be available when you need to revisit the design.
2. The design work is carried out by individuals working off-shore, who may not be familiar with the nuances of your business and it’s culture.
3. The low fee/high turnover approach of these design sites promotes expediency over creativity.

Your company needs to present a unified look to the world—your website, social media, print media, advertising, and branding all need to communicate a consistent message. Just like the physical assets in your business, your company’s visual assets need to be effective, fit for purpose and well maintained. A graphic design service can help you identify and formalise these assets, right down to the font used in your byline.

When you first meet with a web/graphic design company, their goal will be to learn as much as they can about your business. For many business owners, this process can be quite enlightening, as you reflect on the nature of the work you do, your customers, even your competitors. As an independent consultant, the designer you meet with can offer insight into your business that might not be obvious to you. The web design process can often uncover inefficiencies in the company structure that only become obvious when developing or updating the company’s website.

So the answer is yes, you do need a professional graphic design service—but how do you choose one? Design plays a part in every part of your business: logo, website, print media, smartphone app, so it pays to choose a company with capabilities in all those areas. Using separate design services means more workload for you, and it increases the possibility of errors through miscommunication or mis-matched deadlines.

Activate Design is a Christchurch based design house offering a full suite of design services, including websites, logos, apps, videos, and print. Alongside these design services, Activate Design provide essential services like web hosting, SEO, content writing, email marketing, and tech support.

If you’d like to know more, check out our work or request a quote.

The best digital marketing strategies are those that are simple to implement and boost your sales. In this article, we’ll take a look at some proven internet marketing tactics and marketing tips for small business.

Online marketing can be divided up into five main categories:

• Content Marketing
• SEO
• Web Design
• Social Media
• Advertising
• Content Marketing

The internet lives on content, whether its blogs, videos, or social media posts. Content marketing is not hard-sell like advertising. Instead, it aims to inform and educate new and existing customers about your products, services and your company. You want customers that are seeking information to view your site as an authoritative source of that information. One way to do this is by guest appearances—be it a guest blog, video or an audio podcast. This not only extends your reach to new audiences and builds your credibility, but you’ll also get a valuable ‘back-link’ to your website.

SEO

All that lovely content needs to find an audience, and that is where SEO (search engine optimisation) comes in. Using keywords, title tags, backlinks and other SEO techniques, you can raise your profile in search engine results and connect with your target market. For small businesses with mostly local customers, optimising your site for mobile and local search is probably the most effective strategy available.

Web Design

In terms of internet marketing, a well-designed website is one that enables users to quickly find what they need and encourages them to act with subtle visual cues. You need to design your site as an internet marketing platform from the get-go. Too many websites get caught up with ‘showing off’ the company when they should be attending to the needs of their customers.

Social Media

Social media is an excellent outlet for running promotional campaigns, competitions and announcements. It’s also a fast way to get direct interaction with your customer base and gather valuable feedback. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram thrive on live content, so the focus should be on special events such as a new product release. You need to identify the platform most favoured by your target customers—for young, tech-savvy individuals it might be TikTok or Snapchat.

Advertising

Any digital marketing plan needs to include advertising, including some traditional print media advertising if appropriate. Before you spend any money on advertising, you need to establish your target audience and then identify the most suitable medium to reach them. Digital advertising has become something of a science, with the ability to target specific demographics. Pay per click advertising such as Google AdWords can be very effective, but they require some expertise to ensure clicks actually lead to sales.

If you’d like to discuss internet marketing strategies for your website, contact the team at Activate Design.

There’s no need to explain how important it is to have a mobile-friendly website these days—it’s a given that most people will be browsing on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, particularly in the consumer space.

Creating responsive design websites that conform to the latest mobile technology trends becomes even more essential when you consider that Google indexing gives priority to mobile sites. If you or your client doesn’t have a mobile responsive website, you’re undoubtedly missing out on valuable traffic.
To help you keep on top of mobile technology trends, we’ve gathered together seven of the hottest mobile website trends for 2019:

1. Progressive Web Apps

Progressive web apps (or PWA’s) have been around for a while, but there is renewed interest in them as mobile browsers become more capable. There is still some confusion as to what constitutes a PWA, but in general, they are mobile web pages that act like apps, including the ability to function offline. For small companies, they offer a lower cost of entry into the world of apps that can be offered directly to their customers, without the need for app store involvement.

2. Load Speed

Optimising page load times is going to be a big focus in 2019, as mobile e-commerce continues to grow, and users demand a snappy UI with fast response times. Good code will undoubtedly improve page load times, and the quality and speed of your server can be a real pinch point. Google recommends webmaster minimise or eliminate redirects on your site. This site provides a handy tool that maps the number of redirects on your site.

3. Mobile payments

As mobile payment platforms like Apple Pay, Google Wallet and even Facebook Messenger become more broadly supported by banks and retailers, it creates more trust in the notion of mobile payments. Mobile website developers need to capitalise on this trend by ensuring their sites offer frictionless payment options for users.

4. Touch ID

The growth of mobile payments is further boosted by support for Touch ID technology. Built into virtually all recent smartphones, Touch ID offers peace of mind. By integrating this fingerprint security into your mobile website or web app, you demonstrate to your customers that their security is important to you.

5. Short-form content

Long-form content has long been accepted as a good way to improve SEO and increase traffic. However, research is showing that short form, video-centric content is better suited to mobile sites and is expected to grow in popularity this year. Animations, short quizzes and other interactive content are more likely to hold audience attention than blog posts or long-form articles.

6. Gestures

Another way to make your mobile site more ‘app like’ is by adding support for gestures. Swiping, pinching and zooming are all familiar interactions on a mobile device, and it makes sense to use the same OS gestures on your mobile site or web app.

7. Functional Animations

Functional animations are simple motion elements that are built into your UI. They help guide users by, for example, changing a button shape when a user taps on it. Used well, they can bring your site to life and encourage the people to explore the site. Like gestures, they give visitors to your mobile site a more interactive, app-like experience. The best functional animations are those that serve a genuine purpose and integrate well into the site design.

Does your site need some mobile optimisation? Talk to the team at Activate Design for more tips and advice.

Issues sending emails to recipients with Xtra email addresses is not unusual but it is terribly frustrating.  
 
There have been wide spread problems with Sparks Xtra/Yahoo email services dating back as far as 2008, with a resurgence in 2018.

Issues with Spark email Xtra hitting Kiwi businesses – 13th Sept 2018
 
Essentially Xtra have implemented ‘security measures’ in an attempt to reduce spam. But have been over-zealous in their approach so that legitimate mail is also blocked.
 
Rigorous testing by the the IT community has discovered that it is not just emails that may appear suspicious. Such as those from blacklisted accounts or untrusted servers, or those without a subject line, or those with attachments. No, it is actually almost ANYTHING, especially those containing financially related themes.
 
Even more unfortunate is that Xtra stubbornly believe that what they are doing is best practice. So although the problem lies with them - they are unlikely to fix it.
 
Technically the problem isn’t yours, but the reality of the problem is.

So what can you do if you have a whole bunch of customers using Xtra who are just not receiving your emails? Not a lot unfortunately.
 
Ideally your recipients ought to be the ones who contact Xtra to complain that they are not receiving legitimate emails and demand a resolution or change to a different provider. Unfortunately, most of them are not going to do this as they do not actually KNOW they are not getting emails.
 

•••

Imagine you are sending a traditional letter to a friend. You put it into an approved Dimension Lengthwise Envelope with a government issued postage stamp. You deliver it to an official post shop. Your letter is delivered by the official post man. BUT your friend actually hires someone to collect their mail each day. He throws out any pizza flyers and put the important looking stuff on the kitchen bench. But all YOUR letters have been going in the rubbish with the junk. What’s more, he doesn’t tell your friend he threw anything out.
Your friend should probably fire this guy!

 •••

The problem really lies with Xtra (Spark) to ensure delivery. What makes things worse is that there doesn’t appear to be a department responsible to help with external senders. Most online reports show a frustrating lack of success from any Spark customer service team regarding this. Mostly they say that you need to get your recipient to ‘whitelist your email address.’

But this is a poor solution really. Firstly, contacting your customers individually to try and get them to whitelist your email would be a maddening exercise. Many will not even know what this means or how to do it. Secondly, there have been tests done, where the email address HAS been whitelisted in Xtra – and yet the emails STILL do not get through.
 
We always recommend that Xtra users move to a different provider.
 
“I have also learnt that Xtra fervently believe this is all designed to make the internet a safer place. On that I can agree. If you cant send email and you cant receive email and you spend your time on the telephone to Xtra and the rest of your time filling out meaningless forms then the internet is indeed a safer place. You are after all not using it - therefore it is a safer place. Well done Xtra - you have succeeded in that goal.” – GeekZone, 2008
 
Incidentally – our own email servers (ActiveHost) do not currently appear to experience trouble sending to Xtra accounts. Whist anything could happen with Xtra in the future, we currently don’t have any email customers reporting problems associated with this.

The short answer is.. NEVER. 

Why do some businesses have LTD or LIMITED as part of their logos, mainly the construction and trades industry?

As a logo designer, it is often unfortunate to be asked to retrofit this into a design - it always looks tacked on like an afterthought. Though common in the construction & trades industry, it is an unnecessary addition to a well-designed logo.

Business owners typically provide one of three reasons for wanting to add the legal destination on their logo:

1. "I want people to know that we're a real company."
2. "Our lawyer said we have to."
3. "Everyone else does it."

Unfortunately, none of these are true. Let’s take a look at each of them individually. 

1.  "I want people to know that we're a real company."

LTD is an abbreviation of Limited, stating that the business is a Limited Liability Company.

There are 3 types of companies in New Zealand:

• Limited Liability Companies - The owners/shareholders of limited liability companies are personally limited in their exposure to the company's financial obligations. This is by far the most common form of company and is designated by Limited, Ltd or Tapui (Limited) at the end of the business name (only necessary on financial & legal paperwork).
• Co-Operative - Also known as co-ops, these companies exist to provide goods or services to their members & shareholders. They are also limited liability companies and some examples include taxi businesses, dairy companies, Māori community services etc.
• Unlimited - Unlimited liability companies are rare - their shareholders personally have ultimate liability to all financial obligations of the company. This form exists to meet particular, usually foreign legal requirements. 

So in a sense, yes, displaying LTD or Limited does show that you are a 'real company.'

But are you legally obligated to include it on your logo? On your vehicle? On your building sign? The vast majority of businesses in NZ are limited, but you do not see the LTD present on every logo. Even within the construction industry itself; Hawkins, Fletcher, Naylor Love - none of them have LTD or Limited on their logos, but are in fact limited liability companies.

So why do the smaller players feel obliged to display this legal information so prominently? 

2.  "Our lawyer said we have to." 

From a legal perspective, you should have your full company name included on all financial and legal documentation such as invoices, contracts, tax returns and legal records. This is usually written above contact details, address and so on. However this is irrespective of the logo.

Historically, small start-up businesses would incorporate a company name - and then simply write it out in full. They wouldn't have a logo design - logos were just for big boys like Ford and Coca-Cola. Therefore, their full company name was included.

'Taylor & Sons LTD' written the same on everything from their shop sign to their invoices.

Now, lawyers are not particularly renowned when it comes to creative logos, branding and identities. Most of them continue the tradition of simply writing out their full company name. As an industry, lawyers, accountants and doctors have been a bit slow to come around to branding and identifying themselves creatively. So it comes as no surprise that advice from a lawyer in regards to a company logo is that it should be the full company name. 

Yet you only need to look around at what some of the big players are doing. You won't see LTD, LLC, INC, PTY or any other legal descriptor abbreviation tacked alongside the Apple, Google or Twitter logos... in fact, they don't even use words at all anymore!

3.  "Everyone else does it." 

Oftentimes, you don’t have to look very far to see a trades or building company with LTD or Limited on their logos and on their utes. Whilst most other industries have long since moved on from this, you are unlikely to see LTD added to logos for florists, beauty clinics, clothing stores, cafes, restaurants or IT firms. 

For the trades and construction industry - the idea really only continues to exist due to the 2 points we have covered. In addition, a small start-up building company will see another small start-up building company and simply follow suit. As their business expands and professional marketing and design teams become involved - their logo is soon separated from the full company name and these legal descriptor abbreviations are quickly dropped.

Summary. 

If you're starting out in business and incorporating a company. Yes, you should have your full company name on all official legal & financial documents. Your full company name will include the legal descriptor so that your position on liability is disclosed. Seeing this on an invoice does show that you are a real company. However, your logo has nothing to do with any of this.

Take a look at any of the big national brands, none of them will include LTD in their logos. A Logo is a graphic to represent your company - it is not your legal company name. Your logo is a separate entity which can use your shortened name, your trading-as name, or maybe just a symbol - no name at all!