Name:
Steve Douglas

Company:
The Logo Factory Inc.

Duties:
Logo and corporate identity design, Illustration, Multimeda, Flash animation, Graphic design for print and web

Practising since:
1980

Country:
Canada

City:
Mississauga, Ontario

Web:
www.thelogofactory.com

Email:
Steve

Selected client list:
NYISO
City of Shafter
Hoodywood Records
Exxon Mobil
Johnson & Johnson
Lincoln Park Zoo
Buena Vista University
First Equity Investment
Western International
Federal Air Marshal (USA) Association

Success Story:
Xcom Communications Inc.
A success story for myself, and my client. Due to legislative changes in
the telecommunication market in the mid-90's, CLEC (Competitive Local
Exchange Carriers) were popping up all over the USA. One such
organization, a Boston based company called Xcom, were in full start up
mode. They required a nuts to soup corporate work-up, beginning with a
company logo that was to drive their entire 'look and feel'. Xcom was
awash in startup capital and had gone through several larger agencies in
the Boston area, spending lots, but accomplishing little. They found my
web site (at the time I was working out of my house as a one-man band)
and gave me a call. I could only wince as I tried to have a
'professional' conversation with the CEO, while my kids wrestled on the
kitchen floor at my feet, and my dogs barked out the window at
passers-by. "Are you the guy that does logos?" he asked. I answered in
the affirmative. He told me about their experiences with the larger
agencies and asked if I wanted to take a crack at creating the new Xcom
identity (of course I did). They offered to pay 4 times my going rate,
in advance, to tackle their project. That clinched it. And after two
weeks of intensive back-and-forth, I finally received the final approval
for what would become the new Xcom logo.

Due to their faith in what I was able to accomplish, I was asked to take
on all of their marketing and multimedia material - everything from a
corporate web site, to technical diagrams and illustrations, to want ads
for the local newspapers. Christmas cards, mouse pads, mugs and even
embroidered jackets and golf shirts. You name it, they wanted to do it.
As a one man shop, they kept me hopping but the account helped me
finance some of what would later become my full-fledged studio.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and such was ultimately the
case with Xcom. A few years after launch, Xcom was purchased, and
subsequently assimilated, by Level 3 Communications for a sum in the
high 8 figures.