Dental logos and dental brands, in particular, are often underestimated for their impact. A logo, done well, is an external reflection of your practice, your values, and your own individual style. It should be as unique as you are.
And yet in this gig economy, too often dental logos are bid out online to dozens of starving graphic designers, eager for you to select their tired, recycled design so that someone will finally pay $25 towards their art school debt. It’s a disservice to the designer and a disservice to your practice. You deserve better.
You are more than a tooth
Dentists, you are the first ones to tell me that you are not a simple tooth jockey. YOU are a physician of the mouth. So why base your logo on a simple tooth? What you do impacts the overall health of your patients, their emotional well being, and even their opportunities for professional advancement (I mean really, when’s the last time you saw a CEO of a major company with a broken, crooked smile? Exactly.) Let’s talk about how to develop a logo – no, a brand – that truly reflects your artistry and skill.
- Culture eats generic design for breakfast
To design a dental office logo unique to you, it should reflect what matters most. Those items are inherently found in your culture and your values (integrity, communication, progression, you get the idea.) A competent dental marketing agency or freelance designer will want to bring those elements out in your brand, so they have to know what they are. You are so much more than a crown or an implant screw.
- Love. Hate. Indifference. It all matters with a logo.
Dental brands are deeply personal. This brand you’re creating is going to represent you for at least 5-6 years, so the last thing you want is a design that you feel “so-so” about. Go online and do your research. Find a dozen dental logos that make you downright jealous and another dozen that you find boring, bland, or downright offensive. Don’t bother trying to find what these have in common, at this point it’s a treasure hunt. A good dental marketing agency will be able to review your collection of dental logos and identify commonalities that you didn’t even know were there. Copy them into a central document and share it with your designer. The more, the better.
- Be Honest.
Designers are not delicate snowflakes, I promise. If you are soft and gentle in your feedback, you may think you’re sparing their feelings, but in reality, you’re just forcing yourself to go around in circles. Tell your design team clearly what you like and what you don’t like. That feedback is critical in producing a dental logo design that feels like kismet to you.
- Decision by Committee Is Unproductive.
This is your logo, reflecting your values. You are the one that has to like it the most, not your barista or the guy who does your dry cleaning. Save your sanity and don’t put your logo choices on the front desk, asking the general public to vote. It’s like announcing your intended baby name before the baby is born; everybody knew someone of that name in high school that they hated. Save yourself. You know what you like, trust your gut.
- Save It.
Once you get a dental logo you love, you’ll be sent the final design files in a range of formats (some you won’t even be able to open.) Save them somewhere safe. Not every graphic designer will hold onto your files, so if you go back in two years because you need your logo for a new set of scrubs, you could be paying more just for them to track it down.
There is no “wrong” dental office logo, just bland and boring ones. Escape the tooth, the toothbrush, and especially the tiny family holding a car-sized toothbrush over their heads. The colors, iconography, and the font say more about you than a tooth because you are so much more than a tooth doctor! A thoughtfully designed dental office logo will serve you for years to come. For more ideas about how to build your dental brand and attract new patients, download our Dental Marketing Inspiration Guide. It’s full of ideas that will grow your practice and make 2020 a highly successful year.
