I don’t like any of the samples I have received! This company must be terrible! Sometimes you can receive a group of samples that just don’t appeal to you, it happens. Most of the time a client doesn’t know or can’t precisely describe what kind of logo he wants or what image he is looking for. For that reason, a good designer will try to question the client as much as possible regarding their preferences and tastes in logos, but this is not always sufficient. Also note that sometimes an idea may seem good at first thought, but looking at the results on paper you could realize that you don’t like them at all. It is natural to get upset if you have received a package of samples that don’t suit you, but it`s important to understand that since you are not buying a premade product, bad surprises are not impossible nor improbable. Look at a batch of bad initial samples as just another step towards a great final design. It is highly unlikely that you will utterly hate everything about the samples presented. You can pick and combine different elements from them - font, color, object, layout – into one great logo. Even if the samples are really terrible, you could tell the designers precisely what you don’t like about them, which will help them avoid similar mistakes in the next samples. A bad batch of samples, depending on your view of it, can be a glass half empty or a glass half full. It’s a setback, perhaps, but the second round has a much greater chance of success.

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"LifeSharers is certainly an ingenious idea to increase the number and availability of organ donors. The more members it has, the more organ donors there will be and fewer people in need of organs will be unable to get them." -Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Economics Introduction - LifeSharers.org was one of the lucky winners of the Logo Design Makeover contest held by LogoBee logo design earlier this year. LifeSharers is a non-profit organization that was created to help encourage organ donation through its innovative sharing network. Dave Undis, founder and executive director of the organization was kind enough to set aside some time to be interviewed about their organization and the logo design project. LogoBee - Hi Dave, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Dave - My pleasure. LogoBee - First things first, could you give us a little bit of background on what LifeSharers stands for and why Lifesharers.org founded? Dave - Certainly. LifeSharers was founded to reduce the shortage of human organs for transplants in the United States. About seven to eight thousand Americans die each year waiting for an organ donation. The idea behind LifeSharers is that if you give organs first to organ donors, then more people will have an incentive to sign up as organ donors. The resulting effect will be that you'll have fewer people throwing their organs away when they die, and this will save thousand of lives every year. LogoBee - That's a pretty ambitious project you have going. Dave - Thank you, I suppose it is. LogoBee - I understand that you're the founder of LifeSharers. I'm interested to know what gave you the idea to start such a project. Dave - I got started with LifeSharers in May of 2002. As far as what gave me the initial idea, well I kept reading stories about all these people dying while waiting for organ transplants, and I kept reading stories about how so few people had agreed to donate their own organs. It then occurred to me that if you had to be a registered organ donor to receive a transplant, then just about everyone would sign up. So I did some research and found that other people had thought of this idea but nobody had done anything with it. So I decided that I would, and I started LifeSharers. LogoBee - I was hoping you could talk just a little about the "Logo Design Makeover Contest" you entered with LogoBee? Dave - Of course. Well first off, I love the logo. I really think it captures the spirit and the intent of what LifeSharers is all about, which is that of sharing and elevating life. I think your folks did a really nice job of capturing the essence of these ideas. One thing I thought was interesting as I went through the process designing the logo is that LogoBee would give me a set of samples, and I would pick one and suggest some tweaks to it. I would see the results of my recommended changes, but they would also provide me with additional options to consider. What I found was that 95% of the time I would find myself going with the designer's suggestions, and I thought that was really interesting. Also, I was really impressed with the turn-around time I got from your people. They would send me something and ask for my comments and suggestions, and once I gave my input I was able to see the next round of revisions before I knew it. LogoBee - Well we're glad you enjoyed the design process. And I think I read that you didn't really have a logo before winning LogoBee's Logo Design Makeover Contest, so it must be a big change for you. Dave - Correct, we didn't have any kind of a logo design or image before. Our website was just a standard Microsoft template, and it didn't look very good. Now we've got our logo all over our website, promotional materials, stationery, and business cards. We're making really good use of it. LogoBee - And how has the organization been doing lately? Dave - Right now we have about 4300 registered members, and we're growing at a rate of about 40% per year. LogoBee - That's great! Do you expect to see similar growth rates in the coming years? Dave - That's what we're hoping. I think that as we grow larger it will become easier to recruit new members. It takes a little bit of a leap of faith to join an organization like LifeSharers when it's really small, but when we become large, it would be stupid not to join. When we have a million members for example, if you decided not to join LifeSharers, you would be behind all of the people that had joined the program, which would not be a good thing if you ever needed a transplant. In the United States, more than half the people that need a transplant die before they get one, so putting yourself at the back of the list is not a good strategy. LogoBee - LifeSharers has received a lot of attention as a concept, and you even have a praiseworthy quote by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman on your website. It seems like LifeSharers is truly an original undertaking as it attempts to solve the supply issues surrounding organ donation by providing donors with real incentives. First off, how did you get in touch with these great minds? Secondly, have other high-level academics offered praise towards your organization? Dave - Yes, we've managed to recruit a panel of some fairly famous and well-thought of academics and business people who serve as advisors to LifeSharers. They help us refine the concept and generate media opportunities for us. Most importantly, I think by lending their prestige and their name to our efforts, they help to show that we're a serious organization, and not just some guy with a website. LogoBee - Haha! It's true that anyone can be just 'some guy' with a website, so it's nice to have some names that bear some authority put their name to it. But along with all of the positive response that you've generated, there has been a certain amount of criticism of your idea. I'm just wondering where some of that criticism is coming from (if any), and how you are dealing with it? Dave - Most of the criticism we're getting these days is mainly that what we're doing isn't fair. Some people believe that it's not fair to donate organs first to registered organ donors, but I have a real hard time understanding their arguments. To me, giving an organ to someone who won't donate their own organs is like giving the lottery jackpot to someone who didn't buy a ticket. It just isn't fair. But more important than the fairness issue, if you give organs first to registered organ donors, you're creating an incentive for people to sign up. The way organs are allocated right now in the United States and in Canada, you don't get any benefit for being a registered donor. So, it's no wonder that so many people are refusing to - or just aren't getting around to - signing up. Every time somebody buries a transplantable organ, it's a death sentence for someone else. LogoBee - That's the harsh reality of it, I guess. Dave - A harsh reality indeed. LogoBee - I think why I like your program so much is that it gets people to think about organ donation at a time that is perhaps more suitable than your traditional scenarios where you need to decide whether a loved one donates their organs in their fading moments. Dave - Yes, that's the worst possible time to think about it. I don't want my family to have to deal with something like that. If you get people to sign up ahead of time and get them to tell their families about it, what they're doing is taking a huge burden off their family. They won't ever have to think about such a difficult subject if it ever comes down to it. LogoBee - Well, thanks so much for you time, Dave. I sincerely wish you all the best with your concept and organization. Dave - My pleasure. If you don't mind me adding one more thing, I just want to let everyone know that anybody who wants to join LifeSharers can do so. It's free, and no one is disqualified because of age or medical condition. Just go to our website at www.lifesharers.org, or call our toll-free number at 1-888-ORGAN-88 (1-888-674-2688). LogoBee - So it looks like that's almost a wrap. It's truly been a pleasure. Do you have anything else you would like to add? Dave - I just wanted to thank to you and your staff for doing such a great job for us on our logo design project. You're doing a real nice thing donating your time and effort to worthy non-profit organizations. I think it's a great thing. LogoBee - Well that's really nice of you. We're more than happy to do so.

LogoBee speaks with Apprentice winner Kendra Todd and My House real estate partner Charles Andrews about their experience designing the My House logo, winning the Apprentice, and working with Donald Trump. LogoBee: "As you know, LogoBee is an online logo design firm and there is often a bit of a trust issue for some customers with respect to purchasing products or services online. Would you say that you are generally quite comfortable purchasing products and services online?" Charles: "I'm fifty-fifty I guess. I'm skeptical at times." LogoBee: "Was there something in particular about our website that reassured you that you could trust our company?" Charles: "I really did a lot of research. Your site is very professional. It just had a good, warm feel to it and you know, everybody, especially down here where we live, this is a big entrepreneurial capital. Everybody's got somebody who does logos and corporate imaging and I had actually went to a recommendation first. We spent a lot more money and I wasn't happy with our final product. And right before we were about to go to print with this new stuff, I was just sitting there one night, and realized that I don't feel good about this logo. And so I searched around the internet, I found your website and I just came across a couple of really cool [logos]. There was one logo that looked like a flying atom. Expediant, or something like that. It just felt like a nice corporate brand. So I fell in love with some of the designs [you had] already done. Ann-Marie was incredible and was so helpful. She went the extra mile for us. It couldn't have been a better experience, honestly. I mean, we spend a lot of money on marketing materials and our logo goes out on stuff-we've had hats made, real good stuff. That logo is the face of our company. Sometimes when we do open house parties, we even do a My House ice sculpture. The House Production logo we did with you guys was more fun, that's not really our corporate image, most clients never see that one. It's a cool, hip, fun one. Revenue, the bread and butter, comes from My House and mutual lending. But the My House logo I thought was really cool. Clean. I remember when they sent the first My House one with different colours and this and that and I was like 'Boom! That's it!' I loved it right off the bat. I could just see it on the side of a big building. I loved it." LogoBee: "Why don't you tell me a little bit about My House. How did you guys start up and what exactly is it that you do in terms of real estate marketing?" Charles: "We sell below market-value condos to the nation. And we're driven all by investors and second home buyers." LogoBee: "When you say below market-value, you mean condos that are less expensive than the average condo due to volume?" Charles: "Yes, our projects are typically anywhere from 200 to 600 units in each project. We take the initial 40 to 50 people in each project. Before it's open to the general public. And the prices go up after we've sold our units." LogoBee: "That sounds really exciting." Charles: "It's fun." LogoBee: "As real estate marketing experts, obviously you both know a lot about corporate identity and branding. From a branding perspective, what were you looking to project with your logo design from My House?" Kendra: "We wanted to project something simple and recognizable that could become like an icon one day, [like the] singular logo or the Mc Donald's arches. We just wanted to create a symbol, for real estate that was easy to recognize. So we came up with the name My House and then we wanted a logo that just was very simple and easy and recognizable and I believe that we successfully achieved that. We take the brand all over the nation." Charles: "I really wanted not to be seen as another silly real estate company. [I wanted people to] look at our logo and know that we are a multi-successful corporation." LogoBee: "What do you think a logo should achieve for a company in terms of image and branding?" Kendra: "A logo should have the style and the color combination that evokes the personality of the company and also attracts the clientele that the company is trying to target." LogoBee: "How would you say that this new image affected your business? Have you had a good response to the logo design and the My House brand as a whole?" Kendra: "Absolutely, we've had tremendous response from all of our clients from our logo. We get compliments all of the time. It accomplished exactly what we set out to do." LogoBee: "So you were happy with the overall design process?" Charles: "I was overwhelmed by the logo design process and the level of sophistication of the LogoBee team." LogoBee: "When it comes to graphic design, a lot of businesses are under the impression that you need to spend a lot of money, thousands of dollars in some cases, to get a professionally designed logo. Do you find that the logo you got from LogoBee was a good value for what you received?" Kendra: "It was a great value for what we received." LogoBee: "Kendra, can you share with me what your experience was like on the Apprentice?" Kendra: "It was a personally challenging experience. Everyday I came face to face with my own limitations. I had to find out what I was made of, I tested my own willpower, my own stamina in business and on a physical level as well because there was very little sleep, there was very little privacy. And we had to constantly be on our creative toes. And we were thrown into tasks with very tight deadlines in industries that we had no prior knowledge of or exposure to. I did come to realize that there are some formulas for success in business that you can apply across the board. And I guess as far as marketing goes, for a company, you know I realized that you always have to listen to the customer." LogoBee: "Yes, and what they want, and what their specifications are." Kendra: "And you deliver it. You don't try to guess or figure it out on your own. You just go straight to them with focus groups, create marketing materials that really target what the client is looking for, final product. And if you can fulfill their need, then you'll have a successful company." LogoBee: "From watching the show, many of the tasks that you were assigned also involved a great deal of teamwork and strategy, and marketing the right corporate image as you were saying. Did you find that projecting the right personal image played a role in winning the season as well?" Kendra: "Yeah, I would agree with that." LogoBee: "How so? What did you think they were looking for or what sort of qualities are important when it comes to the sort of tasks that you guys were doing? What image were you trying to project in order to win the season?" Kendra: "I was just myself. I think that a successful entrepreneur is someone who has character, integrity, they work hard, they are a good team player, they give credit where credit is due, and they are able to inspire their teammates into action. I think all of that is important. You also have to think outside the box, you have to be creative. And you have to have passion, you really have to have passion. Passion breeds success." LogoBee: "Last I heard you were working on Trump's National Golf Club in New York and the Palm Beach Mansion Project as well. Are you still continuing to work on those in some capacity or are you working on something else with him?" Kendra: "I'm working on the estate home on Palm Beach Island in Florida." LogoBee: "How is that going for you? How would you say working with Trump has contributed to your own learning and professional development?" Kendra: "Well, you know my business is real estate and he's one of the most brilliant real estate entrepreneurs of our time. I've learned a tremendous amount of real estate related lessons just by watching, by observing Mr. Trump do business. He's an incredible negotiator. I just learned a lot by how he negotiates deals and Mr.Trump's decision-making process throughout this renovation and sales process of this piece of real estate. I've learned so much invaluable information on how he approaches projects and how he perceives the value." LogoBee: "Great, well that sounds like you really gained a lot from being around him and watching what he's been up to. Besides My House, I understand that you both have a regular radio show. How did Agent 53 start and what kind of issues and discussions do you have on the air?" Charles: "On the radio show, we talk about real estate. And real estate can be boring. Even to us, we live and breathe and love it everyday. And so I just decided to stylize the show a little bit more, and name [Kendra] Special Agent 53. The name came [from] that old character Agent 99, you know, the detective. And then we just made it more fun like "Hey Agent 53, where you at, are you at the pool sipping on lemonade?" And people will email you, "What's Agent 53 wearing?" and this and that and it was always just fun. Our radio show is the number one Arbitron radio show in Florida. So we take the callers and joke [with them] and even the callers that are like furious about something, we'll take [them], and just have fun with it. Clear Channel's our partner and they've been great." LogoBee: "How often does the show air?" Charles: "We go live, every Sunday from 1-2 pm Eastern. And then Clear Channel [replays] it all the time during the week." LogoBee: "I really appreciate you both taking the time out of your busy schedule to accommodate this you've been really wonderful and give us lots of really positive feedback. Charles: "Yeah, well I believe in you guys. So it's easy." Kendra: "I've really enjoyed working with LogoBee and you know, anything I can do for you guys."