The Handshake Distance tells you how your customer will see your logo.
Knowing the way that most of your customers will see your logo makes a big difference in deciding just how you want your logo to look. To that end, we’re going to let you on a little secret that can really help you get the most bang for your buck the next time you work with us to decorate your business apparel. We’re going to teach you all about the Handshake Distance.
Something most of us can certainly understand is the concept of personal space. We all like a little buffer between us and the next person to be comfortable, right? Well, that’s something that an anthropologist named Edward Hall got really interested in in the mid ’60s. Mr. Hall studied the idea of personal space in the United States, and he identified four zones of personal space that Americans seemed to like. For our purposes, we’re just going to talk about one aspect of his studies, what we will call the Handshake Distance.
Mr. Hall stated that a handshake will typically place strangers at least 2 to 4 feet from each other, preserving what he called the personal distance. Now, why is that important to us, both apparel decorators, and you our customers? Well, that’s pretty simple. Now that we know what our personal distance is, and particularly, the distance of a handshake, we know with fair accuracy about how far our customer will be from us when they see our logo on corporate apparel!
So, how can we make good use of our new found knowledge? Well, knowing that our customer will be between 2 and 4 feet from us will tell us just how far away we should be when we judge how big we want our logo, how much/what information we want included with it in what size text it should be. More importantly it can show us how much is too much or too little to fit into the space we have available. Now that we have the magic number, we can really see how to get the most impact while maintaining the best look for our corporate apparel.
Though fine up close, viewed at the handshake distance, some small text may be hard to read.
Try this excercise- when deciding what to place on your apparel, print out at the finished size you want, tape it to the wall, and walk three feet away. Does your logo look cramped? Are the details lost at this size? Could something be changed, moved, or eliminated to make it easier to read, or make the logo more identifiable? Let’s say you put your phone number or your web address under your logo and you can’t read it from the handshake distance. Now you can decide whether or not you want to make the text bigger, or perhaps, in the instance that your customer is already talking to your representative, whether you really need it at all. Answering these questions and considering your customers’ point of view can make all the difference when preparing your logo for apparel.
Moreover, the handshake distance helps us in evaluating samples of our finished logos. Some customers will all but use a magnifying glass to check infinitesimal details without looking at the garment from the all important Handshake Distance. Though we at Black Duck are highly detail oriented to the point that we’ve probably already had the magnifying glasses out ourselves, it’s best to view a sample in the same way most will see it. It’s not likely for your customer to stare at your shirt from 2 inches, why evaluate it that way?
With the handshake distance in mind, everything we create can be crafted to make the most impact right where it counts, in the eyes of our customers.
Come to Black Duck’s fully-stocked showroom, and we’ll show you samples of our work so that you can decide just what you need to keep your business on the top of your customers’ minds. Our knowledgeable sales staff and expert artists can help you decide how to apply your art, whether you have it all drawn out to the last detail or just a thought and a desire to make it real. We live decorated apparel, and we can help you at any stage of the process.
Knowing the way that most of your customers will see your logo makes a big difference in deciding just how you want your logo to look. To that end, we’re going to let you on a little secret that can really help you get the most bang for your buck the next time you work with us to decorate your business apparel. We’re going to teach you all about Handshake Distance.
Something most of us can certainly understand is the concept of personal space. We all like a little buffer between us and the next person to be comfortable, right? Well, that’s something that an anthropologist named Edward Hall got really interested in in the mid ’60s. Mr. Hall studied the idea of personal space in the United States, and he identified four zones of personal space that Americans seemed to like. For our purposes, we’re just going to talk about one aspect of his studies- the handshake distance.
Mr. Hall stated that a handshake will typically place strangers at least 2 to 4 feet from eachother, preserving what he called the personal distance. Now, why is that important to us, both apparel decorators, and you our customers? Well, that’s pretty simple. Now that we know what our personal distance is, and particularly, the distance of a handshake, we know with fair accuracy about how far our customer will be from us when they see our logo on corporate apparel!
So, how can we make good use of our newfound knowledge? Well, knowing that our customer will be between 2 and 4 feet from us will tell us just how far away we should be when we judge how big we want our logo, how much/what information we want included with it in what size text it should be. More importantly it can show us how much is too much or too little to fit into the space we have available. Now that we have the magic number, we can really see how to get the most impact while maintaining the best look for our corporate apparel.
Try this excercise- when deciding what to place on your apparel, print out at the finished size you want, tape it to the wall, and walk three feet away. Does your logo look cramped? Are the details lost at this size? Could something be changed, moved, or eliminated to make it easier to read, or make the logo more identifiable? Let’s say you put your phone number or your web address under your logo and you can’t read it from the handshake distance. Now you can decide whether or not you want to make the text bigger, or perhaps, in the instance that your customer is already talking to your representative, whether you really need it at all. Answering these questions and considering your customers’ point of view can make all the difference when preparing your logo for apparel.
Moreover, teh handshake distance helps us in evaluating samples of our finished logos. Some customers will all but use a magnifying glass to check infinitessimal details without looking at the garment from the all important Handshake Distance. Though we at Black Duck are highly detail oriented to the point that we’ve probably already had the magnifying glasses out ourselves, it’s best to view a sample in the same way most will see it. It’s not likely for your customer to stare at your shirt from 2 inches, why evaluate it that way?
With the handshake distance in mind, everything we create can be crafted to make the most impact right where it counts, in the eyes of our customers.
Written by Erich Campbell.
[...] which he writes for Stitches Magazine. On the Black Duck Blog, he has a great post about the handshake distance and how it can be used to maximize the impact of your logowear. On Links and Needles has a [...]