Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Physical Therapy Logo


There are a couple things you should keep in mind when designing your physical therapy. By following these considerations, you should be able to develop a physical therapy or medical logo which stands out among your competition and speaks to your target audience.


  • Choose the color of your physical therapy logo wisely- Most medical logos, including physical therapy logos, seem to use the same typical color schemes associated with the medical industry. While, these color schemes seem appropriate for medical industry and your physical therapy logo design, they don't make sense because they are overused and may have a negative impact on emotion. Personally, when I see a medical logo use the typical blue and green hues, it does not give off a warm feeling. Instead, it reminds me of the inside of a medical facility such as a hospital. When designing your physical therapy logo, one way to stand out and make a statement, is to focus on warmer color tones such as oranges and reds. Nobody said you had to stick with the color of a hospital gown for your physical therapy logo design. By adding a warmer color scheme, you can give off a more positive message without even saying anything.


  • No more than two colors in your medical logo design- When designing your physical therapy logo, keep the the number of colors used to a minimum. The main reason for this is to keep costs low. The more colors you have in your physical therapy logo, the more it will cost to print forms of communication such as your physical therapy business card, letterhead, physical therapy brochure, etc. Imagine if you run out of your physical therapy business cards several times a year and have to pay an extra amount of money just to print you 3-4 color physical therapy logo. There are many successful and dynamic logo designs which only use 1 or 2 colors.


  • Design your physical therapy logo with unique symbols and type- It is an all too common practice to use typical and common symbols when designing medical logos as well as physical therapy logos. When designing your physical therapy logo, try and come up with a symbol which is unique to physical therapy - or a symbol which is universal which can be applied to physical therapy. For example, you could use a shield to symbolise "protection." By using a symbol typical or common with physical therapy, you are basically telling your target audience that you are a "typical" therapy office. Wouldn't you rather stand out among your competition and give your target market a fresh and new perspective? You do not need a symbol for your physical therapy or medical logo design. Instead, you can just focus on the design of the type. By designing a unique type face for your physical therapy logo, you can make even a bigger impact than you can by designing a symbol which is unique.


  • Make sure your logo is a successful black and white logo - You will be surprised how many graphic designers still mess this one up. It is very important that your physical therapy logo design work as well in black and white as it does in color. There will be many times you will need to use a black and white version of your PT logo. For example, when you fax a document or make a black and white copy on a copier machine. If your physical therapy logo is not designed correctly, it may be easy to read when it's in color but more difficult to read in black and white if not unreadable.


  • By following these four considerations of logo design, you can avoid some of the pitfalls of logo design and help create yourself an unique and dynamic physical therapy logo.
     
     
     
    Physical Therapy Logos
     
    It is highly recommended to hire a professional graphic designer for your physical therapy logo and other forms of communication such as physical therapy business card, stationary, physical therapy brochure, signage, etc. Even if your budget does not allow for a high paying logo designer, you can still find quite a few good logo designers at a fraction of the cost. If you do insist on designing your own physical therapy logo, here are a few tips to help you out.

    Make sure any physical therapy logos that you create, are designed using a vector based program such as Adbobe Illustrator. Any physical therapy logos designed with this program can be resized to any size without losing quality. Physical therapy logos designed with a bitmap based program such as Adobe Photshop will lose quality if it is resized at the size it was created at.

    When designing physical therapy logos, take your time and sketch ideas. Many people will sketch a few ideas for their physical therapy logo and think they have created the most unique concept since sliced bread. Spend some time with the concepts for your physical therapy logo. You will see that the more you sketch, the more creative and interesting your ideas will become. When concepting for physical therapy logos, chances are, the 100th sketch will be the one and not the first.

    Keep physical therapy logos simple. It's too easy to get carried away with a logo and combining too many graphics, symbols, words and colors. If there is anything you should remember, keep your physical therapy logo simple. This will make your logo easier to read and stand out better.

    While it is recommended that you hire a logo designer for any physical therapy logos, by following these couple of steps, you can help you design your own pt logo

    Therapy websites

    There are many considerations to make when designing therapy websites. These decisions can have an big impact on the look and usability of the final therapy website design. These following tips and suggestions should help you with your therapy website design.

    One of the first considerations to make when designing your therapy website is the domain name. You want your domain name of your therapy website to be easy to remember. Therefore, the shorter the domain name, the better. If you have a long physical therapy business name, you should try and shorten it. If it is difficult to shorten, you can always come up with a domain name with the words "I Love Therapists" instead of "Johnson and Richards Physcical Therapy Clinic." Easier to remember and to the point.

    Once you have the domain name for your physical therapist website, you can decide if you want a animated flash website or a static html website. A flash website may wow visitors but may also take longer to load. Keep in mind that a flash website is not search engine friendly and users may have trouble finding your therapy website in a search engine. An html website should load faster and is search engine friendly.

    The domain name and the type of website should get you started. Other questions you way want to ask which should help you during the therapy website design process are: What content do I want on my website? How may pages do I want on my therapy website? Do I need any forms? Will these forms contain patient information? If so, do these forms need to be secured? Do I need an image gallery on my site or will my therapy site be mostly text?

    Following are some of the best schools offering physical therapy programs:

    University of Delaware
    - Rated 4th in the nation for Graduate PT Programs by US News (2009).
    - The UD Physical Therapy Curriculum is offered as a 2.5 year program.
    - It was ranked 14th among 100 best values in public colleges in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

    US Army-Baylor University
    - Baylor University is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
    - The Army-Baylor Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE).

    University of Iowa
    - The University of Iowa Physical Therapy Graduate Program is ranked 3rd among public institutions (USNWR 2009).
    - Satisfactory completion of the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) curriculum qualifies the candidates to take a state-administered national licensing examination.

    University of Miami
    - The Department of Physical Therapy offers a three year, entry level clinical doctoral degree the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and an academic doctoral degree, ( PhD) in Physical Therapy.
    - The Department of Physical Therapy is accredited by both the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) and the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS) Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities.
    - It has been consistently ranked as one of the top 10 physical therapy programs in the United States.

    University of Florida
    - The Department of Physical Therapy has been ranked fourth in the nation for AAU Public Universities by U.S. News and World Report.
    - The DPT is the degree endorsed by the American Physical Therapy Association.

    Ranking of Best Physical Therapy Schools (Top 40 list):
    1. University of Southern California
    2. University of Pittsburgh
    2. Washington University in St. Louis
    4. University of Delaware
    5. US Army-Baylor University
    5. University of Iowa
    7. Arcadia University
    7. MGH Institute of Health Professions
    7. Northwestern University
    7. University of Miami
    11. Emory University
    11. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
    13. Duke University
    13. University of California–San Francisco/San Francisco State University
    15. New York University
    15. University of Florida
    15. University of Illinois–Chicago
    15. University of Maryland–Baltimore
    19. Creighton University
    19. Marquette University
    19. Ohio State University
    19. University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
    19. University of Utah
    24. Boston University
    24. Texas Woman’s University
    24. Univ of Kansas Medical Center
    24. Univ of Texas Medical Branch–Galveston
    24. Virginia Commonwealth Univ
    29. Northern Arizona Univ
    29. Regis Univ
    29. Univ of Alabama–Birmingham
    29. Univ of Washington
    33. Columbia Univ
    33. Mayo School of Health Related Sciences
    33. Univ of Colorado–Denver
    33. Univ of Nebraska Medical Center
    33. Univ of Wisconsin–Madison
    38. Univ of Kentucky
    38. Univ of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
    38. Univ of Wisconsin–La Crosse

    Source: U.S. News & World Report (2009)
     


    Top universities offering online Physical Therapy programs:

    Arcadia University
    - The Physical Therapy program is rated 7th in the nation among more than 200 graduate PT programs (USNWR 2009).
    - Arcadia offers both the entry-level and transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees. The transitional program is offered fully online.
    - The D.P.T. program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education.
    - The 2008 Open Doors report ranks Arcadia University 1st in the nation in the percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad.

    The College of St. Scholastica
    - It offers the transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree. The CSS tDPT program is a distance learning education program designed for the working clinician.
    - Ranked in the Top Tier of regional universities in the Midwest (US News "America's Best Colleges" 2008).

    Boston University
    - It offers an Online Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. This program is available to all qualified physical therapy graduates of accredited programs who are licensed physical therapists in the US.
    - Online students will learn the same material and receive the same degree as on-campus students.
    - Boston University, including Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc.

    University of South Dakota
    - USD offers state’s first online physical therapy doctoral degree.
    - It is fully accredited by the Commission of Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education and the North Central Agency for University Accreditation.

    Northeastern University
    - The Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) is an online program. It is for applicants who hold a baccalaureate or master's degree in Physical Therapy.
    - DPT Specializations include: Nutrition ,Leadership, Orthopaedics, Education, Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Women’s Health, Urban Health, Independent Track.
    - This program is designed for the working professional, using online course offerings to provide flexibility and convenience.