Designing a logo

Nothing is more frustrating for me, as a graphic designer, to have to design a one colour or two colour piece (like direct mail, like an ad) for a charity using their brand *new* logo!!!!

Yes, having a new logo for your organization or part of your brand is a very exciting time. It's a fresh start and maybe brings you up to date and contemporary.
BUT, there are a few things, to remember when looking at a new logo.

If I need to design a one colour or two colour piece and all I have is a beautiful looking logo that is 4 colours (cmyk), then I'm going to have a bit of an issue.
If all I have is a beautiful looking logo that IS two colours (two spot colours), but uses a soft teal and light gray I am also going to have an issue.

Time and time again, I see these new logos developed and the colours are not suitable to one or two colour applications. The problem?

Having an logo with 2 soft colours, and being limited to 2 colours, makes any type (which should be set in black or a dominant colour) very hard or impossible - to read... Any image you may want to use, especially if you want to use one of the PMS colours from the logo - will also look washed out and hard to reproduce.

Here is what I do:
I design the logo in black. If it works well in black, then adding colour will be the easy part.
I then design a 2 spot colour version. And, I always make sure one of those 2 colours is a dark colour. (Think, blue, dark green, deep red, black, etc).
I may also design a 4 colour logo based on the break down of the PMS colours.
I then make sure my contact at the organization has every version, in every format, as well as fonts of the *new* logo.
The bottom line is: Do not design a logo for a charity using soft colours (like yellow, teal, grey, etc) unless is is complimenting a strong colour first.

UPDATE: A few weeks ago I wrote about the food bank situation in Hamilton - which I am happy to say has improved significantly. I also linked my thoughts to The Poverty Project page at the Spectator. Shortly after, I did notice that the ad had been revised to:
It is great to see a bolder call to action. The need is clearly outlined and easy to read.
Criticisms: Why not an image of Hamiltonian child? And why not bigger? The shot isn't bad but and great eye contact is everything... so use it!

UPDATE TWO: CNIB Comedy Gala: For those of you picked option 1:

You were correct! Personally, I knew it was the "safest" option... but maybe feel a little disappointed that one of the more visually interesting ones, was not chosen. Also, we have completed all the final tweaks and changes to the poster and some of the messaging that I felt were not adding to the Gala was added back in, but sometimes, what's not important to me is important to the client. Here is the final poster: