With a well-designed logo, potential customers can see right away how your company can help them.
Your company’s logo serves as a visual representation of all it stands for. Consider McDonald’s golden arches or Nike’s swoosh—both outstanding emblems that perfectly represent their respective firms. However, many businesses continue to overlook this crucial aspect of their brand.
Your corporate logo should, in theory, improve potential consumers’ and partners’ first impressions of your organisation. A good logo may increase consumer loyalty, develop a brand identity, and give your firm the professional appearance of a well-established company.
Take, for example, Allstate’s “excellent hands” emblem. It gives the company an initial pleasant impression, expressing care and trust. Your logo can also artistically communicate many good aspects of your business with a little thought and ingenuity.
Types of Logos
There are three fundamental types of logos. The majority of font-based logos are made up of a type treatment. IBM, Microsoft, and Sony, for example, use type treatments with a twist to make their logos stand out. Then there are logos that truly depict what a company does, such as a house-painting company’s logo, which features a brush depiction. Finally, there are abstract graphic symbols that become associated with a company’s brand, such as Nike’s swoosh.
“Until your company can communicate to consumers what its underlying associations are, such a symbol is meaningless,” says Americus Reed II, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who has studied the triggers that lead consumers to identify with and become loyal to a brand. However, it takes time and money to construct that mental bridge. Outside of what has been generated over the years through sophisticated marketing efforts that have made the logo into an “identification cue” for an athletic lifestyle, the Nike swoosh has no inherent value.
Growing firms can seldom afford the millions of dollars and years of effort required to establish these associations, so a logo that clearly depicts what your company stands for or does may be a better option. According to Gary Priester, principal of gwpriester.com, the Web arm of design firm The Black Point Group in Placitas, New Mexico, even a type treatment of your company’s name may be too generic. Customers should be able to tell what you do merely by looking at your logo, according to Priester.
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The First Steps
Before you start sketching or learning how to create a logo, you should first define the message you want to send with it. To help you focus your efforts, try drafting a one-sentence picture and mission statement. When designing your logo, keep this statement in mind.
However, that may not be sufficient to get you started. Here are some extra strategies and considerations to assist you in creating a suitable company logo:
Examine the logos of other companies in your field. Do your competitors employ simple, conservative visuals and type, or do they use flashy graphics and type? Consider how you want to set your logo apart from that of your competitors.
Concentrate on your message. Decide what you want to say about your business. Is there a unique personality behind it, such as serious or lighthearted? What distinguishes it from the rest of the pack? What are the demographics of your current target market? These components should be a big part of the overall design or makeover.
Clean it up and make it useful. On a business card as well as on the side of a truck, your logo should look great. A good logo should be scalable, repeatable, memorable, and distinct. Icons are preferable than photos, which can become unreadable when magnified or lowered dramatically. Create a logo that can be faxed, photocopied, or used in a black-and-white commercial just as successfully as it can be used in colour.
Your logo design will be influenced by the name of your company. If your company name is “D.C. Jewelers,” you might want to choose a serif font to emphasise the letters (especially if your name features initials). A logo for a company called “Lightning Bolt Printing” would include some inventive use of—you got it—a lightning bolt.
Use your logo to convey the most important benefit of your company. The finest logos use a picture or graphic rather than words to convey a quick impression. For example, the “Lightning Bolt Printing” logo could need to communicate the value of “ultra-fast, guaranteed printing services.” The image of a lightning bolt could be altered to convey speed and confidence.
Don’t rely on clip art. Clip art may be reproduced far too readily, no matter how appealing it is. Original art will not only make a more spectacular statement about your brand, but it will also set your company apart from the competition.
Avoid wearing trendy outfits. You run the danger of confusing—or worse, alienating—customers if you rework your old brand. Making gradual logo revisions is one option. Quaker Oats, according to Priester, changed the Quaker guy on its package over a ten-year period to prevent compromising customer trust. However, don’t do several logo modifications. Instead, pick a logo that will be relevant in 10 to 20 years, if not longer. That’s how you know you’ve got a decent design. In fact, Priester intends to never see a customer again after designing a logo.
Keep an eye on your colours.
One thing to keep in mind when you consider colour selections is the price. Your five-colour logo may be stunning, but when it comes to printing it on stationery, the cost will be prohibitive. It also won’t function in mediums where only one or two colours are allowed. Unless it’s absolutely required, don’t use more than three colours.
Signage, advertising, stationery, delivery vehicles, and packaging are just a few examples of where your logo might be found. Keep in mind that some of those applications have restrictions in terms of manufacturing. Make sure you conduct a colour analysis. Examine your logo in monochrome, two-color, and three-color variations.
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Invest in a Designer
While coming up with logo concepts on your own is an important stage in developing your company’s image, attempting to design a logo entirely on your own is a mistake. It may appear to be the most cost-effective approach to avoid paying the expensive fees charged by professional design firms, which can range from $4,000 to $15,000 for a logo design. However, be aware that there are thousands of independent designers who charge significantly less. Entrepreneurs on a tight budget, according to Stan Evenson, founder of Evenson Design Group, should shop around for a designer. “Based on their experience, a lot of [freelance] designers charge fees ranging from $15 to $150 per hour,” he explains.
However, don’t hire someone just on the basis of their low cost. Find a designer who is knowledgeable about your industry… and your competitors. Evenson advises that if the price is still too high, “It’s important to keep in mind that a good logo should last at least ten years. When you look at the expense over a 10-year period, it doesn’t appear to be so bad.”
Even if you have a decent sense of colour and what you want your logo to look like, a professional designer should be consulted. Why? They can tell if a logo design would work well in print or on a sign, but you might come up with a lovely design that can’t be transferred or would be too expensive to print. Because your logo serves as the foundation for all of your advertising materials, investing a little more now can pay off big later.
