As a result, you’ve decided to create a logo for your firm or group. If you have the financial means to do so, our first recommendation is to engage or commission a graphic designer. Designing a logo may seem to be straightforward, but any competent designer will tell you that it is not. The design process is seldom straightforward.
In addition, you get what you pay for, and we want you to have the finest possible experience.
For those that need to begin developing their brand’s visual identity but are unable to afford the services of a designer, we’re here to guide you through the process. We invited three logo designers with a combined 25+ years of expertise to share their thoughts on the process of creating a logo with us.
What Exactly is a Logo?
This question most likely brings up vivid pictures of a renowned swoosh or an apple with a bite eaten out of it in your mind’s eye. After all, we are all familiar with the term “logo.” It is a symbol or design that distinguishes a company or organization, as well as its goods, services, staff, or other aspects of its business or organization. A logo, in its most basic sense, is anything that distinguishes. It is the method through which your firm is known and remembered among the competition. Additionally, it serves as the public face of your company.
It is also possible to use your logo as a chance to make a statement about your company or group. Take, for example, Amazon’s pricing structure. The smiling arrow conveys the message that the firm offers everything from “A-Z” and also indicates how satisfied clients are when they buy at their establishment.
One caution to keep in mind is that although a logo might express a deeper message, it is not required to do so. However, most organizations having difficulty choosing a logo simply expect too much of their designers. All three of our designers agreed that the majority of people place much too much importance on logos (nerdy design pun intended).
So keep in mind that although a logo is vital, it is not the only factor to consider.
What a Logo isn’t Is:
Your Company’s Image
Although this is a widespread misunderstanding, your logo is not your brand. And your brand is not the same as your logo. Intangible: your brand is your reputation—what people think of when they hear your name, what they tell others about you, and how you make them feel when they interact with you. Instead of a logo, your brand is created via a thousand different interactions with your target audience.
The Visual Identity of Your Company
An experienced logo designer will advise new businesses or organizations that “you don’t just need a logo, you need a brand identity,” when they want a logo. Logos are an important component of the image, but they are not the whole picture. These images are part of a wider visual system that incorporates. Your colors, typography, photography, graphics, and other elements like layout and design.
A Determinant of Future Success
Your company’s logo will not make or break the success or failure of your company. Although Enron’s logo was attractive, the company’s ethical code was not. It is a billion-dollar firm, yet its logo is a stick figure sketch on a napkin created by the founders’ mother, which they used as their corporate logo. The greatest logo in the world will not be able to salvage a dishonest firm, and the worst logo will not be able to keep back an honest corporation.
Let’s get started with the design process now that we’ve established what a logo can and cannot achieve.
In an ideal situation, your corporate logo improves the critical first impression. That prospective consumers and partners have of your firm. In addition to increasing consumer loyalty, a well-designed logo may help you develop your company’s brand identity and give your company the professional appearance of a well-established corporation.
Take, for example, Allstate’s “excellent hands” emblem. As a mark of care and trust, it instantly elicits a positive response from customers toward the organization. Many beneficial aspects of your company may be swift. And aesthetically expressed via your logo with a little effort and imagination.
Types of Logos
Three types of logos are often used. Font-based logos characterize largely by the use of type treatment. The logos of IBM, Microsoft, and Sony, for example, utilize type treatments with a unique twist that distinguishes them from the competition. When a firm employs an image of a brush as part of its logo, this is known as a literal representation of what the company does. Finally, there are abstract visual symbols, such as Nike’s swoosh, that are an associate with a firm’s brand and become an associate with that company.
In the words of Americus Reed II, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Wharton School, “such a symbol is meaningless until your company can communicate to consumers what its underlying associations are.” Reed II has researched the triggers that lead consumers to identify with and become loyal to a brand. The building that mental bridge, on the other hand, costs time and money. Aside from what has been generated over the years via creative marketing efforts, the Nike swoosh has no intrinsic significance outside of what has been made into an “identification cue” for an athletic lifestyle.
A logo that depicts what your firm stands for or accomplishes may be a better option for growing companies that cannot afford the millions of dollars. And years of work are necessary to establish these connections. It’s possible that even the type treatment of your company’s name is too generic. Says logo designer Gary Priester, who works out of Placitas, New Mexico, and is the principal of gwpriester.com, the Web branch of design business The Black Point Group. Customers should be able to know what your company does just by glancing at your emblem, according to Priester.
Keep an Eye on Your Colors.
One thing to keep in mind as you look at different color possibilities is the expense of each one. Your five-color logo may be stunning, but when it comes time to print it on stationery, the pricing won’t be as appealing as it was before. It will also not work in media that only allow one or two colors to use together. Unless it’s required, limit yourself to three colors unless you have a good reason.
You may have your logo shown on a range of different types of media, including signs, advertising, stationery, delivery trucks, and packaging, to mention a few. Always keep in mind that some of those applications have production constraints. Make certain you do color research. Check out the several color variations of your logo in one-, two-, and three-color variants.
