Your logo is a visual representation of everything your company stands for. But many companies still skimp on developing this key identity piece.
Ideally, your company logo enhances potential customers and partners’ crucial first impression of your business. A good logo can build loyalty between your business and your customers, establish a brand identity, and provide the professional look of an established enterprise. With a little thought and creativity, your logo can quickly and graphically express many positive attributes of your business, too.
There are basically three kinds of logos. Font-based logos consist primarily of a type treatment. The logos of IBM, Microsoft and Sony, for instance, use type treatments with a twist that makes them distinctive. Then there are logos that literally illustrate what a company does, such as when a house-painting company uses an illustration of a brush in its logo. And finally, there are abstract graphic symbols? such as Nike’s swoosh?that become linked to a company’s brand.
Before you begin sketching, first articulate the message you want your logo to convey. Try writing a one-sentence image and mission statement to help focus your efforts. Stay true to this statement while creating your logo. Here are some tactics and considerations that will help you create an appropriate company logo:
Look at the logos of other businesses in your industry.
Focus on your message. Decide what you want to communicate about your company. Does it have a distinct personality?serious or lighthearted?
Make it clean and functional. A good logo should be scalable, easy to reproduce, memorable and distinctive. Icons are better than photographs. And make sure that logo can be reproduced in black and white.
Your business name will affect your logo design.
Use your logo to illustrate your business’s key benefit.
Don’t use clip art. However tempting it may be, clip art can be copied too easily. Not only will original art make a more impressive statement about your company, but it’ll set your business apart from others.