subject: Creating A Distinctive Logo Design For Your Company [print this page] Setting up a company includes giving your company a name and a symbol by which it will become known. You will select the name yourself, naturally, but even if you have ideas about what the symbol should be, you still need to create the symbol or logo design on paper.
The best advice you can get is to use a professional graphic designer to create your own unique logo. It may be cheaper to just find a picture on the web and use it, but some images have a copyright and besides other people may have already used it. The same principle applies to those free logo templates that are available on the net, because your design could easily resemble many others. Your logo represents your company and a professionally made logo will pave the way your company is viewed.
Sit down with your graphic designer and first talk about your company, its goals, aims, and your vision for it. Take a look at similar companies and their logos, to ensure that your logo design will be distinctive to you. If you have any ideas, discuss these with him as well.
Your logo does not necessarily have to be complicated or a portrait-in-miniature of your company. Look at successful logos, those that you recognize instantly and anywhere. You will notice that they are all simple designs, like the Mercedes Star, the Macintosh Apple and of course the Nike Swoosh. Not one of these logos symbolizes the actual business of the company, but you know exactly whom they represent.
A simple logo is elegant and it is easily remembered. Also, using a symbol that is not representative of your business may turn out to be a good idea, if you choose to diversify someday. The crocodile that became famous on t-shirts now appears on shoes, bags, perfume and watches, but we all know that it is the Lacoste company, don't we ?
If it is does happen that your designer comes up with an eye-catching design that incorporates an aspect of your company, that's great, go with it just do not insist on it at the beginning, so as not to hamper the flow of creative ideas.
If you like the thought of using the company name or initials, ask your designer to make a few sketches of those, as well. The font should be easily readable and clear. It is tempting to use an ornate font or complicated typography, but it may look like a smudge or be impossible to read when reduced on your visiting card, for example. Look at IBM, distinctive yet readable or Subway a neat piece of typography.
Ask your designer to make the sketches in black and white. This will show you the logo design exactly as it is, with no color to distract you. Once you are happy with the design, then see what added color will look like. A design that relies only on color to make an impact may lose its appeal when it appears on a fax, for example.
The logo must look as good in different sizes too. Let your designer know where you plan to use it apart from office stationery, websites and advertisements you may want to use it on gifts as well. He will give you a design that looks good on a billboard as well as a keychain or pen.
A design professional is your best bet for an excellent logo design. Having created other logos, he knows the technical pitfalls of certain ideas, the general trends in design and he has studied the fine art of creating a memorable logo. Use his experience your want your logo, like a diamond, to be forever, don't you ?
