As the face of a company, logos form a big part of the branding efforts that make or break people’s perceptions of your product. Logos are an integral business marketing element, as they act as a company’s major graphical representation, anchoring the brand as the single most visible manifestation of the company within the target market, according to the Houston Chronicle. From fonts to colors to graphics, a logo must be recognizable and consistent for it to be successful.
That doesn’t mean you have to shell out big bucks for your logo, if you’re a business just starting out. Consider this: Twitter paid just $15 for its simple blue bird logo, while Nike spent just $35 for the swoosh. What you DO need is to spend a lot of time, research and energy into carefully crafting your logo to ensure it imparts what you want it to. After all, this is the single most important icon or image that potential customers will see, and they will automatically make judgments on it, for better or worse.
Don’t Cut Corners
There are many companies out there that will throw a logo together with clip art that can’t be trademarked by their customer since it’s already using copyrighted art work to begin with. Can you get a logo for dirt cheap? Sure. Some of those shady companies will sell their logo work from as cheap as $50 to about $250 but you’re getting generic clip art that you won’t be able to trademark later. What good is it if your logo can’t be protected? This part of the logo design process should never be skimped on. It will come back to haunt you later. That’s why it’s best to work with a designer who specializes in logo design and understands the dynamics of branding design.
Elements of an Effective Logo Design
From design to colors, the logo design process is a well-thought-out, collaborative process between you and your logo designer. To get it right, research must be conducted into all elements of the design — even the colors you choose are more important than you may realize. Colors invoke feelings in people, and those feelings can lead to trust and reliance on your brand, or they can rub people the wrong way. That’s where research comes in. Do you think the brown color that UPS uses for its branding was an accident? Nope, brown happens to symbolize reliability, dependability, stability, and structure. Somebody over there did their homework! Here are a few more examples of colors and what they mean, according to Inc.:
- Yellow symbolizes energy, sunshine, and joy. Example: McDonald’s
- Red symbolizes emotion, passion, and love. Example: Red Bull, YouTube
- Green symbolizes harmony of nature, peace, and trust. Example: Starbucks
- Black symbolizes formality and mystery of night. Example: Tiffany and Co., BlackBerry
Of course, these are all examples of large, well-known brands. But the same concept can apply to small businesses. You may not have the money to keep throwing at advertising. That’s why you need your logo to work right from the start.
Our Process
For professional logo design that will garner long-lasting results, the team at Accel Graphics can help. Our team will work with you every step of the way to ensure a smooth process end to end. The result will be a logo designed to leave a positive impression on your customers! Here’s what to expect:
- You fill out a creative brief
- Brainstorming sessions begin
- We come up with sketches, then take the best ones and digitize them
- We make revisions as needed
- After approval, we provide a logo guideline sheet for spacing designations, color matching, etc.
- We provide a disk containing the logo in color and grey scale in multiple formats, such as .ai, .eps, .png, .jpeg and .pdf.
- We transfer the copyright to you so you can get the logo trademarked with a trademark attorney
