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Logo Design Buyer's Guide
by Harris Jhosta
Across a period of time a logo is the image which symbolizes a corporation,
its products and services in a complete explanatory manner. Its purpose is to
create an unforgettable, familiar feeling on the mind of a potential client or
customer. It's undoubtedly a logo which can be termed as the heart of a
company's corporate identity. So in a nutshell a logo is a trademark of a
company or organization. It's the identity that encapsulates what your company
stand for and what it wants to achieve in its lifetime. Companies do spend
thousands, if not millions of dollars just to have the right logo.
So what are the ingredients of a first-class logo? Most people would reply "I
just recognized it when I saw it!" Well this isn't so far from the truth. A good
logo catches the eye; it makes the observer curious and engaged, doesn't matter
if only for a short moment. And that is the moment in which an image and the
subsistence of your company gets embedded into the minds of your customer rather
than filtered out with a million other daily options. Your company's logo will
be your visual tool to stimulate attention and leave a greater impact to your
target audience that words may fall short of. Over time, logos prove to be the
simplest and most direct way of promoting one's business presence. Make your
logo give you your brand name recognition. It is your visual appeal to any
document or web page because of its unique graphic image. People tend to
remember a catchy logo at a much higher rate than nearly any other advertising
element. When designing your logo, there are several things to keep in mind to
achieve you goals: be unique, be true to the company, consider the psychology of
your target market, and, above all, keep it simple.
Your business logo will most likely be used for many purposes: business cards
and letterhead, outdoor designs, the Internet and promotional items such as
T-shirts and mugs. The logo has to look good when resized to fit on a small 2"x
3.5" business card. If the design is complex a lot of detail will be lost when
the logo is shrunk to fit on the card and people might not be able to make out
the design. Elaborate designs can also be difficult and expensive to put on
T-shirts and mugs.
Complex or over-the-top designs can mean high printing costs. A decision to have
a highly complex custom design logo for your firm can come back to haunt you.
This doesn't mean that your custom design logo has to be simple (and boring) for
it to work. An elegant logo design can enhance your firm's professional image.
The trick is to find the right balance between design and functionality, where
you have a great design that you can use for all purposes.
Design of a company or product logo should not be tagged on to an advertising
campaign at the end of the planning process. It deserves to be examined and
integrated into the body of the campaign; it should not be the tail of the dog.
A good logo is developed at the front end, the part that bites. Planners need to
communicate to the graphic designer certain key information about what the
company or product goals are. They need to pass on to the artist a demographic
picture of their target consumer - age, income, where they live. All of these
factors are brought into play in the strategic planning process.
Too much information can be just as complicated to handle as too little. Seeing
too many sources might encourage the prospective logo purchaser to select a
supplier at random and hope for the best. Given the prolonged expected life
cycle for a company logo and the significant part a logo plays in image
recognition, playing selection games can be devastating. But what can a newcomer
do to get the best bang for his logo?
These days the savvy of risk in online business is becoming quite substantial,
anyone with a computer and internet access can put up a logo design business.
You could've pay a boy working as a freelance and charging $40 to draw your
logo. Who knows? Maybe he's good, but there is more to logo design than nice
pictures. Logo designers need to recognize the association that should exist
between the logo and the image the company wants to send to its customers. Logo
designers have to have some business understanding and business know-how in
order to design logos that increase sales.
Don't fall for cheap prices, they say "Quality never comes cheap" and yes it is
so very true, at one hand you tend to choose a cheap logo design plan but on the
other hand you sacrifice some of the things which in turn those logo designers
will get benefited with. Some of those like things are:
1. A limited number of Formats Mostly the cheap plan logo designers won't
provide the final design in multiple formats such as a bitmap image and a vector
image. Knowingly these both formats are very necessary, you use bitmap for your
website and interrelated purposes whereas vector for printing up of the visiting
cards and corporate stationery.
2. No Money-Back Guarantee Usually cheap logo designing plans are not backed up
by any money back guarantee, might be the reason can be, they don't really
possess any satisfied customers.
3. Limited Alterations Some logo designers present very affordable logos where
you get no or very few alterations. In additional words, they'll give you one
logo. If you don't like it, that's your problem. Typically they then charge
extra for alterations. This in itself isn't really dishonest - as long as they
are upfront about it. It does become deceptive when it's buried in fine print.
Creating a logo is always a process - though different designers have their own
methods. Many designers will begin by sketching thumbnails or playing with
shapes on the computer screen, until something "clicks" and they follow that
path to see where it leads. One way to start is to select a shape which
represents the concept of the company, and begin playing with it. The idea is to
come up with something interesting or clever, whether a viewpoint which is
different, or an unusual combination of shapes. Perhaps it will be something
which will require some guesswork on the part of the viewer, but then be crystal
clear when they look at it another way.
The accurate logo, with the accurate distinctiveness, will enhance your
visibility, reliability and impression; which mean more business for you. Few
are the things that are needed for a robust logo making activity and an
outstanding product, before choosing this service of logo designing make sure
that the designer firm follows this trail, following this will ensure maximum
credibility, firms like http://logodesignpros.co.uk/ follow this trail and has
been achieving recorded success ration over a period of years, these factors
are:
Consistency Consistency in use of logo, tagline, materials. Repetition of
similar elements, used in the same or similar ways. This helps people to
remember who the company is and what do they do?
Memorability Must contain an element of memorability so that the logo stays at
the forefront of potential clients' minds. That way, they'll think of the
company next time they have a need.
Meaningfulness Meaningfulness so that the logo can spread the message about the
distinguishing characteristics of one's business.
Uniqueness The uniqueness factor helps one stand out from the crowd. For
example, if everyone in one industry uses a particular symbol (i.e., airlines
often uses airplane tail), try to use something else that way, the logo doesn't
just look like everyone else's.
Professionalism Professionalism in the eminence of the graphics, the printing
and the paper on which the materials will be printed.
Timelessness Timelessness in the logo will ensure that one don't have to
redesign the logo in just a few years and that the investment and equity in the
design will be lasting.
Remember, logo design is an essential element to your general marketing
strategy. Put in the necessary time, effort, and creativity, and you will end up
with an effective, memorable logo that will go miles towards developing the
positive brand appreciation and recognition you desire. A logo is essentially at
the heart of corporate identity. It is the face of an organization. The right
logo design can be one of your strongest marketing tools. It delivers the
message to the public that a company is unique, credible and professional. Make
it stylish. Make it elegant. Make an impact.
About the Author
Harris Jhosta is holding the market experience of IT industry and immense
business solutions for about 2 decades now. His vast experience in the related
field gave him the acclamation and renownship in many sectors of business.
Harris has also been involved in providing educational services in form of
various seminars and lectures, in many well renowned universities.
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