Do you need to design a Logo for Your Business? Your logo is a symbol that will identify and brand your business. Think of logos that have been with you since you were a child; you don’t have to see or hear the name of the company to know who they are. A logo must be unique and immediately associated with you and your business.
Your Logo will serve many purposes; it will help prospective customers understand what your business is about, will be remembered each time someone sees it and can build a loyalty among customers. Keep in mind, it should always look professional in order to portray your company as well established.
Two questions you should ask yourself:
- How do I design the best logo?
- What can go wrong when designing my logo?
Here is a great guide to help you through the process of designing the perfect logo while avoiding the pitfalls. We are sure this guide will be very helpful, but should you need any assistance, we are here to help you out.
The Three Types of Logos:
- The Text Only Logo: Consists of text only – no images
- Combination Text & Graphic Logo: Offers a combination of text and graphic that represents what your business does.
- Abstract Logo: A graphic that has no text or information on your business or what it does.
The Text Logo:
The text only logo is pretty self-explanatory, it consists only of text. You can use various fonts and colors to give it a boost while offering information about your business. Text logos work best for well established businesses. As a startup business, you need to stand out, using only text might not make that happen. It’s recommended you not use just text at this time.
The Combination Text & Graphic Logo:
This mixture of a graphical illustration and text will give you the ability to present your company name and provide an image that illustrates what your business is about. This is a great choice for a new businesses because you can introduce your business while offering an image that will stay in the mind of a perspective customer. Choosing a really good graphical illustration can have a positive impact on building your company brand.
Abstract Logo:
The problem with using an Abstract logo is that it has no text and therefore no information about your business. Large, well-known companies spend a great deal of money creating an icon that brands the business. If you do not have the budget or an established name, this would not be something you should consider using at this time. You need to get your business name out to perspective customers first. You can go for a Text logo, though I believe an Combination Text Graphic logo is your best option.
Creating Your Logo:
Before you can create your logo, you must have a clear idea of the message you want to bring to future customers. Once you know what you want people to understand about your business, design the image that captures your business and your audience. Unless you are an expert in graphic designing, it’s highly recommended you hire someone to do this for you. Once you have a completed logo, make sure you register it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, you can do this at: http://www.uspto.gov/trademark. It’s easy to do and will protect it from someone trying to walk off with it.
Graphic Elements to Consider:
There are various elements that should not be overlooked when designing your logo. If your graphic designer has created a detailed, high-end image: Will it be too expensive to embroider on a shirt or hat? If the image is reduced in size to fit on small items, such as a pen, will it lose it’s quality? In some cases, reducing your logo from the original size will leave it unrecognizable.
Get Ideas for your Logo design
A good way to get ideas for your logo design is to look at the logos of other businesses in your industry. It’s also a good idea to hire a professional to design it, but shop around because professional firms may charge fees that are well beyond the budget of a new or small business.
Involve people in brainstorming sessions. Business partners, family and friends, whether they know the intricacies of your business or not can all provide good input for you to choose from.
It’s also a good idea to involve your Promotional Product Supplier. They have seen a lot of logos and know what works with products and printing processes. If you would like, we at Ads-Up Promotions would be happy to offer our services here.
You will save yourself a great deal of time and money if you do not overlook the fine details. You must ask yourself if your graphic will look great if it’s enlarged or reduced. If you enlarge the image will it lose it’s sharp, vibrant structure? If you reduce it, will the image just disappear? Consider having different versions of your logo, one each for larger and smaller items as well as wider or taller options, or some combination of them. Let your graphic designer know the different elements your logo will appear in or on to ensure it’ll look great when enlarged, compressed or embroidered.
Colors:
When choosing colors keep in mind that not all decorating methods can match color exactly. For example embroidery, thread only comes in so many colors. So beginning here rather than a pantone chart would be a great idea as you can match ink to thread but not thread to ink. Also using primary & secondary colors rather than a custom color will save you color matching fees in many printing applications. Keep in mind that your logo will probably be used in different environments and may need to be converted to black and white occasionally. Some graphics could be very difficult to convert to black and white or embroidered due to shading and gradients.
Embroidery:
The size of your text will play a big role when you want to embroider. It’s recommended that you go no smaller than ¼ of an inch. If you have delicate or fine details, this will add to the number of stitches it will take to complete the embroidery. The size and details of your logo will dictate the overall price. Lettering without serifs are a better choice for embroidery so avoiding those, especially on the smaller type is important.
Screen Printing:
If you are using multiple colors, this will add to your expense for printing on some items, so keep the number of colors down as much as possible. Due to improved technologies in screen printing it’s not as difficult as it used to be, but can be rather expensive if you plan on printing low volumes.
Make sure you get a vector image of your logo, from your designer, because you are going to need it for various printing applications.
If you are looking for help in designing your logo or need assistance with a certain step or application, we can help you. If you are looking for something truly unique but just can’t seem to get a firm grip on it, we’ll be here to help you out.
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