Are you an entrepreneur with a new idea or even a fledgling new company? Or, perhaps you are a business owner seeking to reinvigorate your existing business, after all – who isn’t? We have put together the annotated, short guide to effectively branding your company. Often the overwhelming process freezes owners up, and they go even without professional logo design for long periods of time.
The five quick considerations for a professional logo design that will actually serve your company can be summed up as follows:
1. PERSONALITY – As the article in Entrepreneur Magazine states, many owners first consider color, but the very first thing is personality. What type of company personality are you trying to portray? Stability? Trust? Whimsy? Careful consideration and research in the look of competitors will also help you hone what personality you wish your company image to portray. Basically you need to look appropriate for your industry, and leave out personal references or sentimentality. Be relevant.
2. COLOR – What color your logo is a huge factor. Research shows consumers make their buying choices largely based on color. Basically, Blue is trust and stability, Red is passion and excitement, Brown is natural and earthy, Green is youthful, Yellow is energy and happiness, and Black is luxury. There are always popular colors of the year, but remember overly trendy colors may have to be changed sooner than you think. To get you ready to choose the company color here is an in depth and awesome info-graphic.
3. CLEARLY LEGIBLE – Is the company name clearly readable? Make sure your logo design does not sacrifice legibility over design, and make sure your logo design is as legible as possible at a small size or from a distance.
4. SIMPLE – Many owners do not know that gradients, multiple colors and all the fanciness supported by our high resolution screens on desktops computers and tablets do not translate over to print without a very high cost. Keep the design simple, direct and able to be printed, stamped, embroidered or embossed. Also, these days, consider the square profile pictures on all social media platforms – make sure the logo icon, or part of the logo can be incorporated into the square meaningfully.
COMPETITORS – What do your competitors logo designs look like? Make sure to do some quick research to make sure you do not accidentally use the same font, layout , or imagery. This is crucial to refining your look, and also to steer clear of any copyright issues down the road. No one wants to redesign the entire brand just as the company hits it’s stride and becomes noticeable.
There you go! That is the quick guide to not screwing your company logo design up big time! This advice might seem unnecessary to some, but even the big companies pay big money for monumental logo screw-ups. To make the point, you can see the “15 Worst Corporate Logo Fails” on Business Insider.
To finish off, we will discuss what a brand actually is, as many people think the brand is the logo itself. The logo is part of the brand, which itself is more of a space people feel they are in while interacting with your company. Of course the brand is totally reinforced by the visual identity, but brand itself is built on look, actions, and patterns such as using your company color consistently, and as well having a consistent customer response and service. For great in depth article about the concept of “brand” take a look at this article at Co. Design.
If you are set on starting, or redesigning your company logo, but you don’t know which company to use, give our designers and portfolios a look at BusinessLogos.com. Better yet contact us and let us tell you what we can do for your company brand today.
