Are you dreaming of breaking free of the cubicle farm and venturing into the world of business ownership? Whether you’re still in the dream stage or laying out a strategic plan, make sure you stop and spend a little extra time on your logo. Your logo is the visual foundation upon which your company is built. Share on X This is often the very first impression clients will have of you and your work. If your logo looks cheap, chances are clients will think the same of your product or service.
From another perspective — your small startup company could be the best in town for the services or product you provide, but without a cohesive marketing strategy, you’ll never bring potential business to your doorstep. And those marketing materials can’t exist without a logo. Marketing materials can't exist without a logo. Share on XThe logo gives you a set of parameters to work within – your color scheme, fonts and other design elements will all be showcased with this crucial first step.
More likely than not, customers will judge your entire business based on the visual components of your brand identity. This is why you must take the time, energy and appropriate investment to ensure that your message is perceived exactly how you intend.
How do you select a quality logo? Glad you asked.
- A quality logo will be identifiable and memorable. Be careful to avoid “trends.” Hot colors and trendy icons come and go. Hopefully your business will be around long after that brown and orange block lettered logo is cool. You don’t want to have an outdated look in just 10 years.
- A logo must have a vector file. This means the original artwork must be in a file that has a high enough resolution to be used in large scale materials. A .jpg or .png is never going to be high enough resolution for a billboard. If 50 years from now your business wants to buy a truck or billboard, your logo should be designed in a manner that is supportive of your company growth.
- A quality logo design will be legible even when small. Our favorite way to test this is to print the logo on a 8×11 piece of paper at full bleed and hang it up across the room. If a font is hard to read or part of it looks like a giant blob from a distance, there are design issues at hand. We often see clients who have an artistic friend hand draw a beautiful design for their company, and these sketches are great as inspiration for your logo. However, some hand drawn elements, like shading, don’t translate well into legible artwork for later applications (like on work hats or shirts, for example.) Let your buddy capture the essence of your company, and then let a professional tweak it to a workable format that you can proudly use for years to come.
- Your logo should be also be reproducible in a single color format. Someday your business may want the logo to be listed in a charity directory, embroidered on a shirt or printed to pens – any number of other applications require a single color variation of your logo. If it doesn’t work in a single color, you need a re-design.
Above all, invest in yourself. Many websites offer designer quality clipart or even a customized logo for your company, but a truly one-of-kind logo, created with the exchange of ideas between you and a trusted marketing agency, will ultimately pay dividends for years to come.
You only get one first impression. Let your company’s logo “speak” to clients at first glance.
Written by Josh Plueger || Graphic Design Maverick
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