From YourSITE.com
Logo Design Buyer?s Guide
By Harris Jhosta
Jul 12, 2006, 18:54
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 <a href="http://www.logodesignpros.co.uk/">Logo
Design</a> 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.
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Your Bio: 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
universties. Presently carrying a research on the evolution of business
performance by the advent of Information Technology Ciphers in the state
university of california.
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