Considering that in human cognition visual processing is the
most important channel for gathering new information, it is no wonder companies
spend thousands, if not millions of dollars for the
right logo design.
A logo is like a compressed story of your company ... backed by a promise.
When designing your
company logo design,
keep the following in mind: What do you want your customers to expect and
feel when they see your logo
How Much Does a Logo Cost?
Mike Crawford, president and founder of Multi Media
Communications (www.mccom.com), strongly recommends outsourcing the design of
your logo. "[You] are in the business of creating a product or service, not in
the business of designing a logo," he says. Service companies on the web offer
logo design for $200 to $600 U.S. Outfits at the upper-end of this price range
will generally create several designs, from which you can select the one you
prefer. Although these services can be quite helpful in a cash crunch, keep in
mind how frequently you will use the logo on letterhead, web sites, advertising,
and product packaging. If your logo design requires more research, expect to pay
$1,500 to $3,000 U.S. Design Strategies Inc., recently reported that it charged
$13,000 for a
corporate logo design created for a software company that had involved
extensive market research, 64 different file formats, and a 15-page usage manual
that included instructions and standards for company-wide implementation of the
logo. On the other hand, a multinational corporation merger might spend upwards
of a million dollars or more for a logo to represent the new company.
NOTE: Creating a
company logo that
is unique increases the likelihood of gaining trademark protection. Assistance
from a trademark lawyer is invaluable when conducting a trademark search.
Otherwise, your
trademark logo runs the risk of infringing upon another
company logo or
trademark symbol.
Start by Looking in Your Fridge
To start thinking about an appropriate logo for your company,
look at some well known
corporate logos.
Open up your fridge and start examining your yogurt, mustard, beer, and anything
else hidden deep in back. What makes some logos stand out more than others?
Next, head down to your local supermarket with a sketch pad or digital camera.
Once again look for those logos that stand out. After that, check out your
yellow pages for companies similar to the one you wish to start.
Using Clip Art
If you plan to operate a local consulting or contracting
business, or perhaps even a small corner cafe, establishing a
strong corporate
identity may not be high on your list of the most important things to do and
spend startup funds on. Fortunately, a high quality solution can be found by
selecting the right typeface for your company name, and then exploring high
quality royalty free clip art. By experimenting with multiple clip art images,
and combining various parts of each image to your design, you can create a
unique logo.
Keep in mind that even a drastically altered clip art image may be impossible to
trademark. However, you might consider using your design as is until your
company gets well underway and then later, when cash flow is stronger, replace
it with something similar, yet completely original. Some more tips when using
clip art:
Cut out distracting lines.
Remember to keep your images simple. If you wish to show a complex image like a
bowl filled with salad, make sure you simplify it to the point that it has as
few lines as possible, but is still easily recognizable as a salad bowl.
Experiment with typography.
The above logo uses the "Architect" typeface. However the "L" has been rotated
slightly using MS "Word Art." Larger dots were then added to the letter i's.
Typography manipulation is a strategy also used successfully by big companies
such as Dell with its twisted "E" and Microsoft with its chipped "O".
Keep the design usable.
Don't make your logo too vertical. A high and narrow logo requires more ad space
to get a legible size for the logo. The eye is also better at noticing wider
items to some extent, probably from generations of our ancestors staring at the
horizon and looking for animals to hunt.
Use Vector Graphics.
Vector graphics shrink and expand without loss of detail (e.g., the .wmf
format). They also require less computer memory. A bitmap image can easily take
up 2 to 10 MB of memory and loses detail when expanded.
Keep colors simple.
A Black and White logo
is much easier and cheaper to print. If your logo does use color, make sure it
also looks good in B/W. If using color, also try to stick to CMYK-colors that
exist within the wider RGB color range. Doing so will keep your onscreen colors
closer to the actual printed colors.
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