How to Design a Logo – Do it Yourself Or Not?

You know a great logo when you see one but you would like to know how to properly design one? A word of caution if you’re thinking about going the “do it yourself” route in designing your own logo. It is one thing to read and understand the elements or principles of good design, but applying them appropriately is another matter. The explosion in software development has flooded the market with a wide variety of programs that will enable you to design your own identity. Even the most basic Desktop Publishing program has enough features to get the job done. Creativity is an art, not a science, and all too often novices sit down with the DYS software and are so enamoured with the available features that they use as many of them as they can.

Professionals know what features to apply and in what proportions. The Internet has made a variety of lower cost professionals available at reasonable prices. Most offer custom design services and include diagnostic interviews so they can learn what your company is all about. So at least explore the possibility of hiring a professional design consultant to help. The use of color will illustrate one of the many benefits of professional services. If you go it alone your DYS program will let you concoct color combinations never seen by human eyes. But when you take your logo to the printer, can they be reproduced? A professional designer will know.

Organizing Principle of Logo Design

The color discussion leads us to the organizing principle of design: simplicity leads to functionality. Think about it and you’ll realize that some of the best logos ever created are really pretty simple. The McDonald’s Golden Arch, Apple’s apple with the bite out of it, and Nike’s “swoosh” are all examples. So where does functionality fit in? Logos are used in too many ways to even list. Consider some of them: on the corporate offices and satellite locations, on banners and billboards, on the Internet, on letterhead and business cards, on every piece of marketing material the company produces, on promotional items like shirts and hats, and yes, even on the tops of sticks placed in drinks served at company sponsored events. Simple images will work for any of those uses. They can pretty much go anywhere and do anything. So remember the KISS principle: Keep it Simple, Stupid!

Font Style and Size

As is the case with all elements, Fonts should be selected which match the nature of the company’s business. If you want viewers of your company image to be reassured that your company is reliable, safe, and trustworthy, avoid flashy fonts and bold use of font sizes. Leave that for the companies representing bold, new, and innovative fields like alternative energy development. Banks and other financial service companies should use traditional and familiar font styles.

Using Color

Again, use bold colors like reds and oranges for bold businesses. Muted colors are not what you want here. Use of a lot of colors can actually be distracting. The old Apple logo contained multiple layers of color but it was redesigned to improve its functionality in the late 1990’s.

Using Enhancing Effects

Many good logos simply present the company name and graphically enhance certain letters by wrapping them or stretching them in some way. Look at the FedEx logo. Simply boxing off the name created the desired effect. Simple, yet functional! That is how you design a logo.

Article Source: http://www.nextdaylogos.com/#!sample-logo-designs/cuxj

 

 

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Effective Marketing With 3D Logo Design

 

Enhancing the value of your product in this competitive world is not an easy job. In today’s fast growing competition, it becomes very important for the manufacturer of the product to be very keen in order to enhance his product value. A product is formed with the combination of numerous substances. From the quality and ingredients, the image of the product also has great power of increasing the product value. Today, people first make selection of the product by looking at its image. Therefore, the producer has to give equal importance to the product image. Creating a good product image is considered as an art. If the producer is budget conscious, he can enhance the product value by making use of the following points. The very first point is to create a logo. The logo is considered to be the representation of your business. There are several design firms that help you to create a custom logo design for your product.

Today, presentation and overall look of a product or service is as important as the product or service itself. These days there are various websites of small or big companies that can help. Logos are the images that symbolize the company. In all projects and ad campaigns, the logo will be an inseparable part. Hence, designing your logo is something that is most essential. It requires creative thinking abilities. A well turned-out 3D logo design will also help in promoting your website and subsequently increasing your SEO ranking. The Internet has become the part of people’s lives. It is one of the most powerful means to attract global customers. You can find variety of 3D logos online.

You can take help of many logo design services which are proficient in creating original designs. Building a unique symbol that identifies with your website or company is a vital aspect.

The three dimensional logo designs are more attractive than two dimensional designs. The common factor between them is usage of same vector and raster graphics. The 3D design is better than plain designs as they are realistic and remarkable, but very difficult to create. Adobe is recognized software that enables the 3D logo creation.

You can try to create your own 3D logo design by following simple steps:

• Finalize your logo image. First draw your logo design in 2D form then convert it into 3D design.
• Choose the graphic that suites your design.
• Design in the graphic form. Either you can create it yourself or you can hire a specialized artist.
• If you have used any text in your logo design then you can use acronyms for that. A term conveys to you the meaning in little words.
• Select the style for your icon. It should match the requirement of your company protocol. You can take help of various resources online to typeface your text.
• Now you can convert your 2D logo into 3D logo with the help of software. Adobe Illustrator is software that specializes in 3D logo creation.

A fine work of polishing the logo in 3D design is required. This requires a help from an experienced designer or design firm.

If you do not want to invest in such services, the other way is to make your own logo with the help of an online logo designer. The cost may differ on different sites. Still it can range anywhere from $100 to many hundreds of dollars. Nextdaylogos.com is one of these services, they provide a quality logo design for under $100, offer unlimited revisions, and have a turnaround of just one day.

Article Source: http://www.nextdaylogos.com

 

 

Looking For a Logo Design Company?

 

Few people realize the value of a proper logo and the impact that a good one can make to their business. You must have observed the logos of multinational companies and must have looked at them in awe. Well, they were planned and designed meticulously to make them awe inspiring. After they are the biggest representatives of the company and can make or break them. While your representatives work 5 days a week, these logos keep promoting your business 365 days a year without complaining. Most leading companies have logos that speak for themselves. Still not convinced about the power of graphic logo design that keeps on pushing the sales of a company silently from the background?

A properly designed graphic logo speaks more than words and being graphic in nature, they transgress the barriers of the written language. Even a person who does not know English will recognize the graphical representation of ‘IBM’ Such is the power of a worldwide recognized and accepted logo. There are many new companies who are on their way to becoming famous worldwide and they too are looking for a renowned logo design company that will help them with their logo design problems. Just do a search on the net and you will be flooded with organizations that offer logo design services at rates that will amaze you. You had always thought that a logo design company has high overheads and charge a good sum of money, but these rates?

However, do not accept anything till you have seen it yourself. Not even if the company you found on your online search proclaims that they are the best logo design company on the face of the earth. A reputed logo design company does not have to advertise itself so aggressively. They prefer to play quietly and they know that all the major companies know about them and will call on their services whenever required. After all these companies need the help of these advertising agencies every now and then. With the special effects used in TV ads capturing the minds of the people like never before more and more organizations are converting their logos to flashy ones.

You might find them lighting up in all their glory or you might find them surfacing from the depths of the sea. Regardless of the special effects, the basic logo remains the same and the logo design company takes great pains to see that the main logos of organizations are not contorted when they are used in conjunction with special effects. So what should you do if you are looking for a reputed logo design company that can provide you with a logo that will make the competition stare at it with awe? The best option is to seek out a friend who is working in the publicity department of leading multinationals. They know all about advertising and logo designs.

In fact major companies recruit these specialists and most of them have a rock solid background in the advertising industry. Once you have been able to locate such a person ask him or her about the best organization that can do justice to your organization’s logo. Once you have been able to settle on a logo design company, it is the time to get a few things in order and to call for a meeting with a few of your senior executives. Explain to them that you are going to entrust the portfolio of designing a logo for your organization to the certain organization and explain the costs to them. Getting a logo designed from scratch costs a tidy sum of money and it might well mean recruiting 2-5 advertising professionals for 2-3 weeks.

You can be rest assured that these guys do not come cheap. Never try to undertake the design of your company’s logo all by yourself or never give the responsibility to people who have no experience in this field. There are many people who claim to be expert logo designers, but the fact is that they hardly know even the rudiments of designing. These so-called, single person logo design company are fresh young people out of high school looking for an avenue of earning. They have dabbled for a few days with special software that are supposed to create excellent logos. These programs cannot create logos. No software can create logos.

These programs depend on a database of logos that have been sourced from different magazines and then cleaned up of print debris and scanned. People using these programs will just select a logo from the software’s database and then alter the same slightly. They might even change the color of the logo and add some special effects to it. While the special effects might look good when you see it at first glance, you can be rest assured that they will not look good when they are finally printed on your company’s stationeries and products. The logo design company charges you money for the time and research they will be spending for your product and not for messing around with some readymade logos.

If you still do not believe why these professionals of the logo design company charge so much money for designing a simple logo, just check them out while they are working on your logo. Each and every element that constitutes the final logo are calculated mathematically and each of them are proportionate to each other. A well-designed logo should look like a work of art. Do you have any idea of the ‘X height’ of a character? Do you know what are the ‘whiskers’ in Serif types and what are Serif types? Do you have any idea of ‘leading and kerning’ and what does ‘white space’ and ‘color balance’ means? If you do not know about these things, ask the specialists at the logo design company and they will provide you with the answers and might show you other things too.

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How to Choose a Logo Design

 

In order to choose a logo, there are important steps to go through, both by yourself and with a graphic designer. In this post, I outline the logo design process and some important guidelines to keep in mind when choosing a logo that is perfect for you.

For the creation of your logo, you are free to choose either a freelance designer, a design firm, or perhaps an advertising agency. Throughout this post, for the purpose of convenience and readability, I will use the term “designer” to include whichever type of business or individual is applicable to your case.

Choose a budget

First off, you should decide on your budget for your new logo. They can cost anywhere from $300-1500 (USD), and sometimes more. Just remember that you get what you pay for, and a designer’s fees will reflect experience, client history, and professionalism. Investing in a logo (and a corporate identity to go with it) is one of the most important first steps you can take when building a brand. A logo is worth much more than the hours it takes to create it.

You can find logo banks and contest sites online and get one for around $150. There are even different freelancer sites where people bid insanely low prices-like $50. Just be aware that choosing a logo for a cheap price online can be disastrous. Inexperienced designers may take forever, not communicate well, use clip art images (a definite no-no), and may not provide you with the correct files you need for both print and web use.

Locate designers

There are so many places you can find graphic designers. Choosing the right designer for you is definitely a lot harder (and we’ll get to that in a minute). You can locate lots of candidates by using different methods.

• Ask around. If you know someone with a great logo, simply ask them who did it. Most of my freelance design work comes from referrals.
• Search graphic design firm directories such as the one on GraphicDesign.com.
• Browse design galleries and portfolio communities like The Behance Network.
• Search for “logo design” and “logo development” on social networks like Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook.

Choose a suitable designer

After contacting a number of designers and requesting quotes, make sure you look at more than just the price when deciding who gets the job. Consider the designer’s previous logos and the corporate identities they have created around those logos. Look for good design presentations because it shows how much they care about their own professional appearance. Read the descriptions that go with each of their logo projects because a logo may look great and all, but it has to meet the specific design requirements to be effective.

More importantly, choose a logo designer whose style of design fits your own preferred style. By doing this, you’ll be happy with the logo you end up with, and the designer will be happy because that style is what they’re most comfortable with.

You can judge the professionalism of a graphic designer by the following points. These don’t all have to apply, but be on the lookout for at least a few of them.

• They are polite, direct, knowledgeable, and efficient communicators.
• They explain their design process for you and tell you what will be delivered upon completion.
• They will ask you relevant questions to understand your business.
• They have some sort of contract or service agreement to sign before starting.
• They require a specified up-front payment before starting.
• Their grammar, spelling, and punctuation are at least satisfactory. (As with any industry, bad writing says a lot about a person).

One crucial note here: if the designer presents you with a contract or agreement, make sure that the ownership of the logo is transferred to you upon final payment. If there is nothing in writing that mentions ownership, then ask your designer to give you this agreement in writing. It is imperative that you own your logo design so that you can legally use it however you like in the future.

Brief the designer in detail

Whether you brief your designer face-to-face or send over a brief in email form, it is essential to explain what you want in detail. Answer these questions first:

• If you currently have a logo, why don’t you like it?
• What does your business do?
• Who is your target market?
• Who are your main competitors?
• How are you different from your competitors?
• What qualities do you want your company to project?
• What feelings do you want your new logo to incite?
• Do you have a tag line that needs to be included in the design?
• Will your logo show up in videos? If so, will it eventually need an animated version?
• Which specific logos are your favourites, and why?
• Are you partial to typographic logos (FedEx or ESPN), symbolic logos (Nike or Apple), or a combination of both (Pepsi or Adidas)?

Let the designer know exactly where you plan on using the logo. Sure, you’ll have business cards and a website, but will it also be seen on billboards and your social media profiles?

Ask if the designer will provide a logo usage guidelines document, which advises how the logo can and cannot be used. For example, which logo variation can be used on which colour background? Finally, ask for a favicon. This is the little image that appears in browser tabs, in your bookmarks manager, and on your computer when you save a webpage. They usually come in one of three sizes: 16×16, 32×32, or 64×64 pixels. Ask for a 64×64 pixel favicon, so that is looks crisp everywhere it appears.

Equipped with all this knowledge, your designer should be able to deliver an accurate visual representation of your business. Solidifying your vision before briefing a designer will definitely save you time, money, and headaches in the end.

When I entered into the logo design industry, I encountered a few clients who expected me to know all of these things and deliver a perfect solution to a problem that was not expressed clearly. It inevitably led to non-stop revisions of their logo and tired faces all around. That’s why I decided to start sending out a list of preliminary logo design questions before even considering a job. If you don’t know what you want in the beginning, then you may keep changing your mind as the project moves forward. It’s definitely okay to change your mind, but be aware that the designer will probably ask you for more money before continuing.

Choose a logo concept

The designer will then do the necessary research and experiments, then come back to you with some concept designs. This will take around two to four days, depending on the specific job. Ideally, they will present you with three to six hand-drawn sketches. When you first view the concepts, choose a logo that immediately catches your eye. This is usually the one that your gut is telling you to choose. Continue the decision process by asking yourself some essential questions:

• Does it represent my product or business?
• Does it convey my message?
• Is the design simple enough?
• Does the design have sufficient contrast to stand out?
• Will it work without colour?
• Will it work when it’s super small?
• Does it look too much like any other logos?
• Will it be relevant five years or ten years down the road?

After that, sleep on it. Do the exact same thing and ask yourself the same questions for a second time. Do your answers change? It’s also a good idea to ask friends and family what they think.

Give useful feedback

After the first draft, your designer may actually present a logo that is close to what you’re looking for, but it’s not often they’ll hit the nail on the head right away. Therefore, it’s up to you to communicate your needs as best you can. Provide your designer with feedback that is useful. Simply saying, “I don’t like any of them” doesn’t really help the process. Express why you don’t like something, or what you would like to see differently, such as, “I don’t like how rigid and symmetrical this one is. Can you give it more movement or make it more lively?”

Giving clear direction is necessary, but try not to become the designer yourself. You have hired a designer for a reason, so let them do what they do best. If you have chosen a good designer that communicates well and matches your preferred style, then you can be confident they will present you with quality work.

Accept deliverables

Upon release of final payment to the designer, you should receive the deliverables promised to you in the beginning of the business relationship. This should include vector files that are resizaeble, as opposed to raster images that cannot be increased in size without becoming pixelated (blurry).

You need files that you can start using on the web right away (usually PNG, JPG, or GIF). Ask for a PNG of GIF if you want the background to be transparent (no white box around your logo). You also need to get the original source files (usually AI or EPS). You definitely want to have the source files in case someone else needs to modify or expand on your logo someday. For example, if one day you hire someone to create a video for you, then a source file is required to incorporate your logo-a JPG simply won’t cut it.

When it’s time to choose a logo that is perfect for you, realize that it’s not a simple process. It takes a lot of thought about your type of business, your target audience, the message you want to send, the feelings you want to incite, as well as open communication with your designer.

However, it’s definitely worth the effort to strive for a strong logo design, as it is the first thing your audience sees, and it will be with you for a long time to come.

Robert is a Canadian brand developer, marketing consultant, and entrepreneur. His background is in Graphic Design and Applied Communication Arts, and is the owner of the Better Business Brand blog. Join the Brand Tips mailing list for articles and lessons on building, maintaining, and expanding your brand for market success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_A_Hacala

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