An effective logo can mean the difference between grabbing attention and being passed over. Your logo is one piece of media that will represent you on all different marketing fronts. It will tell your client base if you are cheap, easy, fun, trust-worthy, professional, or unorganized among a laundry list of other adjectives. Your logo is the “first impression” of who you are as a business, and your credibility. Understanding the importance of this first impression can help to present your business or organization in the best possible light.
Here are some quick rules that will help ensure you have an effective logo design & lasting first impression!
Ensure Your Alaska Logo Design is Unique & Memorable
It may be difficult to be completely unique but doing so will make your logo memorable and recognizable. Now, there’s a fine line between being unique and being too abstract as to lose what your trying to communicate. Knowing and understanding that fine line is key in logo design. Looking too much like a competitor, or even a big name company that isn’t in the same industry, could be confusing for customers. A custom logo design will ensure a unique image for your company. Keep in mind, without researching other competitors, logo styles, or industry standards you can NOT develop something unique. You have to know what the market trends in your industry look like in order to set yourself apart from your competition. Research is the soul of developing a logo that is unique and in turn memorable.
Be Interesting and Engaging
A logo that has only one “visual” story is boring. When designing a logo, the obvious solutions are the first to be developed because they are the easiest. However, pushing past those initial solutions often times provide you with more interesting, and impactful logo directions. An example would be a design for a company called “Stars Automotive”. Well the obvious solution would be a Star with a Car. However, if you push past this initial idea into some more abstract ideas, maybe you can represent “star” or represent “car” without the literal translation of that image. It’s all about exploring ideas past the initial concepts. This will help you to create something interesting and well received. It’s not unheard of to sketch out well over 100 logo concepts before coming up with some final directions. Flushing out all of these ideas will get you to a solution that has depth. One that is interesting and engaging.
Make Your Logo Design Printer Friendly
Technically speaking here, and it may seem obvious, but many logos designed do NOT transfer well to print. Even if you have a web based business, there’s a high probability that you will need to print your logo at some point, either for marketing flyers, business cards, posters, embroidery, or screen printing on a tshirt. When you do, your logo should still be crisp and clear. In order to ensure that it is, you have to have a logo that transfers to black and white. Therefore, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS…..design your logo in black and white first! I know the desire is to jump right into developing your colors, but this should always (did you get that) be secondary to the correct representation in black and white. In black and white you will be able to clearly see any legibility issue that your logo may run into. If you are working with a professional designer, always require them to provide you with a logo in black and white first to avoid headaches and a logo redesign in the near future.
A Timeless Logo Design
With any luck, your business will be around for a long time. Your logo may be perfect for your business and following the current trends now but one, two, or five years down the road, you may need to adapt it to meet your current needs. Therefore, it’s best to avoid logo trends and create a logo that represents your underlying vision. Many logos developed under the “Web 2.0” trend, have since been redesigned in order to accommodate a more timeless look. You want to avoid your logo looking outdated in a few years, and the only way to do this is to steer clear of design “trends”. Trends can certainly influence your logo design but they should not be the basis for the logo itself. Some of the best logs have been around for years, and any attempts to change them have come with great backlashes from the general public. Look at the uproar over the GAP logo redesign. The company quickly, went back to their original design. Although a redesign is another beast all it’s own, creating a timeless and good logo design that connects with your customer is of vital importance to begin with.
Your Logo Design is Representative
Your logo is meant to represent your company. It can’t tell customers every nuance of what you do but, if it fits with your business, your logo could explain your business without having to say anything. This is easy for companies whose specialties are things people are familiar with- plumbing services, gyms, and gas stations for example- but other companies may have to get creative. As long as your logo tells the story of your company and supports the vision of your brand, it’s something you can stand behind as the owner proudly, then you are on your way to pushing your first impression to the next level.
Contact us today- we can help with an effective logo design for your business!
Bianca Frank Design offers a comprehensive brand and brand development package that can be utilized to begin or reinvigorate your small business marketing strategy. Whether you are in need of small business marketing strategies, graphic design, brand design, web design, or just need brand or design consultation on where to start. Drop a note and we will be in touch soon.
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