Archive for October, 2008

Develop Your Own Logo Design Ideas

Thinking about how you want your company logo to look, can draw a blank. You may conduct your business as a tradesman or retail outlet or any other type of business for that matter. Many business owners feel that they don’t have a creative bone in their body. That’s not unusual at all. You are good at what you do and can’t be expected to be good at graphic design as well. Developing great ideas for your logo design can be quite a simple task if you know what to look out for.

The Creative Juices Start Here

Here are a few cruicial areas to focus on that will guide your thought process and allow you to come up with some great logo design ideas for yourself. let’s take it one stage at a time.

1. Colour

a) Moods and Feeling

Do you have a colour scheme already or in your mind that you are happy with? Does that colour scheme work well or do the colours clash? Do you even know?

Colour science is the study of colours and the impact they can have on our everyday lives. Colours can drive our emotions positively and negatively. You don’t want your logo to give people a negative feeling about your business so it’s important to understand at least the basics.

Here is a link to a US university site that explains in very simple terms what colours can do to our moods. Bloomberg University Colour Info

Another link here picks out some more moods and feelings associated with common colours.

b) Balance

Once you have selected your colours you need to know if they work together. It’s important that your logo is not an eyesore but something that looks as if it is well balanced. A good choice of colours will make your logo appear stronger and help to give it meaning. Ideas will begin to flow about how you want your logo to look once you are happy with your choice of colours.

Many designers cheat when it comes to selecting colours that work well together. I use the word cheat a bit “tongue in cheek”. They use tools like colour wheels and colour matching charts and swatches. You too can learn from the professionals by using similar tools that are meant for the pro’s. Colour wheels are great for selecting complimentary colours in graphic design but you can also use them for selecting colours that work well in your house. This tool is one that can be used for free. It is a free colour wheel that will aid you in putting together ideas for your logo design. Free colour wheel.

2. Text Font

Do not underestimate the power of a good font in a logo design. If you choose well you can solve one of the biggest problems in logo design. The selection of a great font. Some fonts work better in certain situations and for different purposes. Let me give you a very clear example of what I mean. Let’s say you have a high-tech electronics company and your logo design idea is to have an image of an electrical circuit with the words High-Tech Electrical Co next to it. Have you got the mental image so far?

The font you imagine next to the image of the circuit would not be whimsical in appearance or cartoon like. Those font styles will never work with a high-tech image. So already, you can see in your mind how important the choice of font is to make your logo idea come to life and have credibility. The electronics company will have a modern “san serif ” (the ones without hats and feet) font that has a high-tech feel to it.

Designers spend years studying fonts and working with them to convey emotion and feeling for given situations. The good news is that there are tools available to help you choose a particular font for a specific need. Using font tools can help to develop further your logo design idea.

Adobe, one of the leading font and font tool companies in the world have a very easy to use tool on their website that makes it simple to select a font that should work well with your logo idea. You can find this great logo design tool here: Free font tool

3. Style

Most logo designs fall into three different categories. Text based logo, Iconic or Emblem and Illustrative. These three logo design styles can be considered for most companies and the choice can often depend on your personal preference. Each one of these styles does have pros and cons associated with it though so lets take a quick look at what they are.

a) Text based logo design

Text based logo designs are usually preferred by large companies. Companies that have already built a brand or that have so much marketing spend behind the brand that the logo itself does not need to have any specific meanings or symbolism. Take for instance the Microsoft logo or the Nike logo (text, not tick, although either can be used). IBM have a text based logo too as do hundreds of other companies found in the FT 500 companies list.

Small to medium sized companies, although tempting to make themselves look much bigger find it hard to pull off a text based logo due to the marketing spend required to make the brand memorable. In small niches this may work better.

Pros:
Can make your company look bigger in a small niche.
Low cost to brand due to the simple nature of design and application of the logo across different media and applications.
Logo does not follow fads and fashions which means it can have greater longevity.

Cons:
Hard to make it work for small to medium sized companies without having a large marketing budget.
Can look pretentious if used by small to medium sized companies.
Does not portray a businesses personality well unless backed up by a large advertising spend.

b) Iconic/Emblem Style Logo

This is the preferred design style of modern and old businesses alike. Favoured by new businesses and those looking to update their existing logo design. Often used by larger companies too. This style of logo design is the most popular and has been since logo design came of age back in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. The emblem or icon can be abstract or explicit to portray a companys’ personality. The emblem or icon is used to show the viewer what the company stands for. It may well indicate the type of industry or be more personal like a set of initials.

Used in conjunction with a well chosen font and powerful colour scheme the emblem/iconic logo can ooze professionalism. The emblem or icon can be placed in various positions in relation to the text. Popular positions of the icon/emblem are to the left or above the text. Not so popular are the icon/emblem placed to the right of the text or below it.

The icon/emblem can be separated from the text too so it can be used on it’s own as a symbol of the business.

Pros:
Easy to brand across different media and applications.
Relatively low cost applying the brand.
Works well for most types of business.
The emblem/icon can be used on it’s own or with text in marketing materials.
Easy to portray personality with a well designed icon/emblem.
Can have a long life time.
Easy to remember.

Cons:
Can be based on fads and fashions. Take for instance the swoosh or the ball designs favoured in the 90s. These now look very dated.
Can be too abstract and give the wrong impression.
A high level of skill is required in matching an icon/emblem to a suitable font.
Often require more than 2 colours which increases printing costs.

c) Illustration Logo Design

This design style looks the most value for money when viewed for the first time because it has a massive WOW factor. This style works well for consumer goods and food stuffs because it is easy to paint a picture with an illustration. These designs do not need to be clever or subtle because they are designed to be to the point.

Pros:
Massive initial WOW factor.
To the point and descriptive.

Cons:
Expensive to brand if gradients and shadows used in the design.
Usually more than 3 colors so printing is expensive.
Not easy for the viewer to remember due to complexity of design.
Hard to brand because of complexity of design.
Short lifespan of design if illustrating products.

4. Tag line/Strap line

Many companies have a strapline that adds a company message or marketing statement or lists a service. It is not compulsory to have one and is a matter of personal choice. Some companies have a logo design idea to use 2 logos. The same logo actually but one with and one without the strap line.

Here is an example of what I mean. Let us say that you are a logo design company. Your logo design firm has a logo that is iconic with text next to it. Under your business logo text you have a strap line. Here are some things you could say for your strap line. Low cost logo design, or what about Logo Design : Brochure Design : Stationery Design. You could even say “The Corporate Identity Experts”. So you see, there are different ways of doing it but each way has it’s merits.

When you are thinking about ideas for your logo why not try some different things for your tag line. Try listing services. Try a marketing message and try a unique selling point that you want to be known for. Once you have a few different ones worked out, run them past your friends and family.

Things to watch out for when coming up with a strap line:

Keep the number of words down to a minimum. The fewer the better. If it turns into a sentence. Try again.

Make sure that the text you are using is not in breach of someone’s trademark. You may need to seek legal advice here but if your words are common, everyday words, then you should be OK no matter what you use. If in doubt check with a solicitor.

If it sounds familiar, you may have subconsciously heard it before. In that case, you should definitely check to make sure this is not trademarked.

The Best Option

If you value your business and the image it has you should always seek the services of a professional graphic designer to design your logo. The professional designer will guide you and make difficult choices for you based on what is known to work and what does not work. The professional designer will also take care to provide a unique image that you can build a brand around and be proud of.

IMPORTANT: You are legally responsible for any graphic design that you use to represent your company so please make sure you use a real design company where the designers respect copyright and trademark law. If you mess up here it can cost you a lot of money down the road in legal fees and fines. This is a “must read” for avoiding the pitfalls of using an online logo design company and staying within the law.

Graphic Design Ltd
http://www.LogoQuality.co.uk
(01753) 20 80 22

Give Your Logo Motion

Add movement to your logo design.  This is great for websites.  Animated logo designs give your online presence a massive WOW factor.  Even though they look really expensive, the cost is very affordable.

Take a look at these flash logo samples provided to a client recently.  These different animation transitions make the logo come to life in different ways.  The one thing they all have in common is the smoothness of animation.

Right mouse click on the individual images and select play to see the full transitions from start to finish.




You can have an animated logo design created from your own business logo for as little as £120.  We will give you several different choices too like the examples above. You need to have an existing logo in a vector file format. If you do not have that already, we can create your logo design for £149 and then animate it for £120.

Bring your website to life and animate your logo design today.  Call us on 01753 20 80 22 and speak with a designer now.

Certificate Of Copyright Ownership

I get asked from time to time what the certificate of copyright ownership looks like and what it’s for. Well the what it’s for is very simple to answer. It is for your peace of mind. It is proof that we designed the logo for you and that we have handed over all the rights to you. It is your cast iron guarantee that the work is unique and we certify and testify to that fact in writing.

The Certificate

Here is an example of the certificate that we provide to every client on completion of their logo design project. Many of our clients go on to have this printed and framed and hang it proudly in their offices.

You will receive a certificate like this one for your custom logo design once your corporate logo project is finalised.

It is supplied in a print ready format ready to adorne your corporate board room or reception area. If you are giving a logo design as a gift to someone else then this really is the final touch to prove you have bought a quality logo design and really care about the success of their business venture.

Warning! Your Business Is At Risk

There are thousands of logo design websites on the Net. Buying logo design online is a minefield full of lurking dangers. Some of the dangers carry serious legal implications for you. So what can you do to make sure you limit your chances of getting stung down to zero? Well, before we look at that you need to understand what the dangers and implications are.

Danger Danger Danger - Under £100

It is not possible to design unique logos for under £100, even if the designer is working out of an attic in Timbuktu. To understand why it is not possible, you need to understand the process that goes into designing a genuine unique, custom logo design. Let me explain briefly what is required from the designer and the timescale needed to produce a set of rough concepts.

First the designer needs a detailed brief from you that covers things like your industry, competition, your unique selling point, company colours if any (and understand if they work for your industry), your products, your aspirations for your business, how long you have been trading, who your customers are, how you find your customers and so on. This information should lead the designer or team of designers to brainstorm ideas that could work for your business. These ideas are then developed as sketches to see how they play out in reality. Ideas that don’t work are discarded and ideas that have promise are developed further. Peer review is required as is a sample market test to gauge reaction to the designs. Now, lets say your designer has promised you 3 to 5 concepts that are each different from each other. This process must be carried out for each one of them. Once the logo designs have been presented to you, you will need to see what you like and don’t like and the designer can then either overcome your objections if required or make the changes if they are desired. This stage can repeat until a design is refined to perfection. It can take some time. Once your design is completed, it needs to be presented to you in a variety of different file formats so that you can use the logo across many different advertising mediums.

When you add up the time it takes to design just a single concept you should see that at a minimum it will be several hours work for just one rough draft. Times that by the number of concepts you have been promised and the hours start to add up to days. This is just for the rough drafts mind you. This is normal. Someone dedicated to one customer should be able to provide several good, well thought out concepts in about three days.

How Is It Possible

How is it possible for a logo designer to provide 3 to 10 unique logo design concepts in 24 hours? In a nutshell, it’s not. But I hear you say, what about “So and So” website, they do 5 concepts for £50 in two days. Yes, it appears that they do. But let’s explore how it’s possible and what you really get. To understand how they make it possible you need to understand where the shortcuts are. Let’s explore how to provide a “so called” unique logo design in two days for £50-£100.

The Shortcuts

Old Discarded Stuff
A favorite trick of the £50-£100 logo designer is to present you with logo design concepts that have been sitting on his hard drive for sometime because they were rejected by a previous client. You get work that was finished some time ago, has already been paid for once before (minimum) and has been rejected by someone else. How can that possibly represent your business? You got it, it can’t. Because you don’t know any better the con is easy to pass off on you. You are none the wiser.

Outsourcing
Often used in combination with providing old discarded stuff to you is the outsourced logo factory option. From the website it looks like they are UK based and the English used on the site is not too bad. You can forgive them the odd spelling and grammar error because the price is so cheap. The £50-£100 logo designer sends your logo project to Eastern Europe or India. Forget about confidentiality and data protection, your business will be known by all sorts of characters. A secondary money line for these scammers is to sell on your personal details. You then run the risk of ID theft. The worst thing about outsourcing is that you have no clue whatsoever where the logo designs actually come from. The worst case scenario, it’s stolen from someone else’s business. The best thing about outsourcing, it’s cheap, dirt cheap. This is also one of the worst things about outsourcing because by being so cheap it encourages many more shortcuts just so they can make a decent crust. There are a few people in the mix that need to take their cut of your £50-£100 logo payment.

Theft
A common issue with the £50-£100 logo designer is that to make enough money to eat they have to take massive shortcuts, including copying other peoples logo designs. They trawl the Net looking for businesses in your field of expertise or similar and then they copy the logos (this takes a few minutes at most). Your name gets added to the design and they might even change the font a little and the colours a tad but in reality it is still a stolen logo. Turning over many fast “jobs” like this at £50-£100 becomes very lucrative to them. This is bad for you for a number of reasons, the first one is pretty obvious. Do you want to represent your business with a stolen logo? Of course you don’t. You want a unique identity for your business that you can turn into a strong brand.

There are several other problems for you in addition to using a stolen logo for your business. You are infringing someone else’s trademark and you can be prosecuted for passing yourself off as someone else. Getting an unfair advantage in business by passing yourself off (ignorance is no defense in British law) is viewed very dimly by the courts. Trademarks and copyright are protected under British and International laws and companies fight vigorously to defend their assets.

Legal

When you receive your new £50-£100 logo design and you start using it in your business, you become legally responsible for its usage. Once it’s out in the market so to speak, it is representing your business. With a genuine logo that is great news for you and very exciting. With a stolen logo that is not such great news. The longer it goes on being used, the more trouble you have stored up to be used against you in the future. This means that if your logo is on show for say a year, two years, five years without being detected as a fraud and then you get rumbled (you will be shocked to hear about this because you thought you had a genuine logo) you will be liable in court for damages to the company that the original design was ripped off from. This can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages. There is no limit to the figure that the court can award to the legal trademark owner. Nice aye. But don’t forget the bargain you got when you bought the logo for £50-£100.

Things To Avoid To Stay Safe

Avoid foreign logo design websites. Don’t go anywhere near a logo design company outside of the UK. If the smelly brown stuff hits the fan and you need to take legal action to recover damages then you need to make sure the company you bought your logo from is covered by UK law. You will probably be prosecuted in the UK (you can also be prosecuted abroad) so you need to make sure your designer is available to help defend you in case of a copyright or trademark theft.

Make sure your designer is working for a UK registered company (preferably VAT registered too). If the company is legally registered you have someone to take to court if things go wrong for you. It is also an indication that the business is not a one man band which can be prone to taking shortcuts. If the business is VAT registered it means they are more likely to be a reasonable size and as such you are more likely to get a real service which is legal. VAT registration on it’s own is not a fool proof method of detection because any business can register for VAT. It is however an added check that makes it more likely that a business is in good standing.

Stay away from one man bands. Some freelance designers are excellent. From time to time we use a select pool of freelance designers ourselves when things get busy in the studio. We know everyone of them though and you are covered fully by all our guarantees and legal business status should we use one. The problem with one man bands and freelancers working outside of an agency is that they are prone to lack of time. This can encourage shortcuts and as such you are risking future legal issues. In addition to that, if they go sick when you need them most, there will not be anyone to complete your work. Another problem can be that if you stumble into a legal issue later on, your freelancer may well go missing on you, leaving you to carry the can.

If It Looks Too Good To Be True

Watch out for the logo design websites that offer logos well below £100 and justify the price by saying it is a give-a-way or a loss leader. On the surface this is a great answer because you believe that you will get a genuine service but for a fraction of the price. All the other ticks are in the boxes so this one is a real tempter. If only.

The justification goes like this. We are giving it away. We make no money on logo design. We want you to come back to us for all your other design. This is not giving it away, this is losing them money. It is costing them money because we know that this low price is not possible if they are following the correct design procedures and processes. You then have to ask yourself about the seriousness of a business that provides a logo design to you that you are supposed to build your brand on that has cost them money to supply. Do you see the irony there?

If they turn out to be a genuine business the truth is that the work is often well below par, lacking creativity and well thought out concepts. Many of the design stages are cut to the bone if indeed they are even carried out and this of course leads to the lack of skill, creativity and well thought out concepts. The great thing about this rouse is that it is easy for you to spot. All you need to do is look at their portfolio. The quality of work presented will be of a much lower standard than you would expect to see from a professional design company that specialises in branding.

These designers would also be inundated with this free work, they would not have time to either do a proper job on the logo or the rest of the stuff they say they are pricing themselves so low to win. This is a lose/win situation. You lose because you are sacrificing your brand for price (in that case save the £100 and take your partner out) and the designer wins because they do a sub standard job where they do make a small amount of money from you.

To Conclude:

Apart from getting a design that is stolen or made up of rejected parts of other logos. Apart from risking your whole business on a legal issue over trademark or copyright theft. Apart from using someone else’s logo design for your business and apart from using a logo that was knocked up in minutes without thought. Can you think of any other reason why it’s great to pay £50 to £100 for your logo design?

These are not the only things to look out for. Stay away from websites where freelancers bid for your project. They are often based outside of the UK. Stay away from clipart websites and websites that offer template logos. These will not give you a unique design and it is unlikely that you will be granted a trademark for a template logo. Plus, loads of other people will be using the same design. Never use Microsoft clipart in a logo for your business. This is surprisingly common but is breaking Microsoft’s terms of usage which clearly states that it’s clipart is not to be used in a commercial way.

We Want Your Business But ….

Of course we want your business. We also want you to stay safe and if you follow these guidelines above and look out for these warning signs then you should be OK no matter what design studio you choose to work with. Please call 01753 208022 if you would like to discuss any aspect of this post or if you are not sure of something.

Logo Quality is a brand of Graphic Design Ltd. Graphic Design Ltd is registered in the UK and is registered for VAT. Graphic Design Ltd has a graphic design studio in Slough and employees a full time design team. Graphic Design Ltd never uses old discarded designs for anything and certainly never uses clipart. All work is guaranteed 100% unique and original. Our logo design work is also reassuringly priced at over £100

No matter what the type of business or product you have, we just love designing your logos. It’s what we live, breath and eat at Logo Quality so you won’t be surprised to hear that we really enjoyed designing a logo for a financial services company in Ware, Herts called GDP Investments. George Potts, the boss, works with portfolios too. Not design portfolios but portfolios of the investment kind. He makes money work for people who have already got loads of money.

George gave us a great design brief mentioning colours and styles that he admired and thought would work well in his industry. We chatted about this and came up with some ideas for design concepts that we could explore together. George wanted a logo that was all his and could help him build credibility with his wealthy clients. Something that would set him apart from all the other portfolio managers and put across his business values. Professional, trustworthy, intelligent, reliable. These are the pillars that will help George establish his client base.

Take a look at some of the design choices we sent to George and see where we ended up at the finished article.

After a couple of revisions fine tuning one of these concepts we finalised on this design here.

Our process is really easy. We work with you to develop the best logo design to represent your business no matter what field you are in. We do this on time and to an affordable budget. Just give us a call on 01753 20 80 22 and speak with one of our logo designers about your new logo. You will be amazed at how many great ideas we bring to the table.

We get loads of requests come in to the studio from prospective clients looking for a corporate style logo design. The funny thing with logo design is that there are very few official logo styles (non actually) but it is easy for clients to pigeon hole certain looks into a style.

Take for instance a corporate giant like Dell. Their logo is very simple but also very easy to brand and instantly recognisable. It says DELL for a start. This text style of logo design works really well for established brands and also smaller companies looking for a clean look but is it a corporate style? Take on the other hand another corporate giant Nike. Their logo as you all know is just a tick. But what a tick. That tick must have cost millions. Well you would think so but you would be wrong, it cost just a few dollars. Mind you, a few million went into turning that tick into a world-class brand. When you see it you know it stands for quality. Is that a corporate style logo? You see the picture?

The logo design on it’s own is not the brand. The brand is built through marketing the product or service and the logo eventually comes to represent your brand. This means that your logo can stand on it’s own and people will see your company values reflected in it. That’s a double edged sword if you think about it. Let’s say you run a pretty tight ship and focus on your clients happiness above all else. Once your brand is built people will see your logo and say “that stands for a company that cares about it’s customers”. The other side of the sword says that if you run a poor business with scant regard for your customers, your logo will be recognised for those negative values.

People get wrapped up in how their logo should and should not look and have preconceived ideas about how it all works. Some people want pictures of their product, some think that the logo should tell what the company does at a glance. Let’s take that example for a second and put it to the test. Does McDonalds sell M’s? Does John Deer Engineering sell deers? Does Nike sell ticks or Norwich Union church spires? What about Apple, do they sell apples? Of course they don’t but what they do is sell product and loads of it. These businesses have very strong brands and are recognised by their logos even though their logos have nothing to do with their business.

In our experience a corporate logo can be any style as long as it is well designed and has the ability to be used across many different types of medium like print, web , tv, signage etc. The key to making it really great is in the marketing and the business ethos of the company using it.

The design team at Logo Quality are experts at getting a feel for the values a company wants to be recognised for and building them into a logo design that is easy to brand. Building the brand itself is out of our hands but we give you the very best start possible. Drop us a line between 9am and 9pm on 01753 20 80 22 and we will be happy to discuss any aspect of your logo design and brand aspirations.

Nicola has just started a new business called Bubbles Doggie Day Care. Nicola gave us a basic outline brief for the business in the hope that our design team would be able to interpret what she was thinking and provide some ideas for the logo.

Nicola told us “The business is a dog day care centre where people leave their dogs when they go to work. It is like a crèche for kids but for dogs. We have games, activities and TV for the dogs”. The most important thing we gleaned from Nicola was that it had to be fun. Nicola had already contacted a local designer who had sent her some logo designs to look at but they all seemed very boring.

Getting a design brief like this is what makes us tick here at Logo Quality. We had some great fun putting together some concepts for Nicola. Take a look at some of these designs we sent. Boring they are not.

After some fine tuning and a couple of small changes Nicola went for the design with the yellow dogs and the playhouse with slide. It certainly looks fun.

This project took less than a week from start to finish. Nicola was great to work with and gave clear feedback at every stage in the design process. This is crucial to getting a finished design that the customer loves.

I am sure Nicola will a go on to great things with this business and end up as top dog in the canine crèche market, if you pardon the pun.