Archive for November, 2008

Go festive with your brand

If you have a website that sells to consumers you know that the Christmas rush can make a big impact on your bottom line. Why not get your shoppers in the mood by jazzing up your website with a Christmassy theme. You can make this really simple by giving your logo a makeover. Add a Santa hat or have a Santa leaning against your logo with a sack of prezzies next to it. What about a snow covered logo or a nativity theme. There are loads of things you can do to give your logo a Christmas makeover. Get your customers in the mood today.

See these examples of festive makeovers we have done recently:

We are providing this seasonal logo design makeover service for just £80:

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Once we get your order through, your designer will call you to discuss some ideas. We will have the logo finished and ready in a couple of days.

How A Logo Design Studio Works

Logo design is just a single part of what a graphic design studio does. It is the most important part though because the rest of the corporate identity spans from the logo design. It is the keystone in terms of the corporate identity that the rest of the marketing materials build upon. This is why many internet graphic design studios call themselves logo design studios as opposed to graphic design studios.

The Team

Lead Designer
At the head of the team is the lead designer. Sometimes called the design supervisor or design director. This is the boss and they are usually a very accomplished designer in their own right. No design leaves the studio without being signed off by the boss. This person is responsible for looking after the clients and coordinating the designers. If the design studio consists of just one person then the boss will also be the designer.

Designers
The design team will consist of a mixture of talents. Designers specialise in differnt areas of design. For instance it is not uncommon to have an expert in type working alongside an expert in illustration. Or an expert in layout working alongside several other designers. A good studio will play well to the strengths of the team and work in small specialist teams to maximise the creativity for the client.

Quality Control
This consists of one or two senior designers with an eye for detail. They will make sure that best practices are being followed and that the work is suitable for the media it has been designed for. They will have an in-depth knowledge of printing processes and will be required to work closely with the printing department to iron out any production issues.

The Process

The first thing to do is understand the clients design brief. Understand what the client is trying to achieve with the design. Once the brief is understood and the client agrees to the scope of the work, the creativity can begin.

Brainstorming
The team is assembled by the boss. This will be a hand picked team of designers that have the required skill set strengths to accomplish the project goals. A meeting will take place where ideas are thrown into the pot. All ideas are welcome no matter how absurd they may seem. Often an absurd idea will lead onto something else that will be a real winner so it is important that people speak out and say what they see. Ideas are then refined down to two or three different concepts. It is these concepts that will be explored further.

Concepts
Designers sketch out the concepts on paper (see fig.1). This is crucial to a successful design because it will show how the design can play out in colour and black and white. It will also show weaknesses in the design early on before any computer work takes place. This stage can make or break a concept and so it must never be missed. It is no good committing something to the computer without having first played it out in sketch format. Doing so often ends up in a nice looking design that has a lot of weaknesses discovered too late to change. Sketch first, then commit to digital design. That is the correct sequence.

Digitising The Design
Once the concepts have been ironed out in sketch format and black and white and colour examples (see fig. 2) are created, the design can be computerised (see fig.3). For a professional design they will use a vector drawing tool like Adobe Illustrator. This will get the logo design onto the computer in a format that can be used across a multitude of different mediums. The finished image will be able to be resized and edited as required without any loss of quality. It can then be output into a massive array of different file formats for use on all sorts of applications.

Quality Control
The quality controller for the project will check back to make sure that all procedures have been carried out and that there is a traceable history of the project which has been catalogued. This is important not only for the good housekeeping of the design studio but because this work may well be called on in the defence of a trademark argument. The studio need to prove the work is genuine. The designs themselves will also be scrutinised for quality and any potential printing or media issues will be addressed and corrected.

Sign Off
The boss signs off the project for delivery to the client. Anything that may have been missed by the quality team will almost certainly not make it past the head honcho. The boss takes full responsibility for the project and can be legally held accountable for the work being genuine.

How Can You Tell Real A Logo Design From Fake?

It is almost impossible to tell the difference between a stolen logo design and a genuine logo design. Unless you have seen the original design how can you possibly know what’s real and what’s fake? Even seasoned designers can’t tell the difference (see fig. a) so what chance has a business person got of knowing the difference. If you read the article mentioned above you will stand a very good chance of avoiding the hidden pitfalls. With modern computers and graphics software that almost design for themselves, pretty much anyone can set up designing and selling logos for next to nothing.

About The Author
http://www.LogoQuality.co.uk is the internet brand of Graphic Design Ltd. A graphic design studio based in Slough near London. Graphic design Ltd follows the design procedures and processes laid out in this article. All genuine designs depicted (CHOU Logo) are the work of Graphic Design Ltd or the trademarks of their respective owners.

If you would like to order a logo design from www.LogoQuality.co.uk you can do that here:

Order Logo Design - £149

Free Logo Design

We are conditioned from an early age to believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch so I am always amazed when people think they can get a genuine, unique logo design for free. The key words used here are genuine and unique. You can make your own logo for free, that’s true. If you search Google for “free logo design” you will get a list of four or five free logo maker tools. Some are really basic and just add drop shadows and the like to a standard font. Others are far more sophisticated and provide outputs in vector file formats like eps and svg. Here is the result of my Google search. I have listed the top 3 sites.

Logo Ease
Logo Maker
Logo Design Engine

The three free logo design tools above all look like a god send to anyone looking for free logo design. They all offer a free option for something that should cost well over £100 to have done professionally.

Logo Ease is the best of the bunch as it really is free and you get a vector output too. Logo Maker has a catch. You can have a free logo design for your website and it must link back to them. Logo Design Engine Seems to be fairly simple that you choose a badly designed icon and add text. There is little if any customising.

So should we be wary of these and why? Where is the catch?

Is Free Logo Design a False Economy?

How can something that is free be a false economy?

Trademark

Anyone that says you can get a trademark issued for a template logo design without any trouble is not telling the truth. First of all there is no guarantee of getting a trademark even for a unique logo design. Whilst it is very likely to be granted for a unique logo design the actual granting of the trademark is not automatic. It makes it much less likely that you can trademark a template that other businesses will also be using. Even if the font, name, layout and colours are changed from the basic template, the actual icon part of the template logo will be identical to others in use.

In addition to it being more unlikely that you will be granted a trademark for a template based logo, you will find that the terms of use of the free logo maker software prohibits the trademarking of the images anyway. The owners of the software own the images outright and although they allow you to use them, you will never be able to build and protect your brand using a logo design made up in part of one of their images/icons.

Not Unique

One of the main reasons of using a logo design in your business is to build your brand and distinguish your offering from everyone else’s offering. The logo design should give you a unique identity that will represent your business. This has been so since logo designs were first used thousands of years ago by traders in ancient Egypt.

Using a free logo design to represent your business means that you sacrifice the reason for having a logo design in the first place. Your logo will not be a unique image that you want people to associate your business with. Thousands of other businesses will be using exactly the same image that you have selected for your company. This can be obvious to people who view your logo, including your customers because they may well have seen your logo used by another business in the past. Even if they haven’t seen it now they may well see the same logo used by another company at a later date. This can cause confusion for your customers and possibly lead to a loss of trust.

Low Quality

Graphic designers are trained formally in working with images, text, colour, layout and balance. All the free logo maker does for you is provide you with the raw materials. It’s like having delivered all the bricks and wood which are perfect for making a house extension and then doing the construction yourself. You have all the basic ingredients but you are lacking the know-how of how it all goes together.

Designers are experts at choosing a font and laying out the text so that it works for your business type. Graphic designers are experts at choosing colours that work well together in your industry or niche to portray the right moods and feelings. Logo designers are experts in creating a unique icon or symbol that can be used separate from the text. The finished image will reflect the qualities you hold dear in business. Designers are experts at taking all these individual elements and putting them together so that your logo has balance and harmony. You might get lucky putting a couple of these elements together but most people without a formal design education will struggle to get all the individual elements working together, if at all. This will show through and whatever you create for yourself will often look low quality.

Applying Your Free Business Logo Design

You want your logo to represent your business and to do that you need to apply it to all manner of marketing tools. Business cards, letterhead, brochures, web site etc, etc.

There are templates all around the web that you can use for free. Have a look at the Microsoft Office website as a start. Here you will find all manner of free stuff. Again, there is nothing unique here and many thousands of people will all be using the same designs.

Free printing will be a problem for you because you will always have to pay something for this. The lower the price is, the lower the quality and that is a fact because the raw materials themselves have a cost. Use cheap raw materials and you will pay less. This will translate into how you are perceived as a business by your customers. Even if you pay for your printing and use a good quality paper stock, the finished product will lack visual appeal and quality because the logo image used was made using a free logo maker tool. You may argue that this is not important for a small business starting out on a shoestring budget. On the surface this looks like a good argument, afterall you want to keep as much money in the business as you can whilst you build up. What you really want to do is stand out from your competitors and look like the best option for your customers.

Images have a powerful part to play in the way we perceive things. A strong, well thought out, designed logo design will look much more professional than a template logo design and will appeal to a far wider audience. With regards to the cost, this is a tax deductible expense for your business and should cost you less than £200. Some things are just worth investing in to give your business the best start possible.

If all your business comes from recommendations and you are happy with the amount of work you have then you do not need a logo design for your business at all. If however, like most businesses, you have stiff competition, then a professional logo design is an essential marketing tool to give you a business advantage.

To Conclude

Free logo design is a false economy because you can’t trademark it. It will more often than not look poor quality and you can be perceived as cheap. As you build your business and develop your brand using a free logo design, you will eventually want your own unique identity. You will have to start building your uniqe identity from the ground up. This means you will need to start with a new professional logo design and all the marketing materials that you use to promote your business with. You will end up paying more long term to get your new brand recognised so that people no longer associate you with the free logo design you have used in the past.

Professional logo design is not expensive. If you are in a competitive market, value your company image and are serious about building a robust brand for your business then you should invest in a unique, custom, professional logo design.

Beware of professional logo design under £100. This can come with a nasty sting in tail. Here is why.

See what a professional logo design should look like here: Professional Logo Design

Logo Quality offer professional logo design starting at just £149. All work is original, unique and guaranteed. If you would like to talk about your plans for your brand, please call one of our experts on (01753) 208022 or email logo@logoquality.co.uk.

If you like to order your logo design you can do that here:

Order Logo Design - £149

Many of our clients go on to add their corporate logo design to work uniforms or their corporate workwear. This is a great way of increasing the profile of your brand. Each of your employees becomes a walking, talking, advertisment for your business. It makes your team look smart and professional too.

Popular logo wear clothing items include polo shirs and baseball caps. For a very small price you can make your business look better established and more professional by just adding your logo design to one or two items of clothing.

Have a look at these professional looking corporate baseball caps and see how the logo really stands out and promotes the business.

Add a baseball cap with a really smart polo shirt and you have the makings of a great corporate identity. This looks so professional and business-like. You can have the logo either embroidered (great value for money and very classy looking) or printed on the clothing. Embroidery is a little more expensive but you really benefit from the high quality look. Have a peak at this polo shirt. The logo comes to life and gives a great businesslike look to the polo shirt.

Let Logo Quality help you apply your new logo design to your corporate workwear. We are experts in getting your logo onto all manner of workwear items so just drop us a line on 01753 20 80 22 and speak with one of our experts about your requirements.

Qualities

Strength, reliability, honesty, safety, authority are the key qualities of any security business. The security industry covers many fields of expertise but you will find these qualities reflected throughout the whole industry. Be it guard services, door security, survielance, protection or corporate security.

Logo Ideas For Security Business

Designing logos for the security industry can be a challenge. Many security companies like to use their company logo design as the badge for their uniform too. The badge will often depict a shield like design. It is important that the badge gives a feeling of authority and of safety.

Example Security Logo Designs

Here are some logo designs that we have created for security businesses recently. www.LogoQuality.co.uk are experts at designing logos for the security industry.

If you would like to benefit from our expert logo design skills for your new security business or you are looking to update an existing logo please get in touch. You can call us from 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday and speak with one of our branding experts. You will be sporting your new security logo in just a few days. Call 01753 20 80 22. If you like we will even call you back.

You can order your security industry logo design here too:

Order Logo Design - £149