Logo Design Blog - Corporate Logo Design - Custom Logo Design

Alison Hulett said, “The logo or trademark is without a doubt the ultimate ‘branding’ tool.” The logo is the entry point to the brand – this statement perfectly defines the position of your company logo and the part it plays in your visual portfolio.

The word “logo” means a name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy recognition. To better understand the place of the logo in organizational branding, it is helpful to look at a little history. The use of logos goes back to the early days of the Renaissance, around the 13th Century. Goldsmiths, masons, paper makers, and potters, were among the first trades people to use marks—pressings into gold, chiseled symbols, watermarks on paper, and simple thumbprints on pottery. Trademarks are still used for the same reason, they were established centuries ago: to provide an easy method for recognizing a particular product. These “marks” made it easier to differentiate a quality product from one that was not well made. The value of the craftsmanship represented in the gold, paper, stonework, pottery, etc., could be expressed through the special, distinctive mark on the product. It’s still helpful to think of a logo in those terms: your logo is your symbol—your mark—of guaranteed authenticity. A simple swoosh on a pair of athletic shoes transforms those modest sneakers into desirable, quality footwear with an unspoken guarantee of “authentic athletic performance.”

Logos are still the front door to products and services today. Uniqueness is key to the success of the identity of a business. The uniqueness of a logotype is of utmost importance to avoid confusion in the market place. The spontaneous perception of the logo increases through the consistency of its presentation.

A good logo provides a recognizable image portraying the quality and professionalism of a business. A professionally designed corporate logo will allow you to create your brand and effectively market your product or service. Your logo should be simple and readable. The viewer should “get it” immediately and be able to get a “sneak peek” into your brand through the mark itself. The challenge then, is to create a logo that is simple and immediate without being boring or institutional. Your logo should convey a sense of emotion and personality. Think of it as the layers of an onion. As you peel each layer—the typography, the symbols, the shapes and textures, and color palette—you learn more and more about the brand, better to say more about the company behind the logo. Your logo should express the appropriate tone and voice articulated in your brand strategy. Since brand consistency ensures that consumers will easily recognize the products, branding is especially important to small and growing businesses.

Your logo should look different than other logos—especially those who share your same market space or prospect base. Having a “me too” logo designs, will weaken your organization’s uniqueness and the differentiation you tried so hard to establish in developing your brand essence. It is always advisable to approach professional branding or designing companies who have proper experience in conceptualizing your company logo and shaping them in reality.

Every logo has a story to tell about its company or organization and its products and services. So it is always advisable to choose your logo wisely because this logo symbolizes the name and brand of your organization. Some popular logos that are identified solely by their symbols are Yahoo’s “Y!” the Nike “Swoosh” and the Google. The attributes of the logo, i.e. its color, shape and design are very important aimed to communicate the image of the company to its customers.

Logo designing is considered to be an important aspect of graphic designing and is an art in itself. Logo-designing firms are specialized in this job and several meetings with these firms help the logo designers to develop an appropriate logo, which symbolizes the true spirit of the company. These logo-designing firms offer a variety of designing options such as vector designs or 3D designs that will help you to choose the best possible logo for your organization.

To ensure that your logo stands the test of time you need to look for the following in your logo:

- Your logo should be unique and different from any other logos of your industry or different industry.

- Your logo should be consistent in any media. The logo should hold its color, shape and design across a variety of media.

- Easily recognizable amongst thousands of other logos.

- Your logo should explicitly represent the vision of your organization.

Creation of a brand and corporate identity involves a lot of hard work. Thus a logo works in two ways: not only does it earn profit when you make a sale, but also assists in brand promotion when the customer uses it and tell others to buy it. This is the power of a strong logo. Thus, a well-designed logo is the most valuable thing for a company that can help them to reach new heights.

Designs can change the world. This may sound lofty but it is something that people have come to believe and that has been reinforced by other designers; discussed and debated at conferences. Sure it is a lofty belief but it keeps things going. Anybody loves and appreciates good design. But you have to admit that ultimately the design of anything is only successful when it clearly communicates its message. Unlike art, there are rules in design: there are the grids that one builds within and the brands that contain them. What is the key to survive such a rigorous structure? Knowing when to break the grid and holding nothing sacred.

Design is always a passionate endeavour. But Creative Strategy is not. And design has to be innovative. Can you imagine a world without innovation? A world without basic medicine such as penicillin where a minor infection could be life threatening; a world where we still take our clothes down to the riverbank and beat them with rocks to clean them; a world where we cannot store food for longer than a day because we have no way to chill or freeze. It is hard to imagine. Steve Hilton argues that ‘behind every great brand lies a valuable social benefit delivered through innovation’ and cites some recent examples of how brands have improved customers’ lives in developing countries. And behind every leading brand there is good innovative design to market it.

Brands are everywhere. There is nowhere in the western world you can go where you will not see, buy or encounter a brand in some shape or form. As widespread, however, is the lack of understanding about the nature and role of brands. When you buy a can of Coke anywhere in the world you are assured of three things: firstly, a distinctive product; secondly, a great taste and thirdly, an assurance of a high level of quality, a quality that the consumer has become accustomed to and trusts to deliver their expectations. The truth is that people like brands. One benefit of brands’ cultural ubiquity is the ability to harness a widespread appeal for promoting social good.

Logo designs have a widespread influence on consumer attitudes towards brands. Logos have played an important role not only in brand promotion but have also come handy for conveying the brands motive across to its targeted consumers. Coca Cola has used its brand to create sexual health campaigns in Africa to combat AIDS; McDonald’s has a long tradition of supporting local communities; MTV has used its organization to change attitudes towards issues such as AIDS, environmental protection and human rights and ASDA supermarkets have campaigned against domestic violence. All these big brands have employed creative skills to convey the message through their logos.

Researchers have found that brand name characteristics and their effects on either memory or attitudes have been of primary importance. Although research claims brand logos generate positive consumer response to the brand. On one side, consistency has been shown to have positive impact on attitude. This could be epitomized by integrated marketing communications where brand elements “should talk with a single voice”, to consumers in order to enhance brand attitudes. On the other side moderate incongruity effects have been shown to have a positive impact on attitudes as well. The figurativeness of logos have increased the coherence in communication signs and led to unique brand building strategies. People need someone or something to depend upon, and they choose well-known brands, while shopping, because they are assured that they can depend upon the brand. The known logo the known color, the recognized design- all makes them believe, ‘yes , this is something that will not betray me. This is some thing I can rely upon.’

A corporate logo design should be highly instrumental in building your corporate identity and should successfully exude the company’s attitude. The viewers must have some idea about the disposition, character, or fundamental values of your company through your logo.

Following certain basic principles can ensure that your corporate logo design is professional easy to remember and creates a great impact on its viewers while successfully expressing the nature of your business.

1) Go for Professional Logo Designers

You might save a few dollars doing your own logo or getting it done from the next door boy who knows the basics of designing but if you are serious about your business you should always go for a professional logo design firm. Your corporate logo is your identity, your customers recognize you by your logo, so the more professional and sophisticated your logo is the better will be your customer’s impression about your company.

Though most of the logo design companies charge exorbitant rates to create a corporate logo design but the industry is changing. These days there are companies that offer excellent professional logos for nominal charges.

2) Simplicity – Keep it Simple

An ideal corporate logo design should be simple and memorable. Corporate houses spend thousands of dollars to ensure that customers remember them at all point of time and a simple logo is the key to that. Think about the Nike logo, it’s simple and memorable—once you see the Swoosh, do you ever need to think twice about the company name?

3) Colors

Colors you use for your corporate logo are a very important factor in your brand establishment. If you already have your corporate colors ask your logo designer to use those colors for the logo. If you don’t, suggest the colors that you think might give your prospective clients some idea about the type of business you do. For example, a company working in the fields of forest conservation might like their logo to be in green. At the same time, you also need to consider which colors will go well with your corporate stationeries as well.

• Minimize Colors

  This is more important from an economic and usability point of view. Corporate logos are often required to be printed for stationary and corporate literature. Using a one or two spot color logo can save a lot of cost compared to printing a full color logo.

4) Black and White Version

While emphasizing the colors we must also remember that it is important for a corporate logo to come out well in black and white. A corporate logo design is used in all corporate communications including fax and photocopied document where they will be in black and white and the logo design must be such that it holds the same impact even in black and white.

5) Logo Format

It is advisable to always use a vector format for your corporate logo design. A corporate logo may be required to be reproduced at any size for different purposes in the future. A logo design done in vector format can be expanded to any size without any loss of image quality, where as a corporate logo in raster format will loose image quality, if scaled up. Also it is easier to convert a vector logo design to bitmap than vice versa. If you get a professional logo design firm to do your corporate logo design and brief them about this basic tips (most of the knowledgeable firms are well aware of these principles) you are sure to get a satisfactory corporate logo design that would go a long way in helping you establishing your brand.

6) Use your Logo

Once you are ready with your corporate logo start giving it maximum exposure possible. Not only on your business cards and letterheads but also on your packaging, uniforms, pens and all possible goods should contain your logo. This gives wider exposure to your logo and people gets familiar with the corporate logo much faster. With all these you are on your way to establish your brand.