Creating a Winning Logo

by: Nandang S Nugraha | Total views: 46 | Word Count: 826 | View PDF | Print View

 by: Philip Gillespie

Creating a logo to get you noticed.

When
you’re branding a company with a name, a colour scheme and a logo the
logo is often not given enough care and attention. It should follow the
chosen colour scheme and reflect the business that your company is in.
Too often, particularly on the WWW logos are seen as a way to show off
the design talents of the author. To create a free logo I have created
this easy to follow step by step guide.

Planning

Your
logo should reflect the company it represents. Create a list of all the
services or products the company supplies and try to find some common
ground.

Sit down and choose the colours you will be using.
This is best achieved by studying the corporate colours and maybe
adding a few more shades of these colours. You should aim for a maximum
of 12 but ideally you will want only one or two colours. Avoid very
dark colours unless it is relevant to your company. If you send out a
letter on headed notepaper to a client you will want your logo to jump
off the desk at them to remind them who you are.

Remember
that your design may have to be very small (a business card) or very
large (the side of a van) so whatever you come up with must be
scaleable. Try imagining your logo as a tiny image and then as a large
image. If your using lettering will it must be readable at a very small
size. Will the font appear correctly in a user browser on the internet?

Consider
every place your logo might appear and work out what you will need to
design for. A company that deals with older people does not to be
bright and modern, something a little more sedate would be more
appropriate.

Until you know the answers to all the questions above don’t move on to the next section.

Creating

Keep
it simple. Look at any major company in the world and see how simple
their logos are. Nothing fancy for the experts so why should you have a
fancy design?

Look at what the competion are doing. DO NOT
COPY somebody else’s work. Sometimes I get me best inspiration from
studying other people ideas and coming up with a really original one
based on a concept they have used. As long as it’s not a copy of
somebody else’s work your not infringing copyright.

A tip
for doing this is to use Googles Image Search. Type in some key word
and select the image search with the word logo. For example if you were
selling cars search for “cars + logo”. You will be presented with a
selection of rival logos for other sites.

Use this to see
what works and what does not. You will be drawn to the good designs and
you will recognise what represents a company that sells cars. This
search brings up the Alpha Romeo logo in the first few entries. This
logo is slightly more complicated than you will want but works
perfectly for a company producing cars.

Now start
sketching some designs on paper. Keep all of the designs you make to
hand as you never know when you might decide that the picture you drew
before could be the one. When you have an idea don’t over develop it.
You should aim to have at least 15 to 20 rough ideas before choosing 2
or 3 to work on further.

Developing

When you
have chosen your two or three best ideas ask some friends what they
think. Use your friends and family to test your logo. Everybody loves
to give their opinion on everything so use that to your own advantage.
Listen to what people have to say about your designs and you may learn
something. Little things that you have not seen can be very obvious to
someone that has never seen it before. Take a note of all the comments
and go back to the drawing board. Look over what was said about every
design and then, based on your own feelings and the comments you have
collected, decide which idea you are going to develop more.

Create
a slightly more refined drawing, or if you have some computer skills,
make up an approximate design using a graphics program (don’t worry if
you can’t do this as the next step will take care of that anyway.)

Unless
you’re either a graphic designer or a printer, employ a professional to
finish the work to a high standard. Your logo will appear on every bit
of literature your company will ever produce and if it does not look
professional then you don’t look professional. You will have saved a
lot of money by developing the logo yourself so it is now time to ask a
professional to finish the work.

Well done. You have just
created an effective and attractive logo for your company. Be proud of
your work and display it everywhere.

About the Author

Philip Gillespie is a proffesional website designer and graphic artist. His works include www.echo-art.com, www.thekimberleyinn.com, www.yellowsands.com and www.integratedbodytherapy.com. Please contact for any further information or help.

philipgillespie@hotmail.com

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