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Logo
Design:
Create a Sizzling Brand for your Business
by
Martha Carnahan
Into which camp does your business fall?
A. You don’t have a logo, but wish you did
B. You don’t have a logo, and could care less
C. You have a logo, but have a hunch it’s not quite “it”
D. You have a logo that you love
Whether you are thrilled, disgruntled or mystified by the whole logo piece
of your business, it’s certainly not something to ignore (ahem, I know you
wouldn’t dare do that!). Even if you are all set with your logo, you may
still want to tighten up the way you use it.
If your business thrives 100% on word-of-mouth referrals and you have no
desire to grow beyond current capacity, certainly you can function quite
well without a logo. But most entrepreneurial businesses want to grow, and
in fact need to grow in order to keep pace with clients’ growing
needs and to outpace the competition. There are many small businesses
providing the same professional services as you… having a notable image can
contribute to helping you stand out from the pack.
Point blank: Your logo is the visual spark that burns
recognition of your business into the minds of your audience. It is the
quickest, simplest way to convey your essence – your logo tells your story
without a wordy account.
One of the most brilliant logos is:
I don’t even have to tell you the name of the company, you know it instantly
(unless you have been asleep for the past 20 years!). This simple symbol
swiftly conjures up what Nike is all about: “Just Do It.”
Whether you have an established logo or are newly considering logo design
for your business, the following lessons from Nike and other companies with
exemplary branding will raise the bar on how your logo serves your company’s
image:
Always Deliver on Your Logo’s Promise. If a picture is worth a
thousand words, your logo is worth a thousand deeds – make sure your
business deeds jibe with the image you are portraying externally. Your logo
is merely a visual reflection of your brand, and your brand includes every
element of your business, from the way you answer the phone to your unique
method of service delivery to your approach to building business
relationships. As you deliver your “brand message” consistently over time,
your logo becomes even more powerful because it links their experience of
you with the image you use repeatedly.
Don’t Short Change Your Image. I am astounded when entrepreneurs who
invest thousands of dollars into equipment, training, entertaining clients,
traveling, and many other facets of running a business, take the cheap route
with their logo. They hire the neighbor’s “artsy” sister-in-law, or create a
do-it-yourself icon with the desktop publishing program that came with their
PC. Please, please, please… hire a real graphic designer. Pay the bucks to
get this done right. You want your logo to be a masterpiece, not a monster
piece.
Be Cool About Color Selection. If your audience tends to be more
conservative, you’ll probably want to reflect that. Pick your top ten ideal
clients and see what colors they favor. But only let this information guide
you – ultimately, you must live with your logo a good long time, so go with
colors that please you. There are no hard and fast rules, but ultimately,
your logo will strike a balance between what you like and how your audience
perceives your company. Talk to your designer about how color selection can
impact printing costs.
TIP: Make sure your logo reproduces well in black and white, also. You
don’t want your nice logo fading out when the client photocopies or faxes
your document.
Make it Unique – Resist Clipart! The entire point of creating a logo
is to set you apart from the crowd. Spend the money on a designer who will
create a one-of-a-kind logo just for your business. Clipart logos are risky
– there is a chance that another company uses a similar image. But also,
clipart looks like… well, clipart. A little on the kitsch side.
Supersize It. Make sure your designer provides you with a small,
medium and large version of your logo. If you need to put it on a business
card, it needs to be legible at the smaller size. And if you ever need to
put it on a large sign, you’ll want a logo pre-sized for that. Simply
upsizing the small version will result in poor quality and often
distortion.
Call your Lawyer First. Okay, this may be the most unsexy step in the
process of creating a logo for your business, but I implore you to invest
the time and expense to make sure that your company name is truly yours.
Have a trademark attorney conduct a thorough search on your company name
before you go to the expense of creating an image around it. How awful it
would be for you if you spend years building equity in your company name and
brand, only to learn that another company wants to sue you for trademark
infringement! Avert this nightmare by getting a lawyer involved.
I bet you didn’t realize that designing a logo could be so complex! Please
resist the temptation to skirt around these issues – put the time and money
into creating a logo that builds your image and raises the bar for your
business. You may not want to tattoo your logo onto your forehead, but this
simple little icon is the most important outfit your business wears.
© 2006 by Martha Carnahan. All
rights reserved. You are free to use this article in your ezine
or on your website,
as long as you leave the content unaltered and include the following
attribution: "By Martha Carnahan of MC3 Strategies. Please visit
Martha's website at
http://www.YourBrilliantLife.com for additional resources on how
to build a thriving business without squeezing the life out of your
life!" Please also notify me at
martha@mc3strategies.com
to let me know where the material will appear.
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