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Your logo can be used on web sites, banners, printed material such as business cards, t-shirts and coffee mugs, however when designing your own logo or getting it done by

1) Uniqueness Your logo should be able to stand out as completely 'yours'. It's surprising how many times we get asked to 'copy' logos - we've even had clients request

Designing your own logo is quite straightforward providing you follow and understand a few basics. In aid of simplification, I won't delve too deeply into the field of

Designing your own logo is quite straightforward providing you follow and understand a few basics. In aid of simplification, I won’t delve too deeply into the field of graphic formats. Basically, for our purposes, there are two types of graphic formats when thinking about print. 1. Bitmaps - jpeg’s, gif’s, tiff’s etc. Programs such as Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop or something similar generally output files in a bitmap format. These are pixel-based images that for many purposes are just fine. However, a downside to using a pixel image is the fact that they don’t lend themselves to being enlarged - as the quality will degrade, the more the image is enlarged. Before we go any further, we need to understand screen vs. print resolution. 2. Screen vs. print resolution If you’ve ever dabbled in web design you will already know that all web graphics should be saved at a resolution of 72dpi (72 dots-per-square-inch), as a standard PC monitor will display at 72dpi, or 96dpi. This is not exactly true, but good enough for our purposes. So, if we set our workspace at 72dpi in our preferred graphics program, create our artwork, save it and then display this at 100%, it should look perfect onscreen. However, this is not the case when dealing with print. We would need to set our workspace to 300dpi and save the file at this resolution. If we were to use a 72dpi graphic, then it most likely would display very ‘jagged’. As with many things, there are workarounds of course. For instance, if the original 72dpi graphic had been created at a much larger size than it was going to be printed at, then when reduced in size, this would help ‘boost’ the resolution and possibly give acceptable results. A much preferred option is creating any graphics in a ‘vectored’ format. 3. Vectored images - .eps, .ps, .wmf etc. Vectored images/text etc. are created using mathematical descriptions which use bézier curves to ‘describe’ the image. Pardon my explanation, it’s a tough one to describe and for our purposes is not really necessary to know exactly how this works. The main advantage using a vectored image program, such as Adobe Illustrator / In-Design, Macromedia Freehand etc. is that images / text can be enlarged to any size, without distortion of any sort. This would be the preferred choice when designing your logo. So why not use vectored images / text for everything - why bother with a bitmap program at all? Very simply, it’s horses for courses. Both types of programs (bitmap & vector) have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, if you are working with photographs, or creating a collage with blended images or want to take advantage of using filters to create some artistic effects etc. etc. then the bitmap program will win hands down. However, using a bitmap program also has a downside. Let’s say you’ve created a business card in Photoshop and you only want to use 2 colours, in order to keep the costs down. Well, this will cause your print shop a real headache, especially if the two colours overlap, as spot colour separations cannot be easily achieved from this type of program. In fact, if you were just ordering a small-cost job like business cards then your printer would most likely refuse the artwork, if supplied in this way. So generally, bitmap files are produced using a 4 colour process (CMYK). If you are using a colour photograph on your business card (leaflet, brochure etc.) then this can only be produced using a 4 colour process, so a bitmap file is fine. If you are working with spot colours, then the vectored format is ideal, as this type of file can be easily colour-separated. Any files you create in a vector format can also be easily exported as bitmaps (jpegs etc.) so you have the ability to design for print and web in the one program. To sum up, here are a few pros and cons of using the two types of program: Bitmap programs, e.g. Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop etc. Pros: Perfect for web design Great for working with photographs 1,000’s of special-effect filters to boost creativity Cons: Colours can not be easily separated Graphics can not be enlarged without distortion File sizes can be very large Vectored programs e.g. Adobe Illustrator / In-Design, Macromedia Freehand etc. Pros: Produces scalable files that can be enlarged to any size Files sizes much smaller than bitmaps Colours can be separated effortlessly Share and Enjoy:  Read More →

1) Uniqueness Your logo should be able to stand out as completely ‘yours’. It’s surprising how many times we get asked to ‘copy’ logos - we’ve even had clients request a ‘version’ of my brand. Not a good idea. On top of the potential legal complications nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ like a logo that’s looks even remotely like someone else’s. Do not copy. I’ll say it again. Do. Not. Copy. 2) Timeless Every few years there’s a trend, or fad, that new logos seems to embrace. A few years ago it was the ’swoosh’ - made logos all hi-tech and ‘internety’. Trouble is, everybody jumped on that bandwagon and the treatment rapidly became hackneyed and trite. Few years hence, and we’ve got lots of people stuck with out of date designs. The latest design logo trend is so-called 2.0, a technique that (like a lot of design trends) can be traced back to Apple Computers. Take your logo, add a ‘gel’ treatment, give it glassy reflection at the bottom and you’re all set. (hey - the 3D version of our house could qualify). Web 2.0 is still going strong, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it will be yesterday’s news by end of summer. 3) Gimmick Free Special FX and filters are usually applied, by inexperienced designers, to logos that are ‘missing something’. Trouble is, what the logo is generally missing is any design integrity, and adding bevels, lens flares and drop shadows is the logo design version of ‘putting lipstick on a pig’. While it certainly shows how cool the latest design software is, it doesn’t do much for the professionalism of your mark. Such treatments are fine for glamour shots (used as display pieces on brochures and the like) but are only going to cause grief down the road, especially when it comes to application of your new logo on standard business material. Your logo should be as technically simple as possible for adaptability, which just happened to be number 4 on our list… 4) Adaptability Over the life of your company, you’ll want to plaster your logo over everything you send out. That’s the point of having a logo in the first place. In order to do this, you’ll need a logo that’s adaptable to every occasion and while they may look ‘pretty’ , the design gimmicks we just talked about render your logo impractical for many of these uses. Some of these uses - checks, FAXes, embroidery, newspaper ads, invoices, letterheads, etc. Your new logo has to work on all of them. You’ll also need a quality black and white version that can reproduce as a halftone grayscale, or in the cases of low-resolution BW reproduction, a linear version. 5) Scalability When using your logo, you’ll need to be able to use it small. Real small. Postage stamp size. Classic example of this - over the years, I’ve designed a load of sports event posters that feature logos from dozens of event sponsors. Space only permits the logos to be featured as very small images and it’s always the simpler logos that stand out when viewed from a distance. The cluttered business logos aren’t recognizable to any great degree and the sponsors are probably wasting their money, especially if inclusion on the poster is the only benefit of their sponsorship. When it comes to scalability, the text portion of the logo is the most important, as that’s the piece you want people to remember. Scrawny, sickly text doesn’t read very well at half an inch high. 6) Color is Secondary Colors are extremely important. Using consistent corporate colors will become part of your brand - that’s understood. However, when it comes to the design of your logo, color must always be secondary. A logo that requires color to ‘hold’ the design together is fine when reproduction is optimal - websites, 4 color process printing and what have you - but even then only if the size is appropriate as well. Logos that rely too much on color tend to blend together when used small (see above) and unless the contrast between the two colors is pronounced, will be a grey mess if used in black and white. As for low-resolution reproduction (FAXES, checks, etc) you can forget about readability completely - logos that use color as a design cornerstone usually come out as black blotches on a FAX transmission and with all their money, banks still haven’t figured out how to print a decent check. 7) Appropriate Aspect Ratio & Footprint The aspect ratio of a logo is the relationship between a logo’s height and it’s width. Bottom line, you don’t want a logo that’s too tall, or too wide. Square’ish’ is always best as this allows the maximum adaptability of a logo, especially when it’s being used in conjunction with other artwork. The ‘footprint’ of a logo refers to the amount of physical space that’s required to place a company logo design on any page. If the footprint is ‘wonky’ - trailing design elements ‘poke’ outside the footprint - it can greatly affect the size that the design can be used at, as well as the visual impact of same. Like most ‘rules’ of design, not all of these will apply in every situation, and in many cases, we’ll toss them out completely. However, they should give you a road map that will help you navigate the sometimes frustrating creative process to design your new logo. Share and Enjoy:  Read More →

Your logo can be used on web sites, banners, printed material such as business cards, t-shirts and coffee mugs, however when designing your own logo or getting it done by logo design professionals, ensure the following three basic rules and you will have a great and memorable corporate identity. RULE #1: KISS the logo The first and foremost thing to remember is to keep the logo design really, really simple, hence the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!) reference. Simple logos are identifiable and easy to remember. You would be surprised to learn that good logo designers spend 1/4th of their total project time creating a logo concept, then spend another 1/4th of the time in simplifying the same logo from its current, relatively complex form. (the remaining time is spent on working on the revisions and finalizing the logo) A case in point is Microsoft’s logo, which is nothing but simple text written in italics. However, the clever use of the typeface makes it unique and identifiable. RULE #2: Color it bad, but color it proper! The colors used in your logo are also of supreme importance. You should identify the colors which are usually attributed to your industry, for example, choosing fresh green colors and shades when you are a gardening and landscaping business seems a logical choice. Also remember that the colors you will choose will be used on all elements of your visual identity, that is, business card, web site, packaging, signage etc, so choose your colors wisely. RULE #3: Make it as flexible as an Olympic gymnast Your logo design should be flexible in several respects. First of all, it should be able to be reproduced in both multi-colored and single-color (black and white) versions because there will always be media on which reproduction of your logo in color would either not be possible or downright inappropriate. It should also be scalable enough so that it looks equally good in all sizes, whether it is on a small business card or on a giant IMAX cinema screen. In conclusion, remember that your logo design will tell your customers who you are, so make sure that you send them the right message. This can only be ensured when you follow the above three rules when either designing the logo yourself or through discussing these with your logo designers. The author, John Bladeus runs a low-cost yet high-quality logo design service and has a passion of writing on subjects related to business logos and corporate logo design. In his free time, he also writes for and operates a logo design blog. Please visit his web site today to obtain a great logo for your business. Share and Enjoy:  Read More →