Creating a Winning Logo

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

AdMob Launches New iPhone 3G Advertising Solutions and Announces ...
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
AdMob also announced that it will give $1 million in advertising to developers to promote their iPhone applications, sites and services. ...

This is Nottingham
UK media regulator Ofcom publishes new TV advertising code
Forbes, NY - 4 hours ago
Changes in the code include removing rules requiring a 20-minute interval between advertising breaks within programmes, and allowing broadcasters to ...
Ofcom approves more adverts in films Telegraph.co.uk
Ofcom publishes new Advertising Code Utalkmarketing
Ofcom relaxes TV ad rules guardian.co.uk
Brand Republic - This is Nottinghamall 33 news articles

Boston Globe
Obama Bets $5 Million on Olympic Viewers
New York Times, United States - 16 hours ago
National broadcast advertising buys are highly unusual for presidential candidates. Campaigns usually order TV ad time in local markets (most often in ...
Obama to Advertise During 2008 Olympics Wall Street Journal Blogs
Obama buys expensive ads for Olympics The Associated Press
Obama campaign makes $5 mln Olympic ad buy - source Reuters
Television Week - Media Life Magazineall 190 news articles

Utarget.Fox to Take blinkx Worldwide for Advertising Sales
MarketWatch - 11 hours ago
FOX Networks, the leading international ad network operated by Fox International Channels (FIC), announced today that its video advertising division, ...

Fletcher Martin Creates Interactive Arby's(R) Restaurant ...
MarketWatch - 42 minutes ago
Compensation is performance-based, and plans are executed through advertising, interactive, direct marketing and public relations services. ...

The Gazette (Montreal)
The New York Times Company Reports 2008 Second-Quarter Results
MarketWatch - Jul 23, 2008
"Print advertising continued to soften during the quarter, particularly in the classified areas. At the same time, circulation revenues rose 2.5 percent to ...
Boston Globe hit hard by ad revenue slide Bizjournals.com
NY Times misses Wall Street revenue forecast The Associated Press
New York Times Profit Sinks Wall Street Journal
Seeking Alpha - MarketWatchall 207 news articles

Interactive Investor
Daily Mail & General Trust sees no end to weak advertising market
Times Online, UK - 17 hours ago
Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), the owner of the Daily Mail, said that it did not expect an end to the advertising downturn this year, ...
Publisher reports 5% rise in revenues despite weak advertising ... Scotsman
Daily Mail owner says online helps offset fall in print advertising Telegraph.co.uk
Daily Mail Sales Rise 5%; Economy Hurts Advertising (Update2) Bloomberg
Independent - Trading Markets (press release)all 41 news articles

1010 Wins
We are not alone: Other Times hits skids with rollerskates on
Los Angeles Times, CA - 15 hours ago
The June performance followed an 11.9 per cent decline in May advertising revenues, and suggested that an already deep erosion in newspaper advertising ...
Ad sales tumble 16% at NY Times Financial Times
New York Times to raise newsstand price to $1.50 The Associated Press
New York Times: All the bad news fit to print MarketWatch
Conde Nast Portfolioall 127 news articles

Electronic advertising 'greener' than paper
VNUNet.com, UK - 3 hours ago
Advertising that can be updated electronically is more environmentally friendly than using paper-based systems that create waste, according to one ad sales ...

UPDATE 1-Lee Enterprises profit falls as ad spending slackens
Reuters - 42 minutes ago
N: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a lower quarterly profit that trailed market estimates, as classified advertising revenue fell 17 percent, ...
Lee Earnings Plunge -- 26% Drop In Cash Flow Editor & Publisher
Post-Star parent reports disappointing 3rd-quarter, 9-month numbers Bizjournals.com
Lee Enterprises news co. 2Q profit falls 87 pct Forbes
all 24 news articles

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

How To Make A Fortune With FREE Advertising!