small business marketing | soical media | graphic design | personal branding | Make It Happen

Starting a business is such an exciting time.  Everything is new – you are preparing to embark on a fabulous journey!  Once you decide to start your biz – one of the first things you may work on is establishing your logo.

Your logo is you – your brand – a representation of you.

Logo’s of large successful companies are recognizable to all. Target – Nike – and Mac – you see their symbol alone – and you know exactly what brand it is.

Brand = the identity of a specific product, service, or business. A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. (from wikipedia)

There are so many ways you can go with your company logo. Name and icon, name only, name done decoratively. Take time to think about what your business will stand for, provide, serve or offer.  Is your business serious, relaxed, fun, shabby chic, elegant, modern, bold, etc…?

Color – take a look at some color wheels and meanings of color – look through some art magazines – what colors inspire you.  A great online resource for color is www.colorlovers.com – they even offer color pallets to look at.  Take a look at the book Color:

How about an Icon – is it unique, is it timeless, is it meaningful to your company?  What does the icon mean in general?  The Designing Effective Communications, Creating Contexts For Clairity and Meaning book is a great refference tool.  Be sure not to pick an icon just because you like it – it needs to have a purpose. 

Getting your logo made – of course if you are not restricted by budget there are many graphic artists.  However, if you are just starting out and budget conscience, there are several options available to help you create a logo. However, remember that a pretty picture a brand doesn’t make. Your logo-brand should encapsulate who and what – clarity, consistency and mission count.

Whatever your budget is – here are a few things to consider when creating and purchasing a logo.

You will want the purchase to include a high res. (high resolution) file – at the minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch).  At 300 dpi your logo is suitable for printing – at 72 dpi it is only appropriate for web viewing.

You’ve seen it before a local flyer or newspaper with a local business printing an ad for their services – and their logo is pixilated (very fuzzy/dotted).  This is because the ad was not created using a logo at 300 dpi. 

If available from your designer or logo company ask for the original file (in the software that it was made it) – even if you don’t have that software you never know what types of printing/web projects in the future you may need them for.  The designer may charge extra for this – but that is okay – just make sure that is an option so you aren’t roped into always having to go back to the designer to get something done. 

If the designer doesn’t offer that – at the minimum get it in an EPS (encapsulated post script) format – as this will allow you to resize it to any size – even billboard size without affecting the resolution of the logo. 

Also get your logo in a .png (portable network graphics) file with a transparent background.  This will enable you to “float” your logo on top of a background on your website or solid background. 

Other things to find out about your design – what is your font type? And your HEX (hexadecimal) color number. 

When choosing your logo be sure to stay away from common fonts – try to use something unique.  Many fonts can be found online – some even for free!

Does your company’s name turn into an acronym that is not first-class?  Like System Analysis & Programming = SAP, Blue Mountain = B.M. – you get the point. 

Then when you’ve narrowed it down to two or three designs – get some constructive feedback– ask a family member or a friend to provide a first impression – jot down the first few adjectives they mention.  They may bring an interesting perspective to the project.  

Overall take the time to “invest” in creating a logo – don’t rush – shop around – ask around – see a logo of a small business you like?  Ask them where they got it.  Be happy & confident in you logo –  your brand – your business.

 Wendy – Helping your small business Make It Happen!