How to Design a Great Logo for your Business

Designing a logo for your company or business can be challenging. Your logo is the most important graphic image because it helps your audience recognize your company. You want a great logo that is easy to identify and remember!

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet Access
• Book Store
• Designer
• Creativity
• The ability to forget what you like and think about what your target audience likes.

1. 
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   Go online and research! Search for websites of businesses that are doing what you are trying to do. Research your competition. Look at their logos and why they work for them. This helps you in two ways. You can see what is already out there so that you don't end up with a logo similar to a competitor and it also gives you inspiration on how to make your logo stand out and be unique.

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   Go to a bookstore or a library and search the Graphic Design section. There are tons of logo books there that you can browse through. This is a great way to get inspiration and ideas of what type of logo you want or need. Do you want something abstract? Do you want illustration in it? Do you want something clean and elegant?

3. 
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   This next step you can do online or at the bookstore. Look for websites or books on color psychology. If your business is targeted to kids, you might want to go with bright primary colors. If your business is a spa, a massage place or retreat resort, you might want to use soothing colors like light greens and blue tones. Each color evokes a mood and the combination of certain colors can send out the right message!

4. Remember that you are not the client! Think about your target audience. Are they stay at home moms? Are they working single parents? Are the senior citizens? You need to think about what appeals to your audience, what they like and what they are drawn to. Most business owners make the mistake of designing a logo they like and that they would be attracted to, but they don't consider that their gender, age or lifestyle might not be the same as their target audience.

5. Choose a designer you can work with well. Find someone that understands your business and that does his/her own research to provide you with several design options that work. Communicate with him/her and give clear feedback since no one knows your business better than you.

6. Finally, encourage your designer to use vector based programs to design your logo since vector logos are the easiest to work with on any type of print job. Avoid logos that have photographs in them, as these don't reproduce well in large scale unless you have a very high resolution image.

Tips & Warnings

• Give your designer links to websites where you saw a logo you liked or show him the logos you found in the book store so he can visually see what you are trying to achieve.
• Think like the client. Forget about your personal feelings and imagine what your target audience thinks like and what they are attracted to.
• Do not choose a designer based on price. Some designers are really cheap for a reason. Others are really expensive for no reason. Base your designer selection on their work, not their price.
• Do not use different logos for your business because you couldn't decide which one you liked best. Choose one and stick to it or you will confuse your audience.

Resources

• Basic Design Principles
• Color Psychology
• Wikipedia - Color Psychology

[Gertrud]

on 4/2/2009 These are all good suggestions. I agree, I think the most difficult aspect is to make a logo for your target market. Taking your personal feelings out of the equation. Nice article. 5*s