Logo Development Ideas
A logo is an important part of a business' brand identity. It appears on every marketing piece, from business cards to brochures, and becomes a symbol of the company. As you approach the logo development process, take steps that will ensure that your logo is an accurate, useful representation of your business.
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Begin With Words
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Whether you are developing a logo for yourself or a client, start with a questionnaire that will narrow down preferences and intentions. Include questions about the business' established brand colors and adjectives that describe their services. Ask where they will be in a few years, what clients they serve, and who their competitors are, and where the logo will be used. To get a sense of preferences, ask about logos and websites they like and why. With this information, you can gain insight into the business and the people that will see the logo, which can help you design one that customers will respond well to and that will stand out from the crowd. In addition, it will help you connect the logo to the services.
Start in Black and White
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In the process of marketing your business, logos will be photocopied and passed along, printed in black and white publications, and sent by scan through email. To make sure your brand carries through, your logo must work in black and white as well as color. As you design the logo, work in grayscale first to get a logo that is visually impressive without color; add color at a later stage to ensure that it works both ways.
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Plan for Many Iterations
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The process of developing a logo can take many iterations before you land on the one that has the right look and feel for your company. To make the logo development process run smoothly, plan time to work through these rounds of design and critique. Use a process that helps you narrow the field: start with a range of possibilities, and then choose a few you like and ask the designer to explore those directions more. Keep refining until your entire decision-making team has agreed on one logo.
Make Multiple Versions
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It is not always possible to use your full logo on marketing materials, particularly on small items like pens. As part of the development process, make several versions to work with many items; this will ensure consistency, because employees and vendors will not need to make their own modifications. Make one version with the full logo and another with the logo mark alone. You can also make versions that will suit various printing methods: black and white, greyscale, and two color are all common for publications.
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References
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