Title: Logo Design Buyer’s Guide Word Count: 1452 Summary: Across a period of time a logo is the image which symbolizes a corporation, its products and services in a complete explanatory manner. Its purpose is to create an unforgettable, familiar feeling on the mind of a potential client or customer. It’s undoubtedly a logo which can be termed as the heart of a company’s corporate identity. So in a nutshell a logo is a trademark of a company or organization. Keywords: logo, logo design, logo design service, corporate logo design Article Body: Across a period of time a logo is the image which symbolizes a corporation, its products and services in a complete explanatory manner. Its purpose is to create an unforgettable, familiar feeling on the mind of a potential client or customer. It’s undoubtedly a logo which can be termed as the heart of a company’s corporate identity. So in a nutshell a logo is a trademark of a company or organization. It's the identity that encapsulates what your company stand for and what it wants to achieve in its lifetime. Companies do spend thousands, if not millions of dollars just to have the right logo. So what are the ingredients of a first-class logo? Most people would reply "I just recognized it when I saw it!” Well this isn't so far from the truth. A good logo catches the eye; it makes the observer curious and engaged, doesn’t matter if only for a short moment. And that is the moment in which an image and the subsistence of your company gets embedded into the minds of your customer rather than filtered out with a million other daily options. Your company's logo will be your visual tool to stimulate attention and leave a greater impact to your target audience that words may fall short of. Over time, logos prove to be the simplest and most direct way of promoting one's business presence. Make your logo give you your brand name recognition. It is your visual appeal to any document or web page because of its unique graphic image. People tend to remember a catchy logo at a much higher rate than nearly any other advertising element. When designing your logo, there are several things to keep in mind to achieve you goals: be unique, be true to the company, consider the psychology of your target market, and, above all, keep it simple. Your business logo will most likely be used for many purposes: business cards and letterhead, outdoor designs, the Internet and promotional items such as T-shirts and mugs. The logo has to look good when resized to fit on a small 2"x 3.5" business card. If the design is complex a lot of detail will be lost when the logo is shrunk to fit on the card and people might not be able to make out the design. Elaborate designs can also be difficult and expensive to put on T-shirts and mugs. Complex or over-the-top designs can mean high printing costs. A decision to have a highly complex custom design logo for your firm can come back to haunt you. This doesn't mean that your custom design logo has to be simple (and boring) for it to work. An elegant logo design can enhance your firm's professional image. The trick is to find the right balance between design and functionality, where you have a great design that you can use for all purposes. Design of a company or product logo should not be tagged on to an advertising campaign at the end of the planning process. It deserves to be examined and integrated into the body of the campaign; it should not be the tail of the dog. A good logo is developed at the front end, the part that bites. Planners need to communicate to the graphic designer certain key information about what the company or product goals are. They need to pass on to the artist a demographic picture of their target consumer - age, income, where they live. All of these factors are brought into play in the strategic planning process. Too much information can be just as complicated to handle as too little. Seeing too many sources might encourage the prospective logo purchaser to select a supplier at random and hope for the best. Given the prolonged expected life cycle for a company logo and the significant part a logo plays in image recognition, playing selection games can be devastating. But what can a newcomer do to get the best bang for his logo? These days the savvy of risk in online business is becoming quite substantial, anyone with a computer and internet access can put up a logo design business. You could’ve pay a boy working as a freelance and charging $40 to draw your logo. Who knows? Maybe he's good, but there is more to logo design than nice pictures. Logo designers need to recognize the association that should exist between the logo and the image the company wants to send to its customers. Logo designers have to have some business understanding and business know-how in order to design logos that increase sales. Don’t fall for cheap prices, they say “Quality never comes cheap” and yes it is so very true, at one hand you tend to choose a cheap logo design plan but on the other hand you sacrifice some of the things which in turn those logo designers will get benefited with. Some of those like things are: 1. A limited number of Formats Mostly the cheap plan logo designers won’t provide the final design in multiple formats such as a bitmap image and a vector image. Knowingly these both formats are very necessary, you use bitmap for your website and interrelated purposes whereas vector for printing up of the visiting cards and corporate stationery. 2. No Money-Back Guarantee Usually cheap logo designing plans are not backed up by any money back guarantee, might be the reason can be, they don’t really possess any satisfied customers. 3. Limited Alterations Some logo designers present very affordable logos where you get no or very few alterations. In additional words, they'll give you one logo. If you don't like it, that's your problem. Typically they then charge extra for alterations. This in itself isn't really dishonest - as long as they are upfront about it. It does become deceptive when it's buried in fine print. Creating a logo is always a process - though different designers have their own methods. Many designers will begin by sketching thumbnails or playing with shapes on the computer screen, until something "clicks" and they follow that path to see where it leads. One way to start is to select a shape which represents the concept of the company, and begin playing with it. The idea is to come up with something interesting or clever, whether a viewpoint which is different, or an unusual combination of shapes. Perhaps it will be something which will require some guesswork on the part of the viewer, but then be crystal clear when they look at it another way. The accurate logo, with the accurate distinctiveness, will enhance your visibility, reliability and impression; which mean more business for you. Few are the things that are needed for a robust logo making activity and an outstanding product, before choosing this service of logo designing make sure that the designer firm follows this trail, following this will ensure maximum credibility, firms like Business Logo Design follow this trail and has been achieving recorded success ration over a period of years, these factors are: Consistency Consistency in use of logo, tagline, materials. Repetition of similar elements, used in the same or similar ways. This helps people to remember who the company is and what do they do? Memorability Must contain an element of memorability so that the logo stays at the forefront of potential clients' minds. That way, they'll think of the company next time they have a need. Meaningfulness Meaningfulness so that the logo can spread the message about the distinguishing characteristics of one’s business. Uniqueness The uniqueness factor helps one stand out from the crowd. For example, if everyone in one industry uses a particular symbol (i.e., airlines often uses airplane tail), try to use something else that way, the logo doesn't just look like everyone else's. Professionalism Professionalism in the eminence of the graphics, the printing and the paper on which the materials will be printed. Timelessness Timelessness in the logo will ensure that one don't have to redesign the logo in just a few years and that the investment and equity in the design will be lasting. Remember, logo design is an essential element to your general marketing strategy. Put in the necessary time, effort, and creativity, and you will end up with an effective, memorable logo that will go miles towards developing the positive brand appreciation and recognition you desire. A logo is essentially at the heart of corporate identity. It is the face of an organization. The right logo design can be one of your strongest marketing tools. It delivers the message to the public that a company is unique, credible and professional. Make it stylish. Make it elegant. Make an impact.