How to Make a Great Logo For Your New Business
There’s a lot to think about when you start your own business. From the initial burst of ideas for your business name to working out what your business will be. You’ll also need to consider how to promote your business. Deciding what marketing activities will work best to attract potential customers will be instrumental in getting your business known. In order to develop a comprehensive marketing plan, you’ll need to put together some marketing material. That means getting creative.
One of the first things you need to design is your business logo. The badge that represents your business identity and sets you apart from your competition.
In some ways, logo design can be the hardest part of starting a business from scratch. As an unknown entity, your business will be a blank slate. Without an existing client base or business reputation to fall back on, knowing the strengths and selling points of your business can be a bit like flying in the dark.
So how do you start designing a logo for a business just getting out of the starting gate? Hopefully, these tips will get you up and running towards logo design success in no time.
Work On Your Branding
When you’re just starting out, it can be easy to think branding, or having a brand, is only for large corporations. Something companies like Nike or Adidas need because they have huge marketing budgets and spend a fortune on TV commercials, right?
Well, no. Not really.
Actually, the truth is, all businesses have a brand.
Your brand is the service you provide or the product you sell wrapped up in the unique, individual way you deliver it. In other words, it’s you and your business and how you differ from others offering the same product.
Branding is how you sell your brand to your client base. It’s the way you communicate your service or product to customers to encourage them to come to you. Your branding needs to be uniform and cohesive across everything your business does in terms of the messaging you use. That’s where your logo comes into play.
As the visual embodiment of your brand, your logo is the first thing potential clients will see. Done correctly, the design of the logo will portray your business as trustworthy, confident and professional. An enticing hook to draw customers over the finish line and in through your door.
In order to have an effective, attention-grabbing, successful logo for your business, you have to work out what your branding entails first.
Thinking about branding means asking yourself questions about your business. What service does your business provide? How do you deliver your service? What is the target audience? What color scheme represents you and what you offer?
The answers will help you determine your messaging. Which in turn, will guide you towards designing a logo that supports and promotes your brand.
What You Need From a Logo
The design of your logo requires some thought. There is more to it than choosing a range of fancy graphics or 3D effects. You have to make sure every design element in your logo reflects you, your business, and your brand.
In fact there are three important factors to consider when you begin thinking about a logo. Your business and brand are the most obvious. The third is your client base. Any design needs to speak to your prospective customers. Your logo needs to show at a glance who you are and what your business offers. This is particularly important when your business is a new startup. Without the messaging in your logo, those budding clients won’t know anything about you.
Worse still, they will have no clues to let them know what your business is offering.
For example, if you think about the logo for Nike, it looks simplistic. Which is one of the logo’s strengths. It speaks volumes for the company it represents. Combining confidence, a no-nonsense attitude, movement and speed, it is the epitome of the brand it portrays. Customers can tell at a glance exactly what the business offers. Because all the characteristics Nike are known for are encompassed in their simple swoosh.
That is what you want from your logo. Your choice of imagery, text or special effects have to symbolize your values and professionalism. Simply and effectively.
Choosing Your Design
A company logo is unique and personal to a specific business brand. It has to be. In order for a logo to be worth its weight in the money you invest, it must be instantly recognizable as yours. If it is too similar to another logo already in use, your business risks getting mistaken for another. Losing business to a rival is bad enough at the best of times. Losing out due to a lack of individual business brand and identity, is a kick in the teeth you don’t need. Especially when you are just starting out.
Confusion between businesses is best avoided. This is one reason why it’s a good idea to check the logos of your competition. That way, you can make sure you do something different. The art of successful logo design is not following the crowd. It’s developing your own brand.
Do some research into the logos of well known companies too! Even if they are not in your industry. Taking the time to check logos from other fields will help you identify aspects of design better suited to one type of business over another. These features will be interpreted by the viewer according to their subconscious understanding of what each element within the design means.
Items as basic as color and font can dictate how your logo is perceived by potential clients. Traditional Serif fonts bring accountants or insurance companies to mind. The message is clear. Serif fonts are used to show trust, respectability and knowledge.
Conversely, the edgy feel of a Sans Serif font shouts modern, new, and ground breaking.
Choosing between the two depends on what kind of business you are in and the image you are trying to depict. Picking an old style Serif for a new and high-tech graphic design company may create confusion leading to potential customers giving your business a miss.
The same rules apply to color. Each color evokes an emotional response from people. From the confident red, to the cool blue. Color plays a large role in enabling clients to see what kind of a business you are running. Choose a color that doesn’t match the forward-thinking, modern message your business is promoting, and you’ll drive customers away.
If your target audience can’t trust the messaging their eyes are seeing, they won’t trust your business.
Format For Your Logo
The best thing about being a new business is being able to design your logo from the start using formats and tools available today. This gives your business an edge over companies that may have been in business for some time. Yours will look modern and fresh.
You can also learn what not to do from logos that have been in use for some time. Particularly if they were designed using what are now considered to be outdated trends.
When you choose your logo style, make sure it can stand the test of time. If you want to use one of the many current trends, be prepared to update a few years down the line. Otherwise, the age of your logo will age your business.
Starting a business can be a bit like being back at school. You have to do your homework! While it can be tempting to jump straight in with designing the best logo ever, if you haven’t put your branding in place first, you could end up making an expensive mistake in mixed messaging.
The key to a successful business logo is taking the time to do your research.
Getting the right balance between design and branding will ensure your logo will carry out its duties as your brand ambassador, effortlessly.
