Do you ever do a web search for restaurants in your area and find that some don’t have an online menu? You immediately skip over them and deem them unworthy of your business, don’t you? This is the same reaction a potential customer has if a company has an unprofessional logo, or worse yet, none at all.
At Award Productions, we work closely with marketing departments and public relations companies to develop brand identity and promotional videos. We are frequently asked to incorporate 2-D logos into moving graphics for an opening video sequence.
With poor or unprofessional company branding, customers will feel uneasy about your reliability, expertise, and overall commitment to getting the job done. So just how do you make sure you have an effective logo that is both appealing and memorable?
Here are a few tips to guide you through creating and choosing a logo that is right for you and your business:
1. Know Your Company.
Write out a short description summarizing your company. Are you a family-run corner shop spanning multiple generations, a multi-national corporation, or somewhere in between? What are your company values and goals? What is your product or service? How do you differ from the competition?
Answering these questions will help you define your image and understand what “feel” you need to portray to potential customers through your logo.
2. Know Your Customers.
Identifying your target audience is possibly the most crucial piece of information needed when branding your company. Who are the people you need to impress? What do they value the most out of your products/services – quality, efficiency, cost, dependability? And how do you show this attribute through your logo?
Upon figuring out these circumstances, an appropriate logo will reflect the persona of your company, giving your customer confidence that you will succeed for them.
3. Know When NOT to Do-It-Yourself.
Before you do anything, it is important to realize that knowing how to throw together a simple Photoshop image does not mean you should create the company logo. Whether you hire a graphic designer or have one on your team, you need to have someone skilled at understanding both the concept of a logo and the design execution.
Professional designers understand color, line, and text in a way that visually connects your company overview with the needs of your target audience. And it aesthetically represents this combination in a way that is eye-catching, yet simple enough to be easily memorable and recognizable.
4. Know Your Instincts.
A professional graphic designer will give you 3-5 initial designs to select the path for your logo. These should have a wide range of variation, showing different directions in which you could take your logo while still maintaining the characteristics you had outlined earlier. Choose the one that stands out to you, because ultimately you must feel confident in the design that represents your company.
After the initial design is chosen, the graphic designer should take this as a building block from which to create a few logos in the same spectrum. Looking at these, pick your final logo that you are most comfortable with and proud of. Even though someone else may be doing the design work, stay involved with the process. It is your voice and your company that is being evaluated by customers looking at your logo, and it will help make your business successful in the end.
The process for designing and choosing a company logo may seem daunting and time-consuming, but it is also a great lesson in defining your business, understanding how your company is perceived by the public, and making sure this is the identity you wish to portray.
You should feel confident when displaying your company logo and know that it is a great fit to match your company profile. When customers see your logo, it should make them want to learn more about you and try your products/services. The anonymous restaurants in the Yellow Pages could be gems, but I know I wouldn’t risk the time to find out.