The first most important piece of any business is a logo. After your business name, the logo should be a top priority for any business. We believe there are 3 basic components of a great logo:
- Be original – We’ve assumed you’ve researched your potential business name and made sure you’re the only one in the area with that special name. Now that you’re past the name stage, the logo must be something that stands out amongst the crowd of your competitors as well. While there are several websites out there that tout themselves as helping business custom-create their logos in a matter of seconds, we strongly discourage using these types of sites. You’ve spent a lot amount of time building your business in your head and the last thing you want to do is give your name and your business description to random strangers or website models and have them system generate your logo. While we’re sure algorithms from these sites attempt to prevent duplications, let’s face it, getting a call from a lawyer on copyright infringement is no laughing matter if your logo looks like someone else’s. We highly suggest reaching out to a local graphic artist who can sit down with you and really understand your company. They will make the logo more personalized and customized for your business – and only your business.
- Let’s talk about colors – The colors you attribute to your logo and business will stick with you for a long time, so be very considerate that your colors match your business. For example, if you’re in the landscaping business, the last color you would expect to see is hot pink lettering. Unless you’re marketing plan consists of your landscaping employees showing up with hot pink shovels and leg warmers, you’d be safer to stick with some “traditional” colors like the greens, browns and even some yellow or orange to spice things up. If you own a boutique store that features women’s trendy clothing, then by all means, pull out the hot pink – we think even the brightest colors can be done with style and class.
- High-quality logo images – There’s a good chance that you may want to use your logo for t-shirts, signage or social media down the road. Having a high-quality logo created from the beginning is huge. A low-quality image tends to get “pixilated” as it is blown up. This pixilation has been known to give many a printer some unwanted stress as well as make your logo look just plain awful. Routing back to #1 on this list, by having a custom graphic designer create your logo from the beginning, will give you all sorts of flexibility for the future.
Now that we’ve established a few tips on making a logo, stay tuned for next week’s post on the first place it should go…