Sunday, February 24, 2008

When Outsourcing Logo Design, How Do You Know What Makes a Good Logo?

Outsourcing logo design is a wonderful way to get an expert eye on your company branding. But how do you know when the outsourcer has delivered you a good logo? To make sure you get the best work out of your designer, it's best to learn yourself how to identify a good logo.

Identifying a good logo first requires a solid understanding of the purpose behind having a logo in the first place. A logo is one of any company's most integral branding elements, and as such should be fundamental in developing your brand identity. Your audience may or may not have any familiarity with the character, disposition, and core values of your company already. It is therefore the role of your logo to exude that information to anyone who sets eyes on it. Most of all, a good and effective logo should make a strong and lasting positive impression on your customers, existing and prospective.

Merely glancing at your logo should make a person think of your business. How to accomplish this feat? Whether you lean towards a font-based logo (100% text), an illustrative logo (clearly illustrating what work you do), or graphical (giving an abstract representation of your business), the same key design principles apply.

When outsourcing logo design, you should look for the following qualities in the finished product you're delivered. It should be:

- Attractive, catching the viewer's eye and appealing to their sensibilities, drawing them in and making them feel good. Colors should be pleasing, text should be legible, and images should be clear. Contrast is one design technique that helps make a logo attractive.

- Recognizable, identifying your company by standing out and distinguishing itself from the pack. Your logo should be unique, like your business.

- Memorable, sticking in the viewers' minds even when they're not looking right at it. Your logo should spring to mind whenever a member of your target market has a need your business can fulfill. Meaningful, conveying your business's unique message, and indicative of the distinguishing characteristics and manner and type of work your company does.

- Flexible, able to be used in a wide variety of ways - on dark backgrounds and light ones, on packaging, on signs, and on letterhead, in color and in black-and-white, over a website or a fax. Your logo should be versatile, able to be printed large and small, with and without color, and on all different sorts of mediums - all while still retaining its original integrity.

- Simple, with the number of fonts and colors kept to a bare minimum, and special effects avoided altogether.

- Unified, appearing as one singular unit, rather than a hodge-podge of several elements mashed together.

A great logo is the foundation of a strong corporate brand identity. Now that you understand the qualities that go into making a great logo, you can feel confident in outsourcing logo design to a professional, knowing that you have proper tools with which to evaluate their work.

Learn more about Outsourcing Logo Design at http://www.StartOutsourcingNow.com

Friday, February 08, 2008

Logo Design

A logo is a symbol that represents a particular company or a brand. Logos are a very important since they help in attracting customers. Remember that your logo is a business tool. The logo you have represents your very company. How it appears tells the potential customers what kind of business you have.

Your logo design should be unique, functional, and effective regardless of the size and attractive regardless of the color. It should also represent the brand/company image well. The ultimate purpose is for the people to recognize your logo and associate yourself with it. Make sure that your chosen logo stands out in the crowd.

A company’s logo should avoid complicated and intricate designs. Too complex a design hinders rapid visual identification and thereby defeats the purpose of the unique identification associated with the company’s logo. A busy, intricate logo may look wonderful but when the same logo is reduced in size for use on a business card it may become a meaningless blob of ink. Keep it simple and clean. Also, avoid using too many colors, highlights, special effects, etc. Most companies wish to use their logo for more than just a single application. Complex designs and color patterns tend to cost more to reproduce and often need to have an additional simplified version created. Another added expense.

A Text-based design is often text only with exclusive typographic behavior. You should prefer a Text-Based design when funds are tight; your company’s name is logically distinguishing but not a household word just yet. Good examples of this are: Yahoo and Wal-Mart.

A Letter-mark design is similar to text but is either an abbreviation or a company’s initials. Good examples of this are: IBM and BMW. Another type of design is Icon-based. This usually involves an abstract piece of art or picture. Good examples of this are the “swoosh” emblem for Nike or the apple logo for Apple computer.

Designers should be aware of copyrights and trademarks, and should be very careful not to copy any other logo. Using a person’s face, clip-art, third-party fonts, imagery or photographs, and culturally suggestive imagery should be avoided as much as possible. The use of too many effects like shadows, glares, embossing and photo imagery is also not recommended. The logo should also be flexible enough to retain its shape when printed on certain materials that tend to crease or fold.

If you are interested in more information on this subject you can go to the internet and log onto: http://www.logotree.com

Finch is a graphic artist working in the field of logo design for 2 years.

Author hereby grants a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free perpetual and irrevocable right and license to copy, distribute, display, and perform this Work, in whole , and to incorporate the Work, in whole , into other works (the "Derivative Works") including publication of the subsequent work in both printed and electronic materials.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Nature Logos

Nature logos are best used by companies that offer services such as cleaning and environmental protection programs. They are also best for theme parks and resorts that are located away from the hustle and bustle of the city and aim to provide a relaxing and serene environment to people who want to unwind and rest.

As apparent by the name, they incorporate nature and natural aspects in their images and design that give a sense of being closer to nature and environment. They can also be called environmental logos as they both work for the same cause that is promoting the natural environment.

Nature or environment logos make use of images and symbols that include natural settings and give a sense of outdoor and freedom. The most frequently images used in this regard are leaves, trees, butterflies, mountains, oceans and wild animals that aptly represent the outdoor settings very beautifully. These logos are designed keeping in mind the role of outdoor environment in our lives and how nature can affect us.

Most of the nature or environment logos are used by companies and organizations that are fighting to preserve the nature and save it from destructive agents such as pollution, land mining, wars and other things can cause disrupt this harmonious balance. These logos aim to display the friendly nature and the alluring aspects of nature that beckon people to explore and discover it by coming to the companies that offer these opportunities. They also combine other land and natural issues such as landscaping, irrigation, agricultural business and farming. They can be for companies as well as individuals who work closely associated with natural environment.

When designing a nature logo, it is very important to keep the earthy tones in mind as nature and earth go together. In this regard, the choice of colors also becomes limited as not every color can be used for nature and earth. The most common and suitable colors are green, blue, brown, yellow and other pastels combinations that give a soft and gentle look to the logo keeping in mind the nurturing aspect of nature.

Nature logos look best in outdoor environments that show a natural side of things to give them a touch of reality. The theme of nature logos centers around nature, focusing on the line of business you are in. They focus on being more natural, inspiring as well as rouse feelings of trust and emotions that are very strongly associated with nature.

Combined with environment friendly theme and selection of light colors, nature logo designs can go a long way in motivating people to bring their business to you. In this regard, a large number of logo design companies provide pre-made as well as custom design logos. Apart from them, nature logo templates are also available that portray the fauna and fauna as well as the other natural aspects and can be used for designing your company logo.

These natural logos go a long way in promoting the resorts, theme parks and other organizations that provide services related to nature offering solitude and relaxation. A crafty and imaginative nature logo can help people relate to it and bring you more success in business.

For more on nature logos, please visit... http://www.logosnap.com