Queen Irene

A logo is a very important way for many companies to develop strong identity and recognition for the company itself or its products and services.  Many logos are easily recognized on a worldwide basis and their effective design forms the basis for such recognition.  Here are some tips on how to design a great logo.

The first vitally important step is preplanning.  Don’t just go off and start designing a logo without first thinking about what it is that you want to accomplish.  Take the time to really decide what kind of company you are dealing with and the kind of message a logo should be meant to evoke.

As an extreme example, if the company involved is health care related, you probably don’t want to focus on a logo which evokes military themes.  Make a list detailing the kind of company you are dealing with.  What type of business is this company involved in?  What markets do they serve?  Who is a typical customer?

These are all very key questions to ask.  Once you have determined that kind of company involved, their products or services and markets served, then it’s time to start roughing out some concepts.

And again not only is it vitally important to understand more about the company itself, you need to really hone in on the markets served.  For example a company which caters to a mature and conservative market would probably take a different tact than a company which primarily serves the youth market.

It is also probably a very good idea to study the logos of some of you closest competitors.  Note what you like about the logos and what you don’t like about them.  You would be surprised to learn how many companies spend a great deal of money developing what turns out to be lousy logos.  Part of the reason is large or small, they didn’t do their homework.

In any case this benchmarking activity should give you a better idea of the kind of design elements to focus on.  In developing some concepts, keep in mind that you don’t have to be an accomplished graphics designer to at least come up with some viable concepts.

There are some excellent logo design software packages which can help even the novice produce very respectable logo concepts or even finished products.  The software is very intuitive and uses building blocks to help construct the logo.

You can customize graphic elements, change colors and choose from a variety of interesting and bold fonts.  They can also be easily sized to suit your particular needs and even shaped around graphic elements.

Most of the better software packages also include a wide variety of logo templates.  You can choose a template you like and then modify it to suit.  These templates are usually organized by type so you can quickly choose ones which are well suited to the company you are focused on.

If you decide to work with a professional graphic designer, these logo concepts are a great way for that person to take what you started with and further refine and improve it using well defined and proven design practices.  In this way you’ll have the best opportunity to develop a terrific logo quickly and effectively.