Everything You need to Know about Logos and Logo design

Before you get a new company logo for your business, there are a list of things that you need to know about logo and the logo design services. This will help you to understand better why you need to invest in a logo and what to look for when getting a logo designer. In addition, below are some frequently asked questions that many new business owners will have during their search for logo design.

What is Logo?

A logo is simply an identification of your company using a mark or symbol. It could be simple text font or graphic representation but it must be distinguishable and unique so that its customers could recognise the company from its competitors instantly.

Why Logo is important to a Business?

If your face provides an important identity to others then your business logo is the face and identity to your business. An impactful logo provides a lasting and memorable impression to your customers and help to promote your business image. In short, your logo communicate the essence of your business. For e.g. MacDonald, Nike, Burger King, Apple Computer and KFC are some of the successful logos.

What Make A Good Logo?

A good logo must contain the “VSOP” attributes as below:

• Versatile and Distinguishable
• Simple and Easy to remember
• Original and Unique
• Perpetual and Timeless

The little logo has a great responsibility of telling people a lot of information about your business. It helps to convey the nature and value of your business, branding and vision. Hence choosing a right logo is very important to any businesses. Continue reading on what make a good logo here.

What are Different Type of Logos?

Logo can be classified into 3 different categories and they are as follow:

1. Text logo e.g. Yahoo! and Microsoft logo
2. Pictorial / iconic logo e.g. Shell and Apple Computer
3. Combination of text & picture e.g. Burger King and KFC

Which type of logo to select rely on many factors, for e.g. the nature of business, business name and perception that wish to portray to its customers.

Is Logo a Brand?

No, logo is not a brand but part of a brand. Logo is only a graphical symbol used for visual identification by the company to set itself apart from its competitor while branding is the perception and impression given by the company to its customers during their interaction with the company products, services, facilities and its people. The customers’ experiences with the company must be positive, satisfying and consistent so that they can remain as a faithful customers. Unlike designing a logo which is a one-time effort, branding is a strategy and a long process; it is used as a strong tool to retain and win over more customers.

What is Logo Tagline? Is it necessary?

A logo tagline is a succinct and short phrase that form part of your logo and will stay forever unless the nature of business has changed. It could be a three to seven words tagline that set the tone and feeling of your company products or services. Adding a tagline to your logo will make your logo stronger and help to convey your company nature of business clearly. Example of good logo tagline includes Disney’s “The happiest place on Earth”, Subway’s “Eat Fresh” and Intel’s “Intel Inside”.

How about Slogan? How it is different from Tagline?

Tagline and slogan is used interchangeably but slogan is less formal than tagline and frequently used in advertising campaigns only. Tagline is associated with company name while the slogan is associated with products. There could be many slogans used by a company but only one tagline with its logo. For example, Apple has good number of popular advertising slogans when it marketed its products, see below.

“The iPhone you have been waiting for” is used to promote iPhone 3G in mid of 2008.

“Small is huge” is used to promote the features of the new Mac mini in early 2009.

“If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” in mid of 2015 for its new iPhone.

What Style of Logo should it be?

Logos have many styles as it needs to portray the specific image and impression to its target audiences. The logos can be categorised into some of the following styles:

1. Fun and Cheerful
2. Vibrant and Energetic
3. Trendy and Stylish
4. Classic and Nostalgic
5. Feminine vs Masculine
6. Casual vs Formal
7. Corporate
8. Avant-Garde and Forward Looking
9. Modern and Contemporary
10. Clean and Minimalistic
11. Traditional

What Colors to Choose for Logo?

Generally, business owners love to choose their logo colour based on their personal preferences, trends or beliefs. There are some owners like to involve Feng Shui when they design their logo as they believe a Feng-Shui-right logo will give them a good start for their business.

However, logo designers will base on the nature of the business to select the colours as they help to convey the special attributes and characteristics of the business. For example, the color “Blue” conveys stability and reliability so it is commonly used in law and accounting businesses. The colour “Red” ignites passion so it is mostly found in entertaining, food and sport businesses.

Clients are normally advised to use less colours for their logos as it costs more during commercial offset printing. It is also easier to maintain colour consistency for one- or two-colour logo than multiple colour logo.

What Type of File Format is given for Final Logo?

The file format for the final logo is normally given in .ai, .eps, .png and .jpg. The .ai and .eps is a vector format aka lossless file format and are created by Adobe Illustrator software where .png and .jpg are created by Adobe Photoshop or other paint software. They are a web file format and suitable to use on website, blog or social media platform like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Hence, make sure you get the right file format and right logo size from your designer otherwise the logo will not look as sharp as it should be.

What is Vector File Format?

The vector file format is a file format that you can resize big or small without losing its resolution. In other words, your logo can be sent for big banner printing or print on tiny thumb drive and will still look good and visible.

Why Logo Design is Expensive?

Logo design is expensive because creating a professional logo is a time consuming process as it involves research, creativity, conceptualizing, sketching and many rounds of revisions until a distinct and memorable logo is born. A distinctive logo will help the business to stand apart from its competitors if the logo is memorable, it will help to maintain visibility in its customers’ minds. Most importantly, the logo concept must be original and not taken from any clip arts. A true original logo will withstand over time and its equity value will appreciate over the years. Just look at the logos like Coca Cola, Microsoft and Nike now, they are worth a billion of dollars according to businessinsider.com.

How long does Logo Design take?

It depends on the complexity of the logo, designer’s schedule and the turnover rate. A good logo usually take times to produce so give the designer ample time to research and produce the ideal logo for you.

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If you have other questions about logo design which is not covered above, feel free to ask in the comment box below.

You are welcome to contact us for discussion if you are looking for a professional help to design your company logo.