After spending some time on naming your new company, registering that matching domain name, we’re now ready to get down to business - the point of this entire series - designing a logo. Before we start scribbling away, we’re going to take a look at some things you’ll need to kick around during our upcoming brainstorming sessions. Some ‘rules of logo design’ if you will. By keeping these things in mind, you’ll be able to avoid some serious potentially costly missteps and common design errors. This is not the definitive list of design dos and don’ts - not by a long shot - but by keeping these pointers in mind you stand a decent chance of developing a workable logo on your own.

First, we’re going to talk about things you’re not going to do. Your first inclination may be to reach for some clip art images you’ve got lying around your hard drive, downloadable from some design site, or from one of these do-it-yourself logo generators (LogoYes.com, LogoMaker.com, InstaLogo.com, et al). Just stop right there. You want to design your own logo, not use logo clip art that’s available to anyone with an internet connection. This series is about designing a unique logo, and all of these do-it-yourself solutions are the very antithesis of unique. They may be cheap, but in very real terms you get what you pay for - thirty-nine bucks doesn’t buy a lot of logo. Granted, by designing a logo yourself, you’re paying nothing, but the cost is extracted via the very real effort you have to put into your project. Despite their claims to the contrary, do-it-yourself logo generators are repositories of someone else’s design offcasts, unoriginal in the extreme, and designed to convince you that you’re getting something that you’re not. A decent logo. If you’re only interested in slapping a pretty picture on a business card, and very little else, then stop reading right now and go for it. If you’re interested in developing a company logo that has longevity, originality and portrays your company in a serious light, then cast clip art from your mind and read on. I’ve assembled a series of notes, pinched from our logo design tips section, re-jigged and updated for our do-it-yourself series.

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An important part of naming your company is how that name will impact, or be impacted by, your web address. If you’ve already established your company moniker, and registered a reflective domain, you can skip this part. You’re on good stead to move forward. If, on the other hand, you’re struggling to come up with a company name, the availability of a suitable domain address should be factored into your ‘chicken and the egg’ decision.

Domains registered on a daily basis numbers in the thousands, and there’s a pretty good chance that the perfect address for your company is already gone - either in use by someone else, or being held hostage by cyber-squatters , folks who’ll be more than happy to sell you this prime bit of internet real estate for tens, hundreds or even thousands of times more than what it should actually cost you. Not much you can do about it (unless you have prior-use of a trademark, then you may be able to force cyber-squatters to turn over the address).

When it comes to actually deciding your web address, here’s some things to keep in mind. It’s best if it matches your company name exactly. It should be as short as possible (yeah, I know, TheLogoFactory.com ain’t short) and as immune to misspelling as possible. If you hope to market your company using the internet, it’s probably best to have at least some descriptive keyword in the address. All of which might impact how you name your company in the first place.

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We left off the previous installment of our designing a logo series after discussing various aspects of naming a company. This time around, we’re going to discuss ways to protect your new company name. We’ll also touch on various trademark conventions that might influence your decision on developing a unique name in the first place (and conversely, why you shouldn’t copy from others during your brainstorming sessions).

When it comes to your new name - and the logo you’re going to develop for it - there are several types of intellectual property laws that we’ll need to have at least a passing acquaintance with. Trademarks (word & design) and Copyright. Each offers various levels of protection, and each has a unique role to play when it comes to naming your company, and designing a logo for that name. As no-one at the shop are practicing lawyers, this is to be considered a basic overview only - for legal advice you’ll still need to consult with someone bearing more official credentials (you can check out our trademark resources and copyright information for more extensive material).

Copyright. Literal translation of ‘right to copy’. Copyright protects developers of creative works such as books, articles, music, movies, photography and artwork from any unauthorized copying, reproduction or re-distribution of their work. Copyright protection is automatic (but can be registered with the government). In the context of logo design, copyright would protect any drawings, figures, and unique designs incorporated into the design. Copyright is not as absolute as trademark (artwork can be similar without infringement). You may have heard about the so-called Poor Man’s Copyright (sending artwork to yourself as registered mail and stashing it away, unopened, as proof of the creation date). Forget it - doesn’t work.

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Last time around, we took a look at deciding if and/or why you need a logo. Continuing on, we’re going to take a little side trip before getting down to business. I realize that this is a How to Design a Logo series, and you’re probably eager to begin, but we’d be getting ahead of ourselves if we began doodling our award winning logo now.

There’s one crucial step you need to take before we attempt to put pen to paper, or pixel to monitor, and that’s to think about the name of your company itself. Even if you’ve already decided on a nifty name and are ready to forge ahead, this step is still fairly crucial - we’ll also take a look at how we’ll work with the name you have.

A company name is the cornerstone of any logo design project - the very DNA of your brand - and decisions you make now will be with you for the life of your business. You’ll either be blessed with a great name, or haunted by a bad one.

Naming a company has always been a difficult feat and with the advent of the internet, even more so. It involves a least a cursory knowledge of trademarks, domain names (especially if you plan to promote yourself via a website), your market, and some thoughts about taglines (also known as straplines) describing exactly what it is your company does. Your company name has to be something that you’re proud of, as well as resonate with both your established, and potential customers. It will set the design ‘theme’ - later to be incorporated into your logo and branding material - and establish to some degree the type of services you offer, as well as how you offer them - be it Discount Bob’s Crazy Cheap Autos or at the opposite end of the spectrum, Bob & Associates Fine Automobile Emporium.

There’s also the issue of what will happen to your name in the future, as the market evolves or as new factors change how people view certain names and themes. Take my studio - The Logo Factory. Back in 1993, when I came up with the concept and the name, it was a fairly effective way to brand a graphic design studio that specialized in logos. It was unique. It described exactly what I did. No problem. People have tried to pinch the name so many times over the years, we had to officially register the trademark back in 2000. It’s a name that I’ve always been proud of, and one that’s served us quite well for over a decade.

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Before we get delve into how to design a logo, it’s probably a good idea to take a few minutes and decide whether or not you (or if you’re a designer, your client) actually need one in the first place. Many folks will try and convince you that it’s an absolute necessity to have a nifty mark that symbolizes your company. “The very survival of your business depends on it” kind of thing. Naturally, they (like The Logo Factory) have a vested interest in you investing the time, and more importantly, the financial resources. While many of their arguments will be valid, their point-of-view (like mine) is not without some self-interest bias.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this position - no business has ever suffered because of a good logo (not so true with a bad one - an important distinction) and at the very least, an effective mark is a worthwhile “what harm can it do” investment. But I’d also argue that not every small business needs a logo. This may seem somewhat odd - especially from someone who makes a living selling graphic design services, but asking yourself “why do I need a logo” is perhaps the most critical step. By figuring that out, and as this is a ‘do it yourself’ themed series, we may save you some time, as well as some unnecessary frustration (an inherent component of the process itself).

How can you tell if even you need a company logo? There’s no cut-and-dry ‘rules’, but we’ve managed to distill the main reasons for designing a logo into ten salient points. By answering a few basic questions that these points invoke, it might be a little easier to decide one way or the other. Ready? Let’s take a look;

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When it comes to designing company stationery, many designers and clients view their envelope as a ‘throwaway’ - the process involving slapping on the company logo, a return address, and we’re all set. In order to maximize the ‘ah-ha’ factor of any corporate identity work-up, shouldn’t we look at ALL the various stationery components - business card, letterhead and envelope - as important? After all, isn’t an envelope the first thing many will see before viewing the enclosed letterhead and/or business card? Having said that, there are some caveats to envelope design and it’s probably a good idea to understand what is, and what isn’t possible when it comes to designing an envelope, and how some designs, while visually nifty and all, may cost a small fortune to reproduce.

Firstly, printing of an envelope, generally speaking, is quite different that that for a letterhead or business card. More often than not, printers will use envelopes that are already constructed (with flaps and pockets already in place) and this represents some unique challenges on the press. An envelope is not flat, so it tends to move around a little when being printed - air can get captured inside the envelope - something which has to be factored into the design and the tolerances for registration are not as exacting as for other printed pieces. Also, it’s very difficult to use bleed printing or artwork on a pre-constructed envelope (unless the envelope is printed BEFORE construction - which is fantastic, but can lead to very expensive production charges). Because of press slippage, it’s also best to avoid four colour process printing to avoid registration problems. It’s more effective (and more economical) to utilize either a spot colour or one colour version of your logo and business information. Now, that’s not to say you CAN’T feature full colour bleed artwork on your envelope design, or that you shouldn’t - you can. It’s just going to be more expensive to print your envelopes if you choose to do so. Read the rest of this entry »