Any logo designer worth their salt knows that vector formats are the only way to go when it comes to logo design. The vector-capability boundaries between Illustrator and Photoshop have blurred a little over the years (yes, you can create vector based in images, but it’s still a little hinky). Years ago, when it came to quick and dirty (often very dirty) vector conversion, we used a handy little utility called Streamline at the shop. Put out by Adobe, most of Streamline’s vector conversion properties were bundled into Illustrator CS and renamed Live Trace.

Auto-tracing. A little hit & miss.

Never been much of a fan of ‘auto-trace’ solutions for anything – they tend to create ‘choppy’ graphics, are a little control point happy, and leave a lot to be desired when it comes to overlaying one vector object over another. Most auto-conversion programs tend to leave little ‘gaps’ between the objects (attempting to butt shapes together like a jig-saw puzzle, rather than overlaying one on top of another as a series of layers). At the end of the day, I’ve always felt that manual hand-tracing is always the way to go (see our logo repair section for more), especially when you want smooth curves and what have you. Auto-tracing an image, then hand-editing it to acceptable standards often takes MORE time that hand-tracing from scratch.

Converting photographs to vector formats.

But what if you want a quick-and-dirty solution and want to quickly crank out a vector version for a comp, or you’re after a posterization effect where choppiness and rough edges are the desired result? I’ve been tinkering around with an online vector tracing site, Vector Magic (screen grab above), that allows you to upload jpgs, pngs, bitmaps and just about any other image file and quickly convert it to various vector formats. At first I was a little skeptical, but the results are as good as ANY desktop application, and in some cases even better. My first test involved a photograph of some toothy-grinned kid (relax, it’s me) that I was playing around with for a personal Twitter avatar. Not a terribly big image size (it was carved out of a photo booth picture of me and my father, when was I was a buck-toothed kid in Ireland). I let Vector Magic do it’s thing and ended up with the result below:

Aieee, that’s big! Anyhoo, not bad. Not bad at all. Decent detail and shape integrity (the subject matter notwithstanding). Vector Magic also overlays shapes on top of each other, so there’s little concern about editing or printing problems. Matter of fact, if I were looking for a posterized version of my mug, and needed in in vector format, this puppy is pretty well ready to go. Now, I’m not saying that these kind of images are suitable for use in logos. Far from it. Despite Adobe’s claim that their ‘Live Trace’ is “perfect” to creating logo artwork, these kind of illustrations ALWAYS have a brutal construction-paper cut-out vibe to them and don’t have enough fidelity to cut it as a logo. As a logo add-on, they can certainly work (think Shepard Fairey‘s ‘Hope‘ illustration for Barack Obama as an example).

Converting raster logo images to vector graphics?

It always amazes me when business owners ‘lose’ their logo assets and end up with only one file format remaining – some low-resolution RGB jpg that they expect to turn into a pristine print-ready image for use on their business card or letterhead. Ain’t going to happen. A lot of the time, we need to repair their logo, hand-tracing the image in illustrator, adding new font artwork and converting the logo into CMYK or spot-color artwork. Figured I’d give Vector Magic a shot at converting a jpg version of one of our portfolio logos – a highly illustrative design created for radio personality Steve Dahl.

Amazingly, Vector Magic did a really decent job on the illustration portion. The detail held up pretty decently and the program seemed to be able to ‘guess’ what went where without too much trouble (below), especially impressive since, at 300PX x 269PX at 72 dpi, the image was fairly small to begin with.

Don’t get me wrong – the artwork isn’t up to snuff for full color print or anything, but still a decent try if you’re looking to re-size an image (bitmap/raster images tend to turn fuzzy if enlarged, while vector images can be sized up with little issue).

Font conversion. Always an issue.

Like most auto-conversion programs, Vector Magic tends to have an issue with fonts. The human eye is much more forgiving when it comes to abstract shapes that it is when it comes to typography. The brain tends to fill in missing detail so that even a wonky image ‘looks’ like what it’s supposed to (think of the old “is it a vase or two people talking” optical illusion). Font recognition doesn’t work that way – your brain needs to read the words – so any broken or hinky lettering is going to look, well, bad. Let’s take a look how Vector Magic handles the letterforms in our test logo

Not terribly well. To be fair, this was a problem with Streamline and is a problem with Live Trace addition to Illustrator. Actually, Vector Magic seems to handle font recognition better than most. Doesn’t matter though – a quickly converted image that features lettering is still going to require a large amount of hand editing.

Practical applications for the designer.

So, is auto-conversion of logos worth while? Maybe. If it’s for a quick and dirty turnaround, yes. If you’re using the logo for a final file, hand tracing is still the way to go. The amount of time you’ll spend tweaking points and bézier curves would be better spent starting from scratch. However, if you’re after a quick posterization effect (like my toothy visage above) or some illustration backgrounds torn from your fave photo, auto-conversion seems like the way to go.

Automatic raster/bitmap conversion. Some basic tips.

Couple of things I found when playing around. The bigger the image, the better. The program has more pixels to ‘guess’ what the shape’s supposed to be. High contrast photographs work a lot better than lower ones. I also found that by ‘sharpening’ the images in Fireworks (you can do the same thing in Photoshop) the results improved dramatically.

Converting your images.

If you’re a designer who happens to be running Illustrator, Live Trace is worth a shot. If not, Vector Magic is certainly worth checking out. They’ll let you download one or two images for free (that’s how I managed to work with my toothy image from above), there’s a subscription model and a downloadable desktop application if you’re so inclined.

Related posts:

1. Logo format conversion guide
2. 10 logo design ‘Don’ts’
3. How to draw a perfect cog in under 20 seconds

We started this list last spring – calling it 10 Ways You Can Screw Up A Perfectly Good Logo, but never got around to finishing up (which would be #1 in a Top Ten Ways To Screw Up A List, list). Now that 2009 is upon us, we’ve got some resolutions to keep, some unfinished business to take care of and now seems as good a time as any to finish up our ‘screw up a logo’ feature. Accordingly, thought we’d expand on our common mistakes and logo design tips, taking a look at things that designers might do that will utterly ruin, destroy, wreck and bastardize a potentially decent logo attempt. I’ve tried (you can judge how successfully) to write this with both designers and clients in mind. So without further ado, we present 10 things NOT to do when designing your next logo…

#10 – Pixels are dandy for photographs, but not for your logo

Creating a bitmap logo in pixel based design software is only going to lead to headaches and more importantly, needless expense over the long haul. A lot of both. If your logo is available only as a rasterized image, you won’t be able to enlarge your design due to resolution issues. You won’t be able to add your logo to other artwork or place it on a web background color (unless it’s been created as a .png, a format that boasts a transparent background and even that comes with some technical issues). You won’t be able to change colors without an ungawdly amount of work. Forget about spot color printing, vinyl sign plotting or shake-and-bake embroidery tapes. Animating your logo in Flash will be a hassle, it won’t work for T-shirt logos and a myriad of other marketing applications.

Take a quick peek at your logo files – if you don’t see anything with the extension .eps or .ai, it’s time to visit a designer who will introduce you to the joys of vector based logos. For the disco version of why this is key, spend a few minutes with our file format video. You should also keep in mind that many logo special FX (glows, drop shadows, etc) can only be applied to bitmap images. Another reason, visual clarity notwithstanding, why gimmicky special FX shouldn’t be part of any logo design equation. At least if you want to use your new design anywhere other than a website.

#9 – Ignore kerning and spacing.

Whenever words are input into any design software package, the program ‘guesses’ how close the letters should be to each other. This is known as kerning. In the case of software it’s called ‘Auto’ Kerning. Problem is, these are only estimates and some software does it better than others, and accuracy often depends on the fonts you’re using. Off-the-rack kerning is often more accurate in ‘professional’ font sets than fonts available for download on ‘free font’ websites, but as kerning is almost always gauged visually, as opposed to driven by some formulaic algorithm, almost all font sets require a certain amount of ‘tweaking’ by hand.

It often depends on the software too. Microsoft Word is the worst, Adobe Illustrator is better though not perfect. Also, a word that looks well-spaced on your monitor will look nasty when enlarged to billboard size. Some letter combinations – V & A for example – require tighter spacing than say, M & N. Setting up correctly spaced typography is critical – poorly spaced letters will register in the viewer’s minds eye as an amateur hour logo, even if they can’t quite put their finger on what’s wrong. I’ve seen text logos with kerning that you could drive a Mack Truck through. A few more font issues – if you’re going to use off-the-shelf fonts (nothing terribly wrong with doing so) there are certain type faces that were never meant to be used for logos. Chauncery Script is one (shudder). Papyrus was cool (about six thousand logos ago). And oh yeah – while we’re talking about fonts, a logo with anything more than two font styles looks like a ransom note.

Hyper kerning of words can be cool (when words are stretched out, with a lot of space between letters) but keep this in mind – when used smallish, and because the individual letters are small to begin with , hyper kerned words are usually unreadable.

#8 – Throw in a ‘swoosh’ for good measure.

While clients and designers have generally clued into this one, there’s still the occasional outbreak (and some online logo design firms seem to be hopelessly addicted to slapping swooshes on everything from a dentist to pet shop logos). Swooshes (or swishes) were all the rage a few years ago (looked all high-techy and stuff) but now they’re a design element that translates exactly into “I dunnoh – didn’t have any other ideas”. I’ve seen logo portfolios that consist of one swooshy logo after another – for all practical purposes all these logos are identical and like the old TV series Dragnet, it’s just the names that have been changed. Not that we haven’t had issues ourselves. Hell, in the late 90s, we were guilty of adding a few swooshes here-and-there (okay, maybe more than a few) when the ‘dot-com’ boom was all the rage. In fact, The Logo Factory is credited with being the inspiration of Logo Hell – a look at the swoosh logo phenomenon that was first posted back in 1999. At some point the ‘thou shalt not swoosh’ was added to the TLF lexicon and while it took a little 12-step rehab, we’ve managed to stay on the ‘swoosh’ wagon. We still get the occasional client who wants us to ‘swoosh up’ their logo, but we generally have the ‘thou shouldn’t really’ discussion at some point. Here’s a rule of thumb – a logo that features a ‘swoosh’ today, will almost certainly be coming up for a redesign in a year or two (though some high profile logo redesigns managed to get that backwards). Better to head the idea off at the pass from the get-go.

#7 – Throw in the visual kitchen sink.

True story: we were developing a logo for a town to mark their bicentenial celebrations. In the original project brief, the client outlined that they wanted to add a visual reference to a famous landmark – a monument in the city square – to the design. Fair enough. The monument was unique to the town, was where most of the planned events were to take place. The initial round of preliminary designs went to committee (where many concept problems arise) and the request for modifications came back. The client wanted to add a few more things” to make the logo “wow” (roh-oh). They wanted a train, the train needed a station (obviously) so add that, there were lots of farmers so work in a barn, the barn also needed a windmill, throw in a few cows, some trees, there’s these mountains, and oh yeah, the town also looks great at sunset so if you could toss that in too, well, that would be great. And while we were at it, the residents were particularly proud of the new City Hall so toss that in to boot.

A few design elements had become a laundry list – a veritable cornucopia of disparate graphic elements, all competing for visual real estate. One of the planned uses saw the design being reproduced at just over an inch wide, and it was inevitable that every one of the elements would end up as featureless squiggles when reproduced at any size less than, oh I don’t know, 15 feet wide. The designer handling the gig voiced concerns about the complexity of the logo, but was overidden (client knows best doncha know) so each of the requested elements was sketched, rendered and added to the increasingly complex graphic. Of course, this myriad of illustrations expanded the timeline significantly, so we also had an increasingly impatient client on our hands. Once the revised graphic was completed, it went once again to committee, where it was decided that well, maybe the logo was now too complicated, and maybe we could pare it down to just feature the monument from the town square. For those not paying attention, that was two weeks ago, when the prelims were handed in.

Moral of this story – the simpler the better. Many often criticize The Logo Factory for our illustrative logo style, so we’re not as arbitrary in applying this ‘rule’ as perhaps we should, but generally speaking – the simpler the logo the more chance you have of if being remembered, and the less headaches you’ll have reproducing it in various applications.

#6 – A visual cliché means never having to say ‘I’m original’.

Yeah, we get it. Your logo features Stars and Stripes because you’re a good-old patriotic company. You have a globe in your logo because you’re, like global and stuff. And yeah, the little tripody figure with the circle for a head represents some dude or another (a whole bunch represents a bunch of dudes working together in tandem). Beams of light radiating from your icon indicates that there’s so much goodness emanating from the portrayed company, it simply can’t be contained within the central graphic. Most people will fully understand that replacing a $ for an S in the logo indicates that you’re attempting to portray something to do with finance. Similarly, there’s very few designs where a molar (smiley face optional) can be found other than a logo design for a dentist. Trouble is, Murphy the Molar is used in a lot of designs for dentists. These, folks, are visual clichés, classified as such because they’ve been done, ad nauseum, to death and there’s no way, no way at all, that your logo will be viewed as original or uniquely representing you. There’s far too many to list here, but they’re usually the very first thing that pops into your head when conceptualizing a logo for one industry or another. For that very reason, they should be discarded just as quickly. It’s very rare that the very first idea that you (or your designer) will crank out is the best idea, and the first idea you have runs a very, very high risk of being a cliché.

#5 – Mangled, Hidden and Sexy Time Visual Metaphors.

Everyone wants their logo to mean something – to represent some vital part of the company, product or service. Fair enough, though often easier said than done. Creating a graphic image that tells a specific story about a sometimes fairly specialized business activity can be a daunting task and always runs the risk of becoming a mangled visual metaphor. Trying to crowbar many visual metaphors almost guarantees that a logo will look like something else completely. Take the Toyota logo for example. Every time I’m behind a Toyota car, the overlapping ovals always look to be a man in a cowboy hat. It isn’t. Here’s the official explanation about the design (first released in 1989 with the Lexus line of luxury autos) from Toyota’s Web site:

“The current Toyota Mark consists of three ovals: the two perpendicular center ovals represent a relationship of mutual trust between the customer and Toyota. These ovals combine to symbolize the letter “T” for Toyota. The space in the background implies a global expansion of Toyota’s technology and unlimited potential for the future.”

Now, how many people going to figure that out? Not too many I expect. Mangled metaphors can get worse too. A lot worse. Often involves sexy bits that are inadvertently created out of the negative spaces surrounding the various shapes. The original ‘designer’ often doesn’t see the implied pictures until it’s far too late, and not before a lot of people have had a few giggles and titters at their expense. Sexy time logos may be funny. But they certainly ain’t good for business. Take this logo for Chinese drug company Kudawara. I’m sure the designer that created the logo meant well, but the logo looks like something else to a whole bunch of people including yours truly.

Or this striking logo for OGC. All fine and dandy, but turn the logo that logo 90 degrees clockwise. Takes on a whole new meaning, huh? Who’s going to notice? Well, when this design was released, only about half the internet, who derided it without mercy for weeks. And the, ahm, design that looks like ‘something’ being inserted into someone’s nether regions? It’s supposed to be an oriental house at sunset. All logos that started off with the best of intentions, but somehow went off the rails, their sexual connotations unnoticed until it was way too late.

Accordingly – here’s another tip. Look at your new logo from every possible viewpoint. Sideways. Upside down. At an angle. Get your pals to look at it too – if you designed the logo, your eyes and mind are preconditioned to see the logo as you think it should be. A set of fresh eyes, who have no preconceived notion of what your new design is supposed to look like, will see the hidden ‘sexy time’ metaphors before the logo is printed, oh, a thousand times or so.

#4 – Put the Accent on the Wrong Syllable. Upon failing that, forget words altogether and create an acronym that nobody will figure out.

The graphic version of accent on the wrong syllable occurs when we’re trying to jam several disparate elements into a logo. Often the effect is caused by stacking words on top of each other, and then stretching them out, or squeezing them in to fit within a certain shape or ‘logo footprint’. Wanting to ‘line things up’ is in a designer’s nature and working around grids has been a basic design principle since just after cave drawings. Trouble is, somethings are never meant to line up. For example, our company name is The Logo Factory. Stacked one on top of each other, The, Logo and Factory creates a visual pyramid. And I hates pyramids as the shape of a logo. I might be tempted to line everything up, but that would mean making ‘the’ as wide as the word ‘logo’ and those two words as wide as the word ‘factory’. That draws emphasis to the word ‘The’ which isn’t really important in the grand scheme of things.

Certain word combinations are awkward to design around and that’s just the way it is. It’s often at this point that designers toss out the names of the logo, creating company acronyms using the first letters of the company. Shouldn’t be an issue right? You’ll automatically think IBM (International Business Machines), GM (General Motors) and HP (Hewlett Packard). Ahm, not quite. Here’s the point about companies that use acronyms in their logo – they didn’t start out that way. At some point, the public got tired of saying, writing or speaking about the full name of the company, so they abbreviated it for ease of use. Takes a whole bunch of usage before people start to abbreviate a company name (think Federal Express who shortened their name to FedEx when customers starting referring to having a package delivered as being FedEx’ed). Abbreviating a company name at the hop (in order to avoid working with difficult combinations of words) isn’t going to help brand the company. In fact, the first question people will invariably ask upon seeing your spiffy new logo is “what do the initials stand for?” For what it’s worth, this is something I found out first hand. After typing out the phrase The Logo Factory oh, about a bazillion times, I started to abbreviate our name to the acronym TLF. Even designed a peachy logo for it. People still ask me what it ‘stands’ for.

#3 – Copy, steal or borrow from someone else.

It was a coin-toss whether this was to be #2 or not, but we figured that clip art is probably the logo crime that’s committed more often, so ripping on someone else’s logo slides in at #3. This would include outright ripping (“take this artwork, add my company name – change the color so that no-one will notice”) and the slightly less egregious trend-following (“I’ve noticed there’s a whole bunch of logos doing this – gel, chrome, swoosh, drop shadow, etc – I wanna logo just like theirs!”). Neither are particularly good ideas. Blatantly knocking off someone else’s logo is an immediate indication that you’re a grade ‘A’ twit, bereft of creativity, original ideas, morals and more importantly – any pride in what you do. As a designer if you present knock-offs to an unsuspecting client. Or as a business owner who uses a flagrantly purloined design.

Used to be that you could get away with this stuff – it was unlikely that a one-man shop in one corner of the world would find out that a design doppleganger in another part of the world even existed. No more. This is the age of the internet, and it’s amazingly easy to find out when pinched design work is being used by someone else. If you throw up a shingle on the Internet, someone can find the artwork that you borrowed, send off a nasty-gram to your ISP and contact their feisty lawyer, all without leaving their monitor. Not that people don’t try – hell we feature a whole logo Copycats section dedicated to stuff that’s been ripped from our coffers – it’s just that it’s not as easy to get away with it. And nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ than designing, or using, a logo that’s clearly been influenced by someone else.

The less egregious trend-following isn’t quite as noxious, but still runs into serious problems. Over the long haul, using a design trend in a logo instantly dates the work. At some point (unfortunately sooner rather than later) your funky new logo is going to get dated. Stale. Yesterday’s news. What was cutting-edge a couple of years ago is tired and trite today. It’s even possible that the trend you’re so excited about today is already dated – unless you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the design community, by the time you even become aware of a trend it’s on the way out. Even design professionals aren’t immune to this – I wasn’t even aware of Web 2.0 logos and design sensibilities until it was already hackneyed, and I pay closer attention to what’s going on than most.

#2 – Use Stock Art, Clip Art, or Photographs in Your Logo.

If you’re tempted to use clip art in your logo, here’s a word of advice. Don’t. And yes, that includes so-called template sites and online ‘logo generators’. On these Flash-driven web sites, you can pick from a catalog of logo templates (*cough* clip art *cough*) and add your text (usually in a crappy, unkerned font – see #9 for why that’s bad) and download your new logo – chock full of pre-fab, unoriginal goodness. These sites (ie: Instalogo.com, Logomaker.com, Logoyes.com, LogoSnap.com, et al) can call their little pre-fab logos Fire Trucks if they want – it’s still clip art. And clip art is a ruthlessly bad idea to use in any logo. There’s dozens of reasons why – here’s the most saliant – a logo is supposed to be unique. That’ alone should cure you of the desire to add that nifty pre-fab icon to your design. Once you incorporate clip art into your logo, your piece of visual identity is no longer unique.

And no, changing the size of clip art doesn’t make it unique. Neither does changing the color. Nor ‘flipping’ it around. Nor hiding bits of it behind other bits of artwork. Nor turning it on an angle. Or adding a swoosh. And if your logo is the same as someone elses (which is inevitable when you use clip art) you’ve defeated the purpose of having a logo in the first place. Better to have no logo (and build your company through word-of-mouth) than have a logo that someone else, often more than one, is also using. Nothing says “I’m a noob to this business thing” than presenting a logo that’s the same as another company. Oh sure, you might pick a pre-fab logo that no-one else chooses, but that’s a long shot at best. If you found it, so will someone else. Now, having said that – here’s how you can use clip art. To get ideas. You may like the idea portrayed in something you’ve seen – nothing to stop you from using that as a conceptual starting point in developing your custom design (of course, you’ll want to stray far enough from the design so that you don’t run counter to #3).

Another alarming trend, thanks to Google image search and cheap stock photograph sites, and the ease of which designers – in a hurry to add an illustrative element to a logo – can rustle up some visual reference, is the addition of photo-based artwork to logos. Granted, Google image search and stock photo sites are a great way to quickly explore some obscure subject matter, as well as to obtain accurate visual reference for a design gig. Alas, some designers are going one step further – using photographs pinched from Google image search, Photos.com or Istock as the actual artwork in the logo. Oh sure, they’ll take the step of rasterizing the image, or tracing it via illustrator, but the fact remains – they’re using stolen photography to create a logo for their clients. There are several issues – the first being copyright.

A traced version of a photograph is at the very least, a derivative of a copyrighted image. That’s bad legally. Also, if you found the image through Google image search, anyone can do the same thing, so it’s a certainty that at some point you’ll get found out. Nothing screams “I’m a hack” than people knowing you traced a free photograph found on the interwebs and passed it off to a client as an ‘original’ logo. This, by the way, is so common on logo design contest sites, that it’s almost frightening. Accordingly, if you want to add an illustrative element to any logo, by all means use Google image search to obtain visual reference. Then draw the bloody thing yourself.

#1 – Design your logo based on stupid lists.

Like this one. Some of the ‘don’ts’ listed above are carved in stone (ie: it’s never a good idea to copy or use clip art and Microsoft Word was never meant to be a design program) but others are of the ‘in most cases’ variety. Sometimes funky spacing is called for. Maybe (though it’s hard to imagine when) a swoosh is what the Design Doctor ordered. Bottom line – if you’re adept enough at creativity, and clever enough to make unorthodox design solutions work, you can ignore many, of the caveats listed. Rules are meant to be broken and generally speaking, the more experienced you (or your designer) are, pretty well dictates how far off the reservation you can go when it comes to developing a truly creative logo solution. If you’re new to the whole logo design deal, you’ll be better served by following all of the above suggestions (and others found on ‘how to’ lists). The more familiar you become with what’s what, the more ‘rules’ you can turf out. After all, design trends generally start when one brave soul commits what was originally thought of as an upardonable sin, is high profile enough to be taken seriously, and their radical departure from established ‘thou shalt nots’ is emulated by a horde of other designers all seeking to be ‘ground breaking’. Who knows, maybe the swoosh will make a comeback (highly unlikely) or adding a lens flare will become the next Web 2.0 (guess that would be Web 3.0).

After all – who’s to say what makes a great logo great? And who’s really worthy of writing the end-all, be-all list of what you can, and can’t do, when it comes to developing an award worthy logo? Certainly not I – my opinion is only that. An educated one perhaps, but just an opinion nonetheless. For example, and at the risk of committing design heresy, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the Nike logo – one of the most recognized icons on the planet – is not a particularly good logo. If we lived in an alternate universe, the Nike logo didn’t exist, and I were to present the ubiquitous swoosh to a client, I could expect to be questioned thusly – “I paid you $X for this piece of clip art?” (the same could be said about the Apple Computer logo, one of my faves). Now, when we pimp that same swooshy Nike logo a gazillion times, slap it on Tiger Woods and every other sports star know to mankind, you’ve got yourself a different story. A rather blasé piece of graphic design becomes a iconoclastic cornerstone of pop culture. Bottom line, (almost) anything goes. Push the envelope but pay attention to the basic premise of a logo – the visual encapsulation of the heart and soul of the venture being depicted. As long as it’s not designed in Microsoft Paint, isn’t a knock-off from something else and the name of the company is spelled correctly, all should be fine.

Related posts:

1. Clip art logos
2. A swoosh in your logo? Wasn’t a bad idea in ’98
3. Are logo design contests really that bad?

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 (see here for some unintentionally bad company names).

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.

Fast forward to today, where the advent of ‘cookie cutter’ logo design websites have earned the ire of many in the graphic design community. Referred to as ‘logo mills’ – evoking images of garment sweatshops from days gone by – these outfits are generally looked down upon by graphic designers as the very antithesis of what graphic design should be about. Arguably, The Logo Factory name, and our logo itself, can be interpreted as leaning towards the ‘logo mill’ imagery (many designers like to point out that the boxes and conveyor belt – yes, they do represent logos being shipped – re-enforce this ‘mill’ idea). Recently, during a forum discussion about my are logo contests legal article, one designer had this to say –

“It is a good read. Although, I admit it was tough ignoring the fact that such a logo-mill wrote it, especially one that calls itself The Logo Factory. Such a name lends itself to the image that all it does is mass-manufacture logo after logo with no real connection to their respective clients. But, an interesting article, nonetheless.”

One even opined that “that guy” (me) “doesn’t understand brand communication”. With some admitted personal bias, I’m of the opinion that our name, while apparently not sitting well with some designers, is targeted quite well at people who are looking for the type of design services we’re specialists at. The Logo Factory isn’t marketing services to other designers, but rather to small business types for whom a logo factory might resonate. However, our critics do have a point. This ‘mill’ concept wasn’t even in existence back in 93, and was never factored into my naming decision.

If I were to start The Logo Factory today, and being aware of the pejorative opinion towards ‘mills’, would I still use the same moniker? Probably. But I might be tempted to spend a little more time coming up with alternative solutions that are free of a connection to the “mass-manufacture (of) logo after logo”. The landscape has changed, and perhaps The Logo Factory isn’t a cool as it was way back then.

Should probably point out that the discussion we’re referring to took place on a forum called Logo Pond – not exactly the epitome of naming conventions itself – an otherwise excellent resource for folks looking for logo design information and inspirational design work (sorry – couldn’t help myself).

Conflicting views aside, it does illustrate that a name developed in 1993 without any negative connotation, can pick some up over the years. The real important point here is this – while the designers making the comments thought the article was a good read, the impact of same was lessened because it was written by someone who owned a company called The Logo Factory. The message had somehow been lost, because of the name of the messenger. Told you naming your company was real important. So let’s take a look. This part of our Designing a Logo Guidee is so extensive, we’ve had to break it up into several parts, which we’ll publish over the next few days. It’s a long read, but probably has a few pearls that will make the trek worthwhile.

Personal vs. Corporate

Dell Computers, one of the biggest computer companies in the world is named after founder Micheal Dell. Microsoft, an even bigger company, bears no mention of head dude Bill Gates. Similarly, Apple Inc. never even considered calling themselves Steve Jobs’ Super Cool Computers (and I imagine Apple wouldn’t be such a powerhouse brand if they did). Featuring your own name in your company identity is solely up to you, and usually depends on exactly how you want to promote yourself. And the corporate extension of yourself. It’s a neither-here-nor-there decision that only you can make, and depends a great deal on your character and personality.

From a personal point-of-view, I was never comfortable with using my name in any company I created. I never had the confidence to present myself naked to the world as Steve Douglas Inc., and am much more at ease ‘hiding’ behind a corporate identity shield – in this instance, The Logo Factory Inc. My ego never allowed me the luxury of tooting my own horn, but I’ve never had a problem bragging about the accomplishments of my company, or doling out some fairly cocky opinions under The Logo Factory banner. However, if you’ve already established a name for yourself, or wish to do so, then you may opt to create a company name that reflects that – Your Name Company kinda thing. Very cool, albeit with some considerations that you should think about. If you use your identity as part of your company name, then don’t be surprised if customers only want to deal with you. I’m sure to this day many people want to complain to ‘Mr. Dell’.

Having a faceless company name allows you to delegate responsibilities to underlings, who will be accepted instantly by customers as talking on behalf of The Company. On the other hand, if you’ve developed a reputation in your field, or are in the midst of doing so, abandoning that ‘cred’, and attempting to develop an entirely new corporate rep, may be at cross-purposes with the selection of a name. This ‘from the ground up’ development will require a great deal of time and effort, mostly redundant, because you’ve already expended sizable effort in the development of your personal reputation. Your personal attention may be a valid selling point to attract customers who believe that you’re an expert in your field.

In the graphic design pond there are many designers who’ve built up a decent-sized reputation using their own names. UK based David Airey is one. USA based Jeff Fisher is another. As is Von R. Glitschka, despite being hard to pronounce or spell, with his company Glitschka Studios. If you do decide to use your personal name as your company brand, the use of ‘& Associates’ is always a nice flourish. Allows you to delegate responsibilities as well. Adding what you do to your company name rounds off everything nicely, be it accounting, real estate or mechanics. It’ll help when it comes to registering a domain name, an important facet of naming a company, and something we’ll deal with in a bit.

Developing a Corporate Name.

After thinking about it for a while, let’s say you’ve eschewed the personal route, and want to develop an entirely new corporate name. Fair enough. You can choose several routes – each with pros and cons – and keeping in mind some fairly basic trademark principles. This isn’t something to be taken lightly either. While you may be selling computers out of your garage for the time being, you may be at the helm of a cazillion dollar empire five years from now (ala Michael Dell). You want a name that contains your business core, is unique enough to stand out, and is protectable when you achieve a fair level of success. There are several avenues you can take –

1) Fanciful Name:

These are company names that have no relation to the core business activity and are usually words that never existed before. Think Kodak, Nike, Verizon. There’s a great deal of advantages in using a fanciful name – trademark protection and web domain availability for examples – but such names are often difficult to ‘get off the ground’. Using a made-up name, often a hybrid of various aspects of the company function or amalgamations of founders’ names, offers some decent opportunities when it comes to designing the logo (the point of this series in the first place) but requires a great deal of marketing to establish what the company actually does.

I could start a film company today and (trademark issues notwithstanding) call it Kodak, but it would require a great deal of consumer interaction before they started to understand that I sold film. Such market penetration is probably beyond the financial means of small to mid-sized companies. That’s not to say you shouldn’t name your company using a fanciful name, it’s a great creative option, but keep in mind that it’s going to require some work, and some funds, to connect the name with your day-to-day business activities. A tagline, or strapline, can certainly help – using our not-so-hypothetical Kodak film company for example, we could add the phrase Film Supplies and Accessories under the Kodak logo. That phrase would help us push the company’s activity. At some ime in the future, we could ditch the cumbersome sub-phrase to complete the establishment of our fanciful name as a leader in photographic supplies. And then trademark the whole shooting match (someone give me a ‘tah-dah’).

2) Arbitrary Name:

Arbitrary names are quite simple to understand – actual words that have nothing to do with the company activity itself, but usually feature some rather abstract connection. Think Google (a mathematical number), Yahoo (a yodeling phrase or description of a hooligan), Vista (panoramic view). These offer a myriad of brand building options, but are a riskier option when it comes to trademarks. You could, for example, start up a company called Apple Widgets & Co (just an example – apols if the trademark already exists). You’d find out exactly how lawyers work if you tried to start up Apple Computers. While the Cupertino company doesn’t own the word Apple, they do own it as it applies to computers. They’re also pretty ferocious when it comes to protecting their trademark, even in cases where you’d suspect they don’t have the rights to do so – witness the recent trademark flap over New York City’s GreeNYC campaign. Arbitrary names are also sparse in the web address department, most having been snapped up years ago. In terms of taglines and straplines, the same general concepts apply as we’ve already discussed in the ‘fanciful’ names section.

3) Suggestive Name:

Suggestive names infer some feature of the product, service or company itself. Think names like Mustang (a fast car), Tiger (a fast Macintosh operation system) Rocket (fast whatever), Quality (name speaks for itself). In order to develop a ‘suggestive name’ into a decent company, you’ll probably have to add a descriptive phrase – Rocket Computers as one example – in order to establish core business activities. Due to the infinite number of variables, suggestive names are easier to trademark, if your category of business is available. Unfortunately, many have been snatched up over the years. Not that it isn’t possible – continued use will establish some rights – but some opposition is pretty well to be expected if you’re entering a saturated market. Like ‘arbitrary’ names, most suggestive web addresses will have been snagged a long time ago, and you’ll find that even with a secondary name added, an available domain will be quite rare.

4) Descriptive Name:

These are company names that spell out, in no uncertain terms, what the company does. It is the least creative of our options but in many ways it’s the simplest. Think Car Wash Center, Nuts and Bolts Manufacturing, Register A Domain, Paycheck Loans, etc. Names like these have enormous search engine potential (if you plan to use Google and Yahoo SERPS to promote yourself) as they’re particularly keyword soaked and describe exactly what it is you do. Trouble is, they’re not terribly creative names, and probably won’t earn much in the brand loyalty department. It’s a 50/50 proposition on whether the domain for a descriptive name will be available (I’ll leaning towards no for most) and while effective one way, these kinds of names run the risk of being seen as – for lack of a better word – cheap. If you’re looking at selling boutique level services or products, I’d suggest you avoid a descriptive name like the plague. Conversely, if you plan to market your services exclusively on the internet, a descriptive name may be just what the doctor ordered.

In terms of the four types of company names, we didn’t happen on those by accident. They happen to reflect the various types of trademarks as well – something which we’ll discuss in the next part of our Designing a Logo series.

Related posts:

1. Naming your company, product or service
2. Naming your company. Website & Domain names.
3. Logo trademarks & company names

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;

1): What are the time-delinated goals of your company or the product/service you are developing – is this a long term business plan for which you require returning customers and the necessary brand loyalty?

2): Are you going to be competing for the attention of prospective clients and customers in a crowded marketplace, against other vendors or suppliers who’ve aleady got their foot in the door?

3): Will you be entering an already thriving industry and – let’s not beat around the bush – attempting to ‘steal’ business away from other, more established companies?

4): Do you need to get people’s attention – the “here I am, and here’s what I do” kind of attention? For example, are you going to rely on advertising and marketing to get the ‘word’ out?

5): Do already have marketing and advertising devices in place – newsletters, a website, ads in the local paper – that could use ‘spiffing up’?

6): Do you already have some unused logo shelf-space already set aside? You might have, for example, a company car or a bare storefront, potential advertising mediums where a logo might silently advertise your company without the involvement of any appreciable costs, save the initial design development.

7): Would your business benefit from hard-goods marketing? For example – would you like to offer premium giveaways such as mugs, pens or desktop calendars? Does your staff interact with potential, or established, customers where staff-shirts, baseball caps or other marketing trinkets would help develop brand awareness?

8): Does part of your business plan involve networking (as much as I hate using that overwrought phrase) or ‘cold-calling’? Generally speaking, both of these tired but-true tactics methods involve the distribution of your business card (and in the case of mail-outs, a letterhead) as an initial way of introducing yourself to your market or on a one-to-one basis to a potential customer.

9): Do you plan to avail your business, services or product to a far reaching market? The scope of your market can be viewed on a sliding scale – with friends and family on one end, through town and state-wide to national and even global on the other. The requirement for a representative logo will increase as your planned market gets bigger.

10): Do people that you consider your direct competition, and to a much lesser degree companies that you’d like to emulate, boast a decent logo and marketing materials?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, then you’ll probably need a logo and all that entails. In fact, a logo and the surrounding brand support material will probably be crucial to growing your business past a few sales here-and-there.

Conversely, if none of the questions above apply to you, and you’re working for ‘the man’ during the day, only moonlighting to a few friends at night – say, accounting services come tax time or running an eBay store selling trinkets from your basement – then you don’t need one. Simple as that. The reward vs. investment ratio makes the cost and time required prohibitive. As much as I’d like to claim that everyone needs a logo, it’s probably more ‘bang’ than what you need for the expectations you have, and the goals you have set.

If, however, you answered in the affirmative to several of our ‘pre-flight’ questions, your business aspirations would appear to involve developing your business further and more investigation is probably in order. Another litmus test – if you’re planning to develop some brochures, a website or maybe even an advertisement in the local paper – you might need a logo. You’ll notice that’s still a ‘might’. Bulletin boards at the corner supermarket are full of hand-posted ‘fliers’ – you’ll recognize them by the multitude of tiny ‘pull off strips with hand-written phone numbers, and while these advertisements might be more noticeable with a decent mark, they probably perform to the level that is desired – a trickle of inquires, a couple of solid leads and one or two sales. If that’s all that you’re after, then a full-blown identity workup is still more than what you need.

If, on the flip-side, you’re going to drop a few hundred (or thousand) on an ad that is to be featured on a newspaper or magazine page with a load of other ads, then yours better stand out (for the most part, classified ads still enjoy the ‘no logo needed’ status). Yes, your deals are better. Yes, your service is faster. Hell, you’re even a nice person. But if people don’t notice your ad, who really cares? A version of the ‘if a tree falls in the forest’ and ‘the sound of one hand clapping’ arguments. A great logo will help you grab attention – the very essence of any successful advertisement.

The same can be said of your website. Think about it this way – you’ve been looking for something you want to buy on the Internet. You’ve run into sites that sell exactly what you’re looking for, but for one reason or another, you decided to look elsewhere. Granted, you may have been turned off by the price and found similar goods for less using a Google search. But what about those times when you’ve backed out of a web site because the website wasn’t, for lack of a better word, ‘right’? It didn’t ‘feel’ as professional as the site that ultimately earned your business. Perhaps it ‘felt’ a little sketchy – bad graphics, spelling mistakes and broken links. And chances are, the site probably featured a hideous logo. All pretty nebulous stuff that requires a lot of scare quotes to explain. You probably couldn’t even put your finger on it at the time. Trouble is, if your fledgling company or service is poorly presented, neither will your potential clients. They’ll just ‘feel’ that something’s not quite right about your business and search elsewhere. In practical terms – you’ll lose the sale.

Once again, if you’re moonlighting filing tax returns on behalf of friends and family for a few bucks on the side, none of this is really an issue. Here’s the important part – if you’re trying to sell you services to absolute strangers – and have but a few seconds to convince them that offer exactly what they’re looking for, you need to think about branding your company with, at the very minimum, a decent logo. In a nutshell that’s what a good logotype and the related branding is all about. Convincing perfect strangers that you are the best (or at least, very good) at what you do, or what you sell.

Strangers you ask? Yep. Let’s take another example. For the sake of argument, let’s say your homemade strawberry jam was such a bonafide hit at family picnics you decided to sell it at the local farmer’s market for a couple of dollars a jar. You could probably still get by without a food logo on the lid, label or on your homemade booth. Captive audience, word of mouth, returning customers and a limited production capacity (how big is that crock-pot really?) all combine to render a logo less than critical. You’ll have few returning clients and you’ll always be on the lookout for new customers. If you want to sell the very same jam at the local supermarket, where it will compete with other brands sharing the same shelf-space, then you’ll need a brand, a company logo (and some pretty spiffy packaging). To be taken seriously by the folks deciding what brands of strawberry jam do, and don’t, make it onto the prime real estate of aisle #10, your company had better feature a serious logo. To convince supermarket customers to pick up your jam, and then hopefully sequester your product into their shopping cart will require some attention grabbing graphics. At the end of the day, a logo helps convince customers that you’re earnest about your business, as opposed to the ‘ahh, that’s cute’ image that served you so well at the farmer’s market. It’s war out there, and a great company mark is a formidable weapon to add to your arsenal.

While it’s true that not every company or business needs a logo, it can be argued that, in some instances anyway, a decent corporate identity is critical to the longevity and growth of some. By taking a long, hard look at what you want to accomplish with your entrepreneurial aspirations, you can decide which applies and whether to logo your fledgling business or not. If, after weighing all the pros and cons, you’ve decided to design your own logo (the theme of this series) your next step is how to name your new company, or how to make the best out of a name you’ve already established.

Related posts:

1. Do you really need a logo?
2. Another 539 reasons why I hate spam…
3. Building a Brand – Some pointers