Thursday, September 30, 2010

Logo Design and New Businesses

Start-ups focus on many things to make their business a success. They don’t want to miss any important factor that may eventually become a hurdle in their growth. They want to ensure that all the processes are smooth and they can move on without any problems at all. However, one important business aspect that a lot of new businesses ignore is that they don’t care about building their brand image. This is one important factor that can actually destroy a business completely. If you don’t give your business something through which it can be recognized, then how can you expect your business to become memorable?

When it comes to creating your brand image, you need a first-class logo design to make your business look professional. Every new business should take logos seriously. As you work hard to create and streamline your business processes, you need to also work hard to create your business image in a highly effective way to win the trust of your market. In fact, you should focus more on your logo, because your processes won’t be useful for you if people won’t come to you. You need to first win their trust and you can easily do it with your logo.

Now you may think that logos are only for large organizations and since you own a small business, you don’t necessarily need one. Well, all I want to say is this perception is totally wrong. All the big brands that we see today and recognize always had a logo to give their business an identity. If you expect your business to receive recognition, but don’t want to create your business identity, then your expectations are not realistic at all. You need to first create your business identity and then promote your business to become renowned and grab the attention of your market.

One mistake that you may make as a start-up is that you may procrastinate. You may say that you will create a logo design after you launch your business. Again, you are taking it as something unimportant or secondary. After you launch your business, you will promote it, right? So, how can you promote it without an identity? Even if it’s a solely online business, you will need to your logo to connect with people on social media sites. This way people will begin to recognize your business.

Plus, later, if you want to promote your business via offline marketing methods, you will be able to get your logo design imprinted on promotional material like, mugs, pens, etc. So, if you delay, you will make a big mistake. This is something that should be done before you even launch your business. However, if you have already started your business without a logo design, then you shouldn’t delay any longer and hire a professional logo designer to create your brand identity in a professional way. Don’t hire an amateur logo designer, because an inexperienced designer won’t be able to give your business a professional look.

3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Logo

Simply put, Logo Design is essential if you want to create and run your business professionally and in an effective manner. A lot of people make this mistake that they don’t either create a logo or they just hire an ordinary and unskilled designer to create their brand identity. When you hire an unprofessional and inexperienced designer, then the result can be devastating. Seriously, just to save a few bucks (by not creating a quality logo) you will lose thousands of dollars because you will miserably fail to grab the attention of your market and win their trust.

Having said that, it’s important to discuss that your business not only needs a logo, but it needs a professionally designed logo. When you attend a meeting, how do you dress up? Do you wear any outfit without caring about who will be attending the meeting or Do you actually care and find a good looking and professionally designed outfit? Of course you will go with a decent outfit, because you want to build your credibility and build your image as a professional instead of offending others. Now, it’s about time we discuss the top 3 reasons for creating a logo for your business.

The first reason is that just like anything else you can imagine, your business also needs a face. Therefore, this is the job of your logo design to create recognition for your business. Imagine a lot of people without a face. How can you know who is who? Well, you can’t. It’s the face that allows you to distinguish. It’s the face that allows you to recognize a particular person. Therefore, it is your logo design that allows your market to recognize and visualize your business. If I tell you to visualize your best friend from school, you won’t have any trouble because you remember his or her face. So, to ensure that your market visualizes you instead of your competitors when they need your products, you need to create a high quality logo.

Another reason is that it allows you to stand-out. See, all the famous brands that we can name or think of have logos. For example: Toyota, Nike, Target, HP, Dell, Google and so on. Their logos allow them to stand-out and look different. Thus, when you create your logo, you adopt a similar strategy to ensure that you look different and that you look better than your competitors.

Once you start your business, do you want to promote it? Well, it’s your logo that helps you with it. Whether you use online marketing methods or offline, your logo will be everywhere. For example, if you create a brochure to hand out locally, then it will be incomplete and unprofessional without a logo design. If you use online Social Media sites to promote your business, then it is vital to have a logo.

So, these are the top 3 reasons why you must strive to create a high quality logo design for your business. A business without an identity won’t survive for long.

Logo Design Software or Logo Designer - Who is Better?

If you want to create a logo design for your business and searching for more information online, then you might have come across two options, i.e. either to get logo design software to create your own brand identity or hire a professional designer to do the job for you and create your brand image in a professional and attractive manner. Now, if you are designing the logo for the first time, then you might be scratching your head and wondering which option is better for your business. Should you get a software or hire a designer? I tell you, this feeling is natural as every newbie faces this problem.

Now, what we will do is that we will discuss the pros and cons of both options to allow you to make a smart decision. See, you own the business and, thus, you are the best person to decide what to do and what to avoid. Listening to someone and taking action may not be a good strategy because if things don’t work out as planned, you will regret it. So, it’s better to first go through the options that you have available and then make a decision accordingly.

The main different between a professional logo designer and logo design software is ‘creativity’. When you hire a designer, you also get years of expertise, experience and of course creativity. Now, your designer will guide you with each and every step of the process. Your designer will tell you that which type of logo will be suitable for your particular industry and he or she will also guide you that which colors will be perfect and will look elegant and give a professional look to your business. So, you get a complete solution where your designer not only gives you valuable suggestions but also conducts research for you.

However, when you purchase a software, all you get is a set of tools that you have to use on your own. Logo design software can’t tell you about the current design trends. These software are also unable to tell you that what sort of logos are designed in your particular industry and what colors will be perfect for your logo. With this, you will be on your own and you will have to use your own imagination to create your brand identity. Should you take this big risk? The thing is that if you don’t create your brand image professionally, then your marketing campaigns will be wasted as you won’t be able to get the desired results.

There are lots of free software available and you can get one easily to design your logo. However, when it comes to acquiring the services of a professional designer, you will have to spend some money, but still they are not expensive. You can get a great deal for even less than a $100 if you Google. So, it’s better to spend a little amount and hire a professional designer instead of designing your own logo without possessing any design skills at all.