Bop Announces Build Your Brand With a Well-Crafted Logo
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 15, 2013 -- The purpose of a well-crafted logo is to build a small business’s brand and represent all the dimensions of its product or service. Generally speaking, a logo is the first thing prospective customers see and learn about a business. So it is vitally important to design a logo that’s both memorable and different from the countless other logos we all encounter in the course of our daily lives.
Whether a business plans to upgrade its existing logo or create a new one from scratch, Jeremy Durant, Business Principal at Bop Design, a San Diego web design agency, offers these proven design principles:
Think about the message you want to convey. “Look back to your company mission statement for a concise description of your business,” Durant says. “Start thinking about ways to transform that written message into a single, vivid image.”
Do an “industry logo analysis.” Different types of businesses feature different graphic design trends. Logos in some fields may employ gaudy colors and oversized type, while other more conservative industries favor a buttoned-down approach.
“Business owners aren’t obliged to follow trends in their fields, but they should be aware of them,” Durant notes.
Simple is best. A logo must represent a brand in a single image. The more the designer tries to squeeze into this image, the harder it will be for consumers to recognize and remember it. Nike’s Swoosh, Apple’s apple, Twitter’s giant bird—each of these world-class logos does an exceptional job of characterizing the business they represent, and all without using a single word.
Limit or avoid unusual design elements. With all the graphic elements available, some designers are tempted to add a drop shadow here, a wavy line there. But these and other design elements only serve to clutter the guiding idea behind the logo and make it harder for prospective customers to retain in their visual memory.
Go easy on colors. Again, less is more. “Think about what types of colors best symbolize your brand,” Durant says. “Bold? Muted? Earth tones? Whatever your preference, choose no more than two to four colors at most for the final design.”
Make the logo is easy to reproduce. Logos need to be work anywhere with consistent quality—a website, a business card, a sign on your neighbor’s front lawn. The design has to look good whether it’s big or small, and must be easy to reproduce across the spectrum of both online and offline marketing materials.
Use words if needed, but make sure they’re easy to read. As noted, many of the most effective logos don’t use any copy. But if a designer is asked to integrate the name of a business with the image, stay away from overly ornate typefaces or any fonts that are difficult to read in a quick glance.
Establish (and adhere to) specific brand guidelines. Ideally, a business should already have a “brand style guide” outlining what’s permissible and what’s not with regard to your logo and related marketing materials.
If you don’t have guidelines, Durant says, it’s a good idea to put this together before launching your new logo. “This way, people inside the company know the rules when creating web and print content, and people outside the company clearly understand the requirements involved in reproducing that image elsewhere.”
The power of a logo can’t be over-estimated. It bears a unique relationship to the brand and should be crafted with all the skill and resources a business can bring to bear.
Bop Design is a San Diego web design agency with offices also in the New York metro area. We express a business values through branding, advertising, design and web design. We also help attract a firm's ideal customer through search engine optimization and search engine marketing. The marketing firm's focus is on small businesses that want an external team of marketing specialists to help give their brand an edge in the marketplace.
Jeremy Durant, Bop Design, San Diego Web Design Agency, http://www.bopdesign.com, +1 760-470-1275, [email protected]
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