Brand Yourself: Logo Development 101!
Posted by Rich Novia on Mon, Dec 19, 2011
When making an approach to logo design, there are so many factors to take in. Who is your target market? What vibe or feeling do you want to portray? How universal does the logo have to be? How does it need to represent your company? These questions will help any skilled designer begin to conceptualize a formula for your brand’s future identity. We recently were contacted by a company to develop a logo for a café called “Roots” that the client is opening in Ecuador. Faced with the challenge of creating a logo that will fit the theme of the café, our designers set out to capture the feel of culture, location, and environment in the logo. The logo was digitally printed, and mounted as indoor signage for the café.
Wordmarks and symbols are the two main types of logos. Wordmarks are a text-based logotype that is generally created with a font or some sort of graphically creative spin on a company’s name. Having the business name in an attractive type-based logo is the best way to approach a company that is new, unique, and distinct in itself. The name should be short and should be very self-explanatory in the point it gets across. A wordmark is frequently found in small businesses and organizations who have small brand portfolios, as seen in the logo below. We supplied "2nd Shift Diesel" with a new logo, as he didn't have one at the time. Working with the customer, he supplied us with the ideas and style he wanted, and after a few revision rounds, we came up with this, below. This was a fun wordmark-inspired logo for our client to use where ever he needs.
A symbol, on the other hand, helps associate people with your business by its iconic nature. When a company has a strong brand portfolio, the symbol is used to blanket the whole entity or is used if the company name is too long. In addition, if a company’s name is too generic and universal in composition, you might want to consider a symbolic logo. Take Starbucks, for instance. Once known for its notorious green wordmark logo, the company added a symbol to the wordmark and now uses the rounded icon logo in many situations for marketing purposes solely by itself. The company has thus created brand awareness within both wordmark and symbol logos. See either of them, and you’re likely inspired to think of buying a coffee-inspired beverage.
Approach your logo with all that encompasses what you have in mind for your brand. Your products and services, your colors, look, message, and demographic all should be determined before you spend hard-earned money on having a designer work on your logo. Demographics are a very important part of how your company will look. Nike, a company branded by the “swoosh” logo, brands their lines of apparel according to the sports they are making it for, but the “swoosh” logo is always integrated somehow. Bank of America, on the other hand, has a more corporate, big business look. Your logo should speak to your target audience and radiate the theme of what you want to communicate to them. 
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12-Point SignWorks provides attractive and effective commercial signage including custom car wraps, vehicle graphics, lobby signs, indoor business signs, and outdoor commercial signs.
We provide our services to customers located in Williamson, Davidson, and Maury counties of Tennessee including the cities of Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, and Spring Hill. We also enjoy relationships with clients nationwide from coast to coast.
Call us now at 615-595-6564 or contact us via email. We are located at 1120 Lakeview Dr, Ste. 900, Franklin, TN 37067.
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