Home | Internet | Web Design | Graphics

How To Create A Logo - A Method Used By Corporate Identity & Graphic Designers

By: William Penworthy


Read More About Graphics

Corporate identity & logo graphic designers know a thing or two about brand identity and the importance of the logo. But did you know that the word ‘logo’ comes from the Greek ‘logos’ which actually means ‘word’? It may be surprising to realise that graphic designers who spend their days creating illustrations and visual, artistic logo designs are actually creating a single word, in effect. And that’s a point worth noting.

Imagine that instead of your logo emblazoned on your business website, stationery and promotional material you had a single word. What word would that be? This could be answered one of two ways - either by deciding what word you would like your company to be able to adopt as its single point or principle, or by trying to be objectively critical for a moment and admitting what word your current logo could be equivalent to. After all, you hardly want to feel that every aspect of your business’s promotional material and correspondence documentation is emblazoned with words such as ‘cheap’, ‘unoriginal’, ‘boring’ or ‘confusing’.

Now think about businesses and brands which are famous and whose logos immediately spring into your mind when you hear the name alone, such as Nike, IBM, BMW and Virgin. If you could replace each of their logos with a single word, what do you think it would be, and do the logos encourage you to consider words which seem appropriate to the company? Do words such as ‘vibrant’, ‘original’, ‘slick’, ‘reliable’ and ‘contemporary’ come to mind?

When it comes to corporate logo graphic design, UK businesses need to make sure that their logo is both instantly recognisable and communicates the right impression, the right message - the right word. But how do you compress your entire company’s ethos and principles down to one single word, a single idea contained within a few coloured lines? The answer is that, of course, you don’t. That’s what corporate identity & logo graphic designers are for. But clearly a logo designer needs to be able to obtain from you a clear and unequivocal impression of your business aims and intentions.

For example, are you focussed very much on green issues, or on good, clear customer service, value for money or exclusivity? Any and each of these aspects can be incorporated into a logo in very different ways, and it will be important that your logo, or ‘word’, is different from that used by other companies, especially your rivals, yet still manages to convey your type or style of business - all within a single glance. One of the things you can try right away is to create a list of words suited to your business, such as ‘investing’, ‘pioneering’, ‘friendly’ or ‘prompt’, and often these words serve as the initial inspiration for the development of a logo by logo graphic designers.

One of the important things to bear in mind is that a logo should only really be equivalent to that single word. It’s not a sentence, or a paragraph, and it’s too easy to try to cram too much into a single image. If your logo tries to say too much it becomes busy and confusing.

Another issue which corporate identity designers need to consider is cross media compatibility. In other words, how well does a logo translate from one format or location to another. Your fantastic, highly detailed and dynamically coloured logo might look great on your website which is rendered at over a thousand pixels wide. But how does that work when reduced down to just about a centimetre squared on your business card? Then you have to consider the printing costs for your stationery, and suddenly your great logo starts to seem like a bad idea. Perhaps the word you would be looking for might be ‘fixated’, ‘blinkered’ or ‘shortsighted’.

For corporate logo graphic design, UK companies and businesses need to think about what makes them different from their competitors. It’s easy to throw up ideas such as ‘cheap’, ‘fast’ and ‘efficient’ but don’t these words apply to almost every business? Claiming to be green is one thing, but if your company is a recycling firm, isn’t that the whole idea? Choosing a logo is a way of defining your company, not in terms of what it does, but what it is, and that includes aspects which are wholly unique, such as its location. Perhaps the building, town, or nearby scenery is noteworthy in some way. These are just a few ideas which corporate identity & logo graphic designers will consider, and often they’ll sit with you in a workshop environment to discuss ideas and consider the implications of those ideas. There may be only 26 letters in the alphabet, but there are nearly three quarters of a million words in the English language - make sure your business chooses the right one!

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

corporate logo graphic design UK | www.specialdesignstudio.co.uk | corporate identity & logo graphic designers

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Graphics Articles Via RSS!

counter easy hit

Powered by Article Dashboard