As we at Emphasize Design work with a lot of small companies that are just establishing themselves in their chosen market, a lot of the time the first thing we work on together is your logo design. Your logo is the first step towards your brand identity, and is pivotal for helping to determine not only what you do, but who you are to your customers and clients.
A logo design is a collaborative project requiring a lot of input from you, our client. I will ask several questions, and it’s quite often necessary to take them away as sort of “homework” to complete before I start. Although it may seem tedious, this approach actually helps save time for the both of us because it ensures we get going on the right foot.
Some of the questions I will ask include:
- What are your favourite logos? Obviously, this will help me determine what your design sentimentality is and let me know what you definitely do not want for your logo.
- What about your company name do you want to emphasize? For example, a company called something like “Airdrie Travel” will want to highlight both words equally in their logo, while another called “Maple Mechanical Engineering” will likely want to place more prominence on the “Mechanical Engineering” aspect over the “Maple.”
- What is your target audience? This will help me determine colour scheme and font. An older, more established audience will prefer subdued colours, clean lines and a streamlined font, whereas a younger audience may gravitate towards bolder colours and a “funner” font.
- Who is your main competition? By studying the logos of companies you compete in the market with I can determine what is working and not working for them. It also helps me set your logo apart from the others.
- What colours do you prefer? Colours influence an emotional response, so their choice is extremely important for your logo. For example, black denotes a formality, mystery and boldness, while blue trustworthiness, strength, reliability, and comfort.
I also always recommend a couple variations on your logo, as often what looks good on a website will not work as well for letterhead and swag. Let me know how you plan to display your logo and I can design several variations to work with all mediums.
To get an idea of the wide range of designs I have come up with in concert with our client, here is a sampling of some of the logos I have done in the past.
What is Involved in Your Logo Design?
As mentioned earlier, you may want to consider a couple different types of logo designs that fall into a few common categories.
Wordmark – One of the simplest forms of logo design – the wordmark – is made up entirely of text. They are the most simple to trademark. The font choice is most important for a wordmark, and needs to capture the essence of what your business is.
Symbol – This type includes a stylized logo, but no text. Finding or creating the right image is no small task, but some of the most memorable logos – including Apple and Nike – are symbols.
Lettermark – A lettermark uses a company’s initials, or part of its name, to create a memorable logo. General Electric is not exactly a name that stands out when spelled in full, for example, but the GE lettermark logo is highly memorable.
Combination Mark – With this type of logo, I combine a word or letter mark with a symbol. Combination marks allow you to show creativity, while still ensuring that the name of your business is prominently featured. FedEx has a good example of a combination mark.
Emblem – An emblem is different from a symbol because your company name is part of the design. The Starbucks logo is a great example of an effective emblem, and is familiar to coffee-lovers everywhere.
Your Logo and Your Brand Identity
As we like to emphasize with all of our clients, your logo is not your brand, but simply an element of your brand identity. Your logo should support your brand, but not be thought of as your brand in its entirety. Your brand is the feeling people get when they experience your product and represents the character of your company and its people. Often, a brand is built organically through superb customer relationships, as your personality and company goals will shine through what you do.
Once you have established your brand, you must support it through brand reputation management. This is one of our specialities at Emphasize. We take your brand’s reputation into account with everything we do for your business, and we offer a number of services tailored specifically toward managing your brand. Whether you need a logo design, a fresh look for your website, or someone to manage all of your online interactions, Emphasize Design has you covered. Building a memorable brand starts with a great plan, and a commitment to maintaining quality over time. Contact us today.
