Logos & Branding for The Small Business Owner

Branding has always been a staple in human nature. Since the beginning there have been distinct symbols created by man as a way to communicate whom that person, family, or group is and what they represent. Look at a logo as the face of an entity. Your "face" as we will call it, represents who and what your business is. The "face" of your business can come in many forms. Some companies prefer to use basic text as their logo, like Minute Maid and Coca Cola. Many choose an abstraction, or some sort of a distortion of a letter in the name, to act as a symbol to represent that company, such as the watchmaker TechnoMarine. Some people approach their design with the intention of using some sort of mascot to represent their business, for example, the Hello Kitty company. There are many different ways to approach the creation of a logo. The idea is to make something simple and distinct that people can identify at a glance.

One question you might be asking yourself is, "which way is the right way?" This is where truly understanding what branding is really comes into play. In a sense there is no wrong way to create an identity, if it works it works. BUT! Another question you need to ask yourself is how well does this work in different mediums? Your "face" should be visible when and where it needs to be seen. Printing on your letterhead and business card should be just as recognizable on the web, billboards and newsprint, as well as embroidered or screen printed shirts. People get so caught up in their design being flashy and eye catching, they lose sight of functionality. Yes, eye catching is good, but needing to use die cuts, specialty inks, batteries, the feather from a do do bird, very bad. Another question you might ask is, "what about a gradient?" I am sure a lot of my old instructors from the Art Institute of Philadelphia will not agree with me but like I said before if it works it works. The one rule is to make sure the logo will be just as effective without the gradient. A few years ago UPS redesigned their logo, and they added a slight gradient to symbolize the sun over the horizon to show their move into other business ventures aside from just deliveries. It works very well; the con is that it is more expensive to reproduce. I am sure UPS has the funding for it but even so, they still offer a simplified version of the logo because the gradient just cannot work in every situation.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity is the key to a functioning design. In my opinion, the perfect design would be one color, looks just as good big as it does small, just as attractive in black and white as in color print, and should say something about your company.

Your logo says a lot about whom you and your company are. If you're a bank or some financial institution you don't want your logo to be the face of a big silly clown. Unless maybe you are AIG or one of the other sadly comedic faces of the 2008-2009 period. You want your company to look safe, trustworthy, friendly and professional. A great example would be Bank of America. They chose the American flag but they added a comforting twist to personalize the highly recognized brand of the United States. (Yes, countries are branded as well.) They distorted the flag to mimic the look of a weaved quilt to represent the presence the bank has and how they are "weaved across America. I didn't say the clown face isn't possible, but it is highly unlikely it would work in this scenario. Now! If your company is some type of wild wacky amusement park, I doubt people will want to go if the first thing you see when you pull up is the Prudential rock as the logo on the park sign. To reiterate, your "face" should represent your business and what you do.

Maybe I didn't mention this yet, but SIMPLICITY is the key. The logos that say the most have very little to them. The best example would have to be the Nike Swoosh. It really doesn't get much better then that. Remember, in order to market your business properly you would need to advertise in different mediums. This should be accomplished without changing your logo and risking the loss of your identity.

A few things to remember when designing your logo is, first, be creative! This is the backbone of the design process. Second, take that creativity and weave it through a few questions to start the drizzle in the brainstorming process. "What color(s) should I use that will make my company stand out from the competition?" "What symbol could represent my business?" "How can it be simplified?" "Will this work in black and white? Does it work in different sizes?" "Will this work in various mediums?" By asking these questions you should be off to a nice start. Third, revert to the days of antiquity, dust off your pencil and start sketching your ideas. Last, create the logo in a vector program, such as Adobe Illustrator. Vector based logos, to put it plainly, are your only option. Working in vector offers a cleaner, sharper finished product that can be sized and resized without losing any resolution. Now its time to put it on your Business card!

To conclude, I wanted to give a little advice from a designer to a business owner. As a designer I have worked for many small businesses and start-ups, most companies in that position do not have a lot of money to allocate towards marketing. Because of the small budget and the fact that branding and advertising doesn't bring a direct profit (keyword being direct), people lose site of what the final outcome should be. I like to call it the "more bang for your buck" syndrome. What I mean by that is, people generally feel more comfortable spending money if they see more. For instance, the packaging of computer software, they pack a CD, booklets and advertisements into a blatantly larger box. Why? Because, human nature links expense to size and quantity. This mentality will stifle the success of your logo. Remember, Less Is More, point blank.