Most important reason:
we live in a visual world!
Your logo will be the first chance you have to make a good impression on your potential customers. It is the most powerful and single visual your company will possess and your customers will recognize and associate your company or service with. It will either inspire quality, trust, value, loyalty or the complete opposite.
In order to understand the value of a logo let me begin by making one point clear: a logo is not a business expense but an investment in your business. It will either attract potential clients your way and set you apart from your competition or send clients away by not even giving your business a chance after a bad first impression.
One of the biggest issues I’m presented with as a designer is the value of my design services. I believe the main reason is because business owners often fail to understand the point mentioned above about a logo being an investment and not an expense. I’m very often reminded and believe me, well aware, that if you do a google search for “logo design” you will be presented with an infinite amount of results of online services offering supposed “custom” logo design for $5 or others where you can purchase one based of a template where the “designer” changes it to your business name and boom!
First thing I’d like to make clear is that a $5 logo will never be original. Moreover, 100% of the time, it will be a copy of something already out there and I cannot stress enough how a copied logo will potentially put you or your company in copyright infringement trouble. It is not legal to take or “borrow” an image from google or any other way, copy it and use it as your own to brand your business. A sure and only way to avoid any potential legal issues is for your logo to be unique and truly custom designed by a professional without borrowed elements from other printed or online sources. If you would like to read more about this I found this other great article explaining more about logo copyrights read it here.
Not only is a logo “essential” to your company but it must also be “good.” Let’s discuss what makes a good logo?
Simple
A logo must be simple – simple in terms of being easily recognizable and remembered. Think of McDonald’s, Apple, Nike, etc.,
Memorable
It should give a first good impression of trust and professionalism – remember the phrase “dress to impress”? It also applies to your company’s image.
Relevant
It should be relevant – relevant to your target market by using the correct imagery, fonts, style, color(s), etc.,
Versatile
Your logo should be versatile – it should reproduce great at a small size (think of 1/2″ marketing buttons), large (think billboard, store front sign), in color, black & white, etc., Think of the multiple things you may want to reproduce with it. Believe me, you don’t want to try and embroider or screen-print a shirt with multiple colors. It will get very expensive!
Unique
A logo must provide a way for you to be set apart from your competition by being unique. It should be designed to draw interest and intrigue the curiosity of your potential customers by prompting them to at least consider you, and hopefully consume your product or service.
Timeless
It must also be timeless – will it stand the test of time while maintaining its effectiveness 5 years from now? You do not want to be the person who has to hire a designer to re-design your logo because it was too trendy and has lost its effectiveness.
I want to end by providing a link to fastgood.cheap. It’s a cool animation that serves to illustrate how good design can never be GOOD, FAST, and CHEAP and you must only pick two. The animation features toggle buttons to illustrate these facts:
1. If you want GOOD and FAST design it will NEVER be cheap.
2. If you want CHEAP and GOOD it will NEVER be fast.
3. If you want FAST and CHEAP it will NEVER be good.
You can only pick two!
So I encourage you to really invest into your company’s logo. It will either “brake or make” the success of your business. I know it may sound cliché but your logo will subliminally send a positive message of the seriousness of your business and how invested you are into making it succeed.
Loved this! Please do more blogs! Even for a person like me who’s a photographer and not a graphic designer, I believe this still is relevant to us in the industry as well!