Every business or sports team wants to make a good impression and the first step to that is creating your business identity. For this reason, your custom logo must be professional, accurate, appropriate and relevant. At first glance, logo design can appear to be a very simple task and perhaps you are considering using an online logo tool or a cheap freelance service like fiverr to do this. However for a number of reasons you should consider employing the services of a professional graphic designer or professional graphic artwork services instead! :
- To create a good first impression- A logo is the first visual cue that people have about your business or company. If you want to make a big impact in the business world, then, the first impression that your customers get should be the best, that you are uniquely qualified to meet their needs. People can easily determine whether yours is a serious business or not, by simply looking at the logo.. so an unprofessional, confusing, badly designed or cookie cutter logo could reflect badly on you.
- Training and experience- Leave the skilled work to the professionals. As trained professionals with the latest tools, graphic designers have the perfect mix of skills, experience and training to design a professional logo.
- Research- One of the key phases of designing a good business logo is the research phase. A logo is not just any other picture or sketch but it has to be carefully thought out and designed. The graphics designer needs input from you to really understand your business goals and products. They will use this input to undertake research and ensure the logo they craft is relevant, engaging and appropriate. When using online cookie cutter tools to create your logo, you skip the research phase and risk not getting a suitable logo for your business.
How to choose a graphic artwork service or professional graphic designer
Once you have decided to employ the services of a professional graphics designer, you will want to choose the best graphics designer available. Here are the things to consider:
- Portfolio- Always employ a graphic designer with a strong portfolio. Have a look at some of the work that he has done in the past and consider the quality of the logos. Is there a range of different logo designs? Different types of businesses?
- Experience- How long and how many logos has the graphics designer produced? How is the quality of his/her previous works? What’s their reputation and skill level? All these questions can be answered by looking at the previous projects done by the designer.
- The design process- What process does the graphics designer follow to come up with the logos? A typical logo design process, including research, direction, and general concepting, should take at least 48hrs to complete and thus if the graphics designer is churning out logos like fast food, then, there is need to be concerned. A good logo can take time to create with numerous design stages and revisions until you are 100% happy.
- Testimonials- Does the designer have positive testimonials from previous clients and colleagues? This can be checked by reading the reviews and feedback from the clients and colleagues alike. However, follow up on the testimonials and call the clients to ascertain that the available reviews are online and the companies even exist.
- Customer service- A good graphics service should have great customer service. They should be able to answer your emails on time, communicate well and be presentable at all times.
- Cost- As much you would like to minimize the expenditure, you should also remember that cheaper isn’t always better. You get what you pay for. The service should provide a wide range of formats for web, print and other uses – in both colour and black and white, as well as transparent backgrounds.
- Tools- what software will the design service use? Avoid cookie cutter logo software – the designer should use professional design software such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.
How to design the best logo for your business or team
Choosing a graphics designer is one crucial step to getting a high-quality professional logo for your business. The next and another very important step is preparation. For the graphics designer, this is the research phase where they need to know as much as possible about your business – and you need to give them direction to help them do this. Before you meet them, collect the information below and the logo design process should proceed more smoothly to give you the results you want!
- About your business – Give the designer the name you want in the logo, your business name and describe the products and services that you offer. Provide a link to a website or catalogue if possible. Does the business name have any special meaning or significance to the business? Provide any relevant business history as well as any important goals and accomplishments. You can also come up with a list of 10-15 adjectives which accurately describe your business or what you think your business is all about ie modern, classic, speedy, eco-friendly, sporty..
- About your competition- Your logo should be both relevant and unique. Generally it should be similar in style to your relevant competitors but different enough to stand out. Look at your competitors’ logos and provide a list of those you do and don’t like to the designer.
- About you – Provide the designer a list of your company colours and preferred colours. Do you want a text only logo, or text and an image combined or.. ? Google some logos and note those brands with logos that appeal to you.. and ones that don’t appeal (and why). If you are artistic you can also come up with some rough sketches of what you would like.