Time for your new logo?
Top tips from designers to help you design your first logo
You’ve written your business plan, your strategy’s in place, you’ve chosen your company name and you’re ready to hit the marketplace. But every new business needs a logo. Whether you go for a graphic, typography or a mixture of both, your logo is hugely important and you’ll need to get it right before you start printing your stationery or marketing. So where do you start? We’ve talked to some of Ireland’s foremost designers and brand specialists to get their tips on how to design your first logo:
- Start with a sketch – Before you dive into Indesign or Illustrator, make a few sketches of ideas. It doesn’t matter if you can’t draw. All you’re doing is getting everything from your head onto paper so that you can develop the best ideas and save time by moving on from those that clearly won’t work.
- Avoid the clichés – They’re out there. Those ideas that were so good they’ve been used again and again, like a plant or shrub to illustrate growth or a lightbulb for a bright idea. By all means, draw inspiration from ideas you’ve seen and like but don’t copy or fall back on old clichés or you’ll really turn people off.
- Think long-term – You might be designing your logo for a business card now but what about further down the line? Will your logo work on a poster as well as on a small card of a flyer? If your logo is colour should you design a black and white version for one colour use? Gradients and tints might look good on screen, but if your logo is appearing in a local newspaper the tint may not come out or look blotchy. Think of every eventuality and consider creating a logo “family” with full colour, spot colour, and single colour versions.
- Get feedback – Even leading designers welcome feedback from others. It’s easy to get so close to a design or idea that you can’t see it objectively. Often a fresh pair of eyes will see a shape or notice something you’ve missed but that changes the feel of the logo. They might even read typography differently and see letters going together in a way you hadn’t considered. Show your logo to people you trust to give you an honest opinion
DigitalPrintingIreland.ie launched as a B2B printing service offering high quality, professional print to businesses throughout Ireland. Among our customers are many SMEs and start-ups as well as large established companies. We supply a full range of digital print products and use only the best HP Indigo presses to produce excellent colour and image reproduction. To see our full range of products including our business starter kits or to get prices, upload artwork and order your print online from any desktop or mobile device visit www.DigitalPrintingIreland.ie today.
