The average American citizen sees about 16,000 advertising logos and images a day. Which is not surprising, because in the conditions of fierce competition in the market, each of its participants strives to stand out and, not least, through the logo. Creating a logo is especially important for young companies that have not yet managed to establish themselves in their niche, it allows to overcome the psychological fear of the new and makes the company recognizable to the target audience. But how do you design a logo and can you do it yourself?
The concept and functions of the logo
Technically, a logo is a symbolic or schematic image owned by a specific owner who has the exclusive right to use it. In essence, this is something else – a logo is a broad reflection of the company's name, idea and philosophy. The right colors, fonts, text and symbology can make a brand recognizable and increase consumer acceptance.
The importance of a logo lies in the fact that:
- Guarantees the authenticity of the product;
- It makes the company individual;
- Opens access to more marketing techniques;
- Increases the company's awareness by the possibility of its visual perception;
- It is intellectual property, protected by law against unauthorized use and can be sold like any other product.
Logo creation rules
In order to create a logo yourself and successfully use it in your future work, it is necessary to take into account several principles. And so, a high quality logo should:
- Be unique;
Copying a model or logo idea from someone else not only makes the company less recognizable and “suggests” a counterfeit product of a well-known brand to the buyer, it can also have serious legal consequences.
- Don't depend on trends;
Don't be guided by what is "stylish and modern". A high quality logo can represent a company unchanged for several tens or even hundreds of years. For example, the Cola logo hasn't changed since 1885.
An image without complex elements is easier to remember, easier to perceive, and easier to print even at miniature sizes, so you shouldn't complicate the logo with additional elements or an intricate pattern.
- Corresponding to the activity;
The consumer, looking at the logo, should immediately understand what the company is doing. For this, I use stylized fonts and icons, as well as the corresponding text. In other words, most successful car manufacturers do not have an image of the car in their logo, so this criterion should only be considered in conjunction with the others.
- Used in any format;
The resulting image should look good in both color and black and white, on small bottles or huge billboards. To do this, you need to use vector formats for large format printing and select colors and text.
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Services for creating a logo
There are several ways to get a logo, but most aspiring entrepreneurs prefer to create one on their own, so it is extremely important to know which program to create a logo in. It can be drawn in Adobe Photoshop or other graphic editors, but this requires certain skills. The easiest way to create a logo is online and services like:
logaster
One of the best sites on Runet. Focusing on the name and the field of activity, he himself will select the possible variants of the logo, in which he will be able to change the layout of the elements, edit the text and color, as well as add additional effects. Low resolution images are available for free, you have to pay for a higher quality font.
Genologist
After specifying the company name, it generates logo variants independently, which can be further edited by choosing the font and color scheme. The service offers stylish, modern images and makes it unnecessary to create something from scratch. However, you cannot get a photo for free here.
flamingtext
Suitable for creating a text logo. A large number of stylized text templates are available on the website, which can be edited using the tools provided. The interface is in English only, but you can download a good quality image for free.
Hipster Logo Generator
A service with limited functionality to generate vintage and minimalist logos. First you need to choose the shape of the logo, then the text and set the colors. You can download a small image from the website for free. The vector drawing costs 5 dollars.
See also: How to prepare the perfect business idea?
logo image file format
The resulting image can be of two main types:
- Rastovoe (PNG, JPEG);
- Vector (PDF, CDR, EPS, SVG);
To create a logo for a website and work on the Internet, raster images are used, both for editing the finished product and for printing in large formats (billboards, banners), vector files are needed.
Most online services offer a complete font package for an additional fee in all formats and sizes, but It's not always worth paying the most. For example, if a company operates primarily on the Internet, it will hardly need banners (at least in the early stages of development).
You can create a logo for your company yourself and with minimal costs! For that you just need inspiration, concept, some straight hands and time. For the initial development of the company, its own logo is essential, so this detail should not be overlooked.
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