Monday, October 6, 2008

Your Business's Image May Depend on Your Corporate Logo

By Thomas Sampson

Each business has its own identity, regardless of its size in terms of employees or assets. After all, legal and financial experts say that a properly registered business is considered separate from its owner. In other words, your company is its own legal entity. It pays taxes (aka corporate taxes), it often has its own insurance, and definitely has its own service rate schedule (just ask for the corporate rate when you book your next hotel room!) And since a business is considered its own entity, it needs to have its own persona.

For small businesses and entrepreneurs, the idea of a corporate logo may seem like a daunting concept. Some small business owners have no interest in creating or designing a logo and rely instead on a steady stream of word-of-mouth traffic, arguably the best type of sale to book. But for these types of businesses, when those sales slow or cease entirely, all that will remain is a name stenciled in a window and a simple white pages listing.

To develop an image for your business, the typical first step might be to design and adopt a corporate logo. While some business owners might enjoy the chore of creating a corporate logo for their business, many more cringe at the thought. After all, most people can identify a do-it-yourself logo. But for owners who insist on creating their own corporate logo, we recommend seeking the opinion of a third party. Former clients and network colleagues who have no interest in your business might be able to offer honest opinions of your in-house corporate logo design.

For the business owner looking for a professional corporate logo, there are numerous providers available who will design your logo from scratch. The process normally starts with the business owner completing a creative brief. This document outlines the business (e.g. what it does) and through a series of questions the designer(s) get a feel for the company's personality. Completing the creative brief should take a bit of time on the owner's part as it will ultimately result in several sample corporate logos.

The next stage involves designing the logo. During this period, the designer uses information provided in the brief to mould a corporate that will not only fit your business and needs, but will meet your (or exceed) your expectations. As a non-designer, this process seems rather simple because everything you want has already been written down in the creative brief; all the designer needs to do is incorporate each element the same way you might follow a recipe.

The last step involves reviewing a series of sample logos and choosing the one that best fits your business and the image you are trying to project. With a few final tweaks, the corporate logo that will help give your business its presence is complete.

The price for logos vary widely from as little as $25 to well over $5,000 or more. Although some corporate logos can be had for a bargain (Nike, for example, paid less than $25 for their corporate logo), quality usually comes at a price. Rather than return to the corporate logo table multiple times, we encourage business owners to take the process seriously the first time around and work with a designer that will meet or exceed expectations at whatever price.

Quote Stork Solutions endorses high-end logos by a company called LogoWorks. Surprisingly, their prices start $299 which would suggest low-rate quality. Even their turnaround times suggest sub-par product. However, by clicking our link and visiting their gallery, you will see that even at $299 LogoWorks provides a quality product. Their creative-brief process is rather involved, which is in line with their superior design quality. In addition to logos, they can provide stationary with your corporate logo printed on it as well (e.g. 1500 business cards for $150). However, keep in mind that these services may be cheaper (albeit more time consuming) through your local printer or Staples store. A cheaper alternative to LogoWorks is a company called VistaPrint, which walks you through the logo design process. Their logos can be had for free if you buy other stationery products through them. Otherwise, you can download your logo for under $25.

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