Logo creation isn’t as easy as it sounds. First of all, most businesses start with a concept drawing or hand the project off to a designer to complete – wrong. This is probably the worst way to approach logo creation. First, you need to survey the landscape, and start a trademark research.
Investigating Trademarks
Trademark research is, honestly, going to chew up a lot of the time involved in coming up with a stellar logo for your business. At the same time, it’s not something that most people do, but they should. And, you should too. Why?
Because a logo is a trademark-able asset. And, there are a lot of established businesses out there that already have strong protections on their “mark” that will defend them in court. The last thing you want is for a large company to bring the axe down on you for trademark infringement. It doesn’t speak well of your company, and it could kill you before your business even gets off the ground.
It makes you look bad in the eyes of your prospects and customers too. Hire a trademark attorney for this job. It’s not something you want to do yourself as you will have to check national and local trademarks from a national registry, publications, and informal filings or trademark notifications.
Expect it to take a month or more for the search and to clear any ideas you might have for a trademark.
Coming Up With Ideas
Coming up with ideas is done in step with trademark research. First, you come up with a very basic, simple, idea and then you pitch it to your lawyer. The lawyer then researches it for you and tries to “clear” the logo – meaning it’s safe for you to secure a trademark on.
If you can’t clear a logo, it means it’s already taken or something similar is already in use. And, even if you might be able to use something that’s similar, you don’t want to do this from a practical perspective. Why? Because you want your logo to be your company’s own unique “voice.” You don’t want to be a copycat company, or have customers potentially confuse your business with someone else’s.
Keep It Simple and Reproducible
Use a smart pen or drawing tool on your computer to create a basic design, or have a designer work up a few examples, and then try to print them out and see how they look. Online suppliers like https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/ can help you refill your ink cartridges if you’re running low, and you should really try to keep at least a black cartridge topped up if you’re running samples.
Print on the highest-quality setting. Yes, it will use the most ink, but what you want to do is see how well your logo is reproduced on paper.
Try putting your logo on the web (once it’s cleared), on brochures, business cards, and on letterheads. The idea is that it should be reproducible in black-and-white, colour, and all mediums where you might use it.
John Sollars, a longtime businessman, knows the power of a great logo. A passionate writer, he likes to share his know-how with new business people on the web. You can read his informative posts on a number of websites and blogs.
Loveish Kalsi
Loveish Kalsi is a freelance Web and Graphic Designer from India. He is the owner of famous design blog Creativedesignmagazine.com
