Logo design is a crucial component of a business’s overall branding strategy. It is often the foundation for the rest of a company’s branding, so getting it right can feel overwhelming. How do you project the whole purpose and mission of your business in a graphic?
There are four ways to address logo design:
- Do-it-yourself
- Logo Design
- Logo Designer
- Have your web developer take care of it for you
Let’s dive into each of these options.
To “do-it-yourself,” you will need specialized training in graphic design and marketing. Graphic design skills alone will not get the job done, nor will just an education in marketing. To put the weight of your business on a single graphic, you need to have both. Scores of businesses choose this option, because they need to launch yesterday, and they don’t have the time and money to hire someone.
At First Call Digital Agency, we caution folks against the do-it-yourself approach to web because the set-it-and-forget approach is oftentimes a hasty solution. This same warning applies to logo design. If you treat web and logo design like something you have to quickly put a checkmark by, it will cost you in the end. Your messaging will not be well articulated, so you lose out against your competitors. Several years later, you will more than likely end up re-branding which is expensive and can cause confusion with your existing clientele.
The next option, logo design, is a middle of the road solution. You can hop online and choose from many applications that will design a logo for you. You’ll be asked a few fundamental questions like your industry or maybe provide a color palette. In just a few minutes, you will be given a few logos to choose from that – just like the DIY method – will technically get the job done. The ones we tried sent us a logo with clipart in it, giving the selection of logos a very 90s feel. Most options were under $50.
The third approach to logo design is to hire a logo designer. This angle certainly puts a solid checkmark by having a highly trained individual address one of the most important pieces of your branding strategy. A designer will have the graphic design and marketing experience necessary to develop a logo that graphically portrays your message to your potential customer. The only drawback here is that you can burn 15-25 hours in the process, at a minimum of $100/hour.
The last option on the list is to have your web partner work with you to get the right logo that conveys the right message. Why is this even on the list of options? Well, at First Call Digital Agency we get asked about logos all the time. You see, logos aren’t just a graphic way to portray your company’s message. It also is the basis for web design. If you look at the vast majority of websites, you’ll see that the business’s logo is displayed right at the top of the page. That makes it a crucial piece of web design because it is often the first thing people see about your business and what they form their first impression on. This is even truer on mobile devices, which is worth noting because Google estimates that about 60% of searches take place on mobile devices.
In addition to the valuable real estate a logo consumes on websites, and the weight it bears for first impressions, it dictates things like font style and color schemes for web design.
You can see why we started to wonder if logo design is something we could help our clients with. The reason this option works well for First Call clients is because they can take care of two things at once – a well-crafted logo that conveys their business’s message, and a website that does the same.
At First Call Digital Agency, we focus on design, copy, and imagery that tells your business’s story — what you do, how you do it, why you started in the first place, and what sets you apart from your competitors. Before we configure a single word, page, or domain name for your web project, we dig into the cornerstones of your story and your online business goals. All this information is vital in successful logo design as well.
When it comes to logo design, you definitely have options. When considering those options, it’s vitally important to fully recognize how much power a logo has and then figure out the best way to leverage that power into a visual representation of your business’s message and story.
