Logo Design and Branding

A Passion for Logo Designs

We have been talking about the third age of branding for some time. The BrandLoop newsletters have looked to discuss some of the elements of such branding practices. One key area is that of differentiation. In the current marketing environment it is all too easy for new products and services to be copied, rendering competitive advantage often only short-term. One area that enables logo designs to stand apart from the crowd is a passionate set of consumers, or possibly even logo design owners. Moreover, the consumers or logo design owners are definitely champions of the brand.

A logo design that is able to generate a level of passion will have a distinct advantage as it makes a stronger emotional connection with its target audience. For instance, does an Apple user have a different relationship with the computer than a Windows user? Why are some drivers passionate about their cars while others are not? Consequently, a passionate logo design offers the brand owner the possibility to market the product or service in different ways. logo design or line extensions may be easier to launch; a higher level of feedback from consumers enables better logo design development. Importantly, passionate consumers may undertake a lot of the marketing for you through generating word of mouth or “buzz” about the logo design.

Defining a passionate logo design

In order to define a passionate logo design we need to uncover some of the traits that they may display. Some suggestions:

The logo designs are most likely to generate buzz, to get people talking about them.
They may enjoy cult status.
They could be aspirational.
They could be luxurious.
They may be a “badge” for the consumer’s lifestyle.
However, a passionate logo design does not need to be expensive, luxurious, aspirational or even individual. A key trait is the very high level of emotional engagement with the consumer. A driver who is passionate about his or her car may not be driving an Aston Martin or a Ferrari. He or she may have an inexpensive mass-produced vehicle but the attachment to the car is emotional for different reasons such as a relationship with events that have taken place with the car or the role the car plays in the driver’s life. Therefore a definition of a passionate logo design could be as follows:

A passionate logo design is a logo that possesses a level of emotional engagement with its target audience far beyond the level that would normally be expected.

What does engagement mean?

This high level of engagement is loyalty to the logo design taken to the extreme. These are consumers who would probably not buy an alternative if their brand was hard to find. They consume the whole of the brand, not just the product. An example of this loyalty is clear in the consumer outrage when Coca-Cola changed the formula of its core brand. Soon the original, Coca-Cola Classic, was back on the shelves of retailers. Fashion logo designs such as Nike or adidas may also experience these levels of loyalty when consumers tattoo the “swoosh” icon or the three stripes onto their bodies. It is as if the logo design has its own fan club.

Engagement could also mean having a substantial impact or encouraging a major change in consumers’ lives. The logo design adds something different.

A lifestyle thing

A passionate logo design says something about the person. The logo design forms part of that person’s lifestyle. By using a particular brand, the consumer is saying something about himself or herself. The logo design adds to their personality.

Furthermore, the passionate logo design can also indicate that the owner of consumer belongs to a select group. This could be a fairly exclusive group but not necessarily so. Sports logo designs such as football clubs could fit this description. Another area of interest could be fashion brands where the logo design encourages a level of passion amongst their wearers. Again, the logo design acts as an identifier for the consumer and firmly places them within a select group, making a statement about their lifestyle.

The growth of Web sites, mailing lists and other communities built around logo designs is an example of how a passionate logo design can act as a bond between consumers. Some marketers actively encourage the development of communities around the logo design. This has the advantage of not only keeping their best customers happy but it can also be used as part of an opinion leader strategy, helping to develop new products and services and gaining critical feedback from the most important consumers.

Focused or generalist

Is a passionate logo design highly focused on one particular category or can the brand span different, unrelated categories? Apple is highly focused. Its area of expertise is not computers but creativity and it targets specific niches within the computer market that require a higher level of creativity. This contrasts with the generalist approach of the Intel/Windows PC. Consequently, Apple’s focus provides strength within those sectors and helps to develop passion for the logo design amongst its users.

Could Virgin be described as a passionate logo design? Certainly, its challenger approach and ability to move almost seamlessly across product and service categories suggest a high level of consumer engagement.

Delivering passion

The other side of a passionate logo design is where the logo owner is passionate about the logo design. We suggest that where a brand owner is able to demonstrate this level of passion, he or she will be in a much stronger position to deliver a great customer experience. Often a company’s founders can be seen as possessing that level of passion. Sometimes when a brand or company is sold, it loses that passion and therefore the inertia it has as the new owners may acquire the assets but not the passion of the original owner.

A logo design owner who is passionate about the logo is energetic and enthusiastic. In an ideal world this is radiated throughout the company so that the whole workforce is engaged and able to deliver an enhanced customer experience. This has major implications for the way in which internal marketing is handled in the organisation. Good and effective internal marketing has the potential to engage employees and make them passionate about the brand.

Marketers that wish to deliver passion must work to ensure that they recruit the best staff and use internal marketing to help to develop that passion. It may be more effective to recruit staff who are able to communicate passion for the logo and then train them in the brands. The sandwich chain Prêt à Manger is an excellent example here of how the organisation can employ staff who are “on-message” from the start and are therefore passionate about the brand. Such an approach means that the staff deliver a higher level of customer experience.

Implications

Marketers who have passion brands are in a very fortunate position. The task is to identify whether there are any such logo designs in the portfolio and, if so, how this aspect can be developed and encouraged. Not all logo designs can be described as passionate so it is important which brands possess this trait and how the brand marketing can be developed to reflect this.

Can a new logo be developed so that it becomes a passion logo design? There is no reason why this cannot happen as long as the conditions are right. The brand and its marketing need to make that necessary emotional engagement with consumers. This could start by following the Brand Experience route so that the logo design has multiple consumer touch-points and allows genuine dialogue between the logo (owner) and the consumer. Product performance and customer service must be exceptional. Product failure or disinterested staff do not encourage the development of passionate logo designs.

At the same time it is important to identify something that is unique in the logo design. This is beyond a USP and beyond its features and benefits but something that is almost loveable. This starts to help form an emotional attachment beyond the mere functionality of the logo design. Furthermore, there should be something inherently enjoyable about consuming the logo design. For example, using an Apple computer makes you more creative, driving an Aston-Martin is a driving pleasure, wearing certain logo designs of clothes or jewellery makes you feel happier.
A Passion for Brands, April 2004
Written by: BrandLoop Newsletters
Source: http://www.throughtheloop.com/knowledge/brand.html

Tags: custom branding, image branding, brand id, retail branding, business logos, creative branding

Maintaining Brand Health

Tags: manufacturer emblems, logo advertising, branding strategies, top logos, name branding, brand strategy

Internet Branding

Through the Loop covered the Third Age of Internet in a previous MarketLoop. When the Internet entered its Second Age, many claimed that it was not a viable brand-building medium. However, the benefit of experience has shown that branding is absolutely crucial to Internet success, arguably more so than in the off-line world. Through the Loop has identified and analysed success factors for Internet branding based on a long-term view of development.

What is really happening?

A quick glance through the press may give the indication that the Internet is a failing medium. The stories about how much shares soared of the first day of trading have been replaced by coverage about high profile dotcom failures. Letsbuyit.com has been rescued from bankruptcy, e-commerce sales may not have reached expectations and boo.com was all over the press. Suddenly, venture capitalists do not appear to be rushing to invest in the latest dotcom business plan. So forget the hype and understand what this really means.

It has become clear that Internet businesses do not have way of working that make them immune to standard rules of business. Like any organisation, the business model has to be not only viable but also sustainable.

There is a shake-out and this has helped us to identify best practices for succeeding in Internet branding. Distinct marketing methods are vital. While these lessons have been distilled from long-running analysis of Internet branding, they are not so different from straightforward rules of branding. This indicates that while “unlearning and starting with an open-mind are vital,” basic marketing conventions also apply to a large extent.

Brand identity must be clear.
Innovation has to be continually demonstrated.
Differentiation is absolutely vital.
The consumer is in control.
logo design identity must be clear

Branding helps the Internet business to stand out from the crowd. Those companies that are most successful have a clear and concise logo design. They may provide what appears to be a commodity service but the strength of their branding means that they have become the defining operator in the sector. Examples here include amazon.com which is setting standards in book retailing although it may not have been the pioneer and sells essentially the same items as other internet-based retailers.

Yahoo! is the defining search engine although it may not have been the first and may not be the most effective. It does, however, have possibly the strongest logo design and, like amazon.com, this has enabled it to extend into new areas both geographically but also in terms of products and services. It is also interesting to note that while boo.com was a high profile failure, it has been relaunched by its new owners with the same name. This highlights the high level of brand awareness that had already been generated.

Other logo designs have been developed much quicker on-line than they may have evolved in the off-line world. Companies that have focused on a clear branding strategy have defined the category in which they operate and they may even “own” that category. It becomes very difficult for a competitor to attain the same level of awareness. Examples here are Motley Fool for investment advice, Expedia for travel and lastminute.com for late ticket offers.

Branding plays a slightly different role on-line to that in the off-line world. There is less of physical presence such as stores or packaging design and so the logo design has to provide “guides” to help differentiate the offering. The brand name may or may not be the same as the domain name and, in any case, they have to be able to differentiate the site from other domain names and branding used on-line without having the help of physical differentiators.

Branding can also include the provision of content to help add value to the offering. One of amazon.com’s strengths is the depth of its reader reviews while Yahoo! categorises the sites listed thus providing a helpful filter. Content richness and relevance will be key in the future.

Generic or category names are difficult to develop as brands in the same way that they would be off-line. It is also important to consider whether the same logo design should be used for on-line and off-line presence. There are arguments both ways.

Innovation has to be continually demonstrated

The previous BrandLoop argued that innovation is a continuous process and that products and services should be constantly updated to survive in the hyper-competitive market-place. On-line this is all the more apparent as the nature of the medium can make it very easy to copy a good idea. Therefore, a major opportunity can become diluted very quickly. Consider the plethora of “new intermediaries” such as reverse auctions or price comparison sites.

The amazon.com and Yahoo! examples show how they have built-in rapid evolution to keep them ahead of the competition. This includes the development of local country versions proving that the Internet is an equally local as global medium as well as improved personalisation and service offerings.

In addition, the medium and its associated delivery channels are evolving rapidly and so on-line communications needs to be dynamic not just to keep up-to-date but also to take advantage of any opportunities offered.

Differentiation is absolutely vital

It is important to offer something different. This may be obvious but differentiation has to be dynamic and sustained in an environment when an innovation can be quickly copied and on a global scale. Retailers may be selling from the same catalogue so incentives must be given to encourage the consumer to visit. This could include adding value through additional content but it is clear that price and product range are not differentiating elements of a company’s overall offer. Customer service and delivery are going to become areas where e-commerce will thrive or struggle. On-line communications are essentially individual messages quite different from the broadcast media of the past. Thus the extent to which communication are personalised and made relevant to the individual are crucial. Personalisation helps a marketer to offer unrivalled customer service and, moreover, it makes the service easier to use.

The consumer is in control

A successful on-line campaign will recognise the fact that different channels are used in different ways and that different types of messages can be sent to different types of access devices. In addition, there are two key elements of on-line marketing that are almost unknown in the off-line world:

Two-way communications are normal.

The consumer is in control.

The consumer communicates with the marketer in a form of dialogue rather than listening to or viewing a marketer’s monologue. This could be in the form of interacting with databases that capture details of purchases and other behaviour.

There has been much discussion about on-line marketing issues such as the click-through rate. However, this fails to recognise the fact that on-line communications are consumer-driven and are not led by the marketer. The consumer tends to be looking for something in particular and so mass marketing techniques are not appropriate. Consequently, they may only click when they have finished their task or on a later occasion. Consumers will choose if and when they wish to visit a marketer’s Web site.

Intrusive Internet communications such as pop-up advertising and windows may be viewed as attempting to push messages to consumers in a non-push environment. This does not mean that they have no role but they should not be used and evaluated in the same way. On-line marketing has to address the opportunities that the medium offers and build communications around this rather than simply transferring off-line communications.

Implications

The Internet has been marked by excessive hype as well as scare stories. This is not the sign of a medium in trouble, rather more it is evidence of the fast pace of development and the fact that Internet marketing is radically different from traditional marketing. Quite simply, it is more difficult to achieve results in a hyper-competitive and rapidly evolving sector. However, basic branding conventions still apply.

The Internet business model must be sustainable. There will be much more shake-out in the sector but simply setting up a Web site, however good it is, is no guarantee of success. The business model will have to adhere to general business and marketing rules as well as take into account issues that are specific to the Internet.

Action points

Is logo design clear? How do on-line and off-line branding relate to each other?
Is innovation built-in and demonstrated? It is absolutely essential to stay one-step ahead of potential competitors.
How is the site differentiated from similar operations? Is it possible to be closer to the consumer through a high level of personalisation?
Is the consumer in control? The site and its related marketing communications should not alienate consumers through over-intrusion. However, it is necessary to encourage them to visit the site when they wish to.

Internet Branding, January 2001
Written by: BrandLoop Newsletters
Source: http://www.throughtheloop.com/knowledge/brand.html

Tags: branding, marketing plan branding, branding design, marketing branding, corporate branding, identity branding, internet marketing services, internet advertising

One of the issues facing brands today and in the future is the apparent shortening of the “product life cycle.” While many brands continue to lead their markets after many years, others have short life cycles and are frequently designed with this in mind. Brands either live or die. They can innovate and evolve or they can be designed for a short life. Through the Loop’s Brand Positive™ research program has uncovered some of the reasons why life cycle theory should now be revisited to ascertain how logo designs are being developed for short lives.

Strong brands remain strong

Numerous studies have shown that many brands that were leading the market years ago are still in that position. To a large extent it has been proved difficult for a challenging logo design to overtake them. This means that they have the ability to extend the life cycle or, possibly, the effective marketing of these brands has meant that the life cycle, in its purest form, does not exist. The logo design must remain relevant in an ever-changing marketing environment. It must continue to provide consumer value.

Market leaders have an in-built advantage that makes it easier for them to survive than number two or three brands. For example, some of the factors that tend to favour leading brands are as follows:

It is easier for them to gain and maintain distribution.

They tend to be more profitable and this feeds back into communications, research & development budgets.

They have a higher level of consumer awareness.

They can maintain higher promotional budgets.

They can speak with a different voice to the consumer.

Moreover, these logo designs have been highly active in ensuring that their lifecycle is continually renewed. Nescafé, for example, has maintained its position as the UK’s leading instant coffee brand through frequent updating. This has extended the brand beyond the core Nescafé coffee into variants such as Espresso and Cappuccino as well as different bean types and, most recently, an organic variant. However, while the logo design remains modern and relevant, the core logo design values do not change and this is the key to its endurance.

The constantly-changing brand

The alternative way to retain a brand’s freshness is to keep changing it. This may be more relevant in a marketplace which is experiencing rapid change and the logo design can reflect and exploit this by exhibiting new traits. This could also be a method of attracting the consumer’s attention. In the impulse confectionery market in the UK, the three major manufacturers Mars, Cadbury and Nestlé have launched “limited edition” brands. These have the effect of bringing interest to the category. Gerber Foods is recognising the seasonal nature of fruit through its Spring 2000 UK launch of Ocean Spray Cranberry Seasons. This new product has a seasonal life and is replaced with the change of seasons.

Target market issues

A product or service may have a series of short life cycles. This may occur where the product or service is used for a short time only and the target market itself is constantly changing. For example, baby foods manufacturers gain and lose consumers all the time. This means that there are always opportunities with new consumers and “established” buyers move out of the market. In this case, there cannot be one life cycle but a whole series. Other areas that are time-dependent include toys. Look at the longevity of brands such as Barbie that has been a best-selling toy for generations of girls.

Globalisation and rapid communications shorten time cycles

Outside factors that impact on a logo design mean that it can often be advantageous to look outside the home country for areas of development. This works two ways and cross-border marketing means a much greater level of competition.

The Internet has been a significant inflection point here as it enables the rapid dissemination of ideas and development of products around the globe. In effect, it acts to shorten the life cycle in many categories. High profile dot.com failures will not just be the result of instable business models or poor management but could also relate to the fact that simple ideas based on open technology standards can be easily copied.

The dynamics of innovation

Innovation is, by its very nature, only short term. To be innovative, a company or logo design must strive for constant leading-edge development, thereby ensuring that it remains ahead of its competition or develops new categories that it can exploit before the competition reaches parity. At this stage, the genuinely innovative company must be launching version 2.0 or moving into the next market. This is all the more apparent in fast-moving markets or in sectors where there is intense competition.

However, the fast pace of development may frequently mean that the product or service development encounters problems that lead the launch date to be postponed. While this itself may not be an issue, there is a potential for consumer confusion, or even negative publicity, as the communications programme may already be underway. A recent example here is the launch of its Internet banking arm Intelligent Finance by the Halifax bank where advertisements had to be taken in the press to explain that there were technical problems with the service and, even more recently, Barclays announcement of security flaws in its on-line banking.

While early publicity may be necessary in this type of environment, cynically to ensure that consumers wait for the product or service rather than opting for a competitor, there is the danger of launching a product or service that does not yet exist or does not function correctly. Any ensuring publicity could be viewed as a necessary risk.

Nevertheless, innovation is crucial. To put it simply, it is more effective to make your own product obsolete before your competition does. It is important to be developing future versions of a product or service so that the product lifecycle is restarted and competitors are always playing catch-up.

More lessons from the information technology sector

As marketing moves away from mass marketing towards customisation and, ultimately personalisation, the life cycle may help to address different target markets in turn. This theory is popularised in Geoffrey Moore’s series of best-selling books on IT marketing but there is no reason why this strategy cannot be applied to other categories. Geoffrey Moore’s “bowling alley” approach refers to picking off different market segments, one at a time. All the time, this continues to build critical mass for the product and focuses marketing resources. It helps the product shift from early adopter to early majority status and move away from “the chasm.” This may be achieved by the recognition that the life cycle varies for each different group of consumers. Product development and marketing communications can thus be organised to suit the target segments.

Summary

The current and future logo design marketing environment is being becoming more competitive and the pace of change is accelerating. One approach to harness this for the company or brand’s benefit is to revisit life cycle theory and undertake development on a short-term basis. This could include the recognition of different product life cycles for different consumers or different target segments. There is no shame at all in launching a product or service that can be copied by competitors but continual updating is vital to always stay one step ahead. The product launch date could be viewed as the start of the development process not the culmination.

Through the Loop’s Brand Positive™ Knowledge Development Programme has recognised that identification and application of life cycle theory is becoming a key to future marketing development. This feeds into a range of solutions such as Horizon™, Blackjack™ and Bedrock™ that can be offered to clients to address logo design evolution issues. These impact across different time scales through short, medium and long-term.

Brands? Many Lives? August 2000
Written by: BrandLoop Newsletters
Source: http://www.throughtheloop.com/knowledge/brand.html

Tags: image branding, branding definition, brand strategy, definition of branding, brand id

Branding is not only your logo but also your business name. Great names evoke intrigue, savvy and class, and tell customers a lot about who you are. When you begin the branding process, think first about your name. Next, envision an image that works with that name. Finally, create a byline, which is a short sentence that describes who you are or what you stand for. Here’s an example. I named of one of my first coffee bars “Caffe Primavera.” In Italian, “Primavera” means springtime. For my logo design I used a Corinthian column with a floral theme at its base, surrounded by two renaissance angels. The byline I chose was “Coffee delivered from heaven.”

There are many examples of expired branding in the coffee world. Let’s look at Seattle’s Caffé D’arte (Italian for “coffee of art”). Its simple logo incorporates the company name and a cup in a design that uses traditional Italian colors. Its byline, “Taste the Difference,” tells you a lot. It indicates this company has traditional Italian coffee and suggests it is a high quality product.

Another Seattle coffee company with impressive branding is Caffé Vita. Its logo design features an Italian clown holding a cup. The image is classy, whimsical and reminds me of Carnival in Venice, reinforcing the link to Italy, the Mecca of espresso. The company uses its name and branding in fun and unique ways, probably more so than any other company in the industry.
Recently the company gave away black hats with an embroidered logo design that simply said “Caffé Vita.” But for the younger crowd, as a very creative and unique promotion, the company created cheap black and white foam baseball hats that from a distance read “VITA SUCKS.” Upon closer inspection, you could read small print that said, “VITA is great! What SUCKS is when you can’t find any!

Written by: Bruce Milletto
Source: www.expresso101.com

Your corporate name and corporate icon had better tell clients something about you, without any previous knowledge of your business enterprise. Your brand ought to be be strong enough to communicate a message and a opinion in an blink of an eye.

Designing logos for longevity

A logo must serve as your long-run branding instrument, announcing a very open precise message. Make the time it requires to design a logo for the distance, instead of trading your brand in for a new one every year. A pro graphic designer will establish your company logo a classic. Just like Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Ford, your company ID can proceed on year after year, making your name noteworthy and global.

Tags: brand strategy, business branding, image branding, corporate branding, name branding

Written by Eileen Parzek, Net Profit Magazine, 1997©A logo is the image which represents a company or its product. Its function is to create a memorable, recognizable impression on the mind of a potential client or customer. A logo is essentially at the heart of a corporate identity.

So what makes a “good” logo? Most people would answer “I just know it when I see it!” and this isn’t so far from the truth. A good logo catches the eye - it makes the observer curious or engaged, if only for a short moment… a moment in which an image and the existence of your company is embedded in the mind rather than filtered out with a million other daily stimuli. But even if a good logo ‘just is’, there are elements for making it happen … and we will look at some of those. I will also discuss some of the issues designing logos which work in two distinct worlds - print and online.

There are three basic types of logos, which can be used alone or combined within one design:

• illustrative logos (a logo which clearly illustrates what your company does),
• graphic logos (a logo that includes a graphic, often an abstraction, of what your company does), and
• font-based logos (a text treatment which represents your company)

Creating a logo is always a process - though different designers have their own methods. Many designers will begin by sketching thumbnails or playing with shapes on the computer screen, until something “clicks” and they follow that path to see where it leads. One way to start is to select a shape which represents the concept of the company, and begin playing with it. The idea is to come up with something interesting or clever, whether a viewpoint which is different, or an unusual combination of shapes. Perhaps it will be something which will require some guesswork on the part of the viewer, but then be crystal clear when they look at it another way.

Many designers prefer to developing logos beginning with, or consisting entirely of text. By experimenting with fonts, size, shapes they seek to find an interesting way to represent the company using the form of letters. Again, simplicity is extremely important - this is not the time to use fancy decorative fonts. Whether alone or combined with graphic elements, the text in a logo must be easily readable at small sizes

Once a form for the logo has been defined, color needs to be considered. Again, color for a logo should remain simple. You can always get fancy with the web version, but a good logo must work well in one color and gradients of that color. The color should enhance and support the form of the logo - for example, various shades of blue on the sides of a 3D box should be the same as they would in real life. Contrast is another powerful concept in the creation of logos - you can contrast size, color, fonts, textures - to create visual interest. A logo should be simple and abstract, not be complicated or confusing, and again, all elements must be discernible when reproduced in small sizes.

A good logo works in the simplest form. With the advent of the Web, it is common to see logos which contain gradients, 3D effects, animation, and other visual effects. But if the logo can not also be reduced to a simple one color flat version for use on faxes, your checks and photocopied documents, it is functionally useless. As tempting as it might be to create a whiz-bang logo, a designer must always consider all the ways your companies identity will be disseminated. Once this is successfully accomplished, you can always jazz up your logo later for the web!

As mentioned before, size is a critical issue when having a logo designed. A good rule of thumb is that if the logo works well in a business card size, it will scale up nicely to other sizes. Always make sure your logo looks pleasing on paper and in a wide range of sizes before committing to it.

Web and print are two entirely different mediums. If you are having a logo designed for the first time, it is essential that you be aware that your logo must be designed for print FIRST and web second. Without getting into the intricacies of print and web resolutions, suffice it to say they are very different. What might look great on your computer screen will likely print out at the size of a postage stamp and be entirely muddled. If the logo is designed to look great online, depending on the graphics format, it might not scale easily up to a printable version, so it is best to create it in a way that can be downscaled.

When choosing a color for your logo, you might want to consider using those in the universal 216 color palette supported by all web browsers. This will ensure that the colors of your corporate identity can be used online without a hitch.

On the flip side, the web will allow you to take your simple 1-2 color logo and do great things with it - and it won’t cost you thousands of extra dollars to add colors to it, make it 3D or animate it, like it would in the print medium. Once your logo is created for the lowest common denominator, the same form can be enhanced in a myriad of ways to look more exciting for your web site. Just be sure you don’t get carried away with the possibilities until you have a logo which will present a strong image for your company on a simple business card!

Eileen ‘Turtle’ Parzek is a veteran marketing designer and online communications consultant who has been working from home and virtually since 1995. Her business, SOHO It Goes! (www.soho-it-goes.com) specializes in providing technology driven design, marketing and communication services to small businesses and organizations.

Tags: logos for companies, logo templates, create a logo, custom emblem, business logos, logo type, logo creator, logo print

Logo Design Examples

Animals	Entertainment	Fish	Floral	Food and Drink
Holidays	Home	Mammals	People	Scenic Images
Other Great Logo Sources
Home Improvement Logos	Home Kitchen Cooking Tools opened source image logos		Home Kitchen Pressure Cooker manufacturer emblems

The Legal Side of Branding Your Logo

You have a great idea for a company name, a certain look, and even a catchy tagline. Before you put your ideas together into the perfect logo, however, make sure that logo is not infringing on another’s legal rights.

Below are a few items to consider. Click on the item for specific suggestions related to it.

Is your concept similar to someone else providing a comparable product or service?

Copying the work of another business or person will make you vulnerable to legal action. If there are some strong brand names in your category, make sure your concept does not follow their lead.

Use popular Internet search engines to see if your name, slogan and other concepts are already in use. Also, search the United States Patent and Trademark Office database to determine if similar marks have been registered. Finally, request a trademark screening in every country you plan on doing business in.

Attorneys who specialize in patent and trademark law are not required, but can be a great help in covering all the bases, since the cost of taking cautious measures upfront will far outweigh the expense of defending against trademark infringement at a later time.

How do you find out if a name, word, symbol, slogan or design is already taken?

Using popular search engines and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases is an excellent way to see if you are stepping on anyone’s toes. An even better option is to seek the services of legal counsel in order to perform a professional clearance search and analysis. This needs to cover variations on the mark (name, slogan, design, etc.) using both state and federal databases, as well as common law sources. You should perform these actions before making a proper final decision.

However, all these steps may be unnecessary depending on what your goals are (a logo for a children’s sports team, a local church or political campaign, etc.), but it is always better to be prepared if your goals are big.

How can you differentiate yourself from others?

Stay away from generic descriptions, surnames, and geographically descriptive words. Instead, choose something a little more fanciful or random with respect to your products or services. These kinds of “marks” will build a stronger case for trademark protection and help to be more visually recognizable in the mind of your customer base.

To stand apart from others, try to create a set of uniquely strong names or concepts that can be easily memorized or associated with your product or service. Then, test these ideas out on your friends and associates for feedback and insight into the general impression your concept makes. Be open to their ideas or criticism, as long as they provide constructive suggestions that will help in modifying or changing your existing work.

Logo Design Studio will help you put your ideas into action with creative objects, editing tools, and text-enhancing fonts. The logos you create using this program can be uniquely yours, even if others base themselves off the same templates, so long as the name (and tagline or slogan) is different.

However, according to the U.S. Copyright Office, copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship. In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark. If you plan to use your name, product or service in interstate or international commerce, be sure to check with both the Copyright Office and the Patent and Trademark Office to protect your rights.

What’s the difference between trademarks, service marks and registered trademarks?

As defined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

A trademark ™ is a name, word, symbol or device, or any combination thereof used, or intended to be used, in commerce that identifies and distinguishes goods from one another. A service mark (SM) is similar to a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms “trademark” and “mark” are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and service marks.

A registered trademark (®) may be used once the mark is actually registered in the USPTO. The federal registration symbol should only be used on goods or services that are the subject of the federal trademark registration. Even though an application is pending, the registration symbol may not be used before the mark has actually become registered.

Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office; you can find information on this on the USPTO website at http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/index.html or through proper legal counsel.

How can you protect your rights from infringement by others?

In the United States, as in many other countries, the rights in a trademark come from first use. This common law system grants ownership of a mark to the first party that uses it in association with goods or services, but the further step of nationally (and internationally) registering the trademark in classes relating to the goods’ or services’ purpose will help to secure your rights. Registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office AND safely documenting all instances of early usage is vital to protecting you from others.

Tags: type logos, logo types, custom logo, manufacturer logo, real estate branding, corporation logo, branding strategies, sports logo

Here are some helpful links to help you become and stay a cut above

Tip1- Basic design principles are used to organize or position the structural objects

Often the product itself might be directional in figure, as in the case of shoes. Because of their shape, footwear can function almost like a visual arrow. Other products are equally directional in pattern; bottles can be distinctly vertical, leading the eye straight up or down; the spout of a tea kettle, maneuvered in the best direction, might lead directly into the next characterisation. Here you can see more information on this;

• Power Your Brain- barefoot or wear shoes that you can pull your feet out of easily.
• Finlandia International School of Art & Design- Look at the shoes you have on,
• Graphic Design Portfolio of Ivan Gulkov - Design in Ages- The subject of shoes is used
• Graphic and web for all in toronto
• Maria Gudaitis Design- Walk a Mile in Her Shoes
• Andrew Meades graphic design for print and web
  Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management Shoes/READ THE RULES before posting! Wallpapers (1024×768 minimum) Kitsch Itch. Graphic Designv
• Japanese Calligraphy

Tip2- Study your graphic design and take note of what attracts your eye first

Models should be utilized to aid containing the subscribers attention within the spread. If they are situated on the far outside margins of the opened page, they ought to be be heading into the center of the publication, at least by having the attitude of their body and with their glance. When the models are maneuvering out of the pamphlet instead of toward the gutter or even directly ahead, attention is directed off of the report. With little encouragement, intended or not, the consumer is flying to turn to the next reader’s spread, and the chance of a sale on the last pages was lost.

• Lisette Model (1901-1983) - About.com- With biographical background on the Viennese photographer
• Model Photography Workshop alternative, is to find a good model photography workshop that you can get get women, learn, model, models, northern california, photography, photoshoot, San
• Page Layout - Defining Page Layout- Page layout is a verb and a noun.
• Page Layout, Margins, Indenting, and Columns - The Web Developer’s Virtual Library is a resource for web development,
• PAGE DESIGN: Page layout- by engineers and scientists who never envisioned it as a page layout tool. sheet positioning for page layout, but keep your layouts simple and be ready
• Web Page Design and Layout in the Yahoo! Directory - Learn about web page design and layout

Tip3- The ears don’t see anything ,the eyes can’t tell sweet and sour

Silhouette, or bordered, shoots can likewise be used directionally. Silhouette photos on catalog pages are largely effective and believable while a soft drop-shadow is utilized. This had better be planned for in photography shooting, employing a white no-seam background and light accordingly to capture a shadow of grayness. The shadow adds proportion to the characterization of an outline shot. Without a shadow, the result is like a uninteresting paper doll that has been glued on the document.

• Welcome to Silhouette Wedding Photography- Based in Philadelphia but available for travel worldwide
• Silhouette Photography- Joe Berk Photography.
• Silhouette- A photographic glossary from About Photography
• Flickr: Photos tagged with silhouette- Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing
• MySpace.com - Silhouette Photography- MySpace profile for Silhouette Photography
• PictureCorrect Camera Tips A digital photography silhouette can work
• CSS Drop Shadow Tests- Drop shadow on an image not a test at all, but a picture of my little brother with a drop shadow applied. Drop shadow on a block element
• Drop Shadows : Photoshop Tutorials High Quality Adobe Photoshop Tips and Tutorials
• Drop Shadow CSS text-shadow property will/might be introduced to create shadows
• Tutorials:Wrapping Images With A Drop Shadow- but it’s the same one used in the original Onion Skinned Drop Shadow
• A List Apart: Articles: CSS Drop Shadows II: Fuzzy Shadows- Using CSS to create standards-compliant

New Graphic Design and Print websites we recommend you visit

• Pressroom Problems- The purpose of this website is to provide technical assistance to printing companies, press operators, paper merchants and paper manufacturers.
• Free Stock Photos- stockphotowarehouse.com offers free graphics, backgrounds, textures and images.
• Business card catalogue- This website features an online business card catalogue of all online business card template categories.
• Make Business Cards- A Canadian based printing and online design company, offers free laminate coating.
• Emboss your printing- Blind embossing, foil stamping, raised printing…the true look of elegance.
• Printing For Pets- Pet owner, breeder, groomer, animal rescue business card designs.
• Casual Clothing- Body garments are all printed using a “patent pending” special 6 six color process
• Printing Bundles- Wholesale bulk pricing on full color custom printed packages
• Unique Business Cards- The simple fact is 99% of all business cards are discarded. This site specializes in the online design and print of the 1% of “keeper” business cards.

Tags: graphics operator data, development knowledge, developing artist info, design business card inside information, graphics and printing brass tacks, online design opinions, design online- inside information

Building Brand Awareness Through Tradeshows
by Susan Friedmann, CSP

Branding is a basic marketing concept that is designed to set your products/services apart from the competition. By using a particular name, phrase, design, symbol or a combination of these, you can create a unique identity. When choosing a brand name, consider the following five criteria:

1. It should suggest product/service benefits.
2. It should be simple, memorable, and unique.
3. It should fit the image of the company.
4. It should have positive connotations for the target market.
5. It should be easy to pronounce and to pictorialize.

Branding is not a sales and marketing gimmick. Instead it refines and defines corporate culture and identity. A brand must have meaning to its consumers, its organization and its employees. Brand is an emotional link between you and your customer. It is what people buy when they buy your product or your company. The most important part of a brand’s identity is the promise it makes to customers. The essence of branding is simplicity and timelessness.

Integrating Brand Awareness Into Your Exhibit Program

Since exhibiting is a powerful extension of your company’s advertising, promotion, public relations and sales function, that automatically means it is an excellent way to enhance brand awareness. Everything your company stands for, no matter how large or small, is being exhibited on the show floor. This means there needs to be total consistency, congruity, clarity and focus in every aspect of your exhibiting program, before, during and after the show.

Here are three important points to consider as you plan to integrate brand awareness into your tradeshow program.

1. Consistency and repetition is vital in creating brand awareness. People buy brands they know and they trust! A brand is a promise that companies make to their customers. Strong branding requires all the levels of communication to agree with one another.

2. Ensure all your marketing and promotions are consistent and that they have your logo, colors, typeface, slogans and characters. Everything you develop should have the same look and feel.

3. Peoples’ perception about your company, products, and services is a major factor in their choice of brand preferences and their buying behavior. All perception is subjective and based on experience. Individuals tend to interpret information according to existing beliefs, attitudes, needs and mood.

The following is a 10-point checklist to act as a reminder for many of the questions you need to ask and answer as you plan brand integration into your exhibit program:

1. What needs to be done to ensure that your booth conveys total consistency, congruity, clarity and focus of your company image and brand?

Consider:
- booth size
- location
- graphics
- demonstrations
- staff
- handouts and giveaways
- lead management

2. How can your graphics work best for you?

- can be easily seen and read in three seconds
- use a simple and bold typeface
- have striking and grabbing visuals
- are instantly memorable
- use a unique size or shape
- reinforce your message
- make your message a single, strong, provocative idea
- use a “What’s in it for me?” message
- use bold colors

3. What are the best promotional activities you can use to enhance brand awareness?

Personal invitations (e.g. with incentive and response form)

Direct mail with incentive

Pre-show advertising
- trade and/or local publications
- local media
- websites (e.g. company, show, association)
- broadcast faxes
- association newsletters
- city billboards
- transit advertising

At-show advertising
- show catalogs
- show dailies
- airport billboards, banners/electronic message boards
- hotel closed-circuit television
- hotel - on door or in room promotion
- kiosks/banners at show site
- convention television channels

4. What types of PR communications could be used?

Pre-show:
- press releases for local and trade publications
- product/service application articles
- personal invitations to trade/local editors
- company newsletters

At-show:
- press kits for the press office
- press reception
- video/slide presentation at the booth
- reprints of articles as giveaways
- seminars/workshops
- contests
- personalities/spokesperson at booth

5. What sponsorship opportunities exist and would complement your company image?

Some of the most frequent sponsorship opportunities are:
- press room
- international lounge
- speaker or VIP room
- awards reception
- educational programs
- keynote sessions
- coffee breaks
- luncheons/dinners
- banners
- badge holders
- audio visual equipment
- display computers
- tote bags
- shuttle buses

6. What advertising premiums will be consistent with your image and complement the message you want to convey?

Consider:
- budget
- originality
- usefulness and appropriateness for your target audience
- distribution

7. Who are the best ambassadors for your company - the right people to staff the booth?

8. What training should they receive?

Consider:
- prospect qualification
- booth etiquette
- product knowledge
- product demonstration
- obtaining commitment

9. What is the best dress code to convey your company image?

10. What is the best way to follow-up after the show that is consistent with your exhibiting program?

Remember that branding is a process, a business system, that fuels and sustains all customer/company relationships! Total consistency, congruity, clarity and focus in every aspect of your exhibiting program, before, during and after the show are essential.

About the AuthorWritten by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Go to http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com to sign up for a free copy of ExhibitSmart Tips of the Week.

Business Tradeshow Tips:

• Business planning trade-shows- Using Subcontractors
• Online Business Help » 2007 » January
• INVESTING ONLINE-WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
• TradeShow Tips- Attending a convention or tradeshow, Tradeshow. Badges, Giveaways, or Stress Relief image
• American Image Display- Portable trade show displays are our business.
• Custom Tradeshow Rugs by Rug Rats- design rugs for your tradeshow booth or special trade presentation.
• Advertising & Marketing Tools- Banner Tips. Magnetic Signs Maintenance Tips.
  ExpoDisplays - Trade Show Resources- custom and portable Expo Displays
• Trade Show Convention Tips and Suggestions - Tradeshow Booths. Trade Show Display Company.
• Exhibitor Information - Trade Show- regulations, tradeshow booth registration, opportunities for trade show
• Awareness Through Tradeshows Trade Show Victory!
• Branding in 2007 Online Business Help
• Find Marketing Trade Shows- Conferences and Event
• Promotional Tips- Promotional products can increase booth traffic
• Toys trade shows
• Find Shipping Jobs for Tradeshow Equipment- The Ship marketplace allows shippers to save money by listing their shipments of oversized items
• Interiors Designer for Trade Show Booth Design- Hangtag / Label / Logo. Hosiery & Lingerie. Illustrators.
• Branding & Design - Case Study- Daifuku trade show materials including PowerPoint presentation
• Placement Examples: Trade Shows assitance regarding your trade show design
• Challenges in Branding a New Business Line to develop collateral materials including web and trade show booth graphics.
• 14 Reasons Small Businesses Need a Logo and Marketing Materials logo and professionally-printed materials
• Utah Graphic Design, Branding and Design brochures, packaging, and trade show displays
• Branding Your Trade Show Booth
• Promotional Handy Trade Show Items Put your logo on promotional Handy Trade Show Items.
• Logo Design Basics
• Where Do You Go For Brochure Design
• Event Planning

Tags: strategic branding, real estate branding, branding products, business branding, branding marketing

A great lesson on the differences between preparing logos for web or print
If a client so much as utters the words “design a logo,” one of your first questions should be, “Do you plan on having this printed on stationery?” Chances are they’ll say yes. Creating a logo for both Web and print can be a challenging task. But failing to ask this question up front could mean producing the logo all over again. You should also tell the client about the extra costs involved for digital production. Otherwise, you may end up designing a logo that’s so costly to print your new client will be filing Chapter 13 before they even start. Knowing the differences between designing for the Web and creating for print will help you to walk the client smoothly through the digital production process.

Color = Cost

When you know your client needs digital files for print, it’s important to discuss the number of inks that will be used. In the print world, you generally have two options: full or spot color. You can find four or full color in printed pieces like glossy magazines with color photographs. These pieces are printed with four inks, each requiring their own plate for printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—or CMYK. The K stands for black. The four negatives produced from your digital file for the four respective inks are comprised of tiny dots, each set at a slightly differing angle from the next. These tiny dots mix together to create full or four color when the inks are transferred to a metal plate and applied to the stock or paper you’re printing on.

If you don’t want or need the expense of four color, you may elect to use spot color—one, two, three, and possibly even four inks. A one-color print run will cost less than a two-color print run. A two-color print run will cost less than a three- or four-color print run.

Most printing presses are one-, two-, or four-color, which means that one, two, or four colors can be run at the same time. If you’re using three spot colors, the printer may put the job on a two-color press, clean the press, and run the third color after the other two have been completed and dried. They may also put it on a four-color press and leave one ink well empty. In either case, the clean-up or the use of the higher-end press will inflate the price of a three-color print run, so don’t be surprised if three-color printing is quoted at about the same price as four-color.

Aside from full and spot color, there are options that involve more than four colors, such as adding a fifth color and perhaps varnish to CMYK. You also have the option of using a six-color hexachrome process, which adds a vibrant orange and green to CMYK to reach colors that can’t be printed in four-color—like many Pantone spot colors or those you see on a monitor. Unless your client is prepared to spend huge amounts of money, the latter two wouldn’t be options.

When a client understands how color affects cost, you and the client will be able to make decisions about how the logo should be designed. The solution might be a four-color logo for the Web site and a two-color logo for the stationery. It may be the same for both, but it’s important to discuss the options because the decision will affect cost, design, production, and time.

Four-Color Printing

Have a look at the logo below. You can see black, brown, red, very different greens, yellows, and blues . . . well, heavens! You’re already way past the four-color limit. Printing all of these as spot colors would be very costly. Plates would need to be made for each separate color and would involve many cleanups and runs through the press. This would be a dead ringer for a four-color print run.

When broken down into the four inks, called color separations, the plates required each ink to appear as below. It may be difficult for you to imagine at first, but these four colors will mix together to create the image above.

Spot-Color Printing

As with four-color, spot-color printing also requires a plate for each color. Where the Web world applies hexadecimal codes to its colors, the print world applies PMS, or Pantone Matching System numbers, to its spot colors. There is a Pantone Color Formula Guide that has all available swatches for both coated (glossy) and uncoated (dull or matte) stock (paper). Coated and uncoated colors are close, but not always identical. It’s important to see what the spot colors will look like on the stock you and/or the client have decided on. Stock choices can range in weight, as well. A text weight is generally used for letterhead, while cover stock is used for business cards. Envelopes come in different shapes and sizes. Ask the print house if you can see samples of each.

If you think you might run into specifying spot colors for clients frequently enough, you may want to buy a Pantone Color Guide (approx $110 US). If the cost cannot be rationalized and you think specifying spot colors will be an isolated incident, visit the print house and choose the PMS numbers you’d like to use from their guide. Every good printer has one and they’ll need these numbers from you before they can print the job. If you’re doing long-distance printing and know of a friendly local print house, you could also drop in to have a quick look at their PMS guide. Bring a printed version that matches your colors as closely as possible so you can specify your PMS colors from an established reference point.

Are Your Colors Accurate?

As a Web developer or designer, you know that one screen may see color very differently from the next. In print, you have another set of problems—what you see on the monitor must be converted to a completely different “color space.” The monitor sees images using RGB color (red, green, blue), while printing houses use CMYK and the Pantone Matching System.

Typical dye-sub printers also use CMYK. As proof of the difference between the printer and RGB as seen on our monitor, let’s run a quick test. In RGB mode, place a block of 100% green on your page and print it. You’ll most likely get something in the neighborhood of forest green. Hold your printed page next to your block of vibrant green on your screen. Not even close cousins.

In the printing industry, a great deal of time and money are expended in setting up a calibrated or WYSIWYP (what-you-see-is-what-you-print) monitor. You solve this problem through color calibration—adjusting the color of the monitor to simulate what would be printed on a final piece.

Calibration is not critical in spot-color printing because the inks don’t need to be mixed to create another color. From a design perspective, it’s nice to approximate the colors you’d like in order to study the balance and weights of colors, but the inks will ultimately be independent of each other on the press and don’t need to be exact.

Calibration is very important in CMYK (or tritone and duotone) printing because the inks mix together to create the color you’re looking for. If you see our logo in RGB view, you’re unable to accurately tell whether the percentages of CMYK inks will mix properly. You’ll need to know what they’ll look like in CMYK. Printing is pretty costly, so guessing is not an option. It’s important to have your monitor calibrated to the final output.

How Can I Calibrate My Monitor?

For professional color matching, color management software is necessary. Also, the better the video card, the more accurately your monitor will accomplish calibration for print. A 24- or 32-bit card is recommended.

The Macintosh platform integrates color management into its operating system very easily. Adobe Gamma, shipped with Photoshop, is widely used on Macs. There are problems using Adobe Gamma in Windows NT 4.0 because the system’s architecture doesn’t support it. While it can be used on Windows 95 and 98, some video cards don’t support it, so system-wide calibration isn’t possible; a profile for Photoshop 5.0 is possible, though.

While low-cost solutions for color management on PCs are few, there’s a lot of work being done. This is a short list of color management tools for PC; prices are approximate.

Taking the High Road On Resolution

Many of us have created a masterpiece, emailed our files off, and shortly thereafter received a call from the printer saying our files were fuzzy or bitmapped. When you create files for your Web sites in a program like Photoshop or Fireworks, you use a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. Print media is executed at a much higher resolution and the film is output at specifications of lines per inch (lpi) and dots per inch (dpi—sometimes called pixels per inch).

Before you begin to build your files for print, it’s important to know at what line per inch or “line-screen” value your files will be output. It varies from printer to printer and job to job, so it’s always a good idea to ask. Not to worry; you’re not asking a silly question. If your client, rather than you, is dealing with the printer, tell your client you’ll need this information.

Newspapers generally print at 85 lines per inch and sometimes higher. That simply means that in one linear inch there are 85 rows of dots. The more lines per inch or the higher the line-screen value, the finer the image. Magazines and books usually print at 133 lines per inch or higher, depending on the quality. Stationery is also usually printed at 133 lines per inch and higher.

Once you’ve established the line-screen value, you’ll have the answer to what print resolution—the dpi or pixels per inch—you’ll need to use to create your files. Just double the line-screen value.

If the printer tells you they’ll be printing your files at 133 line-screen, create your files at 266 dots or pixels per inch. If they tell you they’ll be printing your files at 150 lines per inch, create your files at 300 dots per inch, and so on. Unless you’re doing high-quality, glossy publications, it’s very unlikely that you’ll need to create your files at any greater than 300 dots or pixels per inch. If you’re designing for stationery and can’t get the line-screen value from anyone, play it safe at 300 dots per inch.

Software That’ll Do the Job

For print work, you’ll need software that can accomplish higher resolutions. This’ll only be an issue when working with raster files, though, as opposed to vector files. What’s the difference? Most graphics on the Web today are created in raster formats like JPEG, GIF, and PNG—a collection of pixels.

If you create your file at 72 pixels per inch and try to increase the resolution to, say, 300 pixels per inch, the image must make up for the extra pixels that are being added. When you sample up or increase your resolution, the pixels “interpolate:” new pixels are created between the original pixels based on their color information. The results can be, well, ugly, and the reason for the fuzziness.

For high-resolution raster images, you may want to consider using Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, Photo-Paint, or Painter. Your final high-resolution files should be saved in either .TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) or .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format. Of these raster programs, only Corel Draw and Painter support spot colors; the others will output images for CMYK separations, which won’t be appropriate if you need separations for a two-color logo. You’ll need to create your file in a vector program.

Vector programs use shapes and paths rather than pixels. The file sizes are substantially smaller and can be enlarged to any proportion without degrading the image—the shapes and paths stay intact—even if you enlarge to the size of a billboard! Vector programs can be used for logos and line drawings that have smooth curves and straight lines, and are a good choice for creating spot-color logos. Any raster images or subtle shadows can be imported at the proper resolution if needed. If you do import any raster images, be warned that they’ll interpolate if you attempt to enlarge them. The most common industry software choices for vector files are Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator. Your files should be saved in .EPS format.

One of the beauties of using a vector program to create your logos is that the .EPS files can later be opened at the desired size in an image editing program without losing quality. If you originally create the logo at high resolution in an image editing program like Photoshop, you’re left to downsample to 72 ppi when creating the Web site. Again, resampling in a raster program can cause loss of quality, so you would need to make touch-ups to the low-resolution version for the site.

If your client wants you to produce the final layout files for all of the stationery, you’ll need a page layout program supported by most print houses such as Quark XPress, Adobe Pagemaker, or Adobe InDesign. They’re expensive programs, so unless you want to get into the business of desktop publishing for print, you may want to tell your client that you will provide a high-resolution file of their logo to the print or design house, which can be imported into these programs.

Microsoft Publisher is also gaining popularity as a layout program with many small businesses, but check with the print house you’ll be using to ensure they support MS Publisher files first—not all do. If they don’t, and try in some way to recreate or convert your files, you’ll be guaranteed an instant nightmare and extra costs. No matter what layout program you’re using, it’s a good idea to check with the print house to be sure they use the same one or can deal with Mac or PC platform files, or both. If a print house doesn’t support any of these programs, find a new printer.

Files to Go

After you decided on the number of colors and the required resolution, you were able to make decisions about which software to use to create the logo. If it was a one- or two-color logo, chances are you made a decision to use Illustrator or Freehand. If you had the luxury of four-color process, you may have chosen Photoshop.

In any of the vector programs, it’ll be necessary to ensure that your colors are named and used in RGB mode, rather than CMYK, so they’ll appear in the separation list as spot colors for final output to film. You may have either used the pre-existing Pantone color names, or named the colors yourself—perhaps teal and gold, or PMS 321 CVU and PMS 110 CVU. CVU means “uncoated.” If the name appears without the U after CV, it’s intended for “coated” or glossy stock.

In a raster program like Photoshop, it’ll be necessary to convert to CMYK mode (or duotone or tritone) before sending your files. Also check your colors in the palette. If a little triangle with an exclamation mark appears when you choose the color, it means it’s out of the gamut—not attainable in CMYK. Choose one that is.

Along with the file you’ve created, you’ll also need to send all font files you’ve used in your file to the print or design house. Again, check with them to see if they can deal with Mac and/or PC platform. Let them also know what colors you’ll expect to output in an attached note. It’ll save costly mistakes, time, and guesswork.

Print and design houses are your friends. If you’re in doubt at all about what you should be sending, ask questions. And it’s okay to be honest. If they know your experience is in Web design and that you haven’t dealt with print in the past, you might be delightfully surprised at how helpful they’ll be in guiding you through the process. After you’ve done it once, you’ll be an old pro. You’ll be talking print geek with them in no time.

Written by Wanda Cummings

Tags: business logos, custom emblem, new logo, sports logo, manufacturer logo, t shirt logo